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Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank (May 6, 1907 - November 17, 1998) was an American professional football coach.
Early Years He was born in Richmond, Indiana and lived there through high school. He then attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he played quarterback under head coach Chester Pittser. Miami is sometimes called the "cradle of coaches," as eight recipients of the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award for college football coach of the year have worked with school's program, including Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, and Bo Schembechler. Ewbank was head coach of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri from 1947-48 compiling a 14 – 4 record. Baltimore Colts As coach of the Baltimore Colts, Ewbank won the 1958 and 1959 NFL championships. The 1958 game is often referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever Played". By the end of the 1962 NFL season, Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom thought that the Colts had slipped enough and Ewbank was fired. Rosenbloom hired in his place the then-youngest head coach in NFL history, Don Shula. New York Jets When Sonny Werblin bought the New York Titans franchise of the American Football Leaguein 1963, he changed both the team's name (to the New York Jets) and its coach. Ewbank took over a team that had not had a winning record in its first three years, and made them into a force to be reckoned with. In 1965, the Jets' signing of Joe Namath added to the arsenal he would eventually pit Ewbank against his former team in the third AFL-NFL World Championship game, Super Bowl III. His Jets won the American Football League Championship in 1968 with a victory over the defending AFL champions, the Oakland Raiders. In the third World Championship Game, the Colts (proclaimed by some to be "the greatest pro football team of all time") were heavily favored over the AFL's "overmatched" Jets. But with Weeb's confident planning the Jets ran a game plan that mystified the Colts and came out with a 16-7 victory. Hall of Fame Ewbank is the only man ever to coach two different teams to victory in a Championship Game (two NFL Championships in 1958 and 1959 with the Colts, an AFL Championship in 1968 with the Jets, and a World Championship in Super Bowl III in 1969 with the Jets]. Weeb's record in the AFL was 50-42-6 (71-77-6 all-time with the Jets) and his career regular season record in the NFL and AFL was 130-129-7 and his play-off record was 4-1. He coached the Colts and Jets to three world championships. Ewbank was selected as the Head Coach of the All-Time All-AFL team. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978. Trivia Weeb Ewbank died 30 years to the day that his Jets lost to the Raiders 43-32, in what would come to be known as the Heidi Game. Notes See also | ||||||||
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