Philadelphia Eagles
Kuharich returned to the NFL coaching ranks with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1964. The team had gone through an unsteady 1963. Eagles' owner Jerry Wolman made Kuharich head coach and general manager with an unprecedented 15-year contract. In return for quarterback Norm Snead and defensive back Jimmy Carr, Kuharich traded away Hall of Fame and perennial Pro-Bowlers Sonny Jurgensen and Tommy McDonald. Philadelphia also acquired Ollie Matson from the Detroit Lions. Despite the acquisitions, the Eagles continued to decline.
Kuharich's only winning season with the Eagles came in 1966. That gave the team a date with the Baltimore Colts in the "Playoff Bowl," a postseason exhibition intended to draw fans and help coaches plan for the following season. In the "Playoff Bowl" of January 8, 1967 that Kuharich became the first coach to wear a wireless microphone for NFL Films. Portions of his wiring and the Playoff Bowl itself, were used at the end of NFL Films' 1967 special They Call It Pro Football.
The 1968 season would be Kuharich's last; the Eagles vied most of the season for the league's worst record, which would have had them finishing ahead of the Buffalo Bills, which thereby earned the chance to draft Heisman Trophy winner O. J. Simpson No. 1 overall. But the Eagles won their last two games and the Buffalo Bills won the rights to Simpson.
Three months after the 1969 NFL draft, financially distressed owner Jerry Wolman sold the Eagles on May 1, 1969 to trucking millionaire Leonard Tose. Tose and Kuharich agreed to a settlement on the final eleven years of the ex-coach's $60,000 annual contract.
Read more about this topic: Joe Kuharich
Famous quotes containing the word philadelphia:
“I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.”
—Mae West, U.S. screenwriter, W.C. Fields, and Edward Cline. Cuthbert Twillie (W.C. Fields)