Who is the Greatest Coach Ever?

[klunderbunker]

Every sport has its legendary coaches. Lombardi, Wooden, Rupp, Stengel, Bryant. All kinds of great coaches have come and gone over the years. Some have been great, some have been ok, some have just plain sucked. Coaching is something that not everyone can do. Magic Johnson, one of the best basketball players of all time coached the Los Angeles Lakers and failed. While he had as much talent as anyone, he couldn't translate that into coaching. On the other hand there are people like Joe Torre that had a good career but nothing great, and is one of the best managers of all time. In your mind, who is the greatest coach of all time and why? Note: baseball managers are considered coaches for the sake of this.

To me, it's Vince Lombardi. Known as Mr. Lombardi to just about everyone, he is the epitome of old school and the my way or the highway attitude. That translated into nothing but success for him as his Packers dominated the NFL in the late 50s and most of the 60s. With the Super Bowl trophy named after him, it's hard to miss his impact on the game. He got the most out of his players which is all that you can ask for in a coach.

Edit: this is for all sports, not just American football.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

If we're talking about American football, then I'll go with the following three:

Bill Walsh - Even though hardly anyone sings this man's praises (more than likely because everyone associates San Francisco's dominance in the 80s with Joe Montana), he popularized the West Coast Offense and no coach since him has been as influential in terms of affecting the style of other NFL head coaches.

Joe Gibbs - Yeah, he wasn't as successful this decade and I am a die-hard 'Skins fan. But, come on, this man won three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks. Furthermore, he proved that you don't need to be nasty to your players in order to get the best out of them.

Marv Levy - Sure, he never won a championship, but he nonetheless took the Bills to the Super Bowl four times in a row. And, I don't think any other coach will ever be able to do this again, at least not in my lifetime.

 

[Pimpin]

Football wise i'll try to not be too damn biased on this but here it goes.

Tom Landry- Yes he is the legendary coach for my favorite team the Cowboys but with addition to being the first head coach for the Cowboys, he also was the winning coach for their first two superbowl titles, 5 NFC Championships, 13 Division Titles, the inventor of the 4-3 defense, the only NFL coach to this very day to have 20 straight winning seasons & invented one of the greatest defenses of all time in the "doomsday defense".

Bil Walsh- The mastermind behind the west coast offense. He is a head of a coaching tree that includes Mike Holmgren, Tony Dungy, Jeff Fisher, Mike Shanahan & Dennis Green. With addition to that he has 3 superbowl titles, 3 NFC Championships & a 10-4 postseason record.

Chuck Noll- As much as this pains me to say this cause I hate the Steelers with a passion, I will give him props for being the only head coach in NFL history to win 4 super bowls.

Don Shula- The head coach of the 1972 Dolphins team that had a perfect season, Shula has the most wins out of any head coach in history with 347 wins with the Colts & the Dolphins with most of the wins coming in Miami, he is a 2 time super bowl winning head coach, 5 AFC Championship wins, 1 NFL Championship & has appeared in the most super bowls as a head coach with 6 appearances.

 

[BooCocky]

Chuck Noll- in the late sixties he took over a dying franchise and turned them into arguably the greatest franchise of all time. The man was 4 and 0 in the SB. He coached some greats, he built a dynasty from top to bottom, a team that was competitive for nearly 12 years. He might not be the greatest of all time, but he sure as hell was great.

Also I am gonna throw Pat Summit into the mix, her win total, titles, and her teams have been competitive for ever.

 

[The Todd]

Seeing as the only American sport I follow is American football but I have only recently took an interest, I'll look at other sports.

In football ("soccer" or whatever you want to call it) it has to come down to two people - Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough. Arguments can easily be made for either man, but I'll go for Ferguson.

Sir Alex took Aberdeen to European success over Real Madrid, an unbelievable achievement. Then he moved to Manchester United where he struggled for a few years, before winning the F.A. Cup, the Cup Winners Cup and, the big one, the League title after 26 long, painful years for the fans. Since then he has delivered 24 trophies in 23 years to Old Trafford (don't hold me to them numbers mind). The outstanding achievement is bettered when, after losing the core group of his golden team in 1995, he built his new side round youngsters; David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary & Phil neville and Paul Scholes. Gary, Paul and Ryan are STILL very much a massive part of the club. He has shown a ruthless streak by not taking any bullshit from the players. Paul Ince once thought he was "the guv'nor" and above the club, Fergie showed him the door. Stam was the same, as was Beckham and van Nistelrooy. He even released the greatest player he has had at his time in Manchester in Roy Keane after he publicly criticised his teammates. He is still going strong and could be on for the most successful year yet of his career, with United already Carling Cup winners and World Champions, and are well clear at the top of the league, in the quarter-finals of the F.A. Cup and face a showdown with Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Champions League success may convince Fergie it is time to retire whilst at the very top. Time will tell.

 

[Slyfox696]

There's only two people I'd even consider for this honor: Phil Jackson and John Wooden. And since Phil Jackson has coached three of the 5 best players in history, he's disqualified.

So, the answer is, without a doubt John Wooden. He had 10 National Titles in 12 years. His overall record was 671-161, for a video game like percentage of .807. He coached some of the most dominant players in college history, and is still one of the most respected men in sports.

Some people will say "But what about Pat Summit". Well, she coaches women's basketball. She's not coaching against the very elite. The best coaches gravitate towards mens basketball, not womens. "What about *insert football coach here*?" Just no.

John Wooden is the only right answer.

 

[truk24]

I'm sot sure about every other sport, but I will narrow my pick to the best NFL coach ever. All these great coaches in all sports had one player that helped define the team. For example: Phil Jackson had Jordan with the Bulls, and Shaq/Kobe with the Lakers. I will just stick with football.

In the NFL hands down it is Bill Cowher. Look at how much he accomplished in such a short amount of time. He did all of this with no "franchise QB" until 2004. He retired shortly after. Shula had Marino, Walsh had Montana, and Belichick has Brady. Cowher was winning games at a time when the best teams had QB's like Marino, Jim Kelly, Aikman, Favre, Elway etc... The Steelers were one of the few teams in that age that were winning games based on other aspects of the game.

While Cowher was here look at who his starters were. Bubby Brister, Mike Tomczak, Neil O' Donnel, Jim Miller, Jeff Graham, Kordell Stewart, etc... We won playoff games with just average QB's. Once Cowher finally had a strong franchise QB, he first wins 15 games in a season, and then goes and wins a SuperBowl. The third year was when his franchise QB was almost killed in a motorcyle accident and that was still a .500 year. In all those three seasons combined Cowher had (excluding the playoffs) 34 wins, and 14 losses. That isn't too shabby.

Cowher was winning games without a respectable QB, and I think that makes him the greatest NFL coach of all time. He is going to make more money than any other coach in the history of the NFL once he returns. His return is probably the most aniticipated return in all of sports outside of Michael Jordan's comeback after his father was murdered. Cowher is the man.

 

[BooCocky]

Dude, Coach Cowher is so overrated it isn't even funny. His play calling in crucial situations was absolutely pathetic. The man was too conservative and he was basically Schottenheimer with a ring. If Cowhers head wasn't up his ass the Steelers could have won or at least been in two or three super bowls. But no, that didn't happen, he was too scared to throw, tried to run the ball with like a two point lead and never wanted to throw. Bringing up the QB thing falls right on his shoulders, never wanting to draft one. If anything, Cowher is one of them most overrated coaches in NFL history.

Now onto another great coach, Don Shula, he was consistent for nearly 33 years, he has a perfect season and only twice in 33 years did a Shula team finish below 500. He endured: No other coach in NFL history has won more games; including the playoffs, Shula went 347-173-6, a .665 winning percentage. Shula was great: In 1972 and 1973, the two Dolphins' Super Bowl-winning seasons, Miami went 32-2.

 

[AFC1986]

Sir Alex Gerguson has won every trophy available except for the UEFA Cup. He has also brought in countless world class players like Berbatov, Rooney, Ronaldo, Van Der Sar, Van Nistelrooy, Ferdinand, Vidic and Stam at the same time as giving first team football to players that came through the youth system like Giggs, Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville, Beckham, Butt, Wellbeck, Evans, O'Shea and Brown.

Off the pitch, he normally carries himself in a professional manner and will make hard decisions regardless of a player's reputation, so for me, Fergie is the greatest

 

[truk24]

First and foremost Cowher has gone after QB's lets do a recap from 93-04. In 1993 the Steelers took Alex Van Pelt in rd 8. Yes, they missed out on Brunell, but they picked to low to grab him anyhow. In 94 they picked 17 the overall in the draft. There were no great QB's in that draft. Yet, the Steelers grabbed Jim Miller again late in the draft. Then in 95 the Steelers went with QB Kordell Stewart. Once McNair and Collins came from this draft, but Cowher had no chance to grab either of them.

Moving on to 96 there was really nothing special in this draft at QB. At this point the Steelers weren't looking to draft one anyhow, since they just drafted Stewart. They could have gambled 97 and made Jake Plummer a 1 st rd choice, but they chose a more important need at CB with Chad Scott. Cowher missed Plummer, and that was a huge miss, but can you blame them? Plummer was the best QB in that draft, so go figure. On in to 98 and we know that Manning was drafted, something which Cowher had no chance at.

They weren't going to make Griese a high 2nd rd pick back in 98, especially when they were winning games without a franchise QB. They also missed out on Hasselback which isn't a suprise either, most teams did the same. In 99 they had no chance at the top 5 QB's taken, and who cares because McNabb was the only one with a real career. They had no chance at him.

Then in 2000 they took Burress, which was an ok move on their part. They could have went after Chad Pennington, but he is nothing special today. No one thought Tom Brady would be what became to be, so don't even go there. That was a hit or miss kind of pick, and the same can be said about Bulger I guess. Off in to 2001 they made Casey Hampoton their first choice, and could have made Drew Brees their top pick. Looking back on that I don't think it was a bad move. Brees wasn't a household name until 5 yrs later. They waited 3 more years, and got a SuperBowl. Which means not taking Brees was a great move! Not to mention Brees was the best QB drafted that year.

Now in 2002 the infamous first round busts came around again at the QB position with Harrington/Carr being drafted. David Garrard was the best QB taken that draft....lol! So, I don't know what Cowher, and company really missed? In 03 they took probably the best SS in the NFL Troy Polamalu. They had no chance at either Carson, or Leftwich. Funny is Byron was with out team, and wasn't the starter, and he now owns a championship ring. Finally in 2004 we know that the best "young QB" in the game today was taken by Cowher, and company.

"Bringing up the QB thing falls right on his shoulders, never wanting to draft one. If anything, Cowher is one of them most overrated coaches in NFL history." -Becker-aholic.

I just proved why this statement makes no sense at all. In Cowher's years as headcoach he picked many QB's, and passed up only on two good ones. Mark Brunell, and Drew Brees. Neither of them have championship rings. So, when you say the the "QB thing falls right on his shoulders" I don't understad you at all. Mainly because you are wrong, and don't know what you are talking, about. As I have just given you all the facts based on all of Bill's drafting with the Steelers. He never had a chance at Donovan, Peyton, or Carson. Other than that who else is or was left other than who I already mentioned from earlier?

As I said before. Cowher finally drafts a real franchise QB, and in just one full year after drafting him, they win a championship.

"His play calling in crucial situations was absolutely pathetic. The man was too conservative and he was basically Schottenheimer with a ring".-Becker-aholic.

I will not disagree here, but he had no franchise QB to work with. He lost so many offensive coordinators because they were winning games. His conservative play-calling was due to what he was limited to. A smart QB will make or break a season. Thus, Bill relied on more "safe" play calling which obviously led to them losing big games. Where is the shame in losing to John Elway? You talk about his horrible play calling, yet it was Bill who called the infamous onside kick against Dallas in the Superbowl.

Had it not been Neil O' Donnel who threw the int off for a TD we could have been world champions for the 5th time back then. This dilemma of an avg QB is proven based on this argument alone. Cowher takes a chance, and puts the game in to his QB's hands, and look at what happens. Obviously winning 11 AFC north divisional championships is not enough for you. His play calling couldn't have been that bad to win so many games with the defense, and the running game, and not with Dan Marino, John Elway, or even Brett Favre. Like I said Bill found ways to win without any premier QB's in the league.

Please explain why, or how Cowher is the most overrated coach in history? That makes absolutely no sense what so ever. He is easily the most sought after headcoach in the history of the NFL at this moment. He will be the highest paid coach in NFL history. I would love to hear you say that live on the NFL network, that would be hilarious. That would be about the dumbest thing in the football world to say at this point. I'm guessing all those billionaire owners in the NFL are just stupid if they think hiring Cowher is a special move for their respective teams. LOL!!! You are so funny dude.

 

[BooCocky]

Look at Cowhers record in big games. It isn't very good. You can blame his success on the lack of QB play, I blame his failure on his inability to draft offensive players. Look at all the offensive players he drafted over the years. Searcy sucked, He made bruener a blocking TE, when he holds records in Washington at receiver. Charles Johnson? Yeah he sucked too. Jamain Stevens? Yeah he sucked too. Alan Faneca? Great. O whoopy, Cowher is shooting for the stars. Troy Edwards? Boy he sucked. Way to get your Quarterbacks some weapons. Good? But was an asshole. Didnt really last to long. And If I can recall, Kordell had has best year with a good target in Plaxico. See how simple it was, you get your QB some offensive weapons and you can win games.

You can blame Cowhers lack of success on the QB, I blame his lack of success on his inability to draft offensive talent. You can't draft a defensive player every year and expect to win. Cowher was a great regular season coach, I wont dispute that, but he was Schottenheimer JR when the lights turned on.

 

[truk24]

You are only comparing Cowher to Marty because of their ties with eachother. For what ever reason you still keep blaiming Cowher for his lack to find players via the draft. Are you serious. You said that Levon Searcy scuked. Searcy was one of the highest paid lineman in the NFL when he left for Jacksonville. Searcy was part of one of the best 0-lines in the NFL during the early to mid 90's.

Look at all the talent Cowher helped gather in Pittsburgh. Did you not read what I wrote about drafting QB's? I proved to you exactly what his chances were at getting name QB's in the draft. You've got to be kidding me man! Cowher gave us Polamalu, Ben, Marvel Smith, Ward(current all time WR in Steeler history, and former college QB), Randle El, Faneca, Joey Porter, Hampton, Aaron Smith, and Jerome Bettis etc... The lists goes on, and on. They were one of the more successful teams of the 90's. Only the Bills had more success in the 90's in the AFC than the Steelers. Ofcourse they had Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, just some all time greats thats all.

Once again Cowher had to compete against some of the best without the star QB unlike many of the other great coaches of the nfl. Shula had Marino, Walsh had Montana etc... Cowher didn't have that special QB until 2004, and he won a championship one year after that. That isn't irony it just proves the obvious. When a great coach has a great QB they win Lombardi trophies. Ben has his second, and much of the teams success comes from what Cowher built. Once Cowher had a legit QB what did he do? He went out, and built around him.

"You can blame Cowhers lack of success on the QB, I blame his lack of success on his inability to draft offensive talent."-Becker-aholic

Funny, as you insist on thinking that once Cowher had a great QB that he wouldn't or couldn't build around him? Where have you been. Since Ben has been draft 2 of the 4 draft picks in the first round were dedicated to the passing game. The year after the 05' Superbowl in 2006 draft they moved up to draft Santonio Holmes(current SB MVP), and in the year prior Heath Miller was taken, and was a rookie during the SB win in 2005. Not to mention they still have Heinz Ward who is the all time leading receiver in Steeler history.

So, in the two out of four years that Cowher coached Ben. Bill took two drafts, or 50% of his drafts to surround his franchise pick with the weapons he needed to win more championships, and sure enough they did. Miller is easily one of the most underrated TE's in all of the nfl. Holmes is already on pace to shatter Ward's all-time receiving yds, and Holmes is 1,000 yds ahead already at his current pace.

What more did you want from Bill Cowher. Not to mention the man stepped down after he realized that this team was ready to move on without him. I'm sure there were more personal reasons as well, but don't think he didn't feel out of touch at times. Perhaps his largest flaw of them all was being too much of a player's coach. He should have never have let Ben come back so soon from his motorcycle crash. As the Coach he had the power to say no, but he may have been more of a friend than a coach at this point. This was the worse decision he has ever made in Pittsburgh.

Risking the franchise of the team like that was foolish. The Steelers could have tanked, but they went down with a fight finishing 8-8. Not to shabby considering Ben suffered a crash, apendectomy, and then a serious concusion against Atlanta. Other than this Cowher was a great head coach, and imo the greatest of all time.

 

[Richard]

Well since Tennis is pretty much the only real sport I pay attention to, I'm going to go with probably one of the most successful coaches in Tennis today. That man is...

Tony Roche. The man has coached a few of Tennis's greatest players in modern history in Pat Rafter who is a former world number 1, Roger Federer who is arguable the greatest Tennis player of all time and Tony was a part of Roger's camp for a while to help him with his game between 2005 and 2007 I believe and he is now currently coaching Lleyton Hewitt who has already had his best days, they're behind Lleyton and it's only a matter of time before Lleyton calls it a career. Not only is he a good coach, he was also a fairly good Tennis player himself with a French Open singles title to his name which is one of the reasons Roger hired him, to learn more about winning the French Open.

 

[OIL]

Sir Alex Ferguson​

This man is a dead certaintly for the greatest coach ever. I may be biased because he's the manager of the team I support, but regardless of that; Sir Alex Ferguson has done more for Manchester United & English Football than any other manager ever has for their respective team or country's league.

During his first year at Manchester United he was close to getting the sack. He didn't win any trophies but changed the lifestyle of the Manchester United players. Before him, there was a huge drinking culture at the club. Fitness levels were seriously low, and the players were more interested in drinking than playing. Sir Alex changed this. He enforced new rules to ensure the stability of the club, one which has been maintained throughout his time at Manchester United.

Making big signings such as Viv Anderson & Steve Bruce the club moved forward. One of his best signings, Eric Cantona is arguably the greatest number 7 in the history of the club. A magical footballer than Sir Alex brought to the club, ensuring future success. Even in recent years, he's managed to bring other world class players to ensure Manchester United dominate. The most notable include Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Michael Carrick & Dimitar Berbatov. But this man doesn't need to buy players all the time.

Through the youth system at the club, he put forward David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville & Nicky Butt. The first 4 players all went on to become world class footballers, the most notable being David Beckham. Instead of making huge signings he opted to let these kids run riot in the Premiership. He came under attack for this, but it proved to be a master stroke as they bossed the league.

Most recently he has put together a squad of players which are top of the Premiership, through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, winners of the Carling Cup, winners of the Community Shield, runners up of the UEFA Super Cup, winners of the World Club Championship and through to the semi-finals of the F.A Cup. That's just this season, where MUFC could win all the trophies left.

He has brought stability to the club. Being at a single football club for over 20 years is a HUGE achievement, and he has turned Manchester United into the biggest club in the world. His achievements speak volumes.

Manchester United:

10 Premier League Titles
5 F.A Cups
3 League Cups
8 Community Shields
2 Champions League Titles
1 Super Cup
1 UEFA Cup Winners Cup
1 Intercontinental Cup
1 FIFA World Club Cup

Aberdeen:

3 Scottish Premiership Titles
4 Scottish Cups
1 Scottish League Cup
1 UEFA Cup Winners Cup
1 UEFA Super Cup

St. Mirren:

1 Scottish First Division Title

Individual Awards:

Football Writers' Association Tribute Award
Mussabini Medal
UEFA Champions League Manager of the Year
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award
IFFHS Club Coach of the Year
LMA Manager of the Decade
Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award
Member of the English Football Hall of Fame
Onze d'Or Coach of the Year 2 times
Professional Footballers' Association Merit Award
UEFA Team of the Year 2 times
FA Premier League Manager of the Year 8 times
FA Premier League Manager of the Month 22 times
LMA Manager of the Year 2 times
World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year 4 times

Orders and special awards:

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE): 1983
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE): 1995
Knight Bachelor: 1999

This all speaks for itself. The man is the legend.