Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Do you think he was a good coach? A bad coach? Should he have been a coach at all?

Kuharich made his name at U of San Francisco, where he had an undefeated team in 1951 and 'developed' future HOF players like Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti, and Bob St. Clair. I put developed in quotes because what I've read of Kuharich from his time at USF portrays him as something of a tyrant, holding brutal practices and putting oatmeal in the water so his players couldn't rehydrate during practice.

Anyway, Kuharich parlayed his 1951 USF season into a head coaching position with the Chicago Cardinals for 1952. He went 4-8 and then resigned. Kuharich resurfaced with the Redskins in 1954, and won some Coach of the Year honors when the Redskins went 8-4 in 1955. Three non-winning seasons followed, and Kuharich was fired after 1958. Moving back to the collegiate ranks, Kuharich was head coach at Notre Dame from 1959-1962, compiling a 17-23 record and being arguably the least-successful coach in school history.

Amazingly, perhaps due to his association with Pete Rozelle, Kuharich still had a name for himself and was given the Eagles job in 1964. In one of the worst trades in NFL history, Kuharich immediately sent Sonny Jurgensen to the Redskins for Norm Snead and Jimmy Carr. I assume this would be like the Dolphins trading Dan Marino to the Jets for Ken O'Brien. Kuharich muddled around his first two years (11-17 record), caught lightning in a bottle his third year by taking an average Eagles team to a 9-5 mark, was rewarded with a "lifetime contract" (15 years), and was fired two years later after a 2-12 season. I believe Kuharich's lifetime contract exceeded Bill Peterson's lifetime contract by 1 year.

Kuharich had great success at USF, and had singular good seasons with both the Redskins and Eagles, neither of which could be considered strong franchises at the time. I am surprised that he was able to obtain so many different coaching positions, especially the Eagles job. I am also surprised that Kuharich was able to coach at Philadelphia for as long as he did, considering how successful Sonny Jurgensen was with the Redskins at the same time. You'd think that bad trade would be brought up on an almost weekly basis. I don't really know what to make of Joe Kuharich...he coached for three different franchises and had a losing record at all three places by a significant margin. I don't know if that consistency of futility has been matched by anyone else in NFL history. But Kuharich also did have some sporadic success, so...

I could say a lot about Joe Kuharich. He was the coach of the Eagles at the time I first started following pro football in general and the Eagles in particular. Suffice to say, his was not a popular name in our household and I am still the proud possessor of a "Joe Must Go" button from 1968. Jerry Wolman, who had just bought the Eagles in '64, was very enthusiastic about the team but I think I can safely say was not very knowledgeable about football. It was widely believed at the time of his hiring of Kuharich as general manager as well as head coach that Pete Rozelle had strongly pushed for it (he had a connection with Kuharich going back to USF days and had hired him as NFL supervisor of officials in 1963), and I think that Wolman, who was in his 30s, likely looked up to Kuharich as a knowledgeable and experienced football veteran who would rebuild the team. The Jurgensen trade was, obviously, the most controversial of several deals Kuharich made as part of that rebuilding process. Dealing Tommy McDonald to the Cowboys just before that was not any more popular (and, while Sam Baker was a good kicker, the return on the trade was not that great). Other trades, such as OT J.D. Smith to Detroit for DT Floyd Peters and HB Ollie Matson, were better. The team did improve to 6-8 in 1964 (and that is when he received the much-ridiculed 15-year contract extension). But the bigger issue was how Kuharich handled players, and he alienated veteran stars like Maxie Baughan and Irv Cross (for openers), forcing later trades that hurt the team. His handling of quarterbacks, especially when he had his "three-headed " group of Norm Snead, King Hill, and Jack Concannon who didn't know from week-to-week which would be starting, was downright bizarre. There was talent on the roster for sure, and the 9-5 record of 1966 was, IMO, more despite Kuharich than because of him (and, frankly, still a bit of a fluke), but there was an awful lot of turmoil, too. By the last year in 1968, Wolman was going bankrupt and had to sell the club, Kuharich was coaching a team that was badly divided and he was in conflict with many of his veteran players while paying the price on the field for questionable personnel decisions. So my answer to the question would be that he was not good either in the front office or as a coach (granted, Jerry Williams, Ed Khayat, and Mike McCormack didn't exactly set the world on fire either, but I still consider Kuharich to have been the epitome of bad Eagles coaches).

Regarding the Sonny Jurgensen for Norm Snead trade, I recall a Sport Magazine piece on Snead. It described the trade as "a best for all concerned" type of deal.

Kuharich was famous for his malapropisms. There was "This is a fine kennel of fish," or "That is a horse of a different fire department." The one that I like is after losing to the Giants, 7 to 6, Joe said "The game was closer than the score indicated."

Another thing, Kuharich had a habit of taking a drink from the water bucket often during a game. So, naturally some players decided to hide the water bucket from him. Joe was searching for the water bucket during the heat of a game.

Joe Kuharich was a good football player back in his playing days, and he was also a veteran of WWII. Those are good things to his credit.

Ara Parseghian arrived at Notre Dame in January of 1964, and if the fighting irish had not been badly robbed by the officials in the L.A. Coliseum vs. USC that November, they would have won the national title (undefeated). In '62 with Kuharich they were .500 and '63 with Hugh Devore they were 2-7 with a lot of top talent. Ara organized things, made numerous position switches etc. Joe Kuharich may have been in over his head as a head football coach.