Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Former Giants coach Allie Sherman passes away

Posted by Mike Wilkening on January 6, 2015, 12:30 AM EST

Former Giants head coach and Eagles quarterback Allie Sherman passed away on Saturday, the New York Times reported. He was 91.

I well remember when Allie Sherman was the head coach of the New York Giants.

An interesting character in NFL history. He coached the Giants for nearly the entire decade of the 1960's, beginning his career with 3 consecutive championship game appearances (all losses, with his offense scoring 10 total points) and then being in charge of the Giants' massive rebuilding effort before getting the boot after the 1968 season. The 68 Giants probably overachieved to be 7-3 at one point, then lost their last 4 games to some of the best teams in the NFL to wind up 7-7. Sherman's stretch from 1964-1966 is really bizarre...2-10-2 followed by a 7-7 season, then regressing to 1-12-1.

What do people think of Sherman as a coach? I don't know too many particulars about his strategies, but I guess he was an "offensive mind" considering his background and the YA Tittle to Del Shofner combo was probably the best in the NFL in the early 60's. I find it a bit odd that Sherman wasn't able to find another coaching job after he left the Giants. He did have early success and was only 45 years old. But I've never read an account of an ex-player saying "I really liked Allie Sherman"...most things I've read put Sherman in a negative light.

The Giants' fans used to sing "Goodbye Allie..." toward the end of a losing game in the 1960s. He outlived many of his critics from those days.

Allie Sherman was the only left-handed Quarterback in the glorious history of the Steagles.

I'm surprised that his NYT obit doesn't mentioned that he hired the first two black assistant coaches in NFL history, Emlen Tunnell and Roosevelt Brown.

Did it mention that his first head coaching job was in 1948 with the Paterson Panthers, and that he won the AFL championship? Or that his star player that year was his all-league quarterback who led the AFL in passing -- and that HE was that quarterback?

I seem to recall hearing he could be abrasive and sarcastic, which may be part of the reason why he never got another coaching job.

1949

He was also with ESPN for a number of years, as he co-hosted NFL Matchup with Chris Berman in the 80's and early 90's.