Sporting News' 50 greatest coaches of all time

[poptart]

1)John Wooden, college basketball
2)Vince Lombardi,NFL
3)Bear Bryant, college football
4)Phil Jackson NBA
5)Don Shula, NFL
6)Red Auerback, NBA
7)Scotty Bowman, NHL
8.)Dean Smith, college basketball
9)Casey Stengel, MLB
10)Knute Rockne, college football

11)Pat Summit, womens college basketball
12)Paul Brown, NFL
13)Joe Paterno, college football
14)George Halas, NFL
15)Chuck Noll, NFL
16)Bobby Knight, college basketball
17)Joe Gibbs, NFL
18)Tom Landry, NFL
19)Mike Krzyzewski, college basketball
20)Bill Belichick, NFL

21)Adolph Rupp, college basketball
22)Joe McCarthy, MLB
23)Eddie Robinson, college football
24)Bobby Bowden, college football
25)John McGraw, MLB
26)Bill Walsh, NFL
27)Woody Hayes, college football
28)Connie Mack, MLB
29)Bud Wilkinson, college football
30)Pat Riley, NBA

31)Pete Newell, college basketball
32)Joe Torre, MLB
33)Bill Parcells, NFL
34)Tom Osborne, college football
35)Walter Alston, MLB
36)Bo Schembechler, college football
37)Toe Blake, NHL
38)Sparky Anderson, MLB
39)Al Arbour, NHL
40)Amos Alonzo Stagg, college football

41)Tony La Russa, MLB
42)Geno Auriemma, womens college basketball
43)Dick Irvin, NHL
44)Ara Parseghian, college football
45)Chuck Daly, NBA
46)Bobby Cox, MLB
47)Hank Iba, college basketball
48)Tommy Lasorda, MLB
49)Greg Popovich, NBA
50)Herb Brooks, NHL


LINK







Discuss

[Wolfman]

We're sorry. You have reached this page in error.
I was wondering what criteria were used.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Shula, although a great coach, probably shouldn't be ranked quite so high. Hard to quibble with the rest of the Top 10, though.

I'll probably need a little more time to digest the rest of the list.

[poptart]

Try this link.

LINK

A panel of 118 Hall of Famers, championship coaches and other experts came up with the list, it says.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

1 Urban Meyer
2 Nick Saban
3 Les Miles
4 Mark Richt
5 Lane Kiffin
6 Steve Spurrier
7 Houston Nutt
8 Bobby Petrino
9 Rich Brooks
10 Gene Chizik

honorable mention: Bobby Johnson, Dan Mullen

[Mikey]

John Madden should at least be on the list.

Bill Walsh should be a lot higher.

[poptart]

Which NFL coach(s) should Walsh be ahead of?

Belichick, Landry, Gibbs, Noll, Halas, Brown, Shula, Lombardi.

Nearly all of those guy won more than twice as many games as Walsh did, at least.
Belichick is still active with 138 W's and a .616 winning pct.
Longevity.
Walsh was brilliant but relatively brief.
Just 92 wins and a .609 winning pct.

But interestingly, the #2 on the list, V. Lombardi was also relatively brief -- just 96 wins.

I guess citing that fact is one of your best pieces of evidence in support of Walsh.

[Mikey]

The number of wins is not the only measure of a coach.

Look at their lasting effect on the game.

Walsh developed the innovative offense that most teams today run at least a variation of.
Look at the QBs that he personally helped develop.
How may past and current head coaches started out as assistants under Walsh?

[Diego in Seattle]

The number of wins is not the only measure of a coach.

Look at their lasting effect on the game.

Walsh developed the innovative offense that most teams today run at least a variation of.
Look at the QBs that he personally helped develop.
How may past and current head coaches started out as assistants under Walsh?

I would agree, and for that reason I have to ask why Coryell was left off the list.

[poptart]

Floating Coryell's name for an exclusive list like this is highly ignorant.

111-83, 3-6 in the playoffs.

Other than a handful of division titles, he never won diddly poo.

Not nearly enough.


Here's a name to think about -- Larry Brown.

Longevity.

NBA Champion.
NBA Coach of the Year.
NCAA Champion.
Naismith College Coach of the Year.
Three-time ABA Coach of the Year.

I think you might make a case for him creeping onto the list near the bottom.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Shula, although a great coach, probably shouldn't be ranked quite so high.

He won 68% of his games over a 33 year career with only two losing seasons, you fucking pin headed dick dribble. How many NFL coaches have won over 300 games?

Seriously, shut the fuck up.

And only two Super Bowls. By way of comparison, Rockne won 88% of his games and 6 national championships. And he was one of the innovators of the forward pass. Yet Rockne is ranked #10, and Shula is ranked #5.

Like I said, I have no problem with Shula making this list, but #5?

[Van]

Doug Moe's gotta be on there somewhere, just for the suits.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Another name worthy of consideration is Billy Martin. I'm pretty sure that no other MLB manager ever managed four different franchises to the postseason. The one stop where he didn't make the postseason he still made Manager of the Year.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Part of the problem with this list is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to compare coaches in different sports.

Pat Summitt provides a peculiar conundrum in that regard. On one hand, her sport, at least from an historical perspective, would have to be considered almost completely irrelevant as compared to the other sports represented on the list. Certainly, even today the fan base for her sport is much smaller than is the case for the others. From that perspective, an argument could be made that she doesn't belong on the list. OTOH, if coaching dominance is the thing, and the sport coached is a secondary if not irrelevant concern, then she probably should be higher on the list than she is.

[poptart]

Good points on Summit, Terry.

Kind of like when Secreteriat appeared at #35 on ESPN's Best All-Time Athlete List. haha


Billy Martin is interesting.
A little "ecletic," like Larry Brown.

Let's compare Billy to the last baseball manager on that list -- Tommy Lasorda at #48.

Lasorda was 1,599 - 1,439 .526
Martin was 1,253 - 1013 .553

Lasorda won 8 division titles
Martin won 6 division titles

Lasorda won 4 penants and 2 world series championships
Martin won 3 penants and 2 world series championships



It's really fairly even.