CFZ Defensive Coordinator Ernie Stautner

[Calvin2Tony2Emmitt2Julius]

Ah ! Yes ! back in the day when people wouldn't dare say you sucked if you didn't win a championship . Coach Stautner Good Deal !

 

[noshame]

Don't look now, it's a real football coach.

 

[quickccc]

I was looking at the 1975 Dallas Cowboys which was the year of the "Dirty Dozen". They ended up in the Super Bowl during a year in which they were said to be rebuilding. it was very unexpected after a 1974 season in which they went 8-6.

How did they do it?

My perspective focused on the excellent coaching job that season by guys like Dan Reeves and Mike Ditka, both who later became HC's and led their teams to Super Bowls. Reeves led two different teams, the Falcons and Broncos, to Super Bowls, one of the few who did so, although he never won.

Mike Ditka, however, coached one of the most dominant single seasons by a team in history with the Bears. His OC with the Bears was Ed Hughes, the RB coach for the Cowboys in that 1975 season.

Then there was Gene Stallings, who later went on to coach Alabama and produce a college championship.

Of course, the DC in 1975 for the Cowboys was someone who seemed to have been there forever and, despite the Cowboys success, never moved on to a HC position., Almost every other coach on that team left for a HC job except Stautner.

My intention was to draw a comparison between the coaches of that team and this current team in terms of who should get credit if this team makes it all the way. Well of course, Quinn's counterpart would be Ernie Stautner. The more I thought about Stautner, the more convinced I was to start a thread recognizing his contributions to the team and it's history.

When you mentioned 1975 , i could not help but think about how it was Landry,. that sought to keep having safeties playing CBs (ala Charlie Waters at CB ?) .

...Benny Barnes, ...Arron Mitchell.,, even Mike Downs and Dennis Thurman....that wasn't a good recipe vs hall of famers like Lynn Swann, John Stallworth and Art Monks that
really haunted us

 

[Diehardblues]

Ernie Stautner lived and breathed football almost his entire life. He was the Cowboys Defensive Coordinator under Tom Landry for 16 seasons. Prior to that, he was the Defensive line Coach for 7 seasons.

Stautner was born in Cham, Bavaria, now part of Germany. His family emigrated to the U.S. when he was three. Prior to enrolling in college, he served in the U.S. Marine Corp during WWII for four years.

Though considered undersized, he played DT for the Pittsburgh Steelers for 14 seasons and missed a total of six games despite cracked ribs, broken noses, broken fingers and two broken shoulders. In one particular game he had a compound fracture of the thumb with one thumb bone visibly exposed. He ordered it taped up into a club and continued to play. Stautner was the first Steeler to ever have his jersey retired.

Stautner made 9 Pro Bowls and the equivalent of 1st team All Pro 4 times. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Stautner was one of the main architects in building both the Doomsday and Doomsday II defenses as the Cowboys were a top 7 defense for 14 consecutive seasons. He coached the defense for 23 seasons combined through 18 playoff appearances, 12 Conference championship games and five Super Bowls.

After leaving the Cowboys in 1989, he coached the Arena Football team Dallas Texans to the Arena Bowl and was elected 1990 Arena Football Coach of the Year. He joined fellow Cowboys coach Dan Reeves in Denver from 1991 to 1994 as the D-line Coach. In 1995 to 1997 he returned to Germany to coach the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe where he led the team to two consecutive World Bowl games, winning the championship once.

Ernie Stautner passed away three years later at the age of 80.

This was the grizzled old man you always saw standing next to Tom Landry during Cowboys games.

4 years a college player
14 years an NFL player
33 years a professional football coach

I saw this article the other day on FB I believe it was. Very nice. Should have given credit to the writer