Vermeil and Robinson Reunite in Syracuse

View the Photo Gallery
Read Coach Dick Vermeil's Impressions of the Orange

     Syracuse University head football coach Greg Robinson welcomed retired National Football League coach and friend Dick Vermeil to Syracuse this weekend. Robinson and Vermeil coached together in Kansas City before Robinson returned to the college coaching ranks in 2004. Vermeil, one of the most distinguished coaches in the history of the National Football League, was the keynote speaker for Robinson's 2006 Football Clinic. During his visit, he watched the Orange practice on Friday and Saturday.

     “It’s really an honor for all of us up here at Syracuse, specifically for me, to have Coach Vermeil come to Syracuse and speak at out coaches clinic," Robinson said. "It was great for our team to have Coach out there. He was at practice yesterday and at practice today. Obviously, the players are excited about it. It’s very special.”

     Vermeil spent 15 seasons as an NFL head coach, including the past five campaigns with Kansas City, and was a member of the league’s coaching fraternity for 19 seasons. Vermeil had a 126-114 record in the NFL, including a 120-109 regular season record, and coached in 11 playoff games. He guided the 1999 St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl title, a thrilling 23-16 victory against Tennessee, after leading the rams to a 13-3 regular season record. Vermeil won division championships with three different teams and took two of his NFL teams to the Super Bowl.

“Number one, he (Greg) is a very bright football coach," Vermeil said of Robinson. "He is an outstanding person and he really cares about people. I don’t think he can hide his passion for the game and his passion for the kids he coaches. Those kinds of things, I think, are infectious and they grow in the organizations and they grow in the teams. You start out tough and you just keep getting better, better, and better because he’ll remain positive and supportive of the kids. They are kids, young men, who will really profit by being coached and led that way. That’s Greg. He really likes people. He is a very special human being. We have a great relationship and to be able to come up here today and yesterday too … the weather was better yesterday (smiling) … but to enjoy practice and watch the kids work with enthusiasm and having fun and getting better, doing all the right things, right, you’re forming a foundation for something special here in the future.”

Vermeil, who retired from coaching in December, 2006, had a 44-36 record in five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. His NFL head coaching record also includes a 22-26 mark with the St. Louis Rams (1997-99) and a 54-47 regular season record with the Philadelphia Eagles (1976-82).

Vermeil etched his name among the NFL’s coaching elite in 2003, becoming one of just five head coaches in league history to take three different teams to the playoffs and he is just one of four coaches in NFL history to lead two different teams to the Super Bowl. Vermeil is one of 31 NFL coaches to record 100 career victories.

Vermeil’s lasting contributions to the game of the football date back far longer than his tenure in pro football which began in 1969. He owns the rare distinction of being named “Coach of the Year” on four levels – high school, junior college, NCAA Division I and the NFL.

After beginning his coaching career at San Jose’s Del Mar High School in 1959, Vermeil received his initial head coaching assignment at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California in 1960. After a one-year stint as an assistant at San Mateo College, he produced an 8-1 mark in his lone season as the head coach at Napa Junior College in 1964.

For the next 11 years, Vermeil worked in the collegiate and professional coaching ranks. He began his Division I college coaching career in 1965, working for Stanford and head coach John Ralston, where he coached for three seasons. In 1969, Vermeil was hired by the Los Angeles Rams and was designated as the first special teams coach in NFL history. He returned to the college ranks to serve as the offensive coordinator for UCLA and head coach Tommy Prothro in 1970 and then went with Prothro back to the NFL and the Rams, where he served as offensive coordinator from 1971-72. In 1973, he coached running backs and special teams for Rams head coach Chuck Knox before taking over the head coaching reins at UCLA the following year. He compiled a 15-5-3 (.717) record in two seasons as head coach at UCLA (1974-75), including a 9-2-1 record in 1975 when he led the Bruins to their first Pac 8 Championship.

In 1976, Vermeil began his 15-year tenure as an NFL head coach when he was chosen to guide the Philadelphia Eagles franchise. Just three years after inheriting a team that hadn’t enjoyed a winning season since 1961, Vermeil helped lead the Eagles to their first playoff appearance in 18 seasons following the 1978 campaign.

In seven seasons with the Eagles (1976-82), Vermeil engineered four Philadelphia playoff appearances. The highlight of that four-year postseason run came in 1980 when Philadelphia claimed its first division title since winning the NFL Championship in 1960 as Vermeil’s Eagles won the NFC Championship Game and advanced to Super Bowl XV in January of 1981. After that highly-successful seven-season run with Philadelphia, Vermeil retired from coaching during an emotional farewell speech on January 10, 1983. He finished his Eagles career with a 54-47 (.535) record.

Shortly after departing the sidelines in Philadelphia, he began a 14-year broadcasting career, serving as an NFL and college football analyst for CBS and ABC from ‘83-96.

After taking a 14-year sabbatical from the coaching profession from ‘83-96, Vermeil returned to the league as President of Football Operations and head coach of the St. Louis Rams in January, 1997. In just his third season as head coach of that club, he guided the Rams to the Super Bowl title. Nineteen years after winning the NFL Coach of the Year honor for the initial time with the ‘80 Philadelphia Eagles, Vermeil was once again honored as the NFL’s Coach of the Year following the 1999 season with St. Louis and was a consensus “Coach of the Year” selection.

Just 11 days following that Super Bowl victory, Vermeil announced what would be a short-lived retirement from the Rams in February 1, 2000. He joined the Chiefs less than a year later. In 2001, Vermeil hired SU’s Robinson as his defensive coordinator, who worked in that capacity for three seasons.

Born in Calistoga, California at the northern end of the world-renowned Napa Valley, Vermeil was a four-sport star at Calistoga High School. He graduated from San Jose State with degrees in physical education (B.A. ‘58, M.A. ‘59) after playing quarterback for the Spartans. Vermeil and his wife, Carol, have three children and 11 grandchildren.

Syracuse University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos