Don Coryell is almost a Hall of Famer.
Really.
The former San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Cardinals coach is as close as he’s ever been to being a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Coryell on Tuesday was chosen by the Hall’s coach/contributor committee as its candidate for the Class of 2023. The announcement was made Wednesday morning.
Coryell faces one more vote early next year from the Hall’s board of 49 selectors. If he receives 80 percent of the vote, he will be enshrined next August in Canton, Ohio. It’s uncommon for someone to be rejected by the board, although it has happened.
One of the 12 committee Tuesday was Dan Fouts, a Hall of Fame quarterback who spent parts of nine NFL seasons leading the Air Coryell offense in San Diego. When Hall of Fame President Jim Porter revealed Coryell as the winner to the committee voters, who met virtually for over four hours, Fouts buried his head in his hands for several seconds, never looking up, according to another voter, Clark Judge of fullpresscoverage.com.
“Was that relief or emotion?” Judge asked Fouts.
“A little of both,” Fouts said. “I’m almost speechless because I was so expecting bad news. When (Porter) said, ‘Don Coryell,’ it was like the biggest thing for me … because of this crusade.”
Fouts and others credit Coryell with revolutionizing the game with his ing schemes. Mike Martz, who grew up in San Diego and was offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams’ Super Bowl XXXIV-winning team, has called him “the father of the modern ing game.” Former Coryell assistant Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls as head coach in Washington, and two Coryell disciples, Norv Turner and Ernie Zampese, called plays for Super Bowl winners.
The knock against Coryell when he failed to gain induction over the past dozen years was that he never reached a Super Bowl and his postseason record with the Cardinals and Chargers was 3-6. But not every coach in the Hall of Fame won a Super Bowl and few impacted the game the way Coryell did.
Coryell first gained fame as head coach at San Diego State, where he was 104-19-2 in 12 seasons (1961-72). He developed NFL quarterbacks such as Don Horn, Dennis Shaw and Brian Sipe and receivers like Isaac Curtis, Gary Garrison and Haven Moses.
Moving to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973, Coryell took the franchise for the playoffs for the first time in 26 years and won two division titles while posting a 42-27-1 record.
He was let go after the 1977 season and the Chargers hired him early the following season. He went on to become the first coach to win 100 games in both the college and pro game. He was 47-22 in his first five seasons and the Chargers won division titles from 1979-81 and also reached the playoffs in ’82. Twice they lost in the AFC Championship Game. Coryell was fired midway through the 1986 season after going 69-56 and did not coach again. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2010 in La Mesa at age 85.
