Hank Stram

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Henry Louis Stram (January 3, 1923 – July 4, 2005) was an American football coach.

He is best known for his 15-year stint with the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). Stram has won three AFL championships, more than any other coach in the league's history.

He earned the 1969 World Championship of Professional Football after winning Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs.

He also managed the most games (87), had the most post-season games (73) and the best AFL post-season record (5–2).

Stram is largely responsible for the introduction of Gatorade to the NFL thanks to his close connection with Ray Graves, a head coach at the University of Florida during Gatorade's youth and infancy.

During his time with the Texans and Chiefs, Stram never had an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, or special teams coach.

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Coaching career

He served as an assistant football coach for the Boilermakers from 1948 to 1955, and as the head baseball coach from 1951 to 1955. Stram and Len Dawson were inducted into the Purdue Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996. Stram began working at Purdue as an assistant at Notre Dame, Southern Methodist University, and Miami. Stram was Miami's backfield coach and was credited with the introduction of the multiple offense, which helped the team beat the record by 6–4 in 1959.

In 1959, Lamar Hunt recruited Stram to coach his Dallas Texans in the new AFL, which began playing in 1960. Hunt had previously been a bench player at SMU when Stram was teaching there and the Texans' position had been turned down by Bud Wilkinson and Tom Landry, who then became an assistant for the New York Giants. In September 1960, the Texans played their first game in the new AFL and were deemed a success from the start.

In 1962, the Texans won the AFL Western Division and the AFL championship. The Texans won the championship over the Houston Oilers 20-17 in what was the longest professional football championship game ever played. Tommy Brooker won the game for the Texans after a field goal at 17:54 to keep the Oilers from winning their third straight title.

In 1963, the Dallas Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs, which continued to be a huge success. They won the AFL championship in 1966, one of the best defensive teams in professional football, starring three hall of famers and eight all star players. In Buffalo, the Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills 31–7. In Super Bowl I, the Chiefs defeated the Green Bay Packers 35–10. Vince Lombardi of the Packers coached a short passing game that was highly successful, with quarterback Bart Starr becoming the first Super Bowl MVP.

The Chiefs didn't have a healthy wide receiver ready to play in a 1968 game against the Oakland Raiders in Kansas City. Stram returned to pro football, resurrecting the T formation. The Chiefs won the game 24-10 while passing only three times for 16 yards.

In 1969, the Kansas City Chiefs captured the AFL championship for the second time. The Minnesota Vikings were dominated on both directions of the ball by his ingenious inventions, the "moving pocket," and the "triple stack defense." Stram became the first professional football coach to wear a microphone in the Super Bowl. Boys, Stram's recorded remarks from the game have become classics: "Just keep matriculatin' the ball down the field." "How could all six of you miss that performance?" says the narrator. "You can't do it in OUR league," "Kassulke was joking around like it was a Chinese fire drill," and the Vikings' ineffective play: "You can't do that in our league." "How can all six of you miss that play?" in the clip in which he asks a referee. The referee's reply causes the befuddled Stram to mutter, "No."

What?"

The Super Bowl was the second straight victory for a team from the AFL, adding to the excitement in the newer league, which would bring an awaited merger with the NFL to an end.

The Chiefs captured the AFC Western Division championship in 1971. On Christmas Day 1971, the Miami Dolphins defeated the Chiefs. The teams played the longest game in professional football in the history of professional football. Stram left the franchise after that, and the Chiefs didn't enjoy the same success. Stram's time in Kansas City came to an end with a 35–15 loss at home to the same Viking team that the Chiefs defeated in Super Bowl IV.

Stram was fired after finishing 5-9 in the 1974 season, the worst franchise had ever been.

Stram began coaching the New Orleans Saints in 1976, but lost records in his two seasons, 4–10 and 3–11. Archie Manning, a quarterback who missed the entire 1976 season and a portion of the 1977 season, was severely injured in his efforts to revive the sagging Saints. Stram also had to deal with persistent discipline problems exacerbated by Chuck Muncie, the leading rusher on a cocaine use in 1980, who would later sell the San Diego Chargers.

At Arrowhead Stadium in 1976, Stram's first victory with the Saints was perhaps the most highlight of his New Orleans tenure, his previous team, the Kansas City Chiefs. The 1977 campaign brought an unprecedented home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were riding a 26-game losing streak over two seasons. Stram took the loss terribly by torching the game film. After the season's last game, he was fired.

Stram was an entrepreneur, a shrewd judge of talent, and a good tutor. Len Dawson, Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Curley Culp, Willie Lanier, Jan Stenerud, Emmitt Thomas, and Johnny Robinson, among others such as Ed Budde and Otis Taylor, were among the many names that have contributed to Hall of Famers Len Dawson, Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Willie Lanier, Willie Lanier, Willie Lanier, Willie Lanier, Willie Lanier, He was also the first head coach in professional football to use Gatorade on his sidelines and played both the I formation and two-tight end offense, which are now used in professional football. The Chiefs used a triple-stack defense on defense, concealing the three linebackers behind defensive linemen.

He was dubbed a genius by motivational experts, and his emphasis on the Chiefs' wearing of a patch recognizing the AFL in Super Bowl IV was one of his signature moves, extortioning maximum effort from players who had been mocked by NFL supporters. Stram was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003, nine years after Bud Grant, the man whose team he had stoutfully lost in Super Bowl IV, had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Stram was so weakened by diabetes' effects that Len Dawson led his ex coach into the stage in a wheelchair at the Hall of Fame awards that Len Dawson pushed his former coach into the stage. Stram's induction address was then played from a newly shot videotape.

Broadcasting career

Stram spent his time as a color commentator on CBS' television and radio broadcasts of NFL games following his retirement from teaching. In 1975, Stram began broadcasting games for CBS, first calling games with Frank Glieber. Stram called games with Gary Bender in 1978 after a brief absence so Complementary is back to coaching. Jack Buck, Vin Scully, Curt Gowdy, Dick Stockton, Tim Brant, Steve Zabriskie, Jim Henderson, Sean McDonough, and Jim Nantz were among his broadcast buddies, as well as numerous others. He also called the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' preseason football games for WTOG-TV in Tampa, Florida, from 1979 to 1989.

Stram is best remembered for his near-20-year tenure (beginning in 1978 and running into the 1995 season) with Jack Buck on CBS Radio broadcasts of Monday Night Football games. Stram's most notable broadcasting feature was his habit of predicting the next play before it happened.

Stram and Vin Scully called the famous NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys on January 10, 1982. The game in question was immortalized by Dwight Clark's touchdown grab, boosting the 49ers to their first Super Bowl appearance (the first of four during the 1980s).

Stram collapsed with a severely blocked aortic valve and underwent open heart surgery while traveling to Indianapolis for a 1988 broadcasting trip. He was hospitalized in Indianapolis for a week and then resumed his work with CBS.

He was a member of CBS' television broadcast team until 1993. In 1996, he appeared on CBS Radio in Super Bowl XXX.

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