 Phillips in 2010 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born: | (1923-09-29)September 29, 1923 Orange, Texas, U.S. | ||
| Died: | October 18, 2013(2013-10-18) (aged 90) Goliad, Texas, U.S. | ||
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||
| Career information | |||
| College: | Stephen F. Austin | ||
| Career history | |||
As a coach: | |||
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| |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
| Head coaching record | |||
| Regular season: | NFL: 82–77 (.516) | ||
| Postseason: | NFL: 4–3 (.571) | ||
| Career: | NFL: 86–80 (.518) NCAA: 4–5 (.444) | ||
| Coaching profile atPro Football Reference | |||
Oail Andrew "Bum"Phillips Jr. (September 29, 1923 – October 18, 2013) was anAmerican football coach at the high school, college and professional levels. He served as head coach in theNational Football League (NFL) for theHouston Oilers from 1975 to 1980 and theNew Orleans Saints from 1981 to 1985.
Phillips played football atLamar University inBeaumont, Texas, but enlisted in theU.S. Marine Corps on September 30, 1942.[1] He became one of the eliteMarine Raiders.[2]
After he returned from the war, Phillips completed the remaining year on his degree at Lamar (a junior college at the time), and enrolled atStephen F. Austin State University inNacogdoches, Texas,lettering in football in 1948 and 1949 and graduating with a degree in education in 1949.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Phillips coached high school football in variousTexas cities includingNederland,Jacksonville,Amarillo, andPort Neches-Groves.
His college coaching stints included serving as an assistant coach atTexas A&M University (forBear Bryant), theUniversity of Houston (forBill Yeoman),Southern Methodist University (forHayden Fry), andOklahoma State University with Jim Stanley. He was the head coach at Texas Western University (now theUniversity of Texas at El Paso) for one season in 1962.
In the late 1960s, Phillips was hired bySid Gillman to serve as a defensive assistant coach for theSan Diego Chargers. In 1973, Gillman became head coach of theHouston Oilers, and he brought Phillips with him as his defensive coordinator.
Phillips was promoted to head coach of theOilers on January 25, 1975,[3] and he served in that capacity through 1980.[4] As coach of the Oilers, he presided over the team's most successful era since its days in theAmerican Football League. Under Phillips, the Oilers reached theAFC Championship Game in two consecutive seasons, losing to the Super Bowl championPittsburgh Steelers 34–5 in 1978 and 27–13 in 1979. Both teams were members of the competitive AFC Central Division and thus played three times in both 1978 and 1979, fueling an intense rivalry. During this period of league-wide AFC dominance, some commentators considered the Oilers and Steelers to be the two best teams in the NFL. Phillips remarked at the time, "The road to the Super Bowl goes throughPittsburgh."
Phillips was fired on New Year's Eve 1980 by Oilers ownerBud Adams. Phillips was fired because he failed to report a player's in season recreational drug use to Adams until after the season ended. His 59 wins would be the most in franchise history untilJeff Fisher passed him in 2001 (by then, the team had become theTennessee Titans). Soon afterward, he was hired byNew Orleans Saints owner John Mecom Jr. as head coach and general manager of the Saints, serving from 1981 through the first 12 games of the 1985 season. As in his coaching tenure with the Oilers, Phillips took off his trademark Stetson inside theLouisiana Superdome. In 1983, his Saints went into the final week needing one more win to secure the first winning season and playoff berth in franchise history. The Rams beat the Saints for the final playoff spot in week 16, 26–24 onMike Lansford's 42-yard field goal with 00:02 to play.
Phillips offered to resign prior to the1985 season afterTom Benson purchased the Saints for $70 million from Mecom, but Benson asked him to stay on to help his transition into NFL ownership.
Phillips resigned as Saints coach on November 25, 1985, one day after a 30–23 victory over theMinnesota Vikings, 12 games into the season. His son, Wade Phillips, would take over the coaching reins on an interim basis for the remaining four games of the 1985 season. The Saints defeated the Rams 29–3 in Wade's first game at the helm, but finished with losses to the Cardinals, 49ers and Falcons. He finished his NFL head coaching career with 82 wins, the same number of wins as his son.
Phillips later worked as a footballcolor analyst for television and Oilers radio broadcasts. He subsequently retired to his horse ranch inGoliad, Texas.
His son,Wade Phillips, has also held assistant and head coaching jobs in the NFL and was the head coach of theDallas Cowboys from February 2007 to November 2010. Wade was hired by theHouston Texans on January 5, 2011, as their new defensive coordinator almost exactly 30 years after his father was terminated by Oilers ownerBud Adams on December 28, 1980, after the Oilers failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs. Wade won a Super Bowl title atSuper Bowl 50 with theDenver Broncos as defensive coordinator, and was the defensive coordinator of theLos Angeles Rams who advanced toSuper Bowl LIII and later parted ways with the Rams following the 2019 season.
His grandsonWes is also an NFL assistant coach.
In 2010, he published hismemoirs,Bum Phillips: Coach, Cowboy, Christian.
Phillips died at his ranch in Goliad, Texas, on October 18, 2013, at the age of 90.[5] He was survived by his second wife, Debbie, and six children from his first marriage along with almost two dozen grandchildren.[6]
In honor of Bum Phillips coaching both Nederland and Port Neches-Groves High Schools, the rivalry game between his two favorite schools[7] is named the Bum Phillips Bowl.
Phillips was known for his trademark Stetsoncowboy hat on the sidelines, except when the Oilers played in theAstrodome or other domed stadiums. He stated that his mother taught him not to wear a hat indoors; his former boss Bear Bryant similarly refused to wear his trademark houndstooth hat during indoor games.[8] Phillips wore his cowboy hat with blue jeans and a button down shirt, in contrast toDallas Cowboys head coachTom Landry who wore a suit and tie with his trademark fedora.[9][10]
Besides his trademark cowboy hat, Phillips is also known for his colorful quotes, such thatSports Illustrated noted thatWikipedia had a whole section of his page dedicated to these quips. In the week leading up toSuper Bowl LIII, his son Wade was quoted as saying “Unfortunately, I get older butTom Brady doesn’t,” while sporting the elder Phillip's sheepskin coat and cowboy hat as theLos Angeles Rams arrived in Atlanta.[11]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Western Miners(NCAA University Division independent)(1962) | |||||||||
| 1962 | Texas Western | 4–5 | |||||||
| Texas Western: | 4–5 | ||||||||
| Total: | 4–5 | ||||||||
| Team | Year | Regular season | Post-season | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| HOU | 1975 | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 3rd in AFC Central | - | - | - | - |
| HOU | 1976 | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 4th in AFC Central | - | - | - | - |
| HOU | 1977 | 8 | 6 | 0 | .571 | 2nd in AFC Central | - | - | - | - |
| HOU | 1978 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC Central | 2 | 1 | .667 | Lost toPittsburgh Steelers inAFC Championship Game. |
| HOU | 1979 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 2nd in AFC Central | 2 | 1 | .667 | Lost toPittsburgh Steelers inAFC Championship Game. |
| HOU | 1980 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 2nd in AFC Central | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost toOakland Raiders inAFC Wild-Card Game. |
| HOU Total | 55 | 35 | 0 | .611 | 4 | 3 | .571 | |||
| NO | 1981 | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | 4th in NFC West | - | - | - | - |
| NO | 1982 | 4 | 5 | 0 | .444 | 9th in NFC | - | - | - | - |
| NO | 1983 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in NFC West | - | - | - | - |
| NO | 1984 | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 3rd in NFC West | - | - | - | - |
| NO | 1985 | 4 | 8 | 0 | .333 | Resigned | - | - | - | |
| NO Total | 27 | 42 | 0 | .391 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |||
| Total"Bum Phillips Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks".Pro-Football-Reference.com. RetrievedMarch 10, 2025. | 82 | 77 | 0 | .516 | 4 | 3 | .571 | |||
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