 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1933-06-10)June 10, 1933 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | April 2, 2013(2013-04-02) (aged 79) Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1952–1954 | Michigan State |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1955–1957 | Ishpeming HS (MI) |
| 1958–1961 | Arizona State (assistant) |
| 1962–1965 | Houston (assistant) |
| 1966 | Oklahoma (DB) |
| 1967–1972 | Oklahoma |
| 1973–1978 | New England Patriots |
| 1979–1981 | Colorado |
| 1983 | New Jersey Generals |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 59–41–1 (college) 46–40 (NFL) 6–12 (USFL) |
| Bowls | 3–1–1 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
As coach:
As player: | |
| Awards | |
| Sporting News College Football COY (1971) New England Patriots All-1970s Team Big Eight Coach of the Year (1967) | |
Charles Leo Fairbanks (June 10, 1933 – April 2, 2013) was an Americanfootball coach who was a head coach at thehigh school,college and professional levels. He served as the head coach at theUniversity of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1972 and at theUniversity of Colorado from 1979 to 1981, compiling a career college record of 59–41–1 (.589). Fairbanks was also the head coach for theNew England Patriots of theNational Football League (NFL) from 1973 to 1978, amassing a record of 46–41 (.529), and for theNew Jersey Generals of theUnited States Football League (USFL) in 1983, tallying a mark of 6–12.
Born inDetroit,[1] Fairbanks graduated fromCharlevoix High School in 1951 andMichigan State University in 1955, following three years of varsity football with theSpartans under head coachesBiggie Munn andDuffy Daugherty. That fall, he began the first of three years as head coach ofIshpeming High School inMichigan'sUpper Peninsula.
In 1958, he accepted an assistant coaching position atArizona State University inTempe, spending four years there under former Spartan teammateFrank Kush before moving on for another four-year stint at theUniversity of Houston underBill Yeoman from 1962 to 1965. In 1966, he accepted an assistant coaching position at theUniversity of Oklahoma inNorman.
Following the unexpected death of 37-year-old Sooner head coachJim Mackenzie in April 1967,[2] Fairbanks was promoted to head coach four days later at age 33. He had nearly left for another assistant position atMissouri underDan Devine, but decided to stay in Norman when Mackenzie moved him to offensive coordinator after the 1966 season.[3]
Over the next six years, Fairbanks led Oklahoma to threeBig Eight Conference titles, with 11–1 records in each of his final two seasons. Three months after his mid-contract departure to theNew England Patriots of the NFL, Oklahoma was forced to forfeit nine games from the1972 season after evidence of recruiting violations involving altered transcripts of student-athletes surfaced. Fairbanks denied any knowledge of this. The scandal under his watch made Sooners ineligible for bowl games or the UPInational championship for two years after he left.
After Fairbanks' departure from Oklahoma, his successor,Barry Switzer (coincidentally, Switzer interviewed for the vacant Michigan State head coaching position before Fairbanks departed Norman), won national titles in1974 and1975 with teams that were still on NCAA probation. Oklahoma claimed the national title in 1974 despite not being allowed to participate in a bowl game, and repeated in 1975 without a television appearance.[4]
On January 26, 1973, Fairbanks was named head coach of theNew England Patriots of theNational Football League (NFL). His firstNFL draft that year includedJohn Hannah,Sam Cunningham,Ray Hamilton, andDarryl Stingley, the first of a solid run of drafts through Fairbanks' tenure with the team. After the Patriots went 5–9 in hisfirst year, the1974 season was marred by a league-wide players' strike during training camp and preseason, which actually helped the Patriots as Fairbanks and defensive coordinatorHank Bullough were installing a new system (today known as theFairbanks-Bullough 3–4, or the 3–4 two-gap system). They got a lot done because so many players who were not part of the NFL Players' Association, and eighteen first-year players made the roster.[5] The Patriots stormed to a 6–1 start before other teams caught up with them and they finished 7–7.
Fairbanks then had a falling-out with quarterbackJim Plunkett, who was traded (in April 1976) for important draft picks toSan Francisco,[6] and suffered when hardball negotiating tactics by Patriot ownership led to a team-wide player strike that cancelled a preseason game with theNew York Jets.[7] The team never recovered and fell to 3–11 in1975, but Fairbanks planted an important seed for the future by drafting quarterbackSteve Grogan, who saw his first serious game action later that year.
With Grogan at quarterback, Fairbanks' Patriots erupted to 11–3 in1976, a reversal of the 3–11 mark from the year before, and traveled to meet the 13–1Oakland Raiders in the first round of theNFL playoffs. It was the franchise's second postseason berth and their first since theAFL-NFL merger; the other was thirteen years earlier in1963. The game was a rematch of the Raiders' only loss in 1976, a 48–17 blowout win for the Patriots in Foxboro on October 3.[8][9][10] New England entered the fourth quarter with a 21–10 lead, but a controversial roughing-the-passer call on defensive endRay Hamilton by refereeBen Dreith wiped out a late incompletion by the Raiders,[11] and quarterbackKen Stabler's dive into the endzone with eight seconds left gave Oakland a 24–21 comeback victory.[12][13] Although Dreith insisted after the game that he had to call the penalty because he saw Hamilton hit Stabler on the head, replays showed that "Sugar Bear" had made no illegal contact. The call was condemned for years thereafter, and remained a bitter memory for the Patriots as the Raiders went on to winSuper Bowl XI over theMinnesota Vikings. After the season, offensive line coachRed Miller became the head coach of theDenver Broncos.[14][15]
In1977, contract squabbles between the Sullivan family and offensive linemenJohn Hannah andLeon Gray led to discord within the team. The incident soured Fairbanks onChuck Sullivan, who as the eldest son of team ownerBilly Sullivan controlled the team's finances and had forced Fairbanks to renege on his proposed contracts with Hannah and Gray. Denied Fairbanks' promised contract by the ownership team, Hannah later contended that the Sullivans "took Chuck's authority away and turned him into a liar."[16] The Patriots narrowly missed making theplayoffs on the last weekend of the regular season, while Miller's Broncos advanced toSuper Bowl XII.
The following year in1978, tragedy struck during the preseason as Stingley suffered paralysis following a violent hit byRaiders' safetyJack Tatum at Oakland on August 12.[17][18] Fairbanks had worked out a contract extension with Stingley before the game, but the following Monday Chuck Sullivan reneged on the deal. Fairbanks was livid and resolved to leave the team after the season.
The Patriots raced to an 11–4 record and won theAFC East title, and seemed poised to challenge for aSuper Bowl berth. Hours prior to the final regular season game (onMonday night), Sullivan suspended Fairbanks for breaking his contract by agreeing to become head coach for theUniversity of Colorado.[19] Fairbanks was reinstated a few days later,[20] well ahead of their divisional roundplayoff game (and the franchise's first home playoff game), but the second-seeded Patriots were upset 31–14 by superstar running backEarl Campbell and the fifth-seedHouston Oilers.[21][22]
New England sued Fairbanks for breach of contract. Duringdiscovery for the suit, he admitted recruiting for Colorado while still working for the Patriots, who won an injunction preventing him from leaving. But on April 2, 1979, a group of CU boosters (Flatirons Club) bought out his contract, making it possible for him to leave the Patriots.[23][24][25]Paul Zimmerman,Sports Illustrated's dean of professional football writers, speculated that the animus surrounding Fairbanks' departure from New England stemmed from the fact that, unlike the late-season departure ofNew York Jets coachLou Holtz forArkansas in1976, "no one" felt Fairbanks "was a really nice guy."[26]
The legal battle to make Fairbanks the Buffaloes' head coach proved not be worth the effort when he compiled a dismal 7–26 record (.212) in three seasons for Colorado (3–8, 1–10, 3–8). His second game with the Buffaloes, a 44–0 lossat home toLSU,[27] was a portent of things to come. By contrast,his predecessor's worst record was 5–6 in hisfirst season.[28] His time at CU was a tumultuous period for the football and athletic program, headed by former head coachEddie Crowder.[25][29]
Fairbanks has been routinely and incorrectly credited for the unpopular color switch from black to sky blue jerseys[28][30] in 1981, his final season in Boulder. The color change was mandated by CU's board of regents to reflect "the Colorado sky at nine thousand feet (2,700 m)," but did not win fan support. (The school's official colors are silver and gold, and the CU teams traditionally wore black and gold since 1959.) A darker shade of blue was introduced in1984, but black jerseys were restored for theOklahoma andNebraska games in Boulder, and for all home games starting in1985.[31]
The Buffalo program sank so low under Fairbanks that his successor,Bill McCartney, posted records of 2–8–1, 4–7 and 1–10 in his first three seasons before finally getting Colorado back on track. McCartney's tenure crested with an 11–0 regular season in1989 and the Associated Press national championshipthe next season, burying Fairbanks' disastrous tenure once and for all.
Fairbanks resigned from CU on June 1,1982, to become president and head coach of theNew Jersey Generals of the fledglingUnited States Football League (USFL). Majority ownerJ. Walter Duncan also sold Fairbanks a 10 percent stake in the team.[32][33][34][35][36]
Even before coaching his first game in the new league, Fairbanks once again found himself immersed in controversy.Georgia juniorHerschel Walker, the reigningHeisman Trophy winner, signed with the Generals on February 23, 1983.
His time in New Jersey, like his tenure at Colorado, was met with little success on the field as the Generals finished the1983 season at 6–12. His departure from the Generals was a result ofDonald Trump's purchase of complete control of the franchise from Fairbanks and majority ownerJ. Walter Duncan on September 22, 1983,[36][37] and was succeeded at head coach byWalt Michaels.[38] The innovative but scandal-marred Fairbanks never coached again, either collegiately or professionally; he moved on to real estate andgolf course development, creatingPGA West and launching many other successful California and Arizona ventures.
Fairbanks' schemes have influenced theNew England Patriots (under head coachBill Belichick).
In a2007 press conference, Belichick said the following of Fairbanks: "I think Chuck has had a tremendous influence on the league as well as this organization in terms of nomenclature and terminology and those kinds of things. I'm sure Chuck could walk in and look at our playbook and probably 80 percent of the plays are the same terminology that he used – whether it be formations or coverages or pass protections. We were sitting there talking yesterday and he was saying, 'How much 60 protection are you guys using? How much 80 are you using?' All of the stuff that was really the fundamentals of his system are still in place here even, again, to the way we call formations and plays and coverages and some of our individual calls within a call, a certain adjustment or things that Red (Miller) and Hank (Bullough) and Ron (Erhardt) and those guys used when they were here."[39]
Fairbanks died at age 79 from brain cancer on April 2, 2013.[1][28][40]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma Sooners(Big Eight Conference)(1967–1972) | |||||||||
| 1967 | Oklahoma | 10–1 | 7–0 | 1st | WOrange | 3 | 3 | ||
| 1968 | Oklahoma | 7–4 | 6–1 | 1st | LAstro-Bluebonnet | 10 | 11 | ||
| 1969 | Oklahoma | 6–4 | 4–3 | 4th | |||||
| 1970 | Oklahoma | 7–4–1 | 5–2 | T–2nd | TAstro-Bluebonnet | 15 | 20 | ||
| 1971 | Oklahoma | 11–1 | 6–1 | 2nd | WSugar | 3 | 2 | ||
| 1972 | Oklahoma | 11–1 | 6–1 | 1st | WSugar | 2 | 2 | ||
| Oklahoma: | 52–15–1 | 34–8 | |||||||
| Colorado Buffaloes(Big Eight Conference)(1979–1981) | |||||||||
| 1979 | Colorado | 3–8 | 2–5 | T–5th | |||||
| 1980 | Colorado | 1–10 | 1–6 | T–7th | |||||
| 1981 | Colorado | 3–8 | 2–5 | 7th | |||||
| Colorado: | 7–26 | 5–16 | |||||||
| Total: | 59–41–1 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| NE | 1973 | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 3rd in AFC East | – | – | – | – |
| NE | 1974 | 7 | 7 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC East | – | – | – | – |
| NE | 1975 | 3 | 11 | 0 | .214 | 5th in AFC East | – | – | – | – |
| NE | 1976 | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 2nd in AFC East | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost toOakland Raiders inAFC Divisional Game |
| NE | 1977 | 9 | 5 | 0 | .643 | 3rd in AFC East | – | – | – | – |
| NE | 1978 | 11 | 4 | 0 | .733 | 1st in AFC East | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost toHouston Oilers inAFC Divisional Game |
| Total | 46 | 39 | 0 | .541 | 0 | 2 | .000 | |||
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| NJG | 1983 | 6 | 12 | 0 | .333 | 3rd in Atlantic | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 6 | 12 | 0 | .333 | ||||||