Jim Hanifan Dies at 87; Won Enormous Bowls with St. Louis, Washington as Assistant

Extinct NFL coach Jim Hanifan died Tuesday at the age of 87, in step with the Related Press. A put off of loss of life has yet to make certain. 

Hanifan’s long coaching profession incorporated a stint as the St. Louis Cardinals head coach from 1980 to 1985 and a four-sport spell as the Atlanta Falcons head coach in 1989. Those teams went 39-53-1 below his watch, and the Cardinals reached the postseason as soon as. 

Kathy Hinder, Hanifan’s daughter, confirmed her father’s loss of life to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She acknowledged it wasn’t connected to COVID-19.

Hanifan’s long and a hit coaching profession additionally incorporated stops as the Cardinals offensive line coach (1973-78), the San Diego Chargers offensive line and assistant head coach (1979), the Atlanta Falcons offensive line and assistant head coach (1987-89) and the offensive line coach for Washington (1990-96) and the St. Louis Rams (1997-03). 

He acquired Enormous Bowl titles with Washington and St. Louis and is taken into memoir and not utilizing a doubt one of the necessary ideal offensive line coaches in the historical past of the NFL. 

“Would I even delight in been a Corridor of Famer without him as my coach? Doubtlessly no longer,” former Cardinals offensive tackle Dan Dierdorf wrote in the introduction to Hanifan’s biography, Previous Xs and Os, My Thirty Years in the NFL (h/t the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). “After I thought who was the particular individual that was the ideal influence on my knowledgeable profession, it wasn’t even shut. There was no one who would possibly per chance well presumably rival what Jim Hanifan did for me.”

Extinct Rams offensive lineman Adam Timmerman additionally spoke extremely of his time with Hanifan, per the Post-Dispatch:

“I take into accout him coaching of us, at some level of my time in St. Louis, that I knew and he potentially knew weren’t going to accumulate the crew. But he would coach them fancy every play for that crew that yr was going to depend upon that guy. Even though he knew they delight in been going to be nick in the afternoon, he would coach them up in the morning. Because that’s correct form of the man he was.

“I mediate the explicit factor about Hanny was his wit and his ardour for the game, and proper how noteworthy he cared for of us.”

Hanifan’s long profession in soccer additionally incorporated stops in the college ranks with Utah, California and San Diego Divulge (where he first linked up with legendary head coach Don “Air” Coryell). And he conducted one season for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in 1955 earlier than he was drafted into the U.S. Military.

After his coaching profession he worked as an analyst for Rams declares.