Phil Handler

Phil Handler (July 21, 1908 - December 8, 1968) was a football player and coach who spent his entire professional career in the city of Chicago. On three separate occasions, Handler served as head coach of the Chicago Cardinals.

Handler earned championship rings on every team for which he played or coached. In 1929, while playing for Texas Christian University in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, Handler and his Horned Frog teammates were Southwest Conference champions. In 1947, Handler was an assistant coach on the NFL Champion Chicago Cardinals. Handler was also a top assistant for Chicago Bears under Head Coach George S. Halas, for the Monsters of the Midway's 1963 NFL title.

As a player, Handler was an undersized (5-11, 190 lbs.) offensive guard who played college football at Texas Christian University for three years beginning in 1927 under legendary head coach Francis Schmidt. Despite Cardinals' coach Earle "Greasy" Neale's dismissive comment upon his arrival with the Cardinals in the summer of 1930: "You'll never make it kid. You're too small," Handler went on to a seven-year career with the team.

Upon his retirement during the 1937 NFL season, Handler became a Cardinals' coach (having served in a player-coach capacity during those two final years.) His career in the Windy City appeared to have ended on November 28, 1938, when he and head coach Milan Creighton resigned following a 2-9 finish, but Handler later reconsidered his decision and continued as an assistant coach.

On July 3, 1943, Handler took over the Cardinals' head coaching duties when head coach Jimmy Conzelman accepted a front office position with baseball's St. Louis Browns. However, with talent shortages due to World War II, the Cardinals lost all 10 games that season, then merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers the following year. That effort also resulted in a winless season in 1944, and after a 1-9 season the next year, Handler gave way for the returning Conzelman.

The return of not only their head coach, but many top players, helped the Cardinals improve to 6-5 in 1946, followed by the franchise's only NFL title the next season. The 28-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on December 28, 1947. One year later, the same two teams faced each other, but in a blinding snowstorm, the Eagles' fourth quarter touchdown was enough to give them the championship.

After Conzelman again resigned, Handler and fellow assistant Buddy Parker were named co-head coaches of the Cardinals in a unique arrangement on February 3, 1949, brought about by the two owners' different preferences. The end result was quickly evident as the team won just two of its fix six contests, resulting in Handler being shifted to a front office role on October 25.

When Parker left after the season, longtime Green Bay legend Curly Lambeau took his place and brought back Handler as the team's line coach. The new staff continued to struggle, and after a 7-15 mark, Lambeau resigned on December 7, 1951, with Handler and Cecil Isbell coaching the team's last two games.

After more than two decades with the same team, Handler moved to the north side of Chicago to become a line coach for the crosstown rival Bears on July 19, 1952. In addition to his coaching duties, Handler also served as a scout for the team for the next 16 seasons, helping the team reach the 1956 NFL Championship game, then capture the title seven years later.

Handler was in danger of not being employed during the championship year when he became part of a gambling investigation that eventually saw Paul Hornung and Alex Karras suspended for a year. It was later determined that Handler's boss at his off-season job with a local lumber company was a heavy gambler, but that Handler had provided him with no inside information.

Months after the 1967 NFL season had ended, Handler was vacationing in Florida when he suffered the first of two heart attacks and spent several weeks in a hospital for treatment. Upon his release, doctors decreed that he would not only have to give up his coaching duties, but also would be unable to attend Bears' games, as well. Handler followed those orders, but just moments after a dramatic 17-16 Bears win over the Rams in Los Angeles, he died of his third heart attack. Two days after his passing, more than 500 people attended the funeral, with the Bears cancelling a team practice to attend.

Handler is a member of the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame, the Chicago Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. His seventeen seasons as a Chicago Bears assistant rank second in the history of the NFL's oldest franchise.