- Bum Phillips
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Bum Phillips 
Philips at a Houston Texans game with President George H. W. Bush. Date of birth September 29, 1923 Place of birth Orange, Texas Position(s) Coach College Lamar & Stephen F. Austin Career record 86–80–0 (NFL)
4–5–0 (College)Stats Coaching stats Pro Football Reference Coaching stats DatabaseFootball Team(s) as a coach/administrator 1957
1958
1959–1961
1962
1965–1966
1967–1970
1973
1974
1975–1980
1981–1985Jacksonville HS
Texas A&M (Assist.)
Amarillo HS
Texas Western
Houston (DC)
AFL San Diego Chargers (DC)
Oklahoma State (Assist.)
Houston Oilers (DC)
Houston Oilers
New Orleans SaintsOail Andrew "Bum" Phillips (born September 29, 1923) is a retired American football coach and the father of Wade Phillips, the Defensive Coordinator for the Houston Texans. "Bum" Phillips coached at the high school, college and professional levels.
Contents
Early Football Career
Phillips played football at Lamar College (now Lamar University) in Beaumont, Texas, but enlisted in the United States Marine Corps shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He became one of the elite Marine Raiders.
After he returned from the war, Phillips completed the remain year on his degree at Lamar, and enrolled at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, 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 various Texas cities including Jacksonville, Amarillo, Port Neches-Groves, and in his hometown of Nederland.
His college coaching stints included serving as an assistant coach at Texas A&M University (for Bear Bryant), the University of Houston (for Bill Yeoman), Southern Methodist University (for Hayden Fry), the University of Texas at El Paso, and Oklahoma State University.
NFL Coach
In the early 1970s, Phillips joined the NFL when he was hired by Sid Gillman to serve as a defensive assistant coach for the San Diego Chargers. A few years later, Gillman became head coach of the Houston Oilers, and he brought Phillips with him as his defensive coordinator.
In 1975, Phillips was named head coach and general manager of the Oilers, and served in that capacity through 1980. As coach of the Oilers, he became the winningest coach in franchise history (59-38 record). He was known for his trademark cowboy hat on the sidelines, except when the Oilers played in the Astrodome 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 fedora during indoor games.)[1] Under Phillips the Oilers reached the AFC Championship Game in two consecutive seasons, losing to the Super Bowl-champion 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 Houston and Pittsburgh to be the two best teams in the NFL. Phillips remarked at the time, "The road to the Super Bowl goes through Pittsburgh."
From 1981 through the first 12 games of the 1985 season, he was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, and like in his coaching tenure with the Oilers, Phillips took off his trademark Stetson inside the Louisiana Superdome. In 1983 his Saints almost had 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 on Mike Lansford's 42-yard field goal with 00:02 to play.
Phillips resigned as Saints coach on November 25, 1985, one day after a 30-24 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
Post football career
He later worked as a football color analyst for television and radio. Phillips has since retired to his horse ranch in Goliad, Texas.
Bum has endorsed his own brand of sausage and also has served as the spokesman for Spectrum Scoreboards. Bum was also a spokesman for Texas State Optical (TSO), a regional chain of prescription eyewear retailers, during part of the '90s.
His son, Wade Phillips, has also held assistant and head coaching jobs in the NFL and was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys from February 2007 to November 2010. He was hired by the Houston Texans on January 5, 2011 as their new defensive coordinator almost 30 years after his father was terminated by Bud Adams on December 28, 1980, after the Oilers failed to make the playoffs.
In 2010, Bum composed the most detailed account of his life to date. With the help of award-winning writer and editor Gabe Semenza, he published, "Bum Phillips: Coach, Cowboy, Christian." The book is available at www.BumPhillipsBook.com and other book outlets.
Quotes
- "There's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired."[2]
- "I always thought I could coach. I just thought people were poor judges of good coaches."[3]
- "I've never seen a hammer and tong game like that one."
- "Mama always said that if it can't rain on you, you're indoors." (Explaining why he wouldn't wear his cowboy hat in a domed stadium)
- "Dallas Cowboys may be America's team, but the Houston Oilers are Texas' team."
- "I never scrimmage Oilers against Oilers...what for? Houston isn't on our schedule." (Source: The Book of Sports Lists)
- (To an official) "Hey, can I, can I tell you one thing? That's three holding penalties on one football team in a quarter and a half. (Pauses) That ain't funny."
- (To an official) "Now, you can't do that! If you do it, I'm telling you you'll have more hell over it than a little bit."
- (referring to Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, with whom Phillips worked as an assistant coach at Texas A&M) "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n."
- (referring to Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon) "That boy could throw a football through a car wash and not get it wet."
- (when asked about Oilers RB Earl Campbell's inability to finish a 1 mile run in training camp) "When it's first and a mile, I won't give it to him."
- (when asked by Bob Costas why he took his wife on all of the Oilers' road trips) "Because she's too ugly to kiss goodbye."
- Two years ago we knocked on the door, last year we banged on it, this year we're going to knock the damn door down!
See also
References
- ^ Fowler, Ed (1997). Loser Takes All: Bud Adams, Bad Football, & Big Business. Longstreet Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 1563524325.
- ^ Fowler, Ed (1997). Loser Takes All: Bud Adams, Bad Football, & Big Business. Longstreet Press. p. 57. ISBN 1563524325.
- ^ Fowler, Ed (1997). Loser Takes All: Bud Adams, Bad Football, & Big Business. Longstreet Press. p. 45. ISBN 1563524325.
Preceded by
Burnie MillerHouston Oilers Defensive Coordinator
1974Succeeded by
Ed BilesUTEP Miners head football coaches Tommy Dwyer (1914–1917) • No team (1918) • Tommy Dwyer (1919) • Harry Van Surdam (1920) • Thomas C. Holiday (1921) • Jack C. Vowell (1922–1923) • George B. Powell (1924–1926) • E. J. Stewart (1927–1928) • Mack Saxon (1929–1941) • Walter Milner (1942) • No team (1943–1945) • Jack Curtice (1946–1949) • Mike Brumbelow (1950–1956) • Ben Collins (1957–1961) • Bum Phillips (1962) • Warren Harper (1963–1964) • Bobby Dobbs (1965–1972) • Tommy Hudspeth (1972–1973) • Gil Bartosh (1974–1976) • Bill Michael (1977–1981) • Billy Alton # (1981) • Bill Yung (1982–1985) • Bob Stull (1986–1988) • David Lee (1989–1993) • Charlie Bailey (1993–1999) • Gary Nord (2000–2003) • Mike Price (2004– )
Pound sign (#) denotes interim head coach.New Orleans Saints head coaches Tom Fears (1967–1970) • J. D. Roberts (1970–1972) • John North (1973–1975) • Ernie Hefferle # (1975) • Hank Stram (1976–1977) • Dick Nolan (1978–1980) • Dick Stanfel # (1980) • Bum Phillips (1981–1985) • Wade Phillips # (1985) • Jim E. Mora (1986–1996) • Rick Venturi # (1996) • Mike Ditka (1997–1999) • Jim Haslett (2000–2005) • Sean Payton (2006– )
Pound sign (#) denotes interim head coach.New Orleans Saints General Managers Houston Oilers / Tennessee Oilers / Tennessee Titans head coaches Lou Rymkus (1960–1961) • Wally Lemm (1961) • Pop Ivy (1962–1963) • Sammy Baugh (1964) • Hugh Taylor (1965) • Wally Lemm (1966–1970) • Ed Hughes (1971) • Bill Peterson (1972–1973) • Sid Gillman (1973–1974) • Bum Phillips (1975–1980) • Ed Biles (1981–1983) • Chuck Studley # (1983) • Hugh Campbell (1984–1985) • Jerry Glanville (1985–1989) • Jack Pardee (1990–1994) • Jeff Fisher (1994–2010) • Mike Munchak (2011– )
Pound sign (#) denotes interim head coach.Houston Oilers / Tennessee Oilers / Tennessee Titans general managers Categories:- 1923 births
- Living people
- People from Orange, Texas
- Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks football players
- New Mexico Lobos football coaches
- Texas A&M Aggies football coaches
- Houston Cougars football coaches
- SMU Mustangs football coaches
- Oklahoma State Cowboys football coaches
- UTEP Miners football coaches
- New Orleans Saints head coaches
- Houston Oilers coaches
- Houston Oilers head coaches
- San Diego Chargers coaches
- National Football League head coaches
- National Football League general managers
- National Football League announcers
- People from Victoria, Texas
- United States Marines
- American military personnel of World War II
- Lamar Cardinals football players
- High school football coaches in the United States
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