- Les Steckel
Les Steckel (born
July 1 ,1946 ) was a coach of theMinnesota Vikings for one brief season in 1984. He has also worked as an assistant coach with theSan Francisco 49ers ,New England Patriots ,Denver Broncos ,Tennessee Titans ,Buffalo Bills andTampa Bay Buccaneers .Steckel was born in
Whitehall, Pennsylvania and attended theUniversity of Kansas , where he was a Golden Gloves boxing champion and graduated in 1968 with a triple degree in social work, human relations and political science. He volunteered on theRobert F. Kennedy presidential campaign that year.He then enlisted in the Marines and served in
Vietnam as an infantry officer. He recently retired from USMC Reserves after thirty years of service with the rank of Colonel.After his return from Vietnam in 1970, Steckel was stationed in Quantico, Va., where he played football for the Quantico Marine football team until 1971. He joined the USMC Reserves in 1972. He then worked as an assistant football coach at the University of Colorado from
1973 to1976 . He was an assistant at Navy in1977 , then an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers in1978 .Steckel joined the
Minnesota Vikings coaching staff as the receivers coach in1979 and remained an assistant coach through the1983 season. He was promoted to head coach of the Vikings for the 1984 season after longtime coachBud Grant retired. Not surprisingly for a coach with a military background, Steckel emphasized discipline. It proved to be too much of a good thing, and he was fired after one season, in which the team posted a 3-13 record. He was succeeded by Grant—who briefly came out of retirement to fill the post.He later worked as an assistant coach or coordinator with the
New England Patriots from1985 to1988 , then withBrown University in1989 , followed by another two years at the University of Colorado from1991 to1992 , then two years with theDenver Broncos from1993 to1994 , followed by five years with theHouston Oilers and theTennessee Titans , then a year with theTampa Bay Buccaneers (2000) where he served as offensive coodinator and posted a Buccaneers team record 388 points in a season, and a year with theBuffalo Bills (2003). He became President of theFellowship of Christian Athletes on March 1,2005 after taking time off to coach his son's high school team, which won the Tennessee state championship during his one year coaching at the high school. He is married to the former Chris Picket and they have three children - Lesley, a recent graduate of Baylor University, Luke, who currently plays football at Princeton University, and Christian, also a Baylor graduate,is head anchor for ABC Sports in Jackson, Mississippi, and works college basketball games for ESPNU.
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