List of Buffalo Bills head coaches

There have been 14 head coaches in the history of the Buffalo Bills American football franchise. The Bills are based in the Buffalo, New York metropolitan area. They are members of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Bills franchise was formed in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), before joining the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL merger of 1970. [cite web|url=http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1961-1970|title=NFL History by Decade: 1961–1970|publisher=NFL.com|accessdate=2008-06-21]

Buster Ramsey became the first head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 1960, serving for two seasons before being fired by Bills owner Ralph Wilson after the 1961 season.cite web | title=The Month of January In Bills History | publisher=Buffalo Bills | url=http://www.buffalobills.com/history/January.jsp|accessdate=2008-06-20] In terms of tenure, Marv Levy has coached more games (182) and seasons (12) than any other coach in franchise history. He coached the Bills to four straight AFC Championships from 1990–1993, but failed to lead the team to a victory in the Super Bowl. One of Levy's predecessors, Lou Saban, who coached the team on two separate occasions, led the team to the victories in the AFL championship in 1964 and 1965. Three Bills coaches—Saban, Levy and Chuck Knox—have been named coach of the year by at least one major news organization.cite web|url=http://www.hickoksports.com/history/nflcoy.shtml|title=NFL Coach of the Year Award|last=Hickok|first=Ralph|date=2008-04-17|accessdate=2008-05-29] Levy and Jim Ringo are the only Bills coaches to have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

There have been four "interim" head coaches in Bills history. First, in 1968, head coach Joe Collier was fired two games into the season and replaced by Bills personnel director Harvey Johnson.cite web | title=The Month of September In Bills History | publisher=Buffalo Bills | url=http://www.buffalobills.com/history/September.jsp|accessdate=2008-06-20] Johnson did not serve as head coach the following season. Then, five games into the 1976 season, Saban unexpectedly resigned as head coach. He was replaced by Ringo, the team's offensive line coach.cite web | title=The Month of October In Bills History | publisher=Buffalo Bills | url=http://www.buffalobills.com/history/October.jsp|accessdate=2008-06-20] Ringo returned to coach the team again in the 1977 season. In October 1985, Kay Stephenson was fired and replaced by assistant head coach Hank Bullough. Just over a year later, Bullough was himself fired and replaced by Marv Levy, who had previously served as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.cite web | title=The Month of November In Bills History | publisher=Buffalo Bills | url=http://www.buffalobills.com/history/November.jsp|accessdate=2008-06-20] Levy would then serve as Bills head coach for the next 12 seasons.

The current coach of the Buffalo Bills is Dick Jauron, who has led the team since 2006.cite web|url=http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/|title=Buffalo Bills Team Encyclopedia|publisher=Sports-Reference|accessdate=2008-06-20]

Key

"Statistics are accurate through the 2007 NFL season."

Coaches

Notes

*note label|Note1|A|A A running total of the number of coaches of the Bills. Thus any coach who has two separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
*note label|Note1|B|B Prior to 1972, the AFL and NFL did not count ties in the calculations for win–loss percentage. After 1972, they were counted as a half-win and half-loss. [cite book | last=Carroll|first=Bob|authorlink=Bob Carroll (author)|title=Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|year=1999|isbn=0062701746|oclc=42725290|page=p. 1646]
*note label|Note1|C|C Joe Collier was fired two games into the 1968 season, after leading the Bills to an 0–2 record. The Bills personnel director, Harvey Johnson, was named interim head coach.
*note label|Note1|D|D On December 21, 1971, Lou Saban joined the Bills again as head coach. He was also named vice president of football operations. Head coach Harvey Johnson was named director of pro personnel. [cite web | title=The Month of December In Bills History | publisher=Buffalo Bills | url=http://www.buffalobills.com/history/December.jsp|accessdate=2008-06-20]
*note label|Note1|E|E On October 15, 1976, Lou Saban resigned as head coach of the Bills. He was replaced by offensive line coach Jim Ringo. Despite coaching the Bills to nine straight losses after Saban's resignation, Ringo was given a coaching contract for the 1977 season in December 1976. [cite news |last=Cady | first=Steve| title=People in Sports; Dorsett Is Easily Player-of-Year Choice |work=The New York Times | url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20F1EFF385B167493C7A81789D95F428785F9|date=1976-12-15|accessdate=2008-06-20]
*note label|Note1|F|F On October 1, 1985, Kay Stephenson was fired after leading the team to a 0–4 record. He was replaced by his assistant Hank Bullough.
*note label|Note1|G|G On November 3, 1986, Hank Bullough was fired as head coach and replaced by Marv Levy, the former head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

References

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