Jack Pardee, who played collegiately at Texas A&M under Bear Bryant, before embarking on a 15-year NFL carreer as a linebacker (Los Angeles Rams [1957-70], Washington Redskins [1071-73]), before ultimately becoming head coach for three NFL teams (as well as teams in the World,United States, and Canadian football leagues and college, passed away on Monday at age 76 at a Denver hospice of complications from gall bladder cancer.
After his playing days ended, Coach Pardee served once year as head coach of the financially untable Orlando-based Florida Blazers of the 1974 version of the World Football League. Despite being too broke to pay their players, the Blazers reached the 1974 World Bowl (the WFL's one-and-only league championship game) before losing 22-21 to the Birmingham Americans at Legion Field.
Jack would become head coach of the Chicago Bears in 1975 and in 1977 the Bears reached the playoffs for the first time in fourteen years.
Next came a three-year stint as head coach of the Washington Redskins. In Jack's second year, 1979, the Redskins blew a 13-point lead in their regular-season finale and lost to their archrivals, the Dallas Cowboys and missed the playoffs.
Jack Pardee's next head-coaching job was with the expansion Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League in 1984. The Gamblers, with a run-and-shoot offense featuring future Buffalo Bills quarterback (and Pro Football Hall of Famer) Jim Kelly, made the playoffs in both years of existance, before merging with the New Jersey Generals. Jack was to become the head coach of the merge club, but the USFL's planned move from the spring to the fall ultimately failed and the league folded.
Next, Jack became head football coach at the University of Houston, bringing the run-and-shoot offense to the Cougars. During his three yeas there, the Cougars used the same offense he used during the USFL days. Unfortunately, not long after Coach Pardee's arrival, the school was hit with a major probation (this was on the heels of then-fellow Southwest Conference member SMU's "Death Penalty") due to major violations committed under his predecessor. The Cougars were banned from bowl games in 1989 and 1990 and live television in 1989.
In 1990, Jack became the new head coach of the Houston Oilers. The Oilers, led by Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, reached the playoffs in each of Mr. Pardee's first four years there before he resigned during the 1994 season.
In 1995, Jack coached the expansion Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League. They made the playoffs in their one and only CFL season (they were blown out 52-9 by the San Antonio Texans) before the league abandoned its' "American Experiment."
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