Post by TheShadow on Sept 26, 2008 10:00:31 GMT -5
www.towntalknews.com
By Rich Pagano
This is the last of a six-part article I wrote about John Rauch in 2003. With his recent passing, I thought it would be appropriate to rerun the entire six parts exactly as they previously appeared in Town Talk. John was an outstanding player and coach, but above all, he was a real gentleman and one of the nicest people I have ever interviewed.In describing the Oakland Raiders outstanding season of 1967, John Rauch remembered, "It was an amazing thing. Everything fell into place. The Raiders' system basically came from Sid Gillman and the San Diego Chargers that Al brought in, and Sid was ahead of most people in the passing game. A big part of Al's philosophy was there were certain times when you got a defensive team into man-to-man coverage on receivers as well as backs, and that was the time to go for the jugular. Lamonica could throw the ball 50, 60 yards on a straight line, and he was pretty accurate. A big part in coaching him was to recognize when the other team was going to blitz to put him in a man-toman situation."
Unfortunately, the Rauch and Davis working relationship was slowly falling apart. "I made a comment before the Super Bowl out of respect for Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers", recalled John. "They had been in existence a lot longer than we had. They'd been under fire more than we had. This was kind of a Southern tradition. You always try to lull your opponent into falling asleep on you. Davis didn't like that and played it up like I was quitting before we started."
In 1968, Rauch and his Raiders finished 12-2 and again found themselves in the AFL Championship game. However, this time they lost to Joe Namath and the New York Jets, 27-23.
A few weeks later, John, with an incredible 33-8-1 record in three seasons, unexpectedly resigned as head coach of the Raiders to assume the same position with the Buffalo Bills.
He recalled, "I'm a football man, and I thought the basics of what Al Davis offered were good. I have a great appreciation for Davis's recommending me for the head coaching job with the Raiders. But I got the feeling that he was trying to hold me back, and certain things happened that, when I found out about them, aggravated the heck out of me. So I made up my mind that I was going to leave as soon as I could. There were three jobs that came open, the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dan Rooney called me from Pittsburgh and said that he was interested. When I told him that I had another year to go on my contract, he kind of backed off.
Ralph Wilson asked if I would be interested, and I said I would. I never got around to talking to anybody with Boston. My preference was Buffalo because I felt that I knew more about their personal. I went in to Al and told him that I was leaving. Davis told me that I still had another year to go on my contract. Yeah, I said I know that, but this thing is not working out for you or for me, and I think it's best that I move on. Al said that the only way he'll let me go is wherever I was going; they would have to pay restitution for me, because after all, I was taking a lot of knowledge from the Raiders. I told Al that if he stood in my way, I'll tell the news media everything I knew about him. Davis said, 'Say no more'. And that was it"
Davis made John Madden Oakland's new head coach, and Rauch arrived in Buffalo with O.J. Simpson, Heisman Trophy winner and the Bill's first-round draft choice.
Initially, there was talk of O.J. getting a number 32 jersey, his number at USC. "There was a kid on Buffalo that was a halfback, Gary McDermott, who wore the jersey 32, O.J.'s number in college," recalled John. "Our P.R. man was the first to approach me: 'O.J. has gotta wear 32. We've got to tell this guy.' I told him that I'm not doing that. I don't work that way."
That season, the Bills improved from 1-12-1 to 4-10, but O.J. was never anointed the offensive workhorse in Rauch's offense.
John remembered, "O.J. wanted to strictly be a running back. I failed to convince him that in pro football you've got to block for the quarterback, for the other back, get out of the backfield and catch a pass every once in a while. In Oakland, I had Clemon Daniels, Charlie Smith and Pete Banaczak, they all did those things, and I expected him to do it. So he and I didn't get along, because of that, not because of a personality thing."
In 1970, Buffalo finished with a 3-10-1 record which gave John a 7-20-1 mark after two seasons. Unfortunately, he was fired by owner Ralph Wilson, but soon got hired again by Ed Khayat, the new head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Khayat recalled, "I hired John to operate exclusively as a quarterback coach. He was going to work on developing our quarterbacks at the time, Pete Liske and Rick Arrington."
However, John only stayed in Philadelphia for one season, and then it was off to the Canadian League where he was the head coach of Toronto for two years.
In 1974, he returned to the state of Georgia, but this time it was to coach in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons. He was hired as an assistant by head coach Marion Campbell and stayed for two seasons.
Then it was off to Tampa Bay where he was hired by head coach John McKay to be the offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers. However, because of the unsuccessful situation there, John returned to the Falcons, where he coached for one more year.
He left coaching for a few years to work in the insurance business, but found himself back in football in the 1980's when head coach Steve Spurrior hired him to be an assistant with the Tampa Bay Bandits in the new United States Football League. Again, he only stayed two years, and called it quits for good.
Today, John lives with his wife in Florida and returned just recently to an all-class Yeadon High School reunion. In December, he will again travel north to New York where he will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. It is a long overdue tribute to not only Yeadon's greatest all-around athlete but one of the greatest athletes and coaches to ever come out of Delaware County.
By Rich Pagano
This is the last of a six-part article I wrote about John Rauch in 2003. With his recent passing, I thought it would be appropriate to rerun the entire six parts exactly as they previously appeared in Town Talk. John was an outstanding player and coach, but above all, he was a real gentleman and one of the nicest people I have ever interviewed.In describing the Oakland Raiders outstanding season of 1967, John Rauch remembered, "It was an amazing thing. Everything fell into place. The Raiders' system basically came from Sid Gillman and the San Diego Chargers that Al brought in, and Sid was ahead of most people in the passing game. A big part of Al's philosophy was there were certain times when you got a defensive team into man-to-man coverage on receivers as well as backs, and that was the time to go for the jugular. Lamonica could throw the ball 50, 60 yards on a straight line, and he was pretty accurate. A big part in coaching him was to recognize when the other team was going to blitz to put him in a man-toman situation."
Unfortunately, the Rauch and Davis working relationship was slowly falling apart. "I made a comment before the Super Bowl out of respect for Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers", recalled John. "They had been in existence a lot longer than we had. They'd been under fire more than we had. This was kind of a Southern tradition. You always try to lull your opponent into falling asleep on you. Davis didn't like that and played it up like I was quitting before we started."
In 1968, Rauch and his Raiders finished 12-2 and again found themselves in the AFL Championship game. However, this time they lost to Joe Namath and the New York Jets, 27-23.
A few weeks later, John, with an incredible 33-8-1 record in three seasons, unexpectedly resigned as head coach of the Raiders to assume the same position with the Buffalo Bills.
He recalled, "I'm a football man, and I thought the basics of what Al Davis offered were good. I have a great appreciation for Davis's recommending me for the head coaching job with the Raiders. But I got the feeling that he was trying to hold me back, and certain things happened that, when I found out about them, aggravated the heck out of me. So I made up my mind that I was going to leave as soon as I could. There were three jobs that came open, the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dan Rooney called me from Pittsburgh and said that he was interested. When I told him that I had another year to go on my contract, he kind of backed off.
Ralph Wilson asked if I would be interested, and I said I would. I never got around to talking to anybody with Boston. My preference was Buffalo because I felt that I knew more about their personal. I went in to Al and told him that I was leaving. Davis told me that I still had another year to go on my contract. Yeah, I said I know that, but this thing is not working out for you or for me, and I think it's best that I move on. Al said that the only way he'll let me go is wherever I was going; they would have to pay restitution for me, because after all, I was taking a lot of knowledge from the Raiders. I told Al that if he stood in my way, I'll tell the news media everything I knew about him. Davis said, 'Say no more'. And that was it"
Davis made John Madden Oakland's new head coach, and Rauch arrived in Buffalo with O.J. Simpson, Heisman Trophy winner and the Bill's first-round draft choice.
Initially, there was talk of O.J. getting a number 32 jersey, his number at USC. "There was a kid on Buffalo that was a halfback, Gary McDermott, who wore the jersey 32, O.J.'s number in college," recalled John. "Our P.R. man was the first to approach me: 'O.J. has gotta wear 32. We've got to tell this guy.' I told him that I'm not doing that. I don't work that way."
That season, the Bills improved from 1-12-1 to 4-10, but O.J. was never anointed the offensive workhorse in Rauch's offense.
John remembered, "O.J. wanted to strictly be a running back. I failed to convince him that in pro football you've got to block for the quarterback, for the other back, get out of the backfield and catch a pass every once in a while. In Oakland, I had Clemon Daniels, Charlie Smith and Pete Banaczak, they all did those things, and I expected him to do it. So he and I didn't get along, because of that, not because of a personality thing."
In 1970, Buffalo finished with a 3-10-1 record which gave John a 7-20-1 mark after two seasons. Unfortunately, he was fired by owner Ralph Wilson, but soon got hired again by Ed Khayat, the new head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Khayat recalled, "I hired John to operate exclusively as a quarterback coach. He was going to work on developing our quarterbacks at the time, Pete Liske and Rick Arrington."
However, John only stayed in Philadelphia for one season, and then it was off to the Canadian League where he was the head coach of Toronto for two years.
In 1974, he returned to the state of Georgia, but this time it was to coach in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons. He was hired as an assistant by head coach Marion Campbell and stayed for two seasons.
Then it was off to Tampa Bay where he was hired by head coach John McKay to be the offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers. However, because of the unsuccessful situation there, John returned to the Falcons, where he coached for one more year.
He left coaching for a few years to work in the insurance business, but found himself back in football in the 1980's when head coach Steve Spurrior hired him to be an assistant with the Tampa Bay Bandits in the new United States Football League. Again, he only stayed two years, and called it quits for good.
Today, John lives with his wife in Florida and returned just recently to an all-class Yeadon High School reunion. In December, he will again travel north to New York where he will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. It is a long overdue tribute to not only Yeadon's greatest all-around athlete but one of the greatest athletes and coaches to ever come out of Delaware County.