(Cutline: Marvy Levy and his wife Fran laugh on Sunday, Marv’s 100th birthday as fans in Chicago made cards for him. He was flanked by two players he coaches, quarterback Jim Kelly and running back Thurman Thomas, as well as a grandson with his friend (blue shirts). James Loften and Andre Reed were also on hand Sunday for his birthday. Photo by JOHN ANDERSON)
By CHUCK POLLOCK, Sun Senior Sports Columnist
Statistics will tell you that 0.03% of the 330-plus million Americans will live to be 100 years old. That’s 101,000 and nearly 80% of them will be women.
And today (Sunday, Aug, 3), Marv Levy, the Bills Hall-of-Fame coach, joins that exclusive club.
He and wife Fran, 26 years his junior, celebrated the weekend in Canton, Ohio participating in this year’s Hall of Fame festivities honoring the 382 players, coaches and contributors whose busts are displayed as part of the elite in pro football.
IF MARV was to believed, back in 1986 when he was hired by the Bills, today would be his 97th birthday. The story didn’t emerge until he’s was well into his 12-year tenure as coach in Buffalo but he finally admitted that during the interview process he told owner Ralph Wilson Jr. and general manager Bill Polian that he was 58. Levy felt if he admitted to 61, he wouldn’t be hired.
That’s odd because Wilson and Polian became two of Marv’s dearest friends and advocates and the NFL head-coaching ranks are now populated by the likes of Pete Carroll (73), Andy Reid (66) and John Harbaugh (62).
IT’S BEEN quite a career for the Jewish kid from Chicago who was recruited by Wyoming, but left when the coach did and opted for tiny Coe College, a Presbyterian school of barely 1,200 students in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He played football (defensive back), track and basketball and was twice voted Student Council President.
Upon graduation, Levy earned an English History degree from Harvard then returned to Coe as an assistant two years later. That earned him a head-coaching spot at New Mexico and subsequently the same job at California where his most touted move was hiring Bill Walsh as an assistant.
Five years at William & Mary ended Marv’s collegiate coaching career and pushed him to the NFL where he was a special teams coach first for Philadelphia, then the Rams and Washington (both under George Allen).
Five seasons with Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes followed where he made it to three Grey Cups, winning two of them. That led to his being hired by the NFL’s Chiefs where, in five seasons, he went 31-42 but was fired after the strike-shortened 1982 season.
Levy coached the USFL’s Chicago Blitz for one season where, curiously, he was Polian’s boss.
Eventually, Polian was hired as general manager in Buffalo and, midway through the ’86 season he fired beleaguered coach Hank Bullough and replaced him with Levy.
After going 2-5 to finish ’86 and 7-8 in strike-marred ’87 campaign, Marv found himself with a star-laden lineup that included five Hall of Famers — quarterback Jim Kelly, running back Thurman Thomas, wide receivers Andre Reed and James Lofton and defensive end Bruce Smith — plus nine Pro Bowl qualifiers: center Kent Hill, linebackers Cornelius Bennett, Shane Conlan and Darryl Talley, tackles Will Wolford and Howard Ballard, safety Henry Jones, cornerback Nate Odomes and special-teamer Steve Tasker.
Small wonder Marv put together an incredible eight-season stretch where the Bills made four Super Bowls, five AFC Championship games and eight playoff appearances in nine years compiling a 97-47 record in the regular season (.674 pct.), 12-8 in the playoffs (60 pct.).
CLEARLY, much of Marv’s success was a product of an incredibly-talented roster. But a big part of it was his personality.
Levy was a man of wit and wisdom, class and dignity. In a locker room filled with boundless egos, varying intellects and very different financial statuses, Marv managed to reach them all.
His players had a catalog of what they called his “Marvisms.”
Indeed, one “Where would you rather be than right here, right now” has etched itself in the franchise’s legacy.
But another of his favorites came during a pregame when players labeled it “a must-win.” Marv quickly corrected them. “This ISN’T a must-win. World War II was a ‘must-win.”
I NEVER heard him swear, in person, and genuinely angry only once.
The swearing I saw only on the press box TV. It was a 1991 Monday night game in Kansas City and the Chiefs hung a 33-6 loss on Buffalo. As the game progressed Marv was fuming, at one point calling the referee, a friend of his, an “over-officious jerk.” He also used up most of his cursing vocabulary.
Unfortunately, Fran turned out to be a pretty accomplished lip reader and when Marv got home, she informed him she did not expect to see that outburst duplicated again. And it wasn’t.
Marv’s explosion of anger came in September of 1991 after Bruce Smith was suspended four games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse statute.
At one point, a young TV reporter blurted an incomprehensible phrase: “I hear Jim Kelly is next.” Levy exploded and shouted “Where did you hear that? Where’s your proof?” It was incredibly uncomfortable in the packed interview room as Marv eviscerated the reporter, and rightfully so … it was an stunningly unprofessional comment.
WITH THIS being Highmark Stadium’s final season, there’s been much discussion about the greatest game in that facility in the first 52 seasons. It doesn’t last long as the game has its own name: “The Comeback.”
That was the 1992 wild-card playoff when the Oilers raced to a 28-3 halftime lead and the Bills were down 35-3 late in the third quarter. That’s when Frank Reich — Jim Kelly was hurt — rallied Buffalo with four touchdown passes (three to Reed) in under seven minutes and the Bills went on to a 41-38 overtime win, the greatest comeback in NFL history.
Tasker recalled Marv’s halftime speech.
“You’ve got 30 more minutes,” he told his team. “Maybe it’s the last 30 minutes of your season. When your season’s over, you’re going to have to live with yourselves and look yourselves in the eyes. You’d well better have reason to feel good about yourselves, regardless of how this game turns out.”
TASKER assessed the “brilliance in his simplicity … We had been in two Super Bowls, and he appealed to our pride.”
I treasured those 12 years Marv was in charge and I admired and respected him more than any coach I covered before him (Lou Saban, Jim Ringo, Chuck Knox, Kay Stephenson and Hank Bullough) or those after (Wade Phillips, Gregg Williams, Mike Mularkey, Dick Jauron, Perry Fewell, Chan Gailey, Doug Marrone, Rex Ryan, Anthony Lynn and Sean McDermott).
And I have a perpetual reminder.
Two of my most treasured possessions are a pair of hand-written notes from Marv, thanking me for stories I had written about him.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
