Joseph Lawrence Kuharich was a noted football coach.
He was born April 14 1917 in South Bend, Indiana. His football background was stemmed from his college playing days at Notre Dame. In his college career, Kuharich's greatest game was the stunning Fighting Irish comeback over Ohio State University in 1936.
Kuharich began coaching college football at the University of San Francisco. Among his most prized pupils was Ollie Matson, who would become a Pro Football Hall of Fame running back with the Chicago Cardinals. When Kuharich felt the time was right, he moved up to the NFL himself. He spent six years leading the Washington Redskins, then owned by the controversial George Preston Marshall. The team "boasted" of diminutive Eddie LeBaron , the smallest quarterback in the league. LeBaron had the daunting task of succeeding the legendary QB Sammy Baugh. This and other hardships sent Kuharich's 'Skins to a losing stretch. After six seasons in Washington, Kuharich was fired.
Joe Kuharich returned to the NFL coaching ranks with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1964. The team had gone through an unsteady 1963, and was ready for massive changes. To this end, Eagles' owner Jerry Wolman made Kuharich head coach and general manager. The new "coach for life" would work with two players the Eagles acquired in a trade with Washington: quarterback Norm Snead and defensive back Jimmy Carr. Philadelphia also acquired Ollie Matson from the Detroit Lions. Despite the acquisitions, the Eagles continued to decline. For their fans, already burned by the Philadelphia Phillies blowing a certain World Series berth in 1964, the decade would not get any better.
Kuharich's only winning season with the Eagles came in 1966. That gave the team a date with the Baltimore Colts in the "Playoff Bowl," a postseason exhibition intended to draw fans and help coaches plan for the following season. It was for this Playoff Bowl of January 8 1967 that Kuharich became the first coach to wear a wireless microphone for NFL Films. Portions of his wiring and the Playoff Bowl itself, were used at the end of NFL Films' 1967 special They Call It Pro Football. Later Kuharich agreed to have the Eagles' training camp screen an offbeat NFL Films presentation called The Football Follies. Philadelphia's mediocre team laughed uproariously at the sight of NFL players making mistakes.
The 1968 season would be Kuharich's last. Philadelphia fans' patience had run out as the Eagles seemingly did nothing right, even when it came to doing things wrong. Though the Eagles lost their first eleven games, they still were in a dogfight with the Buffalo Bills for the right to select first in 1969 Draft. All this turned Franklin Field into a bitter home turf. Fans bellowed "Joe Must Go" at each game. When a rumor emerged that someone threatened to shoot Kuharich, plainclothes security ringed the stadium to prevent sniper fire.
It didn't help that Kuharich couldn't get his message across to virtually anybody. He was noted for crossing up expressions, such as "bat on a hill," "fine kennel of fish," and "Now the shoe is on the other side of the table." People forgot that Kuharich devised the 4-3 defense that was beginning to work wonders for Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys.
The nadir period of Eagles football began on Thanksgiving Day 1968, when Sam Baker kicked all the points in the Eagles' 12-0 shutout of Detroit. Fearing this would cost them a chance to draft O.J. Simpson No. 1 overall, vigilante civilians, calling themselves "The Committee to Rejuvenate the Philadelphia Eagles," took action. They urged season-ticket holders to boycott the final home game as a protest to team misfortunes under Kuharich. As might have been expected, Philadelphia's worst fears came true that Sunday, December 8. The Eagles beat the equally-woeful New Orleans Saints in Franklin Field. That win guaranteed the Buffalo Bills (whose bye week came on the season's last Sunday) would get the top draft pick in 1969.
Jerry Wolman sold the Eagles May 1 1969 to millionaire Leonard Tose, ending the Kuharich regime. Tose and Kuharich agreed to a settlement on the final eleven years of the ex-coach's $60,000 annual contract.
Ironically, Kuharich died in Philadelphia January 25 1981, the same day the Eagles lost Super Bowl XV to the Oakland Raiders.