LOS ANGELES, Calif.----- Dick Vermeil was a "fiery and capable. Fine leader, good passer and runner. …" when the 5-foot-10, 170-pound junior from Napa Junior College in Calistoga, Calif., joined the 1956 San Jose State football team as one of four Spartan quarterbacks. At San Jose State in 1956 and 1957, Vermeil enhanced his competitive fire and sharpened his leadership traits with an eye on coaching football.
In a 15-season professional football head coaching career canvassing parts of four decades, Vermeil was a turnaround specialist. Three times, he took over franchises either in disarray, disillusioned, dysfunctional, or dumbfounded by years of losing. Each time, through the Vermeil definition of hard work, developing and acquiring talented players, and family values, the Philadelphia Eagles, the St. Louis Rams, and the Kansas Chiefs put years of losing in the rearview mirror and marveled in the accolades of winning football.
As one of the most effective turnaround specialists in league history, Vermeil's individual reward will be a trip to Canton, Ohio, this summer for the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Vermeil becomes the 27th head coach to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and joins fellow San Jose State alum Bill Walsh (1931-2007), a 1993 inductee.
The only coach to reach the finalist stage in the multi-layered voting process in 2022, he gained induction in his second year as a finalist. Vermeil was a 2020 finalist, but did not get the ultimate call to join the Hall that year.
"…It's humbling. I'm very grateful for all the coaches who helped make me a better coach than I really was," Vermeil said about becoming a finalist for the first time. He coached 10 players as a head coach who are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and five more during his four seasons over two tenures in the early 1970's with the Los Angeles Rams.
TURNAROUND #1 – PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: BOOS TURN TO CHEERS
Vermeil's first NFL head coaching job was with Philadelphia beginning in 1976. Eagle fans were known nationally as boo-birds reenforcing nine consecutive seasons failing to finish above .500 and churning through three head coaches like soft butter. His first season wasn't much better with a 4-10 record, but by year three the Eagles did something foreign to the franchise since 1960 when Philadelphia was the NFL champion – compete in a post season. The Eagles would qualify for the NFL postseason four consecutive seasons with Vermeil at the helm, the only time in the 20th century the franchise sustained consistent success.
The high-water mark for Philadelphia, Eagles fans, and Vermeil was in 1981 representing the National Football Conference in Super Bowl XV against the Oakland Raiders. The game would mark Vermeil and Raiders' head coach Tom Flores crossing paths again from their playing days at San Jose State and College of the Pacific, respectively, to the NFL's biggest game of the season.
TURNAROUND #2 – ST. LOUIS RAMS' "THE GREATEST SHOW ON TURF": SUPER BOWL XXXIV CHAMPION
Vermeil stepped away from coaching after the 1982 season with the Eagles for work as a network television college football analyst until the St. Louis Rams lured him back to pro football in 1997. St. Louis football fans experienced only three playoff appearances in 28 years before the Cardinals relocated to Arizona in 1988. After the Los Angeles Rams bolted for St. Louis in 1995, there were two more losing seasons before Vermeil's arrival.
Like his job with the Eagles, it was Vermeil's third season as the head coach for the turnaround to fully manifest itself. The culmination of years of St. Louis football frustration was a Super Bowl XXXIV triumph by the team known "The Greatest Show on Turf" for its record-setting seasons of offensive prowess.
TURNAROUND #3 – KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: DO IT FOR ME ONE MORE TIME
Onn top of the pro football world after tasting Super Bowl success, Vermeil stepped away a second time only to return in 2001 when friend and long-time NFL executive Carl Peterson lured him across the "Show Me State" of Missouri to the Kansas City Chiefs.
And, he showed the pro football world a third time. As with the Eagles, and the Rams, it was Vermeil's third season with Kansas City that the Chiefs had their first season of 10 or more wins and qualified for the playoffs since 1997. Vermeil would lead Kansas City to one more 10-win season in 2005 to conclude his NFL head coaching career at age 69.
COACHING IN THE NFL AT AGE 33 & A ROSE BOWL WIN
The fire, passion, leadership, will to win, and identifying ways to win would attract then Los Angeles Rams head coach George Allen, the architect of the Rams' "Over the Hill Gang" 50-plus years ago to appoint Vermeil, younger than some of the team's grizzled veterans, as one of the National Football League's (NFL) first special teams coaches in 1969 after climbing the coaching ladder from high school to junior college to college.
Before becoming a NFL head coach in 1976 with the Philadelphia Eagles, there were three seasons at UCLA, 1970 as the offensive coordinator and the 1974 and 1975 seasons as head coach capped by leading the Bruins to a 1976 Rose Bowl victory over Ohio State and three more seasons as a Rams assistant coach (1971-73).
Combining the Rams' Super Bowl XXXIV victory on January 30, 2000, Vermeil became the first head coach to coach teams to a Rose Bowl and a Super Bowl victory. Pete Carroll would accomplish the same feat in 2013 when Seattle won Super Bowl XLVIII.
THE CONNECTIONS TO TOM FLORES
When Oakland and Philadelphia met in Super Bowl XV, it was the first time two quarterbacks who faced each other in a college game coached against each other in a Super Bowl. Flores, a 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist like Vermeil, was named to the Hall of Fame in 2021.
THE PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2022
• Tony Boselli, offensive tackle, Jacksonville Jaguars
• Cliff Branch, wide receiver, Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Raiders
• Leroy Butler, defensive back, Green Bay Packers
• Art McNally, referee
• Sam Mills, linebacker, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers
• Richard Seymour, defensive line, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders
• Dick Vermeil, head coach (Philadelphia Eagles, St.. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs)
• Bryant Young, defensive line, San Francisco 49ers; San Jose State defensive line coach in 2010
DICK VERMEIL'S PREVIOUS ACCOLADES INCLUDE
| San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame |
| San Jose State University Sports Hall of Fame Legend |
| San Jose State University CEFCU Stadium Ring of Honor |
| Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year – 1999 |
| Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year – 1979, 1999 |
| The Sporting News Coach of the Year – 1979, 1999 |
| The Maxwell Club of Philadelphia Coach of the Year – 1999, 2003 |
| California Sports Hall of Fame – 2011 |
| Missouri Sports Hall of Fame – 2001 |
| Pacific 8 Conference Coach of the Year – 1975 |
| Rose Bowl Hall of Fame - 2014 |
| Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame - 1994 |
| St. Louis Football Ring of Honor - 2008 |