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ESKIMOS PAST: FRANK "POP" IVY: LEGENDS NEVER DIE
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By
TED SOUTAR
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FRANK "POP" IVY
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COACH, EDMONTON
ESKIMOS, 1954-57
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Sunday,
May 25, 2003
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They
say that legends never die. Well, one died last Saturday, but in an
age when many people can't recite the current lineup without a program, it's
hard to think back to a time when players -- and coaches -- were looked on
as gods by hometown fans in the CFL. It was a time when leather
helmets were the norm. It was arguably the most innovative time for
the game of football, and spawned one of the most innovative men among a
cluster of them to ever come along.
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It
spawned a legend.
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Former
Edmonton coach Frank (Pop) Ivy, the American
football import who led the Edmonton Eskimos to three consecutive Grey Cup
championships in the 1950s, passed away Saturday, May 17 in Norman, Okla.
He was 87.
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Ivy
was Arizona Cardinal Hall of Famer Larry Wilson’s
first head coach in 1960. Wilson
reflects on his former mentor, saying, “Frank
was an outstanding offensive mind. He was the first coach I knew
to run a double-wing formation. I appreciated him as a coach and
person. He was a hard-nosed guy, which I liked."
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Born
January 25, 1916, Mr. Ivy began his playing career at the University of Oklahoma,
playing defensive end from 1937-39 where he was named all-American in
1939. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NFL and played
four games with them in 1940 before being traded in mid-October to the
Chicago Cardinals, where he was a two-way end for six seasons from
1940-47. Nicknamed "Pop" because of his premature baldness,
Ivy took a 2˝-year break to serve in the Army infantry in Europe
during World War II. After the war he played another three seasons,
winning the 1947 NFL title. His best years as a player were in 1942 --
when he was second in the NFL with 27 catches for 259 yards, and 1947, when
the Cardinals won their only NFL title.
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The
following year, he returned to his alma mater to spend six years as an
assistant coach. Under legendary coach Bud Wilkinson, Ivy helped the Sooners to an undefeated season and a national
championship in 1950. Other future Eskimos on that team included the
first man to win the Schenley Award for Most
Outstanding Player, future Heisman Trophy winner
(1952) Billy Vessels, and Claude Arnold.
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In
1954, the Edmonton Eskimos hired Mr. Ivy as their head coach and he led the
club to a string of three consecutive Grey Cup championships from 1954-56,
all against Douglas "Peahead" Walker
and the Montreal Alouettes. He stayed on through 1957 -- compiling a
CFL coaching record of 50 wins and 14 losses. He was renowned as an
offensive innovator, spreading the field with double-wing and
triple-flanker formations, and coming up with the "lonesome
quarterback" set, a forerunner of the shotgun.
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Many
people mistakenly believe Ivy was the innovator of the "Split-T"
formation. At the time, most teams used a straight T-formation,
whereby offensive linemen would crouch shoulder to shoulder. The
Split-T called for the linemen to line up spaced about four feet apart,
thus forcing the defensive line to space themselves accordingly.
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In
actual fact, another University of Oklahoma alumnus, Darrel Royal -- a former
assistant under Sooners coach Bud Wilkinson, who
installed the Split-T offense at Oklahoma
-- introduced it to the Canadian game. (Wilkinson learned the
innovative option offense from its inventor, Don Faurot,
while an assistant at Iowa Pre-Flight. He refined the offense with
principles of the Single Wing offense he had learned as a player in the
mid-1930s. He also added his own tweaking with a no-huddle approach
known as the "Go-Go." This dangerous offense, taught to
perfection by Wilkinson, would dominate NCAA football for a decade. The
Sooners compiled a record of 93 wins, 10 losses,
and 2 ties. They set a NCAA record with 47 consecutive wins, and would
go undefeated in Conference play until 1959. At the end of the 1950's
Wilkinson's overall record would stand at an amazing 121-13-3! Better
than a 91% average!)
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But back
to Ivy. It has been argued that he inherited the talent that would
bring him such success. Partly true. The team had benefited from
one season under Darrel Royal's new system, to be sure. However, in
order to be most effective, the Split-T still needed a quarterback.
That quarterback would be one of Ivy's best finds: University of Maryland
All-American Bernie Faloney.
Besides his strong arm, Faloney was able to utilize
a whole phalanx of brilliantly executed fakes to perfection.
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Not
unlike Tom Higgins today, Ivy had another problem every coach dreams of: he
had two superb fullbacks, both acquired from Calgary. One was Normie
Kwong, the "China Clipper". The
other was Drake University All-American Johnny Bright. Both men were
the Thomas Haskins and Mike Pringle, respectively of their day. Ivy's
solution to this "problem" was, rather than cut one of them, he
found a way to play them both. Thus was born the twin-fullback
formation. With halfbacks Rollie Miles and
Jackie Parker running sweeps, counter plays and pass routes, Kwong and Bright would take turns over the next five
years leading the league in rushing yards.
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"Nobody could stop it,'' said former Eskimo Bob
Dean. "It set the league on fire. And he came up with a
new defence that nobody had ever seen before
either. Pop Ivy revolutionised Canadian
football."
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Kwong said initially no one would have dreamed that some
football genius was taking over the team that Darryl Royal had coached the
year before.
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"First impressions were that he wasn't a very bright
coach,'' said Kwong. "But after you worked with him ...
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"The quick snap was his idea. The short
kickoff. I can't remember half of them. Every Canadian rule you
could take advantage of, Pop Ivy took advantage of. More than his
record and anything else, Pop should be remembered as a major, major
innovator in Canadian football.''
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"When we got Johnny Bright from Calgary that first year, he was pretty
banged up. I was the main fullback. But the next year Johnny was
his old self and Pop had come in as coach ...''
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The
rest, as they say, is history.
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Ivy may
have meant the most to Quarterback Don Getty.
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"When I came in as a rookie in 1955, the Eskimos had
already won a Grey Cup the year before. Pop promised he'd give me a
shot at quarterback, not defensive back. And he did. He was good
to his word. He watched me and told me, 'I've never had a college
quarterback throw like that. You can throw as good as the guys in the
NFL.' That did amazing things for my confidence.
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"When the season started he kept just Jackie and me and
didn't hesitate to switch. Jackie got sick and I started and won a game
in Regina.
He didn't send in a play.''
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In 1956,
Ivy, ever the wily innovator, experimented yet again. He elevated
Western Mustang alumnus Getty to quarterback for the Western Final and the
Grey Cup game, moving Jackie Parker to halfback. In the two most
important games of the season, Getty responded on the scoreboard, as the Esks first beat Saskatchewan
51-7 in the third game of the Western Finals -- then a best-of-three affair
-- and then Montreal
50-27 in the Grey Cup game.
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"Pop put in a new timing offence in three days before the
1956 Grey Cup game. It blew them out,'' he said of the 50-27 win over Montreal.
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"I think we set a record for number of plays. He
played me at quarterback so he could use Jackie Parker at halfback with Rollie Miles. He put in triple lateral plays for
them.''
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It
wasn't just about X's and O's with Ivy.
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"When we beat Regina
to get to that Grey Cup, Pop sensed guys were getting satisfied. We
were in London,
Ont., preparing for that Grey Cup and I think Pop read his team. I
think it was a big reason he put in all that new stuff. He gave us
something to concentrate on, something to work on.''
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"He was a coach who had the confidence in himself and
enough confidence in me to let a Canadian kid play quarterback,'' said Getty.
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"I loved him.''
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"Pop Ivy started the Eskimo tradition that exists
today. That team won three straight Grey Cups because of Pop Ivy.
He established a sense of class about the Eskimos a level above everybody
else in the league, which exists to this day.''
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Former
player (and later assistant coach) under Ivy, Eagle Keys had this to say
about his former mentor:
"You
have to look at his success in terms of the time. When he coached in Edmonton he had one
assistant coach, so he had to know both offence and defence.
He had to coach, not just delegate to a pile of assistants. There was
no exchange of film and no playbooks. He did it on the
blackboard. He got along well with his players. He was a great
coach."
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And this
from Jackie Parker:
"Pop
Ivy was largely responsible for me being however good it was that I turned
out to be. He was a great football coach. He meant a lot to me.''
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Ivy
returned to Chicago in 1958, spending four seasons as head coach of the NFL
Cardinals before moving on to the Houston Oilers of the American Football
League. Ivy was 17-31-2 with the Cardinals during that four-year
period in which the franchise relocated in St. Louis. He coached the Houston
Oilers of the AFL from 1962-63, posting a 17-12 record, and leading the
1962 Oilers to an 11-3 record before losing the AFL Championship 17-14 in
double overtime to the Dallas Texans.
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He
later worked as an assistant coach and scout with the New York Giants
before retiring in 1984. He finished his coaching career with a 82-56 record over nine seasons.
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Frank
Ivy is the only man to serve as head coach in the NFL, AFL and CFL.
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Long
live the legend.
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STATS & RECORDS:
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Height:
6' 3"
Weight: 208 lbs
Born: January 25th,
1916
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PLAYING STATS:
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RECEIVING
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RUSHING
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SEASON
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TEAM(S)
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GP
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REC
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YDS
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AVG
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TD
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RUSH
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YDS
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AVG
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TD
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TOTAL POINTS
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1940
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Pittspurgh Pirates
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4
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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Chicago Cardinals
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5
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2
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32
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16.0
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0
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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1941
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Chicago Cardinals
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11
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20
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183
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9.2
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0
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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12
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1942
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Chicago Cardinals
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11
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27
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259
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9.6
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0
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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2
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1945
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Chicago Cardinals
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3
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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1946
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Chicago Cardinals
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11
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4
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39
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9.8
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1
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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6
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1947
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Chicago Cardinals
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12
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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0
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TOTAL
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57
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53
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513
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9.7
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1
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0
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0
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0.0
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0
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20
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OTHER STATS:
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SEASON
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TEAM(S)
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OTHER STATS
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1941
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Chicago Cardinals
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INT:
1/20yds, 1 TD
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1945
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Chicago Cardinals
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INT:
1/0yds
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1946
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Chicago Cardinals
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INT:
1/22yds
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1947
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Chicago Cardinals
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FG: 0/1
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CFL/NFL/AFL Coaching Record:
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REGULAR SEASON:
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POST SEASON:
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SEASON
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TEAM
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RECORD
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FINISH
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RECORD
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FINISH
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1954
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Edmonton Eskimos
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11-5-0
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1st
Western Conference
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4-1
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Won
Grey Cup
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1955
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Edmonton Eskimos
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14-2-0
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1st
Western Conference
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3-0
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Won
Grey Cup
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1956
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Edmonton Eskimos
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11-5-0
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1st
Western Conference
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3-1
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Won
Grey Cup
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1957
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Edmonton Eskimos
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14-2-0
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1st
Western Conference
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1-2
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Lost
Western Final
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1958
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Chicago Cardinals
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2-9-1
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T-5th NFL East
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---
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1959
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Chicago Cardinals
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2-10-0
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6th NFL East
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---
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1960
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St. Louis Cardinals
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6-5-1
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4th NFL East
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---
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1961
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St. Louis Cardinals
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5-7-0
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4th NFL East
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---
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1962
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Houston Oilers
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11-3-0
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1st
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0-1
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Lost League Championship
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1963
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Houston Oilers
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6-8-0
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3rd
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---
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---
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CFL CAREER
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50-14-0
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11-4
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NFL/AFL CAREER
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32-42-2
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0-1
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TOTAL:
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82-56-2
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12-5
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GREY CUP WINNER: 1954 1955 1956
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