That Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank coached and won the two most celebrated pro football games of the last 50 years sets him apart. It's a distinction that is his alone to cherish and treasure for perpetuity.
The Baltimore Colts and Ewbank beat the New York Giants, 23-17, in the first overtime the NFL ever knew in winning the 1958 championship. Then, after being fired in Baltimore, he rebounded in New York and took the Jets to a 16-7 victory over a Colts team that was a 16 1/2 -point favorite in the Jan. 12, 1969, Super Bowl.
Both events delivered historical impact. Ewbank was the maestro. He held the baton, planned the strategy and orchestrated the victories. He had two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, John Unitas in Baltimore and Joe Namath in New York, to work with, and for personal reasons will not put himself in a position of naming which was better.
Ewbank, still bouncing about the country at age 86, is visiting Baltimore for today's Pro Football Legends Golf Classic sponsored by Larry Brown and Unitas for the Kidney Fund. It's a time for him to contemplate the pleasures of the past, which Baltimore offered when he finally got his first coaching job with the pros at the rather advanced age of 47.
He realizes Baltimore is in line for an expansion franchise if the NFL approves, and he gives the city a strong endorsement, while also aware of his own connection with two competing cities, St. Louis and Charlotte, N.C.
It was in St. Louis where he coached Washington University, his only college position, before being hired as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns.
As for Charlotte, the prospective owner there is Jerry Richardson, whom Ewbank drafted on the 13th round for the 1959 season.
"Jerry was a high-type boy and a hard worker," he recalled. "I remember he scored a touchdown in the title game when we beat the Giants for our second straight championship, the game we played in Baltimore."
The most impressive aspect of Ewbank's career as a pro head coach, embracing 20 years, was an ability to organize a squad, from training camp through the regular schedule, and, of course, to evaluate talent. He excelled at both, using the skills to lift two poor teams, the Colts and Jets, to championships.
He first looked at Unitas, who had been discarded in Pittsburgh without even getting so much as a chance to play a single down in an exhibition game, and recognized the potential. He liked Unitas, saw something in him when others didn't.
