Pro Football Historian (PFH) is a blog page written by Flint Given. Pro Football Historian or PFH is a page to inform people on prior NFL events that people might not know about. Learning about teams from the 1920s or even the first few NFL World Championships in the 1930s fascinates me. It's these kinds of events that I want to discuss in this blog. Hopefully you are interested and will continue to check up on my blogs.
Jackie Ray Slater, nicknamed "Big Bad Jackie", is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle for 20 seasons in the National Football League. He played his entire career with the Rams franchise: 19 seasons in Los Angeles, from 1976 to 1994, and one in St. Louis in 1995. Slater holds the record amongst all offensive linemen who have played the most seasons with one franchise.
A graduate of Jackson State University, he was a teammate of Walter Payton. Drafted in the third round of the 1976 NFL draft, Slater seldom played his first few years before starting in 1979. Known as the most consistent member of one of the most potent offensive lines in NFL history, Slater was selected to seven Pro Bowls and broke a record for most seasons with one team. His jersey number was retired and he was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
Slater was most recently the offensive line coach at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. His son, Matthew Slater, is a former special teams player for the New England Patriots.
Used primarily as a backup and special teams player during his first three seasons, Slater became the starting right tackle in 1979. That year the Rams went to Super Bowl XIV, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 1980, he was part of an offensive line that surrendered just 29 sacks and helped the Rams' offense finish second in the NFL in total yards gained with 6,006.
In 1983, Rams' offensive line allowed a league-low 23 sacks while also blocking for running back Eric Dickerson's rookie rushing record of 1,808 yards. On September 25, Slater took exception to New York Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau, who showboated after beating Slater for a sack, leading to a bench-clearing brawl that saw both players get ejected.
In 1986, Slater was a key blocker for Dickerson as he ran for a playoff record 248 yards and two touchdowns against the Dallas Cowboys in an NFL divisional game.
Slater was considered the most consistent members of one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, which also included Pro Bowlers Kent Hill and Dennis Harrah, and was recognized for his "work ethic and leadership skills" when he was inducted to the Hall of Fame. He retired after the 1995 season when injuries reduced him to playing one game the entire year. He is the only player in league history to play for one single team/franchise in three different cities (Los Angeles 1976–1979, Anaheim 1980–1994, and St. Louis 1995). Due to his longevity, Slater was also teammates with multiple Hall of Famers from multiple Rams eras such as Merlin Olsen, Joe Namath, Eric Dickerson, Jerome Bettis, and Issac Bruce.
He was voted the National Football League Players Association's NFC Offensive Lineman of the Year four times—1983, 1986, 1987, and 1989—and was the Athletes in Action/Bart Starr Award winner after the 1995 season. Slater played in 259 games from 1976 to 1995, a then-record for offensive lineman. He was the second player to play 20 seasons for one team following Cleveland Browns tackle/kicker Lou Groza. This record was later matched by Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell Green, Detroit Lions kicker Jason Hanson, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. He played for 24 quarterbacks and 37 running backs. Former teammate Jim Everett stated "Jackie Slater is proof they were playing football in the prehistoric days". He was Dickerson's Hall of Fame presenter in 1999. In 2001, Slater was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
After his football career ended, Slater worked for an ABC affiliate in Los Angeles. He participated as a guest coach during St. Louis Rams training camps in the early 2000s. On February 16, 2006, Oakland Raiders head coach Art Shell hired him to become offensive line coach alongside Irv Eatman. Slater was hired to mentor Robert Gallery, who was moving to left tackle. Gallery struggled that season and Slater was released by the Raiders for the 2007 season and replaced by Tom Cable. He was most recently the offensive line coach at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California.
Slater's son, Matthew Slater, played college football at UCLA and was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL draft. He was a gunner and special teams captain for the Patriots. The Slaters have 17 Pro Bowl nods between them, making the Slater family the third most-nominated family in history behind the Matthews family (25) and the Manning family (20). Slater and his family live in Orange County, California.
Slater is active with the NFL Play 60 program, which sends NFL players to schools to discuss spending 60 minutes a day to participate in sports activities.
Michael Anthony Munchak is an American former professional football player and coach. After playing college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, Munchak played as a guard for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League, from 1982 until 1993 and was a nine-time selection to the Pro Bowl. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
After his retirement, Munchak continued his association with the Houston franchise by becoming an assistant coach. He joined the staff in 1994 as an offensive assistant and quality control coach and stayed with the franchise after it moved to Tennessee and became known as the Tennessee Titans, eventually becoming its offensive line coach in 1997 and serving in that position for 14 years.
Munchak became the Titans head coach in 2011 but was fired after the 2013 season, ending his 31-year association with the franchise. Munchak then served as offensive line coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers for five years before becoming the offensive line coach for the Denver Broncos until 2021.
During the 1982 NFL draft, Munchak was chosen as the Houston Oilers' first round draft pick (8th overall), making him the first offensive lineman drafted that year. In his rookie season, Munchak quickly earned a starting position at the left guard position. He remained in that position for 12 seasons. During that time, Munchak garnered nine Pro Bowl nominations, twice first-team All-Pro, seven All-AFC, and six second-team All-Pro selections. He was also selected for the 1980s All-Decade Team. Munchak's 12-year tenure tied for the second most seasons played with the Houston Oilers.
In 1994, only a year after retiring as a player, Munchak joined the Houston Oilers staff as an offensive assistant/quality control coach. In 1997 Munchak was named offensive line coach of the newly relocated Tennessee Oilers, a position he held for the next fourteen seasons. Following Jeff Fisher's departure as head coach, Munchak was named head coach of the Titans on February 7, 2011. The 2011 season marked his 30th season with the organization. The 2013 season, Munchak's third as head coach, yielded a record of 7–9. That offseason, franchise CEO Tommy Smith and general manager Ruston Webster requested Munchak to replace at least six assistant coaches. Munchak disagreed with some of these requests and refused to fully enact those changes in his staff. Munchak was consequently relieved of his position on January 4, 2014.
The 2014 season marked the first season since 1982 that Munchak had no involvement (as a player or coach) with the Oilers/Titans franchise. He eventually became the offensive line coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. In a 2015 NFL playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Munchak yanked Bengals player Reggie Nelson's hair, drawing a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Munchak was subsequently issued a $10,000 fine by the NFL for the incident that was later rescinded after it was determined that the incident was inadvertent.
After being a finalist for the Denver Broncos' head coach position, the team hired Munchak to be their offensive line coach on January 14, 2019. Munchak missed the team's Week 8 game in 2020 against the Los Angeles Chargers due to COVID-19 protocols. On February 2, 2022, it was announced that the Broncos would be parting ways with Munchak.
Munchak was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001, along with Nick Buoniconti, Marv Levy, Jackie Slater, Lynn Swann, Ron Yary, and Jack Youngblood.
In June 2003, Munchak was inducted into the National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame.
The street in front of Scranton High School is named for Munchak.
The United Way of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania has a charity golf tournament named after Munchak. Each year, the tournament is held the last week of June at The Country Club of Scranton in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania.
Munchak and his wife, Marci, have two daughters: Alex and Julie.
Marvin Daniel Levy is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the National Football League for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the Buffalo Bills, leading them from 1986 to 1997. Levy's first head coaching position was with the Montreal Alouettes of Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1973 to 1977, where he won two Grey Cup titles.
After five seasons coaching the Kansas City Chiefs, Levy helped the Bills become one of the most dominant American Football Conference (AFC) teams during the 1990s. His greatest success occurred between 1990 and 1993 when he led Buffalo to a record four consecutive Super Bowls, although each game ended in defeat. Levy concluded his head coaching career with 11 playoff victories and four Super Bowl appearances, both of which are the most of head coaches to not win an NFL championship.
After retiring from coaching in 1997, Levy served as the general manager of the Bills from 2006 to 2007. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2021.
Levy was born to a Jewish family in Chicago on August 3, 1925.
In 1943, the day after graduation from South Shore High School in Chicago, Levy enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served as a meteorologist at Apalachicola Army Airfield in Franklin County, Florida, but the war ended before his unit deployed to the Pacific.
Though he was known to use historical examples to inspire his teams, Levy corrected those who used war and combat metaphors to describe football games by telling them that he actually fought in a war and that football, and war were in no way comparable Referring to the Super Bowl, he said "This is not a must-win; World War II was a must-win". Steve Tasker, who played for Levy on the Bills, said "Marv always had a knack for always finding the right thing to say. He wasn't a believer in Knute Rockne, 'Win one for the Gipper' speeches. He didn't like ripping us. But what he said had an effect on us, one way or another. It either got us mad at our opponents or mad at ourselves. Marv was a master psychologist at knowing what buttons to push".
In later years, Levy became a supporter of the World War II Memorial[8] and pushed for World War II veterans to be honored at Super Bowl LIV to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory in the war, noting that fewer than 3% of those who served in the war were still alive in 2020.
Levy was initially recruited to the Wyoming Cowboys football team as a defensive back. The coach who recruited Levy left Wyoming, and Levy was displeased and exhausted by the following coach's round-the-clock training regimen. He transferred to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa following a single semester.
At Coe College, Levy earned varsity letters in football, track, and basketball. He obtained a degree in English literature, was granted membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and was twice voted student council president. He was also a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
He was admitted to Harvard University for graduate studies in 1951, where he earned a Masters of Arts in English history.
Levy's first coaching job was at St. Louis Country Day School, coaching football and basketball; he coached the school's basketball team to a championship.
Two years later, Levy returned to Coe College as an assistant football coach (1953–1954). In his second stint as a head coach, he also won a championship in basketball; future NBA Coach Bill Fitch was one of his players.
In 1954, he joined the coaching staff at the University of New Mexico and was named head coach in 1958. In two seasons as head coach, he guided the Lobos to a 14–6 record and earned Skyline Conference Coach of the Year honors in 1958. He interviewed with the University of California, Berkeley on February 2, 1960, and was announced as the new head coach of the Cal Bears on February 5, 1960. Despite selecting a young Bill Walsh as a coaching assistant, Levy's best record during his four-season tenure as head coach at Cal from 1960 to 1963 was 4–5–1.
He finished his college coaching career with a five-year stint as head coach at the College of William & Mary where he twice earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors. In 1965 his team had the school's first winning record in 12 years.
Levy began his professional football coaching career in 1969 as kicking teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles before joining George Allen's staff as a special teams coach for the Los Angeles Rams in 1970. He followed Allen to Washington, D.C., in 1971, where he served as the Washington Redskins' special teams coach for two seasons.
Levy then served as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League for five seasons. He coached Montreal to three CFL Grey Cup appearances and two championships, and won the Annis Stukus Trophy (Coach of the Year) in 1974.
Levy returned to the NFL in 1978 as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He coached the Chiefs for five seasons with steady improvement each year, but was fired at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 season with a 3–6 record.
Midway through the 1986 season, following a two-year hiatus from coaching and one season as the head coach of the Chicago Blitz of the USFL, Levy returned to the NFL with the Buffalo Bills. Initially hired as a television analyst, Levy replaced Hank Bullough seven games into the regular season as head coach. He finished the season with a 2–5 record. In 1987, his first full season with the Bills, the team returned to respectability with a 7–8 record and were in the playoff hunt throughout most of the season. The following season the team posted a 12–4 record and won the first of six AFC Eastern Division titles. With his high-powered "no-huddle" offense, Levy's Bills went on to lead his AFC championship team to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, the most in league history. Each game ended in defeat, however, tying Levy with Bud Grant and Dan Reeves for the most Super Bowl appearances without a victory.
From 1988 through 1997, the Bills were first in the AFC in winning percentage and second only to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL. Levy, the winningest coach in Bills' history, recorded a 112–70 regular season record and was 11–8 in the playoffs during his eleven seasons with the Bills. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1988 and AFC Coach of the Year in 1988, 1993, and 1995.
Levy retired after the 1997 season, when he felt that it was time to rest, doing so despite the pleas of Wilson to stay. He later stated that he regretted the decision. He later became an analyst for NFL.com. In 2001, Levy was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Along with former Bills' special-teamer Steve Tasker, Levy did local broadcasts for the Bills' pre-season games from 1998 until being appointed the Bills' general manager in 2006. During the regular season he was a part of the Chicago Bears pregame show on ESPN Radio 1000 (WMVP-AM), as well as a Bears postgame show on Comcast SportsNet.
On January 5, 2006, Bills owner Ralph Wilson enlisted Levy, at the age of 80, to act as general manager and vice president of football operations for the Buffalo Bills. Following the resignation of Mike Mularkey, there was initial speculation (created by Levy's own comments at a team press conference) that Levy would resume a coaching role with the team. To eliminate this speculation, and to minimize any future tension between Levy and the Bills' new head coach, team owner Wilson said: "He was hired to be the GM and would never coach the team."
Levy's first order of business was to hire a new coach as a replacement for Mularkey, who resigned within days of Levy's appointment. After a strenuous interview process Levy and team owner Wilson hired Detroit Lions interim head coach Dick Jauron as coach. Jauron had been head coach of the Chicago Bears.
Following the Bills' last game of the 2007 season, Levy decided to step down as general manager of the Bills following the expiration of his two-year contract.
He returned to live in his native Chicago, although he also spent some time in Montreal mentoring then-Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman. Levy stated he would be open to returning to coaching if asked.
In 2009, Levy collaborated with Buffalo football historian Jeffrey J. Miller to write a book entitled Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills Football History.
In August 2011, Levy published a second book, Between the Lies, featuring a team based loosely on the Bills and including a quarterback named "Kelly James" progressing to the Super Bowl against a Los Angeles-based team and its take-no-prisoners head coach, while a scandal erupts, placing the integrity of the game at risk.
A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Levy was among a select few people in attendance at both the 1945 World Series, which he attended while on furlough from the Army Air Forces, and the 2016 World Series.
Levy's fourth book, the children's book Go Cubs Go, is about the 2016 series.
In 2017, he said that he has not paid much attention to professional football in the past several years as of 2017.
In 2020, Levy assisted The Friends of the National World War II Memorial to convince NFL teams—and the league itself—to recognize the 75th anniversary of the war, honoring veterans at Super Bowl LIV in Miami.
In 2021, he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
In 2022, Levy appeared at the Bills' home opener and participated in a pregame crowd warm-up along with Jim Kelly, his former Bills quarterback.
Levy and his wife Mary have a daughter, Kim, and two grandchildren Angela (oldest) and Gregory (youngest). Following the death of Art McNally on January 1, 2023, Levy became the oldest living Pro Football Hall of Fame member.
