It can include any era, sport, or division. I'll go first:
Bear Bryant
Vince Lombardi
Nick Saban
Bill Belichick
Bill Parcells
Marv Levy
John Wooden
Don Shula
Tom Coughlin (the homer in me)
Wooden
Dean Smith
John McKay
Phil Jackson
Aurbach
Bowden
Matthew Driscoll (SWWOOOOOOPPPPP!)
Chuck Noll (aka Chas "The Emperor" Noll)
Johnny Majors - Pitt Football
Cael Sanderson - Penn State Wrestling (too good to hate)
Al McGuire - Marquette Hoops
Denny Crum
Coach K
Coach Zieger (my HS hoops coach)
I'll mention some of my favorites that haven't been brought up yet in this thread:
Joe Gibbs
Bud Grant ( from standpoint of respect of a coach of an opposition team.)
Dick MacPherson ( classiest person I've ever met in the coaching world )
Tom Osborne
Scotty Bowman
Sparky Anderson
Red Holzman
Lou Carnesecca
Quote:Gregg Popovich
This
and George Seifert
Players not coaches. Just thought that needed to be said :thumbsup:
Wooden
Phil Jackson
Shula
Landry
Madden
^ The only ones I really know enough about (and still respect) to put on such a list.
John Wooden - Took the time and effort to educate himself about the new Generation and try to better understand who he was teaching rather than just focus on what he was teaching.
John Gagliardi - The winningest College football coach and did it with the philosophy of "Winning with No's". The only time he turned down someone who wanted to play for him was if he didn't have the gear for them. And he went out and won 489 football games.
Pete Carroll - Carroll was one of the first coaches to take the approach of letting the players have a say in the operation of the team, to an extent. His method promotes ownership, competing, and a constant urge to improve. I used to not think a lot about the guy, but I have grown to appreciate him.
Bob LaDoceur - This is the former Head Coach and current Assistant Offensive Line Coach of the De LaSalle High School football team. The man strung together a 151 game winning streak that spanned 12 seasons, and he did it with a focus on developing the players as people.
I'm sure I can come up with a few more, but these are the top of the heap in my book.
Dan Gable, Hayden Fry, Kirk Ferentz...sensing a trend here :teehee:
Phil Jackson is up there, as is Gregg Popovich.
I loved all that is Bobby Knight.
Wooden of course.
Dean Smith
Bobby Cox
Joe Torre
Vince Lombardi
Tom Coughlin
Bill Walsh
Freddie Shero
Casey Stengel
Tony LaRussa
Phil Jackson
Billy Martin
Dick Vermeil
Jack Ramsay
Quote:Dan Gable, Hayden Fry, Kirk Ferentz...sensing a trend here :teehee:
You forgot Coach of the Year Zak Katz
Quote:[BAD WORD REMOVED] Vermeil
Always loved Jim Leyland.
I know people hate him, but I like Rex Ryan. He's a big mouth, but seems genuine.
Coach K
John Wooden
Jim Leyland
Sparky Anderson
Bobby Cox
Casey Stengal
Vince Lombardi
Chuck Tanner
Phil Jackson
John Thompson
Chuck Noll
Tom Coughlin
Chris Petersen
Mark Dantonio
Frank Beamer
Pete Carroll
All-time favorite coach: Jerry Sloan
The rest are in no particular order:
Tom Landry
John Thompson
Tom Coughlin
Bobby Bowden
Vince Lombardi
Dean Smith
Vince Lombardi
Bill Parcells
Bill Belichick
Joe Gibbs
Don Shula
Tom Coughlin
Quote:[BAD WORD REMOVED] MacPherson ( classiest person I've ever met in the coaching world )
Does no one else see the irony in this?