One of the more underrated coaches in NFL history is Dick Nolan. As a cornerback in New York, he witnessed firsthand as Tom Landry installed the 4-3 defense that stifled Jim Brown in that epic playoff game in 1958. As an assistant, he learned from the master as Dallas transformed the traditional 4-3 defense into on of the premier units in NFL history, the Flex 4-3. But for all his knowledge, Nolan could never get over the hump as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. This is his story.
The Early Years
Richard Charles "Dick" Nolan was born on March 26, 1932 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After moving to New York as a youth, he excelled as a quarterback at White Plains High School and drew the attention of Jim Tatum at the University of Maryland. Upon his arrival at College Park, Nolan converted to running back/defensive back.
Four year later, he and fellow running backs Chet Hanulak and Ralph Felton led the Terrapins to an undefeated regular season that resulted in a national championship. Oddly, in those days the Associated Press named the best team in the nation BEFORE the bowl games, so even though Maryland lost to Oklahoma 7-0 in the Orange Bowl, they were still considered the national champions. After the season, Dick Nolan was drafted in the fourth round of the 1954 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. He was coming home.
The NFL
The Giants were a team on the rise. Beginning in 1954, defensive back Tom Landry took on the duties of the team's defensive coordinator. Nolan proved to be a quick study in Landry's defense, picking off six passes and recovering two fumbles as a rookie. Two years later, the Giants pummeled the Chicago Bears 47-7 in the NFL championship game.
Enroute to victory, Dick Nolan broke two ribs. Instead of celebrating with his teammates in Manhattan, he was forced to spend a quiet night with his wife in the hospital. However, he did manage to check out early and several of his teammates spent much of the next day searching for him all over New York City, not knowing that he had checked out earlier.
New York needed a new kicker in 1958 and traded Dick Nolan to the Chicago Cardinals for Pat Summerall and Lindon Crow. Perhaps Nolan could have had an impact in the Greatest Game Ever Played, but instead, he sat at home as Summerall's kick in the snow defeated mighty Cleveland to set up their epic matchup with the Baltimore Colts.
His sabbatical in Chicago was short-lived as Landry convinced the Giants front office to trade for him in a cash deal. By the end of the year, Nolan found himself going one-on-one with the Colts running back Lenny Moore in the NFL Championship Game. Aside from a 60 yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, Nolan covered Moore well for much of the afternoon, surrendering just three receptions on 126 yards. The Giants still lost to the Colts 31-16.
After playing two more years, Nolan decided to retire when Tom Landry offered him a job as the defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys. With 23 career interception in hand, Nolan hanged up his cleats and left for Dallas.
Dallas
As one of the youngest teams in the league, Dallas boasted little talent and even less tradition. Everything was still new to the Cowboys, especially winning. But the pieces were slowly coming together. Two staples of the defense were already in Dallas when Nolan arrived as the team had drafted both defensive tackle Bob Lilly and linebacker Chuck Howley in 1961. End George Andrie joined in 1962 (Nolan's first year) and middle linebacker Lee Roy Jordan joined the following year. Before long, the likes of Mel Renfro (1964), Jethro Pugh (1965, 11th round) and Willie Townes (1966) began to form a stifling defense that put the NFL on notice.
By 1966, the Cowboys were enjoying their best season yet. That year, they gave up just 17.1 points per game while strolling to a 10-3-1 record. Every week felt like a personal vendetta against another team that had bullied them since their birth. Finally, the weak had become the strong and were getting their day in the sun.
But the joyride ended in the NFL Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers. After the Cowboys ended 1967 with a brutal loss to the Packers in the Ice Bowl, Nolan was one of the hottest names on the coaching circuit. Meanwhile, a formidable yet directionless team from San Francisco was searching for a coach of its own. Early that offseason, Nolan was hired by the 49ers and finally had a chance to show all that he had learned under Tom Landry.
The 49ers
Normally a new coach gets hired to turn around an abysmal organization. That wasn't the case for Dick Nolan. The 49ers already had their cornerstones in quarterback John Brodie, cornerback Jimmy Johnson and defensive tackle Charlie Krueger and the team had finished at or a game above .500 every year since 1965. Still, they continued to miss the playoffs. What they needed was direction.
Nolan hit the ground running in his first Draft, taking a future stalwart in the middle of the offensive line, center Forrest Blue fifth overall from Auburn University. the 49ers felt that they were on the cusp after finishing 1968 7-6-1, but Nolan hit a sophomore slump the following year due to injuries and suffered through a disappointing 4-8-2 season.
The 1970 season was a special one for San Francisco. After years of striving and falling short of the playoffs, the 49ers tore through their schedule to the tune of 10-3-1 while Brodie shook off years of boo's from his hometown fans to have the best season of his life.
Behind an offensive line that allowed just eight sacks all year, John Brodie led the league with 2,941 yards and 24 touchdowns. Blessed with the splendid one-two punch of running backs Ken Willard and Doug Cunningham as well as second-year receiver Gene Washington's league leading 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns, it was no surprise that Brodie earned the league's MVP award.
The 49ers traveled to Minnesota where they beat the defending NFL champion Vikings 17-14 for their first ever playoff victory before traveling back to San Francisco to host one last game at the historic Kezar Stadium. Standing in Dick Nolan's path to the Super Bowl was none other than his lifelong mentor: Tom Landry.
It was a tale of two halves as the 49ers and Cowboys traded field goals to go into halftime tied at 3-3. Both coaches knew each other so well and had designed their defenses as practically mirror images of one another. Someone had to blink first.
The 49ers let the game get away from them in the third quarter as the Cowboys bulled their way to two unanswered touchdowns to take a commanding 14-point lead. San Francisco refused to give up as John Brodie found rarely used receiver Dick Witcher for a 26-yard touchdown reception to cut the lead in half just before the end of the third quarter. The two teams battled each other to a stalemate in the fourth quarter and the 49ers closed Kezar Stadium in the worst way possible: as losers.
There was one noticeable subtraction to the staff as the 49ers transitioned into windy Candlestick Park heading into the 1971 season: offensive coordinator Ed Hughes. Having played with the high-flying Rams in the mid-1950's, he had been by Nolan's side as either a teammate or colleague since joining the Giants in 1956.
Like Nolan, he too was well versed in the complexities of the 4-3 defense that was now gaining traction in the NFL. In fact, when he became the offensive coordinator for San Francisco in 1968, it was his first foray on that side of the ball. However, unlike Nolan and Landry before him, Hughes's time as the head coach of the Houston Oilers lasted just one year, a lackluster 4-9-1 campaign in 1971.
Without Hughes directing the offense, John Brodie's numbers dwindled to just 18 touchdowns against 24 interceptions. Still, the 49ers were a complete team, entrenched with one of the better defensive lines in the league. Dubbed "the Gold Rush", Charlie Krueger, Roland Lakes, Tommy Hart and Cedrick Hardman made life miserable for opposing quarterbacks while allowing defensive back Jimmy Johnson to roam free in the backfield, picking off passes with ease. That year, the defense ranked seventh and ninth respectively in passing and rushing yards allowed while the rest of the team gained traction in a very tight NFC West race. The 49ers ultimately prevailed, beating out the Rams by half a game
On December 26, 1971, the 49ers hosted the first of 27 playoff games at Candlestick Park against George Allen's Washington Redskins. The 49ers battled back from a 10-3 halftime deficit as Brodie found Gene Washington for a riveting 78-yard touchdown to open up the third quarter and found Bob Windsor in the end zone for a two-yard score shortly thereafter. Bob Hoskins essentially sealed the 24-20 win for the 49ers after falling on a fumbled punt in the end zone.
Again, their joyride ended the following week against the dreaded Cowboys, only this time the 14-3 defeat happened in the newly-built Texas Stadium. Their Dallas woes continued the next year at Candlestick Park. Up by 15 in the middle of the fourth quarter, the 49ers could practically smell their third straight NFC Championship Game appearance.
But Captain Comeback had other ideas. Sidelined for much of the year due to a bum shoulder, Roger Staubach replaced Craig Morton at just the right time, leading his team to a resounding 30-28 victory that sucked the wind out of the 49ers franchise. The 49ers didn't know it, but their championship window was closed.
Later Career and Life
No matter how talented, all teams go through an aging process. And it's never pleasant. As 1973 turned to 1974 and 1974 to 1975, San Francisco experienced this in aplomb. Stalwarts such as John Brodie and Charlie Krueger dropped off the landscape a their bodies could no longer hold up in the increasingly violent world of the NFL. As the aging vets retired and the injuries piled up, the 49ers' record slipped further and further down the rabbit hole. After finishing 1975 with a disappointing 5-9 finish, Dick Nolan was fired.
He didn't remain unemployed for long. With his mind still sharp, Nolan was a hot option for needy teams as a defensive coordinator. The New Orleans Saints scooped him up and he spent the 1976 and 19977 seasons watching as future Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram fumbled his way through the Saint's historic mediocrity.
By 1978, owner John Mecom had had enough, at once firing Stram and replacing him with Nolan. The Saints immediately improved, going 7-9 in Nolan's first year at the helm as quarterback Archie Manning made his first Pro Bowl. Having drafted receiver Wes Chandler third overall that year, the Saints organization swooned over the gifted youngster as he gained over 1,000 yards in 1979 while joining four other Saints in the Pro Bowl.
The 1979 Saints had a bit of a rollercoaster year. After beginning the year 0-3, they stormed back to within earshot of the playoffs. But alas, it was not to be as their defense proved to be a sieve in losses against the potent offenses of the Raiders (42-35) and the Chargers (35-0) in the third and second to last games of the season. Ultimately, it was those two losses that cost the Saints their first playoff spot and a 29-14 pummeling of the rival Rams proved to be too little, too late in a very tight race for the NFC West crown.
Much was expected of the Saints in 1980, but they quickly fell back to earth and then through its core as they began the year 0-14. Dick Nolan was spared the embarrassment of coaching an 0-14 team as he was fired after the team's 12th consecutive loss. He sat and watched at home as his players finished the year 1-15.
After a year spent leading the Oilers' defense, Tom Landry called again and lassoed Nolan back to Dallas where he would spend his last effective years as an NFL coach. He was respected well enough to retain his job after Jerry Jones bought the team and fired Landry in 1989 and watched as Jimmy Johnson began to build the long woebegone Cowboys into a contender. In many ways, it reminded Nolan of the Cowboy's earliest days in the NLF when Landry worked round the clock building his team into a force to be reckoned with.
He left Dallas after 1990 and spent the next two years with the Denver Broncos (defensive line) and the AFL's San Antonio Force (head coach) before retiring from the profession. Dick Nolan spent his golden years watching his son, Mike, embark on a coaching journey of his own.
By the time Dick passed away on November 11, 2007 from dementia, Mike was in his third year as the 49ers head coach. Long known for his wardrobe on the sidelines, in a tribute to his father, Mike wore a suit on the sidelines during the next game. With Mike's son, Chris, now working as a college scout for the New York Jets, three generations of Nolan men have worked in the NFL. None of it would have been possible without the quiet determination of their patriarch.
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