With Nate McMillen taking over the Sonics, and Robiskie taking the Redskins’ reigns, I began to wonder, who has had the most successfull season when he replaced another coach midseason?
You would need to define the sport first. In baseball, there have been a few managers who took over in midseason and led their teams to a World Series. The last one to win it all was Bob Lemon of the Yankees in 1978. I think in baseball there have been a lot of midseason replacements who have gotten their teams to the postseason, but I don’t which besides Lemon’s Yankees won it all.
Pat Riley replaced Paul Westhead as coach of the Lakers one year and the Lakers went on to the NBA championship that year (I can’t remember which year.)
Larry Robinson took over the head coaching job of the New Jersey Devils with just a couple of weeks left in the regular season and his team went on to win the Stanley Cup last spring.
Technically, none of these coaches were interim coaches. I think all three were named as permanent replacements for coaches/managers who were fired.
Steve Fisher took over the Michigan basketball team at the end of the 1989 season, and won the whole nut. That was pretty good, IMHO.