Head Coach in professional sports who never was an active athlete himself?

The Game Room
1

Many athletes who have had very undistinguished active playing careers move on to become successful coaches in their sports on the highest level.

Up until recently, there was a team manager in the highest division of professional soccer in Germany who himself had only played on the lowest level of organized amateur competition (were more often than not players don’t bother to show up for practise on a regular basis).

What if you take that notion to the extreme: Is it all conceivable that an individual who has never played, let’s say, American Football, even on a high school team, becomes the head coach of an NFL team?

I can only recall one such case: Many years ago, there was a US(?) hockey coach who had never been an active hockey player himself.

2

Well, he did play at youth level so it doesn’t quite count, but it’s still noteworthy that Jose Mourinho never played professionally (for non-fans, he’s arguably the world’s top soccer coach, currently at Real Madrid). He went straight into coaching from school.
Edit: hmm, having checked a bit more carefully, it seems he did have a brief, unsuccessful professional career.

3

It doesn’t *quite *meet the OP’s restrictions, but to consider Lou Holtz’s stint at Kent State as a 125 pound linebacker to be anything close to resembling an effective football player would be an insult to 130 pound weaklings everywhere.

4

Moved from GQ to the Game Room.

samclem

5

I’m pretty sure that current St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock never played hockey, at least not Junior A, or higher.

6

Jose Mourinho was the first person to come to mind for me.

7

Mike Leach was a successful coach in US college football before being fired due to a scandal. He didn’t play at the college level, but apparently was a backup on his high school football team.

8

Ted Turner was officially the manager of the Atlanta Braves briefly.

9

I can’t remember his name, but I recently saw an article about a young (Portuguese?) soccer coach spending some time with one of Spain’s biggest - the young coach has a thalidomide-syndrome-like birth defect which makes it impossible for him to play, but apparently he’s a good coach. Not at the top of the game - but young enough and good enough that this may carry a “yet”. Stranger things you will see, my friend Sancho…
Not what the OP asks about, but Vicente del Bosque (currently coach of the Spanish National Team) had played professionally and at the international level; at one point, Real Madrid fired its coach and put him in place as a “filler”: he had no previous coaching experience. Another “fill in” stint, then to coach one of the junior teams, then he was the first team’s coach for several years and now he coaches the Furia. Not exactly what one would think of as a “standard career path”: if you’d told him in 1994 that he’d eventually coach the Furia he would have burst out laughing. Soccer has as many improbable stories as tales of people with perfectly logical careers.

10

Charlie Weis was the head coach of Notre Dame and now Kansas. He never played college ball - I’m not sure about high school.

11

Gérard Houllier, former manager of the French national side, and Liverpool FC, never played professionally.

12

Carlos Tosca managed the Toronto Blue Jays never having played professional baseball. I think he’s a coach for the Braves now.

13

Rick Majerus couldn’t cut it as a basketball player but has done pretty well as a coach.

14

Ken Hitchcock. Stanley Cup winning coach, never played organized hockey.

15

There are NFL coaches who never played pro football; Weeb Eubank and Bill Parcells even won Super Bowls without any pro experience. Both did play a bit in college, though.

16

Todd Haley, former Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs (currently offensive coordinator for the Steelers) never played a lick of football. Started in the scouting department of the Jets where his father was Director of Player Personnel, and worked his way up.

I don’t think Al Davis was ever a player either.

17

Why should it be surprising that a coach was never a college or even high school jock himself?

Remember something: for most young males with an interest in sports, coaching is Plan B!

What I mean is, there are millions of little boys who dream of playing shortstop for the Yankees or pitching for the Dodgers. But there has probably NEVER been an 8 year old boy who dreamed of being manager of the Yankees or pitching coach of the Dodgers.

Millions of 8 year old boys fantasize about being LeBron James- no 8 year old boy dreams of being Stan Van Gundy or Mike Kryszewski.

Millions of little boys have Tom Brady or Eli Manning posters on their walls. Seen any kids with Nick Saban or Tom Coughlin posters?

Point is, little boys dream of being ATHLETES, not coaches. When do they START to think about becoming coaches? Whenever they start playing in a league where they’re just not very good. The sooner a kid realizes, “These other guys are just waaaay better than me, and I’ll never be good enough to compete with them,” the sooner they’ll turn to Plan B, and think about coaching.

Here’s an illustration of what I mean: Dan Fouts and Norv Turner are the same age. They were both star quarterbacks in high school. They both received scholarships to play at the University of Oregon. After that, their paths diverged drastically. Fouts was a GREAT quarterback, and went on to become a star in the NFL. Turner figured out that he’d never be good enough to start at Oregon, let alone in the NFL, so he started working his way up as a coach. He served as an assistant at a few colleges, then became a receivers coach for the Rams, gradually getting an offensive coordinator job with the Cowboys.

Now… is Dan Fouts SMART enough to be a pro football coach? SURE, he is… but by the time he retired, in his late thirties, Norv Turner had already put in years as a coach and gained valuable experience. VERY few pro teams will give a head coaching to a man without years of experience. Is a longtime star likely to spend years doing the grunt work of an assistant coach or minor league coach, just to get the experience?

Well, a FEW Hall of Famers have done so (Ryne Sandberg comes to mind), but as a rule, stars are NOT going to stoop that low. Hence, most coaches and managers are guys who gave up all hope at playing sports themselves a LONG time ago.

18

I don’t think Jacques Martin has ever played any professional hockey - he was a high school French teacher who coached the local junior team (and then moved to another team in Guelph and won a Memorial Cup) before moving up to the NHL and coaching the St. Louis Blues.

Likewise, I don’t think Jacques Demersplayed pro hockey at any level - at least his wikipedia article doesn’t say. Amazingly enough, he had a 20 year NHL coaching career, won a Stanley Cup, had a reasonably successful hockey analyst career on TV and became a Canadian Senator (fluently bilingual) all while being functionally illiterate.

19

You’ve somehow skipped over the important part of the question. Somewhere in there, you started equating “played in high school” with “superstar athlete”.

The question isn’t “are there any coaches who were not superstar athletes” it is “are there any coaches who NEVER played”.

20

Jeff and Stan Van Gundy. They were the son of a college basketball coach and both started off trying to be coaches. It may be possible but I don’t even see any mention of playing in high school. Lets be kind and say neither have the build to be a successful basketball player.