Discussion: 50 Greatest Coaches All Time

According to the Urban Dictionary, the phrase "smh" (which means "shake my head") is the African-American equivalent of "Facepalm?"

This thread is not long for this world.

Bo was better than Woody, imho.

And I don't know what would be appropriate for Coach K, but nice not to see him in top 10.  

Joe McCarthy and John Madden should be higher.  LaRussa, Belichick and Switzer lower.

What Ace Williams is to Michigan sports reporters Bleacher Report is to sports websites.

With the Ditka jokes aside, he coached all those years and won one super bowl. With that logic, you can put Brian Billick and Jon Gruden at 37 too (which would be still be absurd). I'm not saying Ditka wasn't a good coach, but he is way too high on that list considering the list is about all sports.

Ditka and Lenny Wilkens stand out to me as guys who don't belong on the list anywhere.

I'd have a lot of questions about Switzer as a coach (vs. recruiter, though I'm willing to be convicend otherise).  

Popovich, however, is an inspired choice that I think lots of people (certainly me) wouldn't have thought about.

I'd think Auerbach may be too low.

I'd add them and move Bobby Knight up. There's also a name that I think would have been on this list a year ago. Where would Paterno rank?

I don't understand Dean Smith being that high.  He was good and consistent, but I don't see what sets him apart from Bobby Knight and Coach K, who have surpassed him in both wins and national championships - not to mention Adolph Rupp.

Phil Jackson should be higher.  He's won 11 NBA titles in 19 years, which is incredible.  Yeah, he had Jordan and Kobe, but still . . . pretty much every time he had a championship-caliber team, he won it all.  

I know this isn't very popular on MGOblog, but I think Frank Leahy should be included. 

He was 20-2 at Boston College with a Sugar Bowl win.

He was 87-11-9 at Notre Dame with four national championships (43, 46, 47, 49). His winning percentage was .864.

No Joe Gibbs? Ummm ok

It's hard to compare sports but Dan Gable's teams won 16 national championshps and 21 straight Big Ten Championships.Historically wrestling is dominated by a few schools, but Iowa never won one before he got there.   I feel foolish commenting on Bleacher Report drek.

I will say, I think they may have nailed #1 with John Wooden since we're apparently going with all-time and the major sports. There was nothing quite like the Wooden era at UCLA when it came to sustained success (10 championships in 12 years, I think, including one against a Michigan team led by Cazzie Russel in 1965). His overall record as coach, including two years at Indiana state is 664-162, so the man won basically 4 out of 5 games in his career. 

I am actually glad to see Tony LaRussa made this list, for as he trails only Connie Mack and John McGraw in a few categories as a manager, he definitely belongs here. Further, as one of the few managers to win multiple pennants in both leagues as well as a World Series in both leagues, he has had success which will possibly be difficult to replicate in the modern era. 

For me the biggest "Huh?" reactions were:  Dean Smith so high, Ditka on the list at all, and Knute Rockne on and Yost not. 

I have nothing against Smith or Ditka ... it's just their ranking relative to others in a similar category.  In the case of Smith it made me wonder if it was the longevity factor that was in play.  That said, having lived in NC back in the late 1980's ... Smith was a god among men.

My beef against Rockne is that he's part-and-parcel to the whole "Notre Dame mystique" thing.  They got more benefit of the doubt and a higher ranking in general simply for being Notre Dame.  Yes, he won a lot of games, but so too did Yost and others.  Rockne is on that list simply because it was Notre Dame.  Any other school and Rockne would be a footnote.

and not worth negging the OP despite the origin.  

Chuck Noll has more SB rings than any other head coach and was the primary builder of the greatest professional football dynasty of the modern era, yet there are 9 NFL coaches ahead of him. Bizarre.

Nice to see Bill Bowerman on that list.  Wouldn't have thought they would consider a college track coach, but he is a great addition.

No Red Berenson?  Or Yost?  WTH.

that will be universally recongized as the greatest in their field. What Wooden done will never come close to being duplicated again. And The Bear happened to be born at a time when he was able to do things that drew respect from those that had come before him and those that followed. He was also a master at keeping in touch with the changes in the game. A year after losing to USC with Sam Bam Cunningham, he told his coaches to start recruiting the greatest players the south had to offer. He was no dummy. On all others people will simply use them for what it should be, bar talk. There is no way in hell that you can have a list that includes Rockne, who was responsible for so many of ND championships by simply being the first to approach the AP and not include Yost who was every bit the coach he was and perhaps the greatest visionary the college game has ever known.

Agree with OP who stated, list will not have a long life span.

Fergodsakes! If I remember correctly, among college coaches who coached 25 years or more, he had the highest winning percentage. (I won't even go into why Crisler belongs too.)

He failed with two teams before the Yankees and was a joke with the Mets afterwards. He was hugely successful with the Yankees, but I suspect a lot of competent managers would ave been successful with the resources at hand.

Jimmy Johnson (seriously)

Lou Holtzzzzzz  (not seriously!)

Basketball guys. Basketball is easy to coach compared to football.

What Dean Smith accomplished went way beyond just basketball.  Smith is well known for promoting desegregation and for integrating the Tar Heels basketball team, as well as being a force in integrating all ACC schools.  Many of his activities were extremely unpopular in North Carolina but were important to our evolution as a nation and to the complete development of his players.  Personally, I would take him over Wooden, who is widely believed to have stretched the rules a bit with his recruiting, having a great record but having had even greater players.   o  A