Long before he was an assistant coach on one of the best teams in NFL history, Dick Stanfel was one of the best offensive linemen the game had known.
Via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, Stanfel died this week at his home in Illinois at the age of 87.
Stanfel was an All-Decade offensive lineman for the Lions in the 1950s, helping them to two championships. He was also the team’s MVP in 1953, a rare achieve for any guard, especially one who played with players such as Bobby Layne and Doak Walker. He was traded to Washington in 1956.
More recently, he served as the offensive line coach for the 1985 Bears team which rolled to a Super Bowl XX win, cementing his reputation as not just a great player, but a great coach as well. The Bears led the league in rushing for four straight seasons from 1983-86, a league record.
“He was a great, great coach and a great man too,” former Bears center Jay Hilgenberg said. “A motivator? A technician? He was all of the above. He pulled for you personally too. All of his stories and his toughness and what the game meant to him, he was so great. He’d always tell you, ‘You make sure after this game that guy knows your name.’ He was a classic.”
Stanfel took to coaching after his brilliant playing career ended, first at Notre Dame, and with stops in Philadelphia and San Francisco. He was also the interim head coach for the Saints in 1980, closing out the final four games of the season in charge.