Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green speaks to reporters on October 10, 2005, in Tempe, Ariz. Green’s agent Ray Anderson confirmed his client’s death to ESPN’s Adam Schefter saying Green’s wife said he suffered cardiac failure.
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In a statement, his family said they were by his side when he died and that “he fought hard”.
Green, who attended John Harris High School (now Harrisburg High), began his coaching career in 1971 with the Dayton Flyers.
Green also eight seasons in college at Northwestern and Stanford, and was a long-time staffer with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s. In five seasons, he registered a record of 10-45. He was the special teams coach in 1979, then spent three seasons from 1986-88 as Walsh’s wide receivers coach.
Green finished his three years in Arizona with a 16-32 record.
Green coached the Vikings and Cardinals for 13 total National Football League seasons and ranks second in Vikings franchise history in wins and winning percentage. “Remember him as leader with a rare offensive mind who dared to be great”, tweeted commentator Skip Bayless. The Vikings advanced to the NFC Championship game but fell short, losing to the Atlanta Falcons on a field goal in overtime.
His assistants included future Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl champion Brian Billick, Ron Turner, Tyrone Willingham and Willie Shaw, the father of current Stanford coach David Shaw. The Cardinals’ meltdown led to a memorable postgame rant, in which Mr. Green pounded the podium and yelled “The Bears are who we thought they were!”
“I am deeply sorry to hear of the passing of my Stanford football coach & NFL coach Denny Green”. Green was also responsible for bringing in veteran quarterback Kurt Warner. That made him only the third African-American to be named head coach of an NFL team, and second in the league’s modern era; prior to Green, pioneering NFL player Fritz Pollard coached in the 1920s, and Art Shell was named head coach of the Los Angeles (now Oakland) Raiders in 1989.
Northwestern had lost 31 of its last 33 games when it made Green the first African-American head coach of a power-conference school in 1981.
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James “Buddy” Ryan, the Cardinals” head coach from 1994 to “95, died on June 28th after a long illness.
