George Seifert| Personal information |
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| Date of birth: |
(1940-01-22) January 22, 1940 |
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| Place of birth: |
San Francisco, California |
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| Career information |
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| High school: |
San Francisco (CA) Polytechnic |
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| College: |
Utah |
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| Career history
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| As coach: |
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| Career highlights and awards
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| Head coaching record |
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| Regular season: |
114–62 (.648) |
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| Postseason: |
10–5 (.667) |
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| Career: |
124–67 (.649) |
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Coaching stats at PFR |
George Seifert (born January 22, 1940) is an American former football coach and player. He served as the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers[1] and the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL).[2] Seifert joined the 49ers' coaching staff under Bill Walsh in 1980 as defensive backs coach and served as the team's defensive coordinator from 1983 to 1988.
Career
Born in the same place he would later coach, the childhood fan Seifert was raised in San Francisco, ushering at 49ers home games while in high school.[3] Seifert attended the University of Utah, playing guard and linebacker for the Utes. He served as graduate assistant for a year before being hired as head coach of Westminster College in Salt Lake City at age 25,[4] where he led the Parsons to a 3-3 record.
After working as an assistant at the University of Iowa, the University of Oregon and Stanford University,[5] Seifert was hired as head coach at Cornell University. He was fired after going 3-15 in two seasons.[6] He then returned to Stanford in 1977, where he met Walsh. When Walsh moved to the 49ers in 1979, Seifert remained at Stanford for one more year before joining him.
As a 49er assistant, his defenses finished in the top ten in fewest points allowed in each of his six seasons in that capacity: fourth in 1983, first in 1984, second in 1985, third in 1986 and 1987, and eighth in 1988. His final two defenses, 1987 and 1988, finished first and third in fewest yards allowed, respectively. On his 49th birthday, the 49ers won the Super Bowl in 1989.
Head coaching
In 1989, he was elevated to head coach. He is one of only 13 NFL head coaches with more than one Super Bowl victory, winning in both the 1989 and 1994 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. In Super Bowl XXIV he became the first rookie head coach to win the Super Bowl since Don McCafferty coached the Baltimore Colts to victory in Super Bowl V. In all, Seifert coached on five Super Bowl champion teams with the 49ers, being 1 of only 17 men to have won 5 or more championships. Seifert was forced to resign in 1996.
After two years out of the game, he was hired by the Carolina Panthers as head coach. He was also de facto general manager as well; the Panthers hadn't had a general manager since Bill Polian's departure in 1997.
In his first season, Seifert led the Panthers to an 8-8 record, a four-game improvement from 1998. The most notable play of that year came when quarterback Steve Beuerlein scored a game-winning touchdown on a fourth-and-five quarterback draw with five seconds left in overtime to defeat the Green Bay Packers. They went into the final day of the regular season in contention for a playoff berth. However, their victory margin over the New Orleans Saints needed to be 18 points greater than the Packers' margin over the Arizona Cardinals in order to have a chance to make the playoffs. While the Panthers routed the Saints 45-13, the Packers beat the Cardinals 49-24, leaving the Packers ahead on point differential and eliminating the Panthers.
The Panthers were competitive for most of 2000 as well, but needed to win their season finale against the Oakland Raiders to finish at .500, however, the Raiders defeated the Panthers by a score of 52-9, still one of the most lopsided losses in franchise history. Seifert presided over a 2001 draft that netted the Panthers Steve Smith and Kris Jenkins, who would go on to be among the cornerstones of the franchise. Behind rookie quarterback Chris Weinke, they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 24-13. However, they wouldn't win another game all season and would finish at 1-15 the worst record in franchise history. The 15 consecutive losses would be an NFL record for futility until the 2008 Detroit Lions went 0-16. Their final two games were played before what are still the two smallest crowds in franchise history (in terms of turnstile count)--including a 38-6 loss to the New England Patriots that drew only 21,000 people; Seifert was fired the next morning. To date, he is the only Panthers coach to have never had a winning season or coached a playoff game.
Head coaching record
National Football League
College
See also
References
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- Unknown (1919–1926)
- Bryan Patterson (1927–1938)
- Pete Carlson (1939)
- Edward Durr (1940–1941)
- No team (1942–1947)
- Unknown (1948–1949)
- Gene Cooper (1950–1954)
- Al Mercer (1955–1958)
- Robert Lee (1959–1961)
- No team (1962–1964)
- George Seifert (1965)
- Dave Nickel (1966–1967)
- Ron Ney (1968–1969)
- Chuck Banker (1970)
- Allen Jacobs (1971–1978)
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Pound sign (#) denotes interim head coach.
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Pound sign (#) denotes de facto general manager.
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| George Seifert—championships |
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