WYCHE, ART, NOLL, GLANVILLE AND THE FUN AFC CENTRAL
By STEVE KING
The passing of former Cincinnati Bengals Sam Wyche recently at the way-too-young age of 74, following some health problems over an extended period, recalls the golden era of the predecessor to today’s AFC North, the AFC Central Division.
The Central in the 1980s was greatly competitive, very successful, extremely unique in its make-up, tremendously interesting and a whole heckuva lot of fun.
Wyche coached the Bengals for eight seasons, from 1984-91, including in 1988 when the team went from 4-12 the year before to 12-4 and a spot in the Super Bowl, where they lost 20-16 to the San Francisco 49ers on a last-minute touchdown drive.
The owner of the Bengals during that time was Paul Brown, who founded the club in 1968, 22 years after he founded the Browns. Brown and Browns owner Art Modell, who fired Brown as Cleveland head coach following the 1962 season, despised each other. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that another former Browns coach fired by Modell, Forrest Gregg, was the coach of the Bengals in 1981 when they went to the Super Bowl and again lost to the 49ers. Gregg and Modell hated each other as well.
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Noll, from Cleveland Benedictine High School and the University of Dayton, hated Modell, too (is there a pattern here?). He was a messenger guard for the Browns in 1950s and had tremendous loyalty to Brown.
So, the founder of the Bengals also founded the Browns, the coach of the Steelers grew up in Cleveland and played for the Browns, the head coach of the Browns from 1984-88 was Marty Schottenheimer, who grew up in Pittsburgh and played for Pitt, and the head coach of the Houston Oilers, the forerunner of the Tennessee Titans, was Jerry Glanville, who grew up in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo.
Glanville needled the Browns whenever he could, and so did Wyche, who, famously, reminded rowdy Bengals fans when they were throwing objects onto the field that they did not “live in Cleveland.”
What’s going on now in the AFC North, as crazy as it may seem, is tame in comparison.
God bless you, Sam Wyche. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
