Athletes - Jack Patera

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	Athletes - Jack Patera

John Arlen "Jack" Patera (born August 1, 1933) is a former American Football player and coach in the National Football League. He played for the Baltimore Colts, Chicago Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys. He was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Rams, New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings. Patera was the first head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. His career head coaching record is 35-59-0, all with the Seahawks.

College Football

Patera attended Washington High School in Portland, Oregon. Upon graduation he enrolled at the University of Oregon, where he played football from 1951-1954, earning All-Pacific Coast Conference honors as a tackle in his senior year. Other honors included his selection to play in the 1955 East-West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl, and the College All-Star Game. Patera was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and the University of Oregon Hall of Fame in 2000.

NFL Player career

Patera's NFL playing career started in 1955 when he was selected as a fourth round draft pick by the Baltimore Colts. Although he was intially drafted as an offensive guard, he was soon switched to the defense as a linebacker and played at that position for three seasons under head coach Weeb Ewbank. In 1958, he was traded to the Chicago Cardinals and played there for two seasons under head coach Frank Ivy. In 1960, he was selected by the new Dallas Cowboys in the NFL expansion draft. Under new head coach Tom Landry, he was designated as the starting middle linebacker in the Cowboys 4-3 defensive scheme. Unfortunately Patera's playing career ended early when he suffered a knee injury in the fourth game of the 1960 season. Patera returned in 1961, but played in only two games and retired at the end of the season.

NFL Assistant Coach career

His playing days over, Patera turned his attention to coaching and joined the Los Angeles Rams in 1963 as a defensive line coach. During his tenure with the Rams from 1963 to 1967, he was responsible for directing the Fearsome Foursome, one of the most dominating defensive lines in the NFL during the sixties.

In 1968, Patera became an assistant coach for the New York Giants, but left after one year to take an assistant coaching position with the Minnesota Vikings under head coach Bud Grant. As defensive line coach with the Vikings from 1969 to 1976, Patera worked with another very talented and dominant defensive line, nicknamed the Purple People Eaters. During this period, the Vikings would go to three Super Bowls (IV, VIII, IX).

NFL Head Coach career

In January 1976, Patera was hired as the first head coach for the new Seattle Seahawks expansion team. Along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seahawks selected 39 players through the NFL expansion draft held on March 30-31, 1976. The other 26 NFL teams each protected 29 players on their rosters. Seattle and Tampa Bay alternated selections from the remaining pool of players. Free agency was not an aspect of the league at that time.

Since he would not have the player talent to compete with other NFL teams possessing superior power, speed and finesse, Patera resorted to a wide-open gambling style offense centered around a passing game using lots of creative gadget plays. “I had a team that could move the ball like hell, but couldn’t stop anybody,” Patera said. “So I figured that to win more ballgames we’d simply have to gamble more often. I would much rather have beaten teams on muscle and execution, but we just didn’t have the talent.”

Even with the lack of talent, Patera still found a way to win games. In 1976, the Seahawks would finish their first season with a 2-12 record, which was typical for a first year expansion team. The 1976 season also showed promise for the future with QB Jim Zorn and WR Steve Largent beginning to develop into a potent offensive combination. Behind Zorn and Largent, the team improved their performance with a 5-9 record in 1977. When the Seahawks finished with an impressive 9-7 record in their third season, Patera was voted the NFL Coach of the Year in 1978 by the Associated Press and Sporting News. The Seahawks finished with a 9-7 record again in 1979, but it was followed by disappointing losing seasons in 1980 and 1981.

As a head coach, Patera was considered to be a stern disciplinarian with strict rules of conduct. For example, he required players to hold their helmets a certain way on the sidelines during the playing of the national anthem. His players were required to wear coats and ties when traveling on the road. During training camp even the trainers and ball boys had to participate in pre-workout exercise routines. One of his most controversial rules was that he wouldn't allow players to have water breaks during practices at training camp in Cheney, Washington where temperatures frequently reached into the nineties in July and August.

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