So. Who is the worst head coach in the Arizona Cardinals’ history?
It’s an interesting question, mainly because the Cardinals, as a franchise, are really old. Although the team has only been in Arizona since 1989, the organization began in Chicago as far back as 1920. Yes, the Cardinals are older than traffic lights, penicillin, bubble gum and color television—and sometimes, they play like it.
With more than 100 years’ worth of history, of course, it’s going to have some questionable calls when it comes to the head office. And while deciding the “worst” coach is something left for sports radio callers and subreddits, fans can somewhat agree that the oddest head coaching decision likely came in 1978.
Meet Bud Wilkinson, the Cardinal's Oddest Coach
Bud Wilkinson, College Coaching Legend
Now, Charles Burnham "Bud" Wilkinson is one of the best football coaches of all time. That is no doubt.
Wilkinson was born in 1916 in Minneapolis. He played football at the University of Minnesota before earning his master’s degree at Syracuse. A World War II veteran, Wilkinson coached football at the Navy's Jacksonville, Florida, program alongside his fellow legend, “Big Jim” Tatum.
Wilkinson followed Tatum to the University of Oklahoma in 1946. The following year, Tatum moved to Maryland, and Wilkinson became the head coach at OU, a position he would hold for nearly 20 years. During that time, he transformed the OU program into a football dynasty.
From 1947 to 1963, his team had a winning percentage of .826. They won eight bowl games, 14 league and three national championships, according to ESPN. From 1948-50, the Sooners went on a 31-game winning streak; they would surpass that from ’53-57, going undefeated for 47-straight games, a NCAA Division I record that still stands today.
Wilkinson excelled at the split-T offense. He was also known for recruiting players who were both intelligent and aggressive. “The fact our men believe they can use their brains to defeat a physically superior opponent pays dividends you can't reckon with," he said, per ESPN.
Wilkinson launched the careers of some notable players. Prentice Gautt became the first African-American player at Oklahoma under Bud’s tenure. He’d join the NFL in 1960, playing with the Browns and then, oddly enough, the Cardinals.
Legendary running back Tommy McDonald, who won the NFL championship as part of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1960, played with OU from 1953 to 1956. He never lost a single college game and was key in Oklahoma's legendary 47-game winning streak.
Wilkinson only had one losing season at Oklahoma, in 1960, when the team went 3-6-1. And in 1963, Bud Wilkinson, at the age of 47, stepped down after 17 years as the Sooners’ head coach. His record was 145-29-4. In 1969, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
So, you might ask—why is this gridiron general the oddest coach in Cardinals history?
Well, Bud retired from Oklahoma in 1963.
The Cardinals hired him as their head in 1978. Fifteen years later.
Bud Wilkinson, NFL Coaching Bust
The St. Louis Cardinals – the football team, not the baseball team — named Wilkinson as their head coach in 1978, and there were immediate concerns.
“The announcement raised the questions as to whether the former coach at the University of Oklahoma can do the job after 15 seasons away from the profession and at age 61,” wrote the Washington Post.
Wilkinson had retired from coaching college football, but not from life. He served on President John F. Kennedy’s Council on Physical Fitness. In 1964, he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate. In 1965, Wilkinson even gave television a shot, joining ABC Sports as a color commentator on college football telecasts.
In 1978, the Cardinals persuaded Wilkinson to come out of retirement. They were in a bind. In 1977, head coach Don Coryell finished his five seasons with a 42-27-1 record and a great deal of resentment for Cardinals' owner Bill Bidwill.
In comments published in the press, Coryell expressed his frustrations with his pay, his lack of input in the NFL draft, and the verbal abuse his family received from Cardinals fans.
Coryell was out by ’78, and the 61-year-old Wilkinson was in. "You're talking about my insurance age,” Bud told the Washington Post about being in his golden years. “I think I'm relatively current. Pro football is a high level of sophistication, but I think the factors which win are the same at any level."
Turns out, they weren’t.
And though Wilkinson was a titan at Oklahoma, he started his St. Louis career by going 0-8. After this beating, Wilkinson managed to get the Cardinals to finally win a few games, limping over the finish line with 6-10 record.
1979 was worse.
Wilkinson barely got through 1978. The same can’t be said for '79.
Bidwill fired Wilkinson in November of that year, over Bud “rejecting front‐office suggestions that he start his backup quarterback [Steve Pisarkiewicz] next Sunday in place of Jim Hart,” according to The New York Times. There were still three games left in the season, but Bildwell wanted Wilkinson gone.
“My intention had been to wait until the end of the season before making decisions concerning the future of the team,” Bidwill said following the dismissal. “But I decided to take immediate action in this matter for what I consider to be the best interests of the team.”
“I'm just as surprised as you,” said Wilkinson at his firing. “The owner of anything is entitled to do as he pleases. I think I've done a reasonably good job. It's a disappointment, naturally.”
Pisarkiewicz was the Cardinals’ first-round pick (19th overall) in the 1977 draft. Bidwill liked him; Wilkinson was not impressed and put his faith in the aging Hart instead.
Larry Wilson, a former NFL safety who served as the Cardinals' assistant operations director in charge of pro personnel, was named the team's interim head coach. Wilson went 2-1, and the Cardinals finished their season with a 5-11 record.
Bidwill’s faith in Pisarkiewicz didn’t pay off. He went 52 for 109 in ’79, throwing for 621 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions. He played one more professional game in 1980 for the Green Bay Packers, and that was it for Steve.
Wilson would serve as the first general manager of the Phoenix Cardinals after the team moved to Arizona in 1988. The Cardinals would pay Wilkinson for the remaining two years of his contract, even if he went to another team.
Wilkinson thought about that. “Whether I stay in coaching is something I'm not sure of. At this point in time, I won't rule it out,” he told The New York Times.
But the then-63-year-old Bud decided better. He returned to broadcasting, joining ABC and ESPN as an analyst. He settled in St. Louis and died in 1994 due to congestive heart failure. He was 77.
Assessment
Calling Wilkinson the Cardinals’ “worst” coach is unfair. The NFL changes from season to season, with certain styles of play and coaching strategies coming in and out of fashion. And this was the rough and tumble NFL of the 1970s, the era of Pittsburgh’s “Steel Curtain.” This was the decade of gritty, gridiron football.
In hindsight, expecting a 61-year-old man, 15 years removed from coaching college players, to suddenly recreate his Boomer Sooner magic in the ‘70s NFL is an incredibly hard ask.
And then firing him because he wouldn’t start the backup quarterback—a sound decision when Pisarkiewicz turned out to be almost as bad as Ryan Lindley in terms of disappointing performances—it boggles the mind.
This doesn't mean Wilkinson is without blame. He agreed to take the job and believed he would be successful, despite not having coached for 15 years. Wilkinson thought that the game hadn't changed, and he was shown differently.
Wilkinson wasn't the worst. He was just not right for the job.
Keep this in mind going into the next season. Show a little kindness to Jonathan Gannon. We Cardinals fans don’t know how good we have it with him.