r/TempleFootball • u/FormerCollegeDJ • 22h ago
In Philadelphia in 1983, the three football teams that played home games at Veterans Stadium (Eagles, USFL Stars, Temple) all hired new head coaches. All three coaches eventually became NFL head coaches...and the Eagles' hire was ultimately the least successful NFL head coach.
As someone who is a Philadelphia Eagles and Temple football fan and also loved the USFL Philadelphia Stars back in the day, the story of their respective 1983 head coaching hires is interesting to me. In the case of both the Eagles and Temple, their previous head coaches, Dick Vermeil and Wayne Hardin respectively, both retired, while the Stars were a team in a brand new league. The teams hired the following coaches:
*Eagles: Marion Campbell
*Stars: Jim Mora Sr.
*Temple: Bruce Arians
Marion CampbellĀ had been a long time NFL coach at the time the Eagles hired him to succeed Dick Vermeil prior to the 1983 season. For the previous six seasons, "the Swamp Fox" had served as the Eagles defensive coordinator, playing an important role in enabling the Eagles to lead the NFL in fewest points allowed in 1980 and 1981. Prior to joining the Eagles, he had an AFL and NFL assistant and head coach dating back to 1962, first as a defensive line coach with the Patriots, Vikings, and Rams from 1962 to 1968, then joining the Falcons as their defensive coordinator from 1969 to mid-1974, and finally becoming the Atlanta Falcons' head coach from mid-1974 to mid-1976. Campbell had been a solid NFL player from 1954 to 1961, playing with the Eagles from 1956 to 1961, and earning 1st team All-Pro honors as a defensive lineman with the Eagles during their 1960 NFL championship season.
Though Campbell had been a successful player and assistant coach with the Eagles, he ultimately was much less successful as the Eagles head coach. The Eagles posted three consecutive losing seasons during his tenure, and he was fired with one game remaining in the 1985 season. Campbell's head coaching record with the Eagles was 17-29-1. That was still better than his 6-19 head coaching record in a little less than two seasons with the Falcons in the mid-1970s. Surprisingly, the Swamp Fox received one more NFL head coaching opportunity after being fired by the Eagles, joining the Falcons again in 1987. His record in his second Atlanta go-around was almost as bad as his first, and worse than his Eagles tenure; Campbell went 11-32 in a little less than three seasons from 1987 to 1989. Overall, Campbell had one of the worst records of any NFL head coach in history, finishing with a 34-80-1 record and never posting even a .500 record in any season. His best seasons actually occurred with the Eagles in 1984 (6-9-1) and 1985 (6-9 prior to his firing). Excluding one season as a defensive coordinator at his college alma mater Georgia in 1994, Campbell never coached again at any level after his last NFL head coaching job. He passed away in July 2016 at the age of 87.
Jim MoraĀ had served as a defensive line coach for the Seahawks and Patriots from 1978 to 1982, and had been a college head and assistant coach, primarily with western teams (including Stanford, Colorado, UCLA, and Washington) from 1961 to 1977. Mora was not the Stars' first choice to be their first head coach; they originally hired former Steelers assistant George Perles, but Perles took the head coaching job at Michigan State shortly before the Stars' initial training camp in early 1983. The Stars hurriedly hired Mora as Perles' replacement. The late start didn't hurt Mora, and his Stars teams eventually became by far the best team in the USFL's three year history, posting a 41-12-1 regular season record and a 7-1 playoff record, appearing in all three of the league's championship games, winning two of them. Quite frankly, Mora's Stars teams were probably better than Marion Campbell's Eagles teams of the same period. Mora was supported by an excellent general manager (future Chiefs GM Carl Peterson) and assistant coaches, including Vince Tobin, Dom Capers, and Vic Fangio, all of whom became future NFL head coaches.
After the USFL imploded, Mora joined the New Orleans Saints in 1986 and became their most successful head coach prior to Sean Payton, leading the Saints to their first winning seasons (1987-1989, 1991-1992) and first playoff appearances (1987, 1990-1992) in franchise history. Mora was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1987 as the Saints posted a 12-3 record. Many of his Saints players were ex-USFL players, and included some of his former Stars players, most notably standout linebacker Sam Mills. However, in sharp contrast to his USFL playoff success, Mora had no success in the NFL playoffs, finishing his Saints coaching career with an 0-4 playoff record, including 0-3 at home. After resigning as the Saints head coach in mid-1996 after 10 1/2 seasons, he was hired as the Indianapolis Colts head coach in 1998. Similar to what he did in New Orleans, Mora turned the Colts into winners by his second season, posting a 13-3 record in 1999. He followed that up with a 10-6 record in 2000. However, as was the case in New Orleans, Mora's Colts teams couldn't get over the playoff hump, posting a 0-2 record. Mora was fired by the Colts after four seasons following a disappointing 2001 season, and he never coached again in the NFL. Altogether Mora posted a 125-106 regular season record and 0-6 playoff record as an NFL head coach. As of this writing, Mora is still alive at age 91.
Bruce AriansĀ had been a college assistant coach at Virginia Tech, his alma mater, as well as at Mississippi State and Alabama (in the last position under legendary head coach Bear Bryant) from 1975 to 1982 before coming back to his home state (he's from York, PA) to take the Temple head coaching job. The 30 year old Arians had big shoes to fill on North Broad Street, replacing Wayne Hardin, who was eventually inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Additionally, Temple often played challenging schedules loaded with strong Eastern independents such as Penn State, Pitt, and West Virginia, and the university often did not put significant resources into the football program. Despite the challenges, Arians kept Temple competitive during his six year tenure (1983 to 1988), posting two winning seasons (6-5 records in both 1984 and 1986), and coaching some standout players, including Paul Palmer, who finished 2nd in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1986, and Kevin Ross, who was a very good NFL cornerback with the Chiefs. He also coached a safety named Todd Bowles while he was the Owls head coach. Overall, Arians posted a 27-39 record at Temple, which doesn't sound great but was much better than the records posted by his three immediate successors (Jerry Berndt: 11-33; Ron Dickerson: 8-47; Bobby Wallace: 19-71).
After he was fired by Temple in 1988, Arians took his first NFL assistant coaching job, joining the Chiefs as a running backs coach in 1989. Though he had a couple, future college coaching jobs, going back to Mississippi State and Alabama for a total of four seasons, Arians primarily became an NFL assistant, coaching with the Chiefs, Saints, Colts (assisting Jim Mora with the Saints and Colts), Browns, Steelers, and the Colts a second time. He served as an offensive coordinator with Cleveland (2001 to 2003), Pittsburgh (2007 to 2011), and Indianapolis (2012). Arians finally became an NFL head coach by accident in 2012, serving as the Colts interim head coach that season after Chuck Pagano needed treatment for leukemia for most of the season. Arians posted a 9-3 record in the interim role, allowing the Colts to make the playoffs, and was named NFL Coach of the Year. His solid work with the Colts enabled him to become the Arizona Cardinals head coach in 2013. He was successful with a Cardinals franchise that usually was not very good, posting three winning records and two playoff appearances in five seasons (2013 to 2017) as the head coach, including an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2015. He was also named the NFL Coach of the Year a second time in 2014. After retiring for a year, Arians became the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach in 2019. He coached the Bucs for three years (2019 to 2021) and led them to two playoff appearances, including a Super Bowl championship in 2020. Overall, Arians posted an 89-51-1 regular season record and 6-3 playoff record as an NFL head coach. As of this writing, Arians, currently 73 years old, is still a consultant with the Buccaneers, who are coached by his former Temple player and NFL assistant Todd Bowles.
The above is not to say the Eagles should have hired Jim Mora or Bruce Arians instead of Marion Campbell as their head coach in 1983, though one can easily make a retrospective argument Mora would have been a better hire than Campbell. (Arians was too young to be an NFL head coach in 1983, and did not have any NFL assistant coaching experience at the time.) Rather, the above focuses on the geographical and chronological coincidence that ties together Marion Campbell, Jim Mora, and Bruce Arians, and pointing out the irony that the Eagles, the only NFL team among themselves, the USFL Stars, and college football Temple Owls, hired the guy who ultimately was the worst NFL head coach among the coaches the three Veterans Stadium football tenants hired in 1983.
