AN INNOVATOR
Bill Arnsparger, former Giants coach and architect of brilliant Dolphins defenses of ’70s and ’80s, dies at 88
BILL ARNSPARGER, the former Giants head coach who was the genius behind the No-Name defense that helped the 1972 Miami Dolphins complete the only undefeated season in NFL history, died Friday. He was 88. He reportedly died at his home in Athens, Ala.
Arnsparger became Giants coach for the 1974 season after he won a second consecutive Super Bowl title with the Dolphins. He did not find the kind of success with the Giants that he was used to, going 7-28 in his two-plus seasons. Arnsparger was fired in the middle of the 1976 season after an 0-7 start.
“It was a great opportunity,” Arnsparger said of the Giants gig in 1995, ahead of an appearance in Super Bowl XXIX as the Chargers’ defensive coordinator. “I just don’t think I had the time to do the things that were needed. I wasn’t allowed to stay and complete the job I was hired to do.”
After Arnsparger was fired, Don Shula immediately brought him back to Miami, where he built the Killer B’s defense and helped the Dolphins get back to the Super Bowl in the strike-shortened 1982 season. He coached in six Super Bowls during his time with the Colts, Dolphins and Chargers.
Though he never got another NFL headcoaching job after his rough Giants stint, Arnsparger went back to the college ranks after starting there as an assistant and took the LSU head-coaching gig. He went 26-8-2 in three seasons (1984-86) and appeared in two Sugar Bowls.
He left to become the athletic director at Florida, a post he held until 1992, when he took the Chargers’ defensive coordinator position. He retired after the Chargers’ loss to the 49ers in that season’s Super Bowl, which came almost a year after he underwent prostate cancer surgery.
Arnsparger coached in the NFL for 23 years and in college for 17. He first coached with Shula on the University of Kentucky staff in 1959. Shula hired Arnsparger to be Baltimore’s defensive line coach in 1964 and later brought him to Miami in 1970.
“I was saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Arnsparger, who I thought was one of the greatest defensive coaches in football,” Shula said in a statement. “If there was a Hall of Fame for assistant coaches, he would be one of the very first inductees.”