Neill Armstrong
From Sports Library
Neill Armstrong was a former American football player and coach whose career spanned more than 40 years at both the collegiate and professional levels.
Armstrong played college football at Oklahoma A & M from 1943-1946, and in 1947, was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles. Playing both at wide receiver and defensive back, Armstrong helped the team capture the NFL championship in both 1948 and 1949.
In 1962, his professional coaching career began when he was hired as an assistant coach with the American Football League Houston Oilers. After serving two years in that capacity, he shifted back to Canada as head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos. In his six years, the team reached the postseason three times.
Armstrong was hired as an assistant with the Bud Grant's Minnesota Vikings in 1970, and became an integral part of developing the team's dominating defense. As an assistant with Minnesota, Armstrong was part of a staff that made three trips to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they lost all three title games. 1
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Chicago Years
Following the 1977 season, Armstrong left Minnesota to take the head coaching job for the Chicago Bears. He was hired on February 16, 1978 by Bears General Manager Jim Finks the man who had built the Minnesota powerhouse in the late 60's-early 70's. Armstrong was Finks' second hire with the Bears. His first hire--Jack Pardee--had left he Bears following their successful 1977 season to assume the head coaching job with the Washington Redskins.
1978
Armstrong's first Bears team in 1978 entered the season after having earned their first trip to the postseason since 1963 the preceding season. In spite of this, the Bears stumbled in '78 After starting out 3-0, they endured the longest losing streak in franchise history when they lost eight straight games. The Bears did manage to finish strong however--going 4-1, to finish Armstrong's first season 7-9.
One of the moves that Armstrong made his first season that would have long-term ramifications on the Bears' future was bringing Buddy Ryan with him from Minnesota as the Bears' defensive coordinator.
1979
Several personnel moves conducted over the previous three seasons put the Bears in a position to make a run in 1979. In 1977, Chicago had traded its 1978 first-round pick to Cleveland for veteran QB Mike Phipps. Phipps was a first-round draft pick himself, taken by the Browns as the third selection overall in 1970. Phipps took over in 1978 for Bob Avellini, who had started 42 consecutive games through November of that year. Phipps started four of the final six games of 1978, winning three, and entered 1979 as the starter.
During the course of the '79 season, though, three different quarterbacks would start games for the Bears--Phiips, Avellini, and second year quarterback Vince Evans.
Chicago also traded away all-pro DE Wally Chambers to Tampa in 1978 for the Bucs' 1979 first-round selection. That pick turned out to be the fourth overall, and with it the Bears selected Arkansas DT/DE Dan Hampton. Other notable picks in that draft were Al Harris, DE from Arizona State with the ninth pick, WR Rickey Watts from Tulsa in the second round, and RB Willie McClendon from Georgia in the third. All four of these players would contribute to the team’s success in 1979 and beyond. 2
At the half-way point of the season, the Bears were scuffling along at 3-5. However they would win 7 of their final 8 games. The last game, on December 16th was at Soldier Field against the St. Louis Cardinals. Because of the NFL's complicated playoff system, the Bears would need to defeat St. Louis by at least 35 points and receive some additional help, assuming Tampa Bay would win their game against Kansas City, which they did (a Tampa Bay loss would have meant the Bears would only have needed to win to clinch the NFC Central).
The Bears blew St. Louis out 42-6. The next thing they needed to make the playoffs was for Dalls to knock off Washington. Led by famed comeback artist Roger Staubach, Dallas overcame an early 17-0 deficit and led Dallas back to a come-from-behind, 35-34 victory. For the second time in three seasons, the Bears had made the playoffs.
While the Bears previous playoff appearance had resulted in a 37-7 blowout loss to eventual Super Bowl champion Dallas, in '79 they played a much tougher game, losing in Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, 27-17.
1980
Armstrong's 1980 Bears slumped after having made the playoffs in 1979. The season started inauspiciously in Lambeau Field against the Packers. The game went to overtime tied 6-6. In overtime, Green Bay lined up for the game-winning field goal. The kick was blocked by the Bears' Alan Page, but deflected back into the arms of Green Bay's placekicker, Chester Marcol. Marcol ran around left end and scored a highly improbable game-ending, sudden-death touchdown. The Bears had lost 12-6, and the game set the tone for the season.
While the Bears under Armstrong finished the season at a disappointing 7-9, they did manage to exact some revenge on Green Bay for their fluky Week #1 victory. In Week 14, on December 7th at Soldier Field, the Bears ran up the score on coach Bart Starr's Packers to the tune of a 61-7 final. It was one of the few highlights in a disappointing season.
1981
Entering his fourth season in 1981, the pressure was on Armstrong to return to the playoffs. Things got off to a poor start, however, when the Bears lost their first two games of the season--a 16-9 loss in the opener to the Packers at Soldier Field, and a 28-17 shellacking to eventual NFC champion San Francisco.
Things didn't improve much over the course of the season. After 13 weeks, the Bears were 3-10 and fans of the team had seen enough. A common, sarcastic refrain heard from fans at the time was that "we put the wrong Neil (sic) Armstrong on the moon."
Winning the final three games of the '81 season did little to save Armstrong's job. He was fired after the season and eventually replaced by former Bears Tight End Mike Ditka.
After the Bears
Armstrong essentially swapped jobs with Ditka, who had been a special teams coach in Dallas under the legendary Tom Landry. Landry hired Armstrong less than two months after he was fired by the Bears. Armstrong spent eight season in Dallas before announcing his retirement from football on February 22nd, 1990.
External Links
- Wikipedia entry on Neill Armstrong
- Chicago Bears History
- Pro-Football Reference
