5 Coaching Legends that Succumbed to Cancer

Some of the greatest coaches in the history of United States football, baseball, and college basketball have lost battles to cancer. Included on this list are two of the men who shaped the National Football League into what it is today, each making their respective squads into powerhouses, with one defeating the other in one of the most epic games ever played in the sport. Another holds records for pennants and world titles in baseball that will never be broken. Finally, two of the most colorful college hoops coaches ever were felled by cancer, both winners of an NCAA Final Four that went on to broadcasting careers.

Vince Lombardi was the son of an Italian butcher who originally had planned on becoming a Catholic priest. Instead, after four years of seminary school, he transferred to a high school where he would become a standout on the football field. He eventually turned to coaching, landing a high school head coach position and then working as an assistant at West Point for Army in the late 1940s. Lombardi became a respected assistant coach for the New York Giants in 1954, handling the duties that today are filled by the offensive coordinator. In 1959 he was sought after by the moribund Green Bay Packers as their general manager and coach, and he immediately began to instill a winning attitude into the lackluster franchise. By the time he had left Green Bay, Lombardi had won five NFL championships, including the first pair of Super Bowls and his squad had achieved a record of 105-35-6 in his nine years there. After not coaching for the 1968 campaign, Lombardi returned to the sidelines with the Washington Redskins in 1969 and turned them around as well, leading them to a 7-5-2 mark. However, he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in June of 1970, as aggressive a case as his doctors had ever witnessed. It claimed his life in September at the age of 59.

Tom Landry will forever be linked to Lombardi, as he was also an assistant with the Giants at the same time Vince was there. Landry was a World War II veteran and a star player with the University of Texas football team, and he became a pro with the Giants in 1949. As a defensive back, Landry was elected All-Pro in 1954, and after his last year with the club, 1955, he became their defensive coordinator. His success in that position led to his being hired to coach the expansion Cowboys in 1960. After five years of lean times, Landry turned Dallas around and they had winning seasons for twenty consecutive years, including a pair of Super Bowl victories. Landry lost to Lombardi in the 1967 NFL title game dubbed the "Ice Bowl" in Green Bay, when Bart Starr scored the winning touchdown with seconds left on an icy field in sub-zero temperatures. Tom Landry lived to the age of 75 before leukemia, a form of cancer that affects the blood, killed him in 2000.

Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel hit .284 over the course of fourteen Major League Baseball seasons, but he became a coaching icon when he took over the New York Yankees in 1949. After unsuccessful stints as manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves, with just one winning season in his ten years, he seemed an odd choice to run the Yankees. However, he guided the franchise to an incredible ten American League pennants in twelve years, going 7-3 in those World Series. After the Yankees unceremoniously let him go following the 1960 season, Stengel resurfaced in 1962 as the manager of the expansion Mets, a team so bad that they were dubbed "lovable losers." Stengel could talk all day to the reporters and he was adored by the media for his quotes and habit of speaking at length but saying nothing. Casey Stengel was 85 when he developed cancer of the lymph glands; he was dead just fifteen days after it was discovered, on September 29th, 1975.

Jim Valvano was a basketball point guard for Rutgers University in New Jersey in the late 1960s. He was inspired by the coaching style of Vince Lombardi and decided to become a basketball coach. Valvano's record was 346-212 in nineteen years of coaching at schools like Bucknell, John Hopkins, Iona, and finally North Carolina State. It was at NC State that Jim won the 1983 national title in storybook fashion, leading his underdog squad to one of sports' biggest upsets over mighty Houston in a thrilling championship game. Valvano was forced out of coaching by controversy, but became a highly acclaimed television color man for the sport, winning a Cable ACE Award for the job he did. Valvano was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1992 and gave an inspirational speech while accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at the ESPYs in March of 1993. He died at 47 two months later.

Al McGuire's coaching story was very similar to Valvano's in many ways. McGuire played professionally with the Knicks and Bullets for a short time before settling on a career as a coach. He led small Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina to a 109-46 standard before being offered the Marquette job. At the Wisconsin school, McGuire went 295-80, winning the 1970 National Invitational Tournament and the 1977 NCAA Final Four. Upon his retirement at age 49 from coaching, he became a color analyst for NBC, pairing with Billy Packer to provide entertaining banter that enhanced the visibility of the college game. McGuire died in 2001 at 72 from leukemia after a prolonged fight with the disease.