Woody Widenhofer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Woody Widenhofer (born January 20, 1943 in Butler, Pennsylvania) is a former college football head coach and longtime NFL assistant.

Widenhofer is best known for helping direct the Pittsburgh Steelers "Steel Curtain" defense that won four Super Bowls in the 1970s. He later served unsuccessful tenures as head coach at Missouri and Vanderbilt University.

Widenhofer attended Riverview High School in Riverview, Michigan and played linebacker at Missouri from 1961-1964. After several years as a college assistant, Widenhofer was hired to coach linebackers for the Steelers in 1973. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1977. By the time he left after the 1983 season, Widenhofer had won four Super Bowls and made the postseason nine times.

He spent one year as head coach of the short-lived United States Football League team, the Oklahoma Outlaws, before landing an opportunity at his alma mater. But Widenhofer could only manage a 12-33-1 record in four seasons at Missouri from 1985 to 1988. After returning to the NFL for six years as an assistant coach, Widenhofer joined friend Rod Dowhower's staff at Vanderbilt to serve as defensive coordinator. When Dowhower was fired after the 1996 season, Widenhofer was promoted to head coach. The second time was no easier, as Widenhofer compiled only a 15-37 record in five seasons at the helm for VU.

Widenhofer considered retiring, but ultimately joined friend Hal Mumme as an assistant at Southeastern Louisiana University and later New Mexico State University.

Preceded by
Bud Carson		 Pittsburgh Steelers Defensive Coordinators
1978-1983		 Succeeded by
Tony Dungy
Preceded by
Warren Powers		 University of Missouri Head Football Coach
1985-1988		 Succeeded by
Bob Stull
Preceded by
Rod Dowhower		 Vanderbilt University Head Football Coach
1997-2001		 Succeeded by
Bobby Johnson

Jones • W. J. Keller • Thornton • C. L. Upton • R. G. Acton • J. L. Crane • W. H. Watkins • J. H. Henry • McGugin • Morrison • Sanders • E. H. Alley • Bartling • Edwards • Guepe • Green • Pace • Sloan • Pancoast • MacIntyre • Brown • DiNardo • Dowhower • Widenhofer • Johnson

McRae • Reid • Robinson • Patterson • Young • Fultz • Murphy • O'Dea • McLean • Monilaw • Roper • Brewer • Schulte • Phelan • Kelly • Henry • Carideo • Faurot • Simpson • Broyles • Devine • Onofrio • Powers • Widenhofer • Stull • Smith • Pinkel

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/o/o/Woody_Widenhofer_8a54.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.