The odds looked as if they were stacked against Dick Jauron and the Chicago Bears in 2001.
He was entering his third season after winning a total of 11 games in his first two years, and the franchise had just hired Jerry Angelo as general manager. It was an arranged partnership, one many figured wouldn’t last, and what it led to was one of the most exciting — and certainly the most improbable — seasons in franchise history, at least in the Super Bowl era.
Jauron, 74, died Saturday in Massachusetts. The Peoria native was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Jauron spent 28 years as an NFL coach, beginning in 1985 with the Buffalo Bills before moving to the Green Bay Packers, with whom he coached defensive backs for nine years. He served as Tom Coughlin’s defensive coordinator with the Jacksonville Jaguars for four seasons before the Bears hired him in 1999.
Heading into in 2001, vice president of player personnel Mark Hatley departed in what was termed a “mutual” decision. Jauron had tried to talk him into staying.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut this year,” Angelo said when he was hired in June. “This is Dick’s year. We are entering a professional partnership. This whole organization is contingent on how the marriage works. If it does not work out, like any marriage, it’s going to be real messy.”
The Bears were predicted to finish last, where the over/under in Las Vegas for their win total was seven — the lowest in the NFC Central. They finished 13-3. Jauron was named AP Coach of the Year, getting 4½ more votes than the New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick, earning a contract extension from Angelo and the organization after the season.
Consecutive overtime victories clinched on safety Mike Brown interception returns highlighted the season.
“Those guys took the field and really they never doubted themselves,” Jauron told the Tribune in 2021. “People say, ‘Yeah, you won a lot of close games.’ (The Bears were 8-0 in games decided by seven points or fewer.) We could have been 16-0, right? We lost three close games too. If you are saying we should have had more losses, I don’t know. Maybe we should have had three more wins.”
The 2002 season was going to be problematic with Soldier Field under renovation and home games played at Illinois’ Memorial Stadium. When injuries piled up, things got worse, and the team slumped to a 4-12 record. The Bears were in a familiar quandary — searching for a quarterback — and used a first-round pick on Rex Grossman in 2003. The plan was to let him develop on the sideline with Kordell Stewart starting. The team rotated between those two starters and Chris Chandler and finished 7-9, and Jauron was fired at the end of the year with an overall record of 35-45 with the Bears.
Jauron went on to serve as the Detroit Lions defensive coordinator for two seasons before becoming the interim head coach at the end of 2005. He then had a four-year stretch as Bills coach, going 24-33.
Jauron worked for the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns over the following three years before retiring. Even after he left Halas Hall, players held him in high regard.
“He was so stabilizing and he didn’t get enough credit for what he did with our team,” Hall of Fame middle linebacker Brian Urlacher told the Tribune on Saturday. “He was amazing and a lot like Lovie Smith in the aspect of he was kind of like your dad and you didn’t want to let him down. Him and Greg Blache and Dale Lindsey on that staff were so influential on me early in my career. They were older coaches, if you look at the coaches in the league now, but the way Dick made us practice, he instilled that work ethic.
“He was such a wonderful man. Always classy with us, the media and I just had a ton of respect for him. It’s so sad Virginia McCaskey a couple days ago and now Coach Jauron.”
While Jauron was rarely loud, he knew how to push players’ buttons.
“He had a way of walking down the hallway and he’d just look at you and say, ‘We need a little more from you,'” center OIin Kreutz said. “You knew you hadn’t played a good game when he did that and he wouldn’t sugarcoat it.
“Dick was a good man and there were not many better people in the NFL. Amazing how smart he was.”
Jauron was a prep legend in Swampscott, Mass., and went on to be a three-time Ivy League selection at Yale. He was drafted in the fourth round in 1973 by the Detroit Lions and the 25th round of the MLB draft that same year by the St. Louis Cardinals. Jauron chose the NFL and started as a free safety as a rookie in Detroit. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1975.
After five seasons with the Lions, Jauron played three more years in Cincinnati and finished his career with 25 interceptions. It was with the Bengals that he played for Dick LeBeau, who was instrumental in Jauron getting into coaching.
There’s no question Jauron could have continued coaching after serving as the defensive coordinator of the Browns in 2011 and 2012, but his wife, Gail, was diagnosed with dementia and he was caring for her daily until his recent diagnosis. Former co-workers and players held him in the highest regard because of his commitment to Gail. Jauron was preceded in death by a daughter, Amy, and is survived by a daughter, Kacy.
He possessed a dry wit and would flash it occasionally in media sessions. Asked once about a player’s injury, Jauron told a reporter he’d have to speak to the team’s trainer, Tim Bream. Jauron was then informed the team had made Bream off-limits to media.
“Sounds like a conundrum,” Jauron deadpanned.
Former Bears long snapper Pat Mannelly recalled playing a round of golf in the offseason at Conway Farms in Lake Forest with Chandler, who was retired and visiting. Chandler called Jauron, who still had a residence in Lake Forest, and asked if they could see their former coach. Sure, come on by, Jauron said.
When Mannelly and Chandler arrived, they found Amy and Kacy in dresses, rushing to get ready for their prom dates, who were about to arrive.
“We gotta go, Coach,” Mannelly said, not wanting to crash a big family moment.
Chicago Bears Insider: Get the latest news, analysis and more on the Chicago Bears.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive emails from Chicago Tribune.
“No, you have to stay. Stand there,” Jauron said, according to Mannelly.
So, when the two boys arrived to pick up the Jauron girls, the 6-foot-5 Mannelly and 6-4 Chandler were standing there.
“Such a great dad power move,” Mannelly said with a chuckle. “But Coach Jauron was very similar to Lovie in the regard that he was the same person every day. You knew what you were getting. He was very honest with you if you were not playing well. You always knew where you stood with him, and that’s why everyone loved him.
“He was such a great-hearted man, a good dad and a great husband.”
www.chicagotribune.com
He was entering his third season after winning a total of 11 games in his first two years, and the franchise had just hired Jerry Angelo as general manager. It was an arranged partnership, one many figured wouldn’t last, and what it led to was one of the most exciting — and certainly the most improbable — seasons in franchise history, at least in the Super Bowl era.
Jauron, 74, died Saturday in Massachusetts. The Peoria native was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Jauron spent 28 years as an NFL coach, beginning in 1985 with the Buffalo Bills before moving to the Green Bay Packers, with whom he coached defensive backs for nine years. He served as Tom Coughlin’s defensive coordinator with the Jacksonville Jaguars for four seasons before the Bears hired him in 1999.
Heading into in 2001, vice president of player personnel Mark Hatley departed in what was termed a “mutual” decision. Jauron had tried to talk him into staying.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut this year,” Angelo said when he was hired in June. “This is Dick’s year. We are entering a professional partnership. This whole organization is contingent on how the marriage works. If it does not work out, like any marriage, it’s going to be real messy.”
The Bears were predicted to finish last, where the over/under in Las Vegas for their win total was seven — the lowest in the NFC Central. They finished 13-3. Jauron was named AP Coach of the Year, getting 4½ more votes than the New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick, earning a contract extension from Angelo and the organization after the season.
Consecutive overtime victories clinched on safety Mike Brown interception returns highlighted the season.
“Those guys took the field and really they never doubted themselves,” Jauron told the Tribune in 2021. “People say, ‘Yeah, you won a lot of close games.’ (The Bears were 8-0 in games decided by seven points or fewer.) We could have been 16-0, right? We lost three close games too. If you are saying we should have had more losses, I don’t know. Maybe we should have had three more wins.”
The 2002 season was going to be problematic with Soldier Field under renovation and home games played at Illinois’ Memorial Stadium. When injuries piled up, things got worse, and the team slumped to a 4-12 record. The Bears were in a familiar quandary — searching for a quarterback — and used a first-round pick on Rex Grossman in 2003. The plan was to let him develop on the sideline with Kordell Stewart starting. The team rotated between those two starters and Chris Chandler and finished 7-9, and Jauron was fired at the end of the year with an overall record of 35-45 with the Bears.
Jauron went on to serve as the Detroit Lions defensive coordinator for two seasons before becoming the interim head coach at the end of 2005. He then had a four-year stretch as Bills coach, going 24-33.
Jauron worked for the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns over the following three years before retiring. Even after he left Halas Hall, players held him in high regard.
“He was so stabilizing and he didn’t get enough credit for what he did with our team,” Hall of Fame middle linebacker Brian Urlacher told the Tribune on Saturday. “He was amazing and a lot like Lovie Smith in the aspect of he was kind of like your dad and you didn’t want to let him down. Him and Greg Blache and Dale Lindsey on that staff were so influential on me early in my career. They were older coaches, if you look at the coaches in the league now, but the way Dick made us practice, he instilled that work ethic.
“He was such a wonderful man. Always classy with us, the media and I just had a ton of respect for him. It’s so sad Virginia McCaskey a couple days ago and now Coach Jauron.”
While Jauron was rarely loud, he knew how to push players’ buttons.
“He had a way of walking down the hallway and he’d just look at you and say, ‘We need a little more from you,'” center OIin Kreutz said. “You knew you hadn’t played a good game when he did that and he wouldn’t sugarcoat it.
“Dick was a good man and there were not many better people in the NFL. Amazing how smart he was.”
Jauron was a prep legend in Swampscott, Mass., and went on to be a three-time Ivy League selection at Yale. He was drafted in the fourth round in 1973 by the Detroit Lions and the 25th round of the MLB draft that same year by the St. Louis Cardinals. Jauron chose the NFL and started as a free safety as a rookie in Detroit. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1975.
After five seasons with the Lions, Jauron played three more years in Cincinnati and finished his career with 25 interceptions. It was with the Bengals that he played for Dick LeBeau, who was instrumental in Jauron getting into coaching.
There’s no question Jauron could have continued coaching after serving as the defensive coordinator of the Browns in 2011 and 2012, but his wife, Gail, was diagnosed with dementia and he was caring for her daily until his recent diagnosis. Former co-workers and players held him in the highest regard because of his commitment to Gail. Jauron was preceded in death by a daughter, Amy, and is survived by a daughter, Kacy.
He possessed a dry wit and would flash it occasionally in media sessions. Asked once about a player’s injury, Jauron told a reporter he’d have to speak to the team’s trainer, Tim Bream. Jauron was then informed the team had made Bream off-limits to media.
“Sounds like a conundrum,” Jauron deadpanned.
Former Bears long snapper Pat Mannelly recalled playing a round of golf in the offseason at Conway Farms in Lake Forest with Chandler, who was retired and visiting. Chandler called Jauron, who still had a residence in Lake Forest, and asked if they could see their former coach. Sure, come on by, Jauron said.
When Mannelly and Chandler arrived, they found Amy and Kacy in dresses, rushing to get ready for their prom dates, who were about to arrive.
“We gotta go, Coach,” Mannelly said, not wanting to crash a big family moment.
Chicago Bears Insider: Get the latest news, analysis and more on the Chicago Bears.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive emails from Chicago Tribune.
“No, you have to stay. Stand there,” Jauron said, according to Mannelly.
So, when the two boys arrived to pick up the Jauron girls, the 6-foot-5 Mannelly and 6-4 Chandler were standing there.
“Such a great dad power move,” Mannelly said with a chuckle. “But Coach Jauron was very similar to Lovie in the regard that he was the same person every day. You knew what you were getting. He was very honest with you if you were not playing well. You always knew where you stood with him, and that’s why everyone loved him.
“He was such a great-hearted man, a good dad and a great husband.”
Dick Jauron, who led Chicago Bears to 13-win season in 2001, dies: ‘He didn’t get enough credit for what he did’
Dick Jauron led one of the most improbable and exciting seasons for the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl era. The former coach died Saturday. He was 74.
www.chicagotribune.com
