Jack Pardee

John Perry Pardee (born April 19, 1936) is a former American football linebacker and the only head coach to helm a team in college football, the National Football League, the United States Football League, the World Football League, and the Canadian Football League. Pardee was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986.

Playing career
As a teenager, Pardee moved to Christoval, Texas where he excelled as a member of the six-man football team (Pardee is the only six-man player to later have played or coached in the NFL). He was an All-American linebacker at Texas A&M University and a two-time All-Pro with the Los Angeles Rams (1963) and the Washington Redskins (1971).

Pardee was one of the famed Junction Boys, the 1954 Texas A&M preseason camp held in Junction, Texas, by football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. He was part of the 35 left from the approximately 100 players who went to Junction, Texas. After completing college at Texas A&M, Pardee was the 14th overall pick when he was drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Rams as a linebacker. Pardee played for the Rams from 1957 to 1970; sitting out the 1965 season while battling melanoma. In 1971, Pardee joined the Washington Redskins, ending his playing career there in 1973.

WFL
When the World Football League started up in 1974, Pardee got his first head coaching job with the Washington Ambassadors. The team would later relocate to Norfolk, Virginia and become the Virginia Ambassadors before finally moving to their third and final home as the Florida Blazers. The Blazers, based in Orlando, made it all the way to the 1974 World Bowl and lost by one point to the Birmingham Americans. Pardee's regular season coaching record in 1974 with the Blazers was 14–6, and 2–1 in the 1974 WFL Playoffs and World Bowl. Some of the Blazers players relocated to San Antonio for the 1975 season, and Pardee would move on too, signing on as head coach of the Chicago Bears for the 1975.

First stint in the NFL
In 1975, Pardee was hired by the Chicago Bears as head coach. He spent the next three years there, leading Chicago to their first playoff berth in 14 years in 1977, before moving on to the Washington Redskins. In 1979 he led the Redskins to within 1 game of making the playoffs, but in the season's final week they blew a 13-point lead to the eventual NFC East champions Dallas Cowboys and missed the playoffs. He was fired after going 6-10 in 1980. In 1981, he was hired as Assistant Head Coach in charge of defense for the San Diego Chargers.

USFL
In 1984, Pardee returned to his native Texas by becoming the head coach of the Houston Gamblers. The Gamblers played spring football in the United States Football League. The Gamblers had one of the most potent offenses in pro football, the run and shoot offense, with Jim Kelly as quarterback. The Gamblers merged with the New Jersey Generals in 1986, and Pardee was named head coach. With Kelly and Doug Flutie both vying for the role of starting quarterback, and Herschel Walker in the backfield, the Generals were poised to dominate the USFL. But the league's attempted move to a fall schedule (at the behest of the Generals' owner, Donald Trump) ruined any chance of that. There would be no 1986 season, and the Generals, despite Trump's best efforts, disbanded with the rest of the league.

NCAA
Pardee returned to Houston in 1987, by becoming the head coach at the University of Houston. During his three year stint, the Cougars, utilizing the same offense he coached in the USFL, produced the first ever African-American quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy, Andre Ware. His team also became the first major college team in NCAA history to have over 1,000 total offensive yards in a single game, raking up 1,021 yards while beating SMU, 95–21.

Not long after Pardee's arrival, however, Houston was slapped with crippling NCAA sanctions due to numerous major violations under his predecessor, Bill Yeoman. Among them, the Cougars were banned from bowl games in 1989 and 1990 and kicked off live television in 1989. As a result, most of the nation never got a chance to see the Cougars set numerous offensive records during the 1989 season.

Second stint in the NFL
In 1990, Pardee packed up the run and shoot offense and moved across town, and back to the NFL, by joining the Houston Oilers. He spent five years coaching a team which made the playoffs each of his first four years there, led by Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon. After starting the 1994 season 1–9, Pardee resigned.

CFL
He continued his coaching career in the Canadian Football League. In 1995, he was named head coach of the Birmingham Barracudas. The "Cudas" were part of a failed experiment to expand the CFL into the United States. With Matt Dunigan at quarterback, Birmingham made the playoffs, but lost in the first round. After just one year, the Barracudas disbanded and all American teams, except Baltimore, were finished.

Return to coaching
In December 2007, Pardee, then 71, was contacted by athletic director Dave Maggard about the vacant head coaching job at the University of Houston. Signaling interest, he made it as far as a finalist for the position, however the school moved forward with Kevin Sumlin, 43, a co-offensive coordinator from the University of Oklahoma.

Personal life
Pardee has been married for 50 years to Phyllis Lane Perryman and has five children and 12 grandchildren. Pardee's youngest son, Ted, is the color commentator for the Houston Cougars football radio broadcasts, and is vice president of sales and marketing with Dowley Security Systems, Inc.