The Jack Pardee Years

SmootSmack · 01-31-2008, 12:23 AM

This thread is more so for the backrows and longtimefans of this board. I've always been kind of curious as to what the Jack Pardee years (1978-1980) era was like in Washington, DC.

Seems to be like he wasn't too bad a coach, but he ultimately got run out of town because apparently he and Beathard weren't on the same page right?

Anyway, we always hear about George Allen and Joe Gibbs and for good reason. But I was hoping to get some first hand anecdotes of the Pardee years. Was he a good coach? Did the fans like him? The players? Could he have gotten the team to a SB if given a couple more years? What was his style?

Thanks

backrow · 01-31-2008, 01:19 AM

It was....................................short. Players and fans liked him, but the teams were old and lost too often.

Maybe the FO was against him, but us fans did not have the same inside info as we have in today's world, with the i-net, talk forums, blogs, and Redskin insider. All we really had was the local paper (VAPILOT), which by that time, I had stopped taking because it was and is trash.

I liked the Pardee story because he was a Skin Cancer survivor, and I remembered him from his hard hitting playing days as a Linebacker with the Rams.

SFREDSKIN · 01-31-2008, 01:20 AM

I thought Jack was a pretty good coach and made the team competitive. The problem with Jack is that he inherited an old team with a lack of first round picks and other high picks traded by George Allen during his "future is now" campaign. I liked Jack and was bummed that he got canned, who would have know at the time that his successor would come in and become a legend of the game.

SmootSmack · 01-31-2008, 01:20 AM

What was his coaching philosophy? Was he like a Schottenheimer?

SFREDSKIN · 01-31-2008, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

What was his coaching philosophy? Was he like a Schottenheimer?

He was a quiet but tough guy, he was different than George Allen and wasn't a rah,rah guy like Marty. Didn't show much emotion. His records were 8-8, 10-6, 6-10.

LRT · 01-31-2008, 04:29 AM

I was a kid during the Pardee era. In fact, that's when I first became a serious Skins fan. I remember that folks were excited because he had been a part of the Over-the-Hill-Gang himself as was known for hardnose defense. He was also coming off a playoff year in Chicago.

His first season in Washington, the Skins started 5-0. It was, I believe, Theismann's first year as the fulltime starter and the fans really started to rally around Joey T during that run. Then, they finished 3-8 and fans started calling for Kilmer. (And the kids think a QB controversy in Washington is a new thing!)

I remember that during Pardee's run the defense tended to the star but the defense itself had no "big names". John Riggins was just starting to emerge as the running back he'd later become under Gibbs, but we wasn't yet the star.

In Pardee's first year, we had the famous 9-5 Monday night victory over the Cowboys. In his second year, we were within one blown timeout call by the refs of beating the Cowboys in the last game of the season and winning the division. Then, Riggins sat out his last year and that was that.

Finally, I remember that when JKC fired Pardee the fans were outraged. The outrage only grew worse when he hired some baby-faced offensive coordinator from the pass-happy San Diego Chargers. Everyone dreaded the idea that this kid - Joe Gibbs - would undo Pardee's hard work. Hmm... That sounds familiar somehow...

BringBackJoeT · 01-31-2008, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LRT

I was a kid during the Pardee era. In fact, that's when I first became a serious Skins fan. I remember that folks were excited because he had been a part of the Over-the-Hill-Gang himself as was known for hardnose defense. He was also coming off a playoff year in Chicago.

His first season in Washington, the Skins started 5-0. It was, I believe, Theismann's first year as the fulltime starter and the fans really started to rally around Joey T during that run. Then, they finished 3-8 and fans started calling for Kilmer. (And the kids think a QB controversy in Washington is a new thing!)

I remember that during Pardee's run the defense tended to the star but the defense itself had no "big names". John Riggins was just starting to emerge as the running back he'd later become under Gibbs, but we wasn't yet the star.

In Pardee's first year, we had the famous 9-5 Monday night victory over the Cowboys. In his second year, we were within one blown timeout call by the refs of beating the Cowboys in the last game of the season and winning the division. Then, Riggins sat out his last year and that was that.

Finally, I remember that when JKC fired Pardee the fans were outraged. The outrage only grew worse when he hired some baby-faced offensive coordinator from the pass-happy San Diego Chargers. Everyone dreaded the idea that this kid - Joe Gibbs - would undo Pardee's hard work. Hmm... That sounds familiar somehow...

Yup, these were indeed the formative Redskin years for me, too, when Joe T became my hero. When Jack came on board, I was too young to have much of an opinion on whether it was a good choice. However, what was at least evident even to someone as young as me was that his personality was so starkly different from George Allen's (at least outside of the lockeroom). George Allen's last year is really as far back as my Redskin memories go--I remember the opening day comeback win agains the Giants, the 12-9 loss in their first visit to the Meadowlands, and the Saturday afternoon win against the Rams on the last day of the season, George's last game. With regard to Jack, I guess it's pretty telling, if you're looking for an overall analysis, that his 3 year record was 24-24. Pretty bland, although people with more vivid memories might take issue with that.

Luxorreb · 01-31-2008, 05:12 AM

difference being Gibbs is in Hall of Fame and Pardee coached a few years and got fired...

LRT · 01-31-2008, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luxorreb

difference being Gibbs is in Hall of Fame and Pardee coached a few years and got fired...

Not to compare Pardee to Gibbs... there simply is no comparison when it comes to coaching skill and leadership. However, I do think it's interesting that fan reactions tend to follow predictable paths...

djnemo65 · 01-31-2008, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luxorreb

difference being Gibbs is in Hall of Fame and Pardee coached a few years and got fired...

I think he's actually comparing Joe Gibbs to Jim Fassel

freddyg12 · 01-31-2008, 09:06 AM

This was when I first started to understand football a little & became a big Skins fan. I remember something was off about Pardee's time in DC, but I was too young to analyze anything beyond pure instinct. That said, I remember people talking about him. Seemed he came in as an odd contrast to Allen & it took people a while to warm up to him, but then people were surprised that he was fired.

Is it just me, or do some of the others here remember that fans & the general public used to be more upset when coaches were fired? I don't mean really upset, just that they showed more sympathy back then & a coach had to totally tank before people (other than in philly) called for his job.

SouperMeister · 01-31-2008, 11:37 AM

Pardee was ultimately too loyal to veterans that were his former teammates in the Over the Hill Gang. In '78, he led the Skins to a 6-0 record out of the gate before they faltered badly to finish 8-8. That may be the only time that a team started 6-0 and didn't make the playoffs.

'79 was his best team. The Skins went into Dallas the last week of the year at 10-5. With a win, they would have clinched the division. It looked great as they jumped to a 17-0 lead. Dallas chipped away, but midway through the 4th quarter, John Riggins rumbled for a 66 yard TD to put the Skins up 13. That is when Roger Staubach led the Cowboys back with 2 TD drives in the closing minutes - what made it even more heartbreaking was that the last wild card came down to a point differential tiebreaker, which kept the Skins out of the playoffs. Going from near certain division champs with a road win over our most hated rival to out of the playoffs altogether is to this day the most devastating loss that I've suffered as a Skins fan.

The most notable news from Pardee's last season was that Riggins held out for the entire season, and the team finished 6-10. Beathard's desire to turn over an aging roster won the day when Jack Kent Cooke fired Pardee and brought in Gibbs.

It's funny that Pardee became a run & shoot (Mouse Davis/June Jones) proponent as a college coach at Houston, because by and large, he was a pretty conservative coach here, having learned the ropes playing for George Allen.

skinsfan69 · 01-31-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

Pardee was ultimately too loyal to veterans that were his former teammates in the Over the Hill Gang. In '78, he led the Skins to a 6-0 record out of the gate before they faltered badly to finish 8-8. That may be the only time that a team started 6-0 and didn't make the playoffs.

'79 was his best team. The Skins went into Dallas the last week of the year at 10-5. With a win, they would have clinched the division. It looked great as they jumped to a 17-0 lead. Dallas chipped away, but midway through the 4th quarter, John Riggins rumbled for a 66 yard TD to put the Skins up 13. That is when Roger Staubach led the Cowboys back with 2 TD drives in the closing minutes - what made it even more heartbreaking was that the last wild card came down to a point differential tiebreaker, which kept the Skins out of the playoffs. Going from near certain division champs with a road win over our most hated rival to out of the playoffs altogether is to this day the most devastating loss that I've suffered as a Skins fan.

The most notable news from Pardee's last season was that Riggins held out for the entire season, and the team finished 6-10. Beathard's desire to turn over an aging roster won the day when Jack Kent Cooke fired Pardee and brought in Gibbs.

It's funny that Pardee became a run & shoot (Mouse Davis/June Jones) proponent as a college coach at Houston, because by and large, he was a pretty conservative coach here, having learned the ropes playing for George Allen.

OMG do you remember that game against Dallas in 79???? Roger S. just killed us that day. He pulled that win out all by himself and sent us home. One of the best Redskin Cowboy games of all time. Sucks that we lost though.

70Chip · 01-31-2008, 12:49 PM

He was pretty popular with the fans because he was seen as a natural successor to Allen, having played for him. They had a great team in 1979. They just couldn't shut the door on Dallas in that final game. You talk about the town being depressed on the Monday after a loss. That Monday was X1000. After that, Riggins headed for Kansas and the wheels sort of came off the 1980 season. At the end of that year, Ken Houston lost his starting job, and Pardee wouldn't let him start the final home game even though he was retiring and the fans all thought it would be a nice gesture since the season was in the crapper anyways. He took a lot of heat in the press over that. At least that's how I remember it. Plus, I THINK that Mr. Cooke took over the day to day control of the team from Ed Williams AFTER Pardee had been hired, so I'm not sure he was ever Cooke's guy. I could be wrong about that. The exact details of the ownership and management and who owns what percentage of Pro Football Inc. and so forth is a part of the story that they never quite get around to telling.

LRT · 01-31-2008, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 70Chip

He was pretty popular with the fans because he was seen as a natural successor to Allen, having played for him. They had a great team in 1979. They just couldn't shut the door on Dallas in that final game. You talk about the town being depressed on the Monday after a loss. That Monday was X1000. After that, Riggins headed for Kansas and the wheels sort of came off the 1980 season. At the end of that year, Ken Houston lost his starting job, and Pardee wouldn't let him start the final home game even though he was retiring and the fans all thought it would be a nice gesture since the season was in the crapper anyways. He took a lot of heat in the press over that. At least that's how I remember it. Plus, I THINK that Mr. Cooke took over the day to day control of the team from Ed Williams AFTER Pardee had been hired, so I'm not sure he was ever Cooke's guy. I could be wrong about that. The exact details of the ownership and management and who owns what percentage of Pro Football Inc. and so forth is a part of the story that they never quite get around to telling.

I think you're absolutely right about the day-to-day control. Growing up my family never had season tickets, so no regular season games, but my Dad and/or cousin always took me to a preseason game. I used to treasure the programs that they bought me at the games. I remember the '78 program highlighted Edward Bennett Williams as the "managing partner" or something like that. I don't even remember if Jack Kent Cooke was mentioned. Later, in '79 or '80, I remember the ownership page being all about the Squire. Of course, those are just the musty memories of middle-aged man.

01-31-2008, 12:23 AM	#1
SmootSmack Uncle Phil Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 45,256	The Jack Pardee Years This thread is more so for the backrows and longtimefans of this board. I've always been kind of curious as to what the Jack Pardee years (1978-1980) era was like in Washington, DC. Seems to be like he wasn't too bad a coach, but he ultimately got run out of town because apparently he and Beathard weren't on the same page right? Anyway, we always hear about George Allen and Joe Gibbs and for good reason. But I was hoping to get some first hand anecdotes of the Pardee years. Was he a good coach? Did the fans like him? The players? Could he have gotten the team to a SB if given a couple more years? What was his style? Thanks __________________ You're So Vain...You Probably Think This Sig Is About You

01-31-2008, 01:19 AM	#2
backrow The Starter Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: 36.28 x 76.22 Age: 73 Posts: 1,812	Re: The Jack Pardee Years It was....................................short. Players and fans liked him, but the teams were old and lost too often. Maybe the FO was against him, but us fans did not have the same inside info as we have in today's world, with the i-net, talk forums, blogs, and Redskin insider. All we really had was the local paper (VAPILOT), which by that time, I had stopped taking because it was and is trash. I liked the Pardee story because he was a Skin Cancer survivor, and I remembered him from his hard hitting playing days as a Linebacker with the Rams. __________________ '37, '42, '83, '88, '92. Championship!

01-31-2008, 01:20 AM	#3
SFREDSKIN Living Legend Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Pacifica, CA Posts: 15,164	Re: The Jack Pardee Years I thought Jack was a pretty good coach and made the team competitive. The problem with Jack is that he inherited an old team with a lack of first round picks and other high picks traded by George Allen during his "future is now" campaign. I liked Jack and was bummed that he got canned, who would have know at the time that his successor would come in and become a legend of the game. __________________ Joe Gibbs- The best coach of all time, Lombardi trophy should be renamed Gibbs. Art Monk- Art was like an OL playing WR, doing the dirty work and not getting the glory. Darrell Green- Best DB ever. Purveyor of fine Filth

01-31-2008, 01:20 AM	#4
SmootSmack Uncle Phil Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 45,256	Re: The Jack Pardee Years What was his coaching philosophy? Was he like a Schottenheimer? __________________ You're So Vain...You Probably Think This Sig Is About You

01-31-2008, 04:29 AM	#6
LRT Special Teams Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Springfield, VA Age: 58 Posts: 174	Re: The Jack Pardee Years I was a kid during the Pardee era. In fact, that's when I first became a serious Skins fan. I remember that folks were excited because he had been a part of the Over-the-Hill-Gang himself as was known for hardnose defense. He was also coming off a playoff year in Chicago. His first season in Washington, the Skins started 5-0. It was, I believe, Theismann's first year as the fulltime starter and the fans really started to rally around Joey T during that run. Then, they finished 3-8 and fans started calling for Kilmer. (And the kids think a QB controversy in Washington is a new thing!) I remember that during Pardee's run the defense tended to the star but the defense itself had no "big names". John Riggins was just starting to emerge as the running back he'd later become under Gibbs, but we wasn't yet the star. In Pardee's first year, we had the famous 9-5 Monday night victory over the Cowboys. In his second year, we were within one blown timeout call by the refs of beating the Cowboys in the last game of the season and winning the division. Then, Riggins sat out his last year and that was that. Finally, I remember that when JKC fired Pardee the fans were outraged. The outrage only grew worse when he hired some baby-faced offensive coordinator from the pass-happy San Diego Chargers. Everyone dreaded the idea that this kid - Joe Gibbs - would undo Pardee's hard work. Hmm... That sounds familiar somehow...

01-31-2008, 05:12 AM	#8
Luxorreb ^21^ Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Richmond, Virginia Age: 52 Posts: 1,630	Re: The Jack Pardee Years difference being Gibbs is in Hall of Fame and Pardee coached a few years and got fired... __________________ ^21^

01-31-2008, 09:06 AM	#11
freddyg12 Playmaker Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 4,540	Re: The Jack Pardee Years This was when I first started to understand football a little & became a big Skins fan. I remember something was off about Pardee's time in DC, but I was too young to analyze anything beyond pure instinct. That said, I remember people talking about him. Seemed he came in as an odd contrast to Allen & it took people a while to warm up to him, but then people were surprised that he was fired. Is it just me, or do some of the others here remember that fans & the general public used to be more upset when coaches were fired? I don't mean really upset, just that they showed more sympathy back then & a coach had to totally tank before people (other than in philly) called for his job.

01-31-2008, 11:37 AM	#12
SouperMeister Playmaker Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Leesburg, VA Age: 60 Posts: 3,419	Re: The Jack Pardee Years Pardee was ultimately too loyal to veterans that were his former teammates in the Over the Hill Gang. In '78, he led the Skins to a 6-0 record out of the gate before they faltered badly to finish 8-8. That may be the only time that a team started 6-0 and didn't make the playoffs. '79 was his best team. The Skins went into Dallas the last week of the year at 10-5. With a win, they would have clinched the division. It looked great as they jumped to a 17-0 lead. Dallas chipped away, but midway through the 4th quarter, John Riggins rumbled for a 66 yard TD to put the Skins up 13. That is when Roger Staubach led the Cowboys back with 2 TD drives in the closing minutes - what made it even more heartbreaking was that the last wild card came down to a point differential tiebreaker, which kept the Skins out of the playoffs. Going from near certain division champs with a road win over our most hated rival to out of the playoffs altogether is to this day the most devastating loss that I've suffered as a Skins fan. The most notable news from Pardee's last season was that Riggins held out for the entire season, and the team finished 6-10. Beathard's desire to turn over an aging roster won the day when Jack Kent Cooke fired Pardee and brought in Gibbs. It's funny that Pardee became a run & shoot (Mouse Davis/June Jones) proponent as a college coach at Houston, because by and large, he was a pretty conservative coach here, having learned the ropes playing for George Allen.

01-31-2008, 12:49 PM	#14
70Chip Playmaker Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Manassas Age: 53 Posts: 3,048	Re: The Jack Pardee Years He was pretty popular with the fans because he was seen as a natural successor to Allen, having played for him. They had a great team in 1979. They just couldn't shut the door on Dallas in that final game. You talk about the town being depressed on the Monday after a loss. That Monday was X1000. After that, Riggins headed for Kansas and the wheels sort of came off the 1980 season. At the end of that year, Ken Houston lost his starting job, and Pardee wouldn't let him start the final home game even though he was retiring and the fans all thought it would be a nice gesture since the season was in the crapper anyways. He took a lot of heat in the press over that. At least that's how I remember it. Plus, I THINK that Mr. Cooke took over the day to day control of the team from Ed Williams AFTER Pardee had been hired, so I'm not sure he was ever Cooke's guy. I could be wrong about that. The exact details of the ownership and management and who owns what percentage of Pro Football Inc. and so forth is a part of the story that they never quite get around to telling. __________________ This Monkey's Gone to Heaven

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The Jack Pardee Years

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