Marvin Daniel Levy (; born August 3, 1925) is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

, leading them from 1986 to 1997. Levy's first head coaching position was with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

(CFL) from 1973 to 1977, where he won two

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

titles. After five seasons coaching the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

, Levy helped the Bills become one of the most dominant American Football Conference (AFC) teams during the 1990s. His greatest success occurred between 1990 and 1993 when he led Buffalo to a record four consecutive Super Bowls, although each game ended in defeat. Levy concluded his head coaching career with 11 playoff victories and four Super Bowl appearances, both of which are the most of head coaches to not win an NFL championship. After retiring from coaching in 1997, Levy served as the general manager of the Bills from 2006 to 2007. He was inducted to the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coac ...

in 2001 and the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about ...

in 2021.

Early life

Levy was born to a Jewish family in Chicago on August 3, 1925. In 1943, the day after graduation from South Shore High School in Chicago, Levy enlisted in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. He served as a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while th ...

at Apalachicola Army Airfield in Florida, but the war ended before his unit deployed to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Though he was known to use historical examples to inspire his teams, Levy corrected those who used war and combat metaphors to describe football games by telling them that he actually fought in a war and that football and war were in no way comparable. Referring to the Super Bowl, he said "This is not a must-win; World War II was a must-win". Steve Tasker, who played for Levy on the Bills, said In later years, Levy became a supporter of the World War II Memorial and pushed for World War II veterans to be honored at Super Bowl LIV to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory in the war, noting that fewer than 3% of those who served in the war were still alive in 2020.

College years

Levy was initially recruited to the

Wyoming Cowboys football The Wyoming Cowboys football program represents the University of Wyoming in college football. They compete in the Mountain West Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I and have won 14 conference titles. The head coac ...

team as a defensive back. After the coach who recruited Levy left Wyoming, and Levy was displeased and exhausted by the following coach's round-the-clock training regimen, Levy transferred to Coe College in

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

following a single semester. There he earned varsity letters in football, track, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. He obtained a degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

, was granted membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and was twice voted student council president. He was also a member of the

Tau Kappa Epsilon Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an internat ...

fraternity. He was admitted to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

for graduate studies in 1951, earning a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in English history.

College coaching

Levy's first coaching job was at St. Louis Country Day School, coaching football and basketball, the latter of which he coached to a championship. Two years later, Levy returned to Coe College as an assistant football coach (1953–1954) and in his second stint as a head coach, he also won a championship—this time in basketball with future NBA Coach Bill Fitch as one of his players. In 1954, he joined the coaching staff at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25, ...

and was named head coach in 1958. In two seasons as head coach, he guided the Lobos to a 14–6 record and earned Skyline Conference Coach of the Year honors in 1958. He interviewed with the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

on February 2, 1960, and was announced as the new head coach of the Cal Bears on February 5, 1960. Despite selecting a young Bill Walsh as a coaching assistant, Levy's best record during his four-season tenure as head coach at Cal from 1960 to 1963 was 4–5–1. He finished his college coaching career with a five-year stint as head coach at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William II ...

where he twice earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors.

Professional football

Levy began his professional football coaching career in 1969 as kicking teams coach for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

before joining George Allen's staff as a

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

coach for the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

in 1970. He followed Allen to Washington, D.C. in 1971, where he served as the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

' special teams coach for two seasons. Levy then served as the head coach of the

of the

for five seasons. He coached Montreal to three CFL

appearances and two championships, and won the

Annis Stukus Trophy The Annis Stukus Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy, which is presented annually by the Edmonton Eskimos Alumni Association to the Coach of the Year, as determined by the members of the Football Reporters of Canada. The Trophy is named aft ...

(Coach of the Year) in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom K ...

. Levy returned to the NFL in 1978 as head coach of the

. He coached the Chiefs for five seasons with steady improvement each year, but was fired at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 season with a 3–6 record. Midway through the 1986 season, following a two-year hiatus from coaching and one season as the head coach of the Chicago Blitz of the

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

, Levy returned to the NFL with the

. Initially hired as a television analyst, Levy replaced Hank Bullough seven games into the regular season as head coach. He finished the season with a 2–5 record. In

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

, his first full season with the Bills, the team returned to respectability with a 7–8 record and were in the playoff hunt throughout most of the season. The following season the team posted a 12–4 record and won the first of six AFC Eastern Division titles. With his high-powered "no-huddle" offense, Levy's Bills went on to lead his AFC championship team to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, the most in league history. Each game ended in defeat, however, tying Levy with Bud Grant and

Dan Reeves Daniel Edward Reeves (January 19, 1944 – January 1, 2022) was an American football running back and coach in the National Football League (NFL). During his 38 years in the NFL, Reeves participated in nine Super Bowls, the third most for an ...

for the most Super Bowl appearances without a victory. From 1988 through 1997, the Bills were first in the AFC in winning percentage and second only to the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

in the NFL. Levy, the winningest coach in Bills' history, recorded a 112–70 regular season record and was 11–8 in the playoffs during his eleven seasons with the Bills. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1988 and AFC Coach of the Year in 1988,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

Coaching tree

Levy's

coaching tree A coaching tree is similar to a family tree except it shows the relationships of coaches instead of family members. There are several ways to define a relationship between two coaches. The most common way to make the distinction is if a coach wo ...

is among the largest of any NFL head coach; however, this is largely due to the fact that he once had Bill Walsh as an assistant and most of Walsh's assistants never worked under Levy. Among notable non-Walsh coaches are Wade Phillips, who succeeded Levy as the Bills' head coach and also served as head coach of the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

and

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

(along with interim coaching stints for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Texans), as well as former

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

and Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts coach Ted Marchibroda, and former

New York Sentinels New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

head coach Ted Cottrell. Wally Buono played under Levy in Montreal and went on to become one of the CFL's most successful coaches. Outspoken pundit

Chuck Dickerson Chuck "The Coach" Dickerson is a retired position coach in the National Football League and Canadian Football League and former sports radio host in Buffalo, New York. Dickerson earned All-American honors during his high school and college career a ...

worked under Levy for several years in Buffalo before being fired.

First retirement

Levy retired in 1997 and became an analyst for NFL.com. In 2001 Levy was elected to the

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes ...

. Along with former Bills' special-teamer Steve Tasker, Levy did local broadcasts for the Bills' pre-season games from 1998 until being appointed the Bills' general manager in 2006. During the regular season he was a part of the Chicago Bears pregame show on ESPN Radio 1000 (WMVP-AM), as well as a Bears postgame show on

Comcast SportsNet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origin ...

General manager

On January 5, 2006, Bills owner Ralph Wilson enlisted Levy, at the age of 80, to act as

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all ...

and

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is o ...

of football operations for the Buffalo Bills. Following the resignation of

Mike Mularkey Michael Rene Mularkey (born November 19, 1961) is a former American football coach and tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of Florida, and was drafted in the ninth round of the 1983 ...

, there was initial speculation (created by Levy's own comments at a team press conference) that Levy would resume a coaching role with the team. To eliminate this speculation, and to minimize any future tension between Levy and the Bills' new head coach, team owner Wilson said: "He was hired to be the GM and would never coach the team." Levy's first order of business was to hire a new coach as a replacement for Mularkey, who resigned within days of Levy's appointment. After a strenuous interview process Levy and team owner Wilson hired

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

interim head coach Dick Jauron as coach. Jauron had been head coach of the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

Second retirement

Following the Bills' last game of the 2007 season, Levy decided to step down as GM of the Bills (his two-year contract had expired). He has returned to live in his native Chicago, although he also spent some time in Montreal mentoring then-Alouettes head coach

Marc Trestman Marc Marlyn Trestman (born January 15, 1956) is an American football and Canadian football coach. He led the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) to back-to-back Grey Cup victories in 2009 and 2010, and another as head co ...

. Levy stated he would be open to returning to coaching if asked. He has also admittedly not paid much attention to professional football in the past several years as of 2017. In 2009, Levy collaborated with Buffalo football historian

Jeffrey J. Miller Jeffrey J. Miller (born 1961) is an American author and historian, best known for his work focusing on the history of professional football. His books include ''RELICS: The History of the Buffalo Bills in Objects & Memorabilia'', ''Pop Warner: ...

to write a book entitled ''Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills Football History''. In August 2011, Levy published a second book, ''Between the Lies'', featuring a team based loosely on the Bills (including a quarterback named "Kelly James") progressing to the Super Bowl against a Los Angeles-based team and its take-no-prisoners head coach, while a scandal erupts, placing the integrity of the game at risk. A lifelong

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

fan, Levy was among a select few people in attendance at both the

1945 World Series The 1945 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1945 season. The 42nd edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion Detroit Tigers against the National League champion Chicago Cubs. The ...

(which he attended while on furlough from the Army Air Forces) and the 2016 World Series. Levy's fourth book, the children's book ''Go Cubs Go'', is about the 2016 series. In 2020, Levy assisted The Friends of the National

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Memorial to convince NFL teams — and the league itself — to recognize the 75th anniversary of the war, honoring veterans at Super Bowl LIV in Miami. In 2021, he was inducted into the

. Levy made an in-person appearance at the Bills' 2022 home opener, participating in the pregame crowd warm-up alongside his former quarterback, Jim Kelly.

Family

He currently has a wife, Mary, a daughter, Kim. He also has two grandchildren Angela (oldest) and Gregory (youngest).

Head coaching record

College

Professional

Career highlights

* Won two of three CFL championships in five seasons while head coach of the Montreal Alouettes * Guided the Bills to six division championships (including four consecutive from 1988 to 1991) * Compiled a 17–6 record (14–6 in the regular season and 3–0 in the post-season) against the winningest coach in NFL history,

Don Shula Donald Francis Shula (January 4, 1930 – May 4, 2020) was an American football defensive back and coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) from 1963 to 1995. The head coach of the Miami Dolphins for most of his c ...

. He is one of only two coaches to have a winning record against Shula, the other being

Tom Flores Thomas Raymond Flores (born March 21, 1937) is a former American football coach and quarterback. After his retirement as a coach, he was a radio announcer for more than twenty years. Flores won a total of four Super Bowls in his playing and c ...

of the Raiders, who went 6–1 against him. * Compiled 209 CFL-NFL-USFL coaching victories (T12th in Pro Football History) * One of only 15 coaches to win 100 games with one NFL team * The only coach to compete in four Super Bowls in a row * Retired at the age of 72; tied with

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chi ...

as the oldest non-interim head coach in NFL history. * First USFL alumnus to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame * One of only two coaches to appear in both a Grey Cup Championship Game and the Super Bowl. The other is Bud Grant. * Oldest coach ever to win 12 games (age 68) and 10 games (age 71) *One of only 3 people to be enshrined in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame (NFL), and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Bibliography

* ''Marv Levy: Where Else Would You Rather Be?'', Sports Publishing, 2004. * ''Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills History'' (with Jeffrey Miller), Triumph Books, 2009. * ''Between the Lies'' (fiction), Ascend Books, 2011. * ''Go Cubs Go! Baseball's Never Give Up Story'' (children's, with George Castle, illustrated by Rob Peters), Ascend Books 2017.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Marv 1925 births Living people American football running backs Buffalo Bills announcers Buffalo Bills coaches Buffalo Bills executives Buffalo Bills head coaches California Golden Bears football coaches Coe Kohawks football coaches Coe Kohawks football players Coe Kohawks men's basketball coaches Coe Kohawks men's basketball players Kansas City Chiefs head coaches Los Angeles Rams coaches New Mexico Lobos football coaches Philadelphia Eagles coaches Players of American football from Chicago Washington Redskins coaches William & Mary Tribe football coaches National Football League general managers United States Football League announcers United States Football League coaches College men's track and field athletes in the United States High school basketball coaches in Missouri High school football coaches in Missouri Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees Harvard University alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Sportspeople from Chicago Jewish American sportspeople