Joe Collier dies at 91

[Woodman]

Joe Collier, who coached the Bills for three years before serving for 17 seasons as defensive coordinator of the Broncos, has died. He was 91.

The Broncos announced Collier’s passing on Tuesday.

He was the architect of the 3-4 defense, and he helped the Broncos to Super Bowl appearances in 1977, 1986, and 1987.

He was defensive backs coach in Denver from 1969 through 1971, before becoming defensive coordinator in 1972. He stayed in that position through 1988. He later returned to the NFL in 1991, serving as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator for two seasons.

Collier coached the Bills from 1966 through 1968. In his first year, Buffalo went 9-4-1 and lost to the Chiefs in the AFL Championship, the game preceding the first Super Bowl.

[Historian]

[DetoxTent]

Buffalo Bills (1962–1968)[edit]

After spending two seasons as an assistant coach with the Boston Patriots of the brand new AFL,^[6] Collier joined the Buffalo Bills in 1962 as a defensive coach. The team won the 1965 AFL Championship Game over the San Diego Chargers with help from defensive alignments that Collier designed. One idea he came up with was similar to the modern zone blitz; Collier's defense featured defensive line players moving back to cover pass attempts.^[2]

Collier was promoted to head coach in 1966,^[3] after previous coach Lou Saban resigned.^[2] The Bills' best season under Collier came in his first year, when they won the Eastern Division with a 9–4–1 record, eventually losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL Championship Game.^[7] After coming within one game of an AFL championship, the team slumped to 4–10 in 1967.^[8]

After a poor performance by the Bills in a 1968 pre-season game, Collier set up a scrimmage for his team. During the practice session, quarterback Jack Kemp broke his right leg, an injury that forced him to undergo season-ending surgery.^[9] The Bills fired Collier after a 48–6 loss to the Oakland Raiders in the second week of the regular season.^[10]Sports Illustrated opined that "Collier's fate undoubtedly was decided..." by Kemp's injury.^[11]

91 years. Wow. That's a good long-life full of lots of football.

[YardRat]

...

His stint with the Bills was just before my time.

[Woodman]

RIP Joe

[notacon]

I remember Joe Collier's head coaching days....unfortunately. These were the darkest days of the Bills franchise. Period.

He was gifted a AFL Championship team, was one game away from gaining the right to go up as a sacrificial lamb against Green Bay in the first Super Bowl, and then started literally the worst 5 year stretch of the Bills (not all under Collier) going 13-55-2.

These dismal years of ineptness were almost all because of the crappy ownership of Ralph Wilson.

Ralph fired Collier two games into the 1968 season and replaced him with Harvey Johnson....literally the worst HC the Bills ever had, winning two games in his two stints as HC. His head coaching career record was 2-23-1.

Yeah....after Johnson took over for Collier (and proceeded to go 1-10-1) in 1968, Wilson hired John Rauch, quite possible the stupidest HC in history, who when OJ Simpson was drafted by the Bills in 1969 he used OJ as a "decoy" and thought it was a great idea to fake handing the ball to him and throwing it to OJ instead.

After two years of ****, with a 4-10 (1969) & 3-10-1 (1970) record, Ralph thought it was a good idea to bring Rauch back for a third year. A "dispute" between the two before the season started had Rauch resigning.

What does Ralph do????

Bring back the worst HC in Harvey Johnson again, which he proceeded to oversee the worst season in Bills history....1-13. In another example of total incompetence, the Bills used their #1 overall draft pick as a result of that **** year and drafted Walt Patulski, DE from Notre Dame. One of the biggest busts in Bills (and NFL) history. He played for only four years. Sucking in every one.

By all accounts, Joe Colier was a nice man and a brilliant defensive mind. Not a very good head coach. Sorry to say, his name reminds me of the worst years of the Bills franchise.

I am very happy that he found success in Denver. May he rest in peace.

[Woodman]

Collier was promoted to head coach in 1966,^[3] after previous coach Lou Saban resigned.^[2] The Bills' best season under Collier came in his first year, when they won the Eastern Division with a 9–4–1 record, eventually losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL Championship Game


Yes I was at that game anybody else?

[Woodman]

We were going for the three peat.

[notacon]

Collier was promoted to head coach in 1966,^[3] after previous coach Lou Saban resigned.^[2] The Bills' best season under Collier came in his first year, when they won the Eastern Division with a 9–4–1 record, eventually losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL Championship Game


Yes I was at that game anybody else?

We could not afford to go to any games. My dad put our crappy 19" B&W TV in the attic, attached some tin foil to the built in antennae so we could pull in the signal from Erie PA.

It was not a good game for Bills fans. KC crushed us 31-7.

[Woodman]

We could not afford to go to any games. My dad put our crappy 19" B&W TV in the attic, attached some tin foil to the built in antennae so we could pull in the signal from Erie PA.

It was not a good game for Bills fans. KC crushed us 31-7.

The opening kickoff was fielded by Dudley Meredith a new Bill a d-linemen .... he fumbled it at our 31 yard line .... 1st play on offense the Chiefs Lenny Dawson threw a 31 yard touchdown pass to TE Fred Arbanas.

My season tickets cost a total of 30 dollars.

7 regular season games and 3 pre-season.

14 games schedule and 6 pre-season games.

[notacon]

The opening kickoff was fielded by Dudley Meredith a new Bill a d-linemen .... he fumbled it at our 31 yard line .... 1st play on offense the Chiefs Lenny Dawson threw a 31 yard touchdown pass to TE Fred Arbanas.

My season tickets cost a total of 30 dollars.

7 regular season games and 3 pre-season.

14 games schedule and 6 pre-season games.

Well....$30 in 1966 is equivalent to $286 today.

A LOT cheaper than season tickets today, but that was a LOT of money for (basically) a poor kid in a family of seven when ever dollar was precious.

[Woodman]

download-10.jpg

Had one of these in 1971.

Price $3100.

Worked at Worthington Corp .... Clinton and Roberts.

[Woodman]

Well....$30 in 1966 is equivalent to $286 today.

A LOT cheaper than season tickets today, but that was a LOT of money for (basically) a poor kid in a family of seven when ever dollar was precious.

I shoveled snow and trapped for my money.

Usually 50 cents for an entire driveway.

Sometimes a quarter.

[notacon]

I shoveled snow and trapped for my money.

Usually 50 cents for an entire driveway.

Sometimes a quarter.

Yeah I did that too. Those were the days.

I had a Buffalo Courier Express....morning deliveries before school that started my love of reading newspapers....paper route and my first real job was stockboy at a neighborhood meat market/small grocery store. As low man on the stockboy totem pole I also had to deliver groceries using a bike with a big basket in front where groceries were packed in boxes.

A portion of my pay went to the family to help out. When I decided to forgo attending Bennett High School (it was a cauldron of gangs) and instead picked a small Catholic High School my older brother attended, I had to pay the $200 a year tuition (discounted because of low family income...equivalent of $1.600 today).

Tickets to sporting events (actually...ANY events) was very low on the priority list.