Don Parmley obit

Don Parmley remembered 

 

He was not on the list.

Notable banjo player and distinguished baritone singer Freeman D. “Don” Parmley passed away on July 30, 2016, after experiencing complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Parmley was born on October 19, 1933, in Monticello, Kentucky.

As a 12-year-old he began learning claw-hammer/drop thumb banjo from his grandfather, but it was the driving three-finger banjo style of Earl Scruggs that he heard on the Grand Ol’ Opry that soon led to him taking up that method of picking the 5-string. Playing firstly just for family entertainment, Parmley quickly made a name for himself in the region, securing stints with popular touring groups of the era such as Carl Story and Hylo Brown.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was trained as a tank driver, but it wasn’t long before his musical talents became known among the ranks and his duties were expanded to provide music from “back home” to entertain his fellow troops. After his discharge, Don returned home and on May 26, 1956, he married Betty Jean Abbott.

Faced with a severe shortage of employment opportunities in south central Kentucky, the Parmleys soon moved west to southern California where Don found a steady job and entry into a welcoming music community.

He performed with the Golden State Boys regarded at the time as the top bluegrass band in the region.  As well Parmley, the Hillmen featured future Country music icon Vern Gosdin and his brother Rex, noted for his song-writing skills. 18-year-old mandolin prodigy Chris Hillman joined late in 1963.

The band subsequently became known as The Blue Diamond Boys and then the Hillmen.

The best known album from the quartet was the Together album, The Hillmen (ST-T 1012) that was re-issued by Sugar Hill Records (SH 3719) in 1981.

Also, Parmley recorded with Glen Campbell, Doug Dillard and Billy Strange, the last named helped Parmley with an album mixing ‘Blue Grass and Folk Blues’, according to LP’s sleeve, as the duo played 5-string banjo and 12-string guitar (GNP Crescendo, GNP 94).

From 1964 he played the banjo for the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies, contributing background music to the show throughout its nine seasons.

In 1974 Don Parmley formed the Bluegrass Cardinals with his 15-year-old son David (lead vocals and guitar) and tenor singer and mandolin player Randy Graham.

The band’s calling card was their eponymous LP for Sierra Briar (SBR-4205, released in 1976) that prompted the Parmley family and the Bluegrass Cardinals to move east to settle in Virginia where they quickly established themselves as a top name on the bluegrass festival circuit, charming audiences with their solid, tasteful picking and beautiful vocal harmonies.

According to the band’s manager/agent, the late Lance Leroy, a noted bluegrass and early country music historian, the Bluegrass Cardinals were the first bluegrass band to record bluegrass Gospel a cappella style. Many bands performed in that style long before but, for whatever reason, they didn’t record in that style.

Their popularity led to a deal with Rounder Records that produced one LP Welcome to Virginia (Rounder 0097).

In all the Bluegrass Cardinals recorded prolifically during their 25-years existence; with five excellent LPs for Martin Haerle’s CMH label; Livin’ in the Good Old Days (CMH 6229), Cardinal Soul (CMH 6235), Sunday Mornin’ Singin’ (CMH 6247), Live & on Stage: the Bluegrass Cardinals with Special Guests (CMH 9023) and Where Rainbows Touch Down (CMH 6259).

In November 2002 CMH issued a 24-track compilation CD The Essential Bluegrass Cardinals: The Definitive Collection (CMH 8415).

During the mid-1980s in partnership with Sugar Hill Records the band released three LPs; Cardinal Class (SH 3731), Home is Where the Heart Is (SH 3741) and Shining Path (SH 3751).

Latterly, the Bluegrass Cardinals issued albums on their own label. On Stage in Nashville [at the Station Inn] (BGC 1001) was quickly followed by New and Old Favorites (BGC 1002), What have You done for Him? (BGC 1004), My Kinda Grass (BGC 1005) and Mountain Girl (BGC 1006).

In 2006 the band released a two-fer, On Stage in Nashville & New & Old Favorites (BGR-1001).

A landmark recording project pitched Don and David Parmley with Del, his sons Ronnie and Robbie McCoury for Parmley & McCoury – Families of Tradition (BGC 1003). The CD won the IBMA’s Recorded Event of the Year award for 1991.

Under Parmley’s leadership, the Bluegrass Cardinals provided a learning ground and springboard for the careers of Dale Perry, Mike Hartgrove, Larry Stephenson, Norman Wright, Bill Bryson, Barry Berrier, Warren Blair, Don Rigsby and Ernie Sykes.

Parmley retired from full-time touring in 1997, settling in Franklin County, Virginia.

In April 2007 a ‘Day with Don Parmley’ was held in Wayne County, Kentucky. The event featured some great musical performances and a chance for local residents to spend time with Parmley. Signs stating “Welcome to Wayne County, Home of Don Parmley, Founding Member of the Bluegrass Cardinals” were erected on KY 90 at the Clinton and Pulaski county lines.

At Parmley’s funeral Eddie Stubbs asserted ….

“The Bluegrass Cardinals rose very quickly to become a very important product of their time, the late 1970’s and all through the 1980’s.

Their standard of excellence on record and in person was second to none. There was a lot of complexity within the Bluegrass Cardinals’ music, made in three-chord songs they were doing, but it was that complexity within the simplicity that made that music so great.

It’s only a matter of time, I feel like, before the International Bluegrass Music Association recognizes the Bluegrass Cardinals with an induction into its hall of fame. What Don and David Parmley did, and their vision and the music that they made, was extraordinary.”

Joe Powell obit

Joe Powell, stuntman – obituary

 

He was not on the list.

After stuntman Joe Powell accepted a £50 job to jump out of a plane clutching a dummy, his disappearance to the loo for an inordinate amount of time fuelled speculation he had lost his nerve.

Nothing could have been further from the truth: the veteran commando, whose daredevil credits include three Bond films and an account of the D-Day Landings he had fought in, was simply trying to figure out how the parachute fitted. He had never leapt out of a plane before.

It was utterly typical of the way he worked – on the hoof, to make the sequence more authentic.

“You don’t have time to be scared,” he once explained. “If you stop to think about what you are doing you wouldn’t do it. These days you still see stuntmen falling off cliffs and going straight into a perfect dive. I didn’t have any training so when I performed a stunt the audience were literally seeing someone fall off a cliff – it made it more realistic.”

Though he didn’t have any formal training for the stunt world of the movies, he had a head start courtesy of the gruelling regime the commandos had to conquer as they were put through their paces in the Highlands during the Second World War.

Powell, the son of public house proprietors Joseph Augustus Horatio Powell and his wife Ada, was born at the Shepherd and Flock pub in London’s Shepherd’s Bush. One of six children – his brother Eddie also became a stuntman – he learned to box as a young boy and joined the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers Cadet Corps.

After leaving school at 14 he signed up for the Grenadier Guards in 1939, aged 17, and trained at Chelsea Barracks. He was posted to Troon in Ayrshire after volunteering for the Special Forces and served with No 4 Commando under Lord Lovat. He learned mountain warfarefrom a base camp at Braemar but from 1942 the Commando training centre was at Achnacarry in the West Highlands, a forbidding establishment known as Castle Commando.

All recruits were expected to be at peak physical fitness at all times and in fighting order – able to run and march seven miles in an hour. Such high standards were maintained through punishing exercises with live ammunition and explosives, often in appalling weather conditions. They also needed to be experts in a range of skills including unarmed combat, seamanship, demolition and sabotage plus cliff and mountain climbing – no cliffs are insurmountable, they were told.

It was all perfect preparation for a life beyond soldiering. However he didn’t fall into his new role until he had seen extensive action in Europe, been Mentioned in Dispatches and won the Croix de Guerre.

He took part in Operation Abercrombie, a reconnaissance raid near Boulogne, in April 1942, manning an anti-tank gun from an assault landing craft. Lord Lovat received the Military Cross for the operation. Then 4 Commando’s next major raid was at Dieppe that August. And in June 1944 Powell was part of Operation Overlord, the D-Day Landings. They were the first commandos to reach the beach and stormed the heavy fortifications of Ouistreham (Sword Beach) taking out several gun positions. He was photographed that day helping to carry a wounded colleague.

Then in November that year he took part in Operation Infatuate, the attack on Flushing. By this time they were veterans of amphibious assaults, Powell was seconded to a Marine Commando unit for the mission and landed at Walcheren, with the aim of silencing the enemy guns that were hindering their passage from the Scheldt river estuary to the port of Antwerp which was in the hands of the Germans.

He spent most of the remainder of the war on patrol duties but was also involved in fighting the Nazi Werwolf troops, who were determined to continue the battle even after the German surrender, and guarding POW camps holding concentration camp personnel. He had reached the rank of sergeant and, in his spare time, had also learned to ride in Germany.

His stunt career began when a chance meeting at a bus stop with actor Dennis Price led to him being invited to Shepherd’s Bush studios. Price had indicated that the studios were looking for some strapping chaps for a film. Powell turned up, asked with some trepidation for Price, who unbeknown to him was already an established actor, and was then taken on as an extra. Bit parts in various films followed but he was paid more to ride a motorbike into a tree. He spotted a gap in the market and, along with former SAS hero Jock Easton, founded the country’s first professional stunt team.

Powell worked on scores of films including The Guns of Navarone, The Longest Day, Zulu, The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare. In the 1975 film The Man Who Would Be King he performed a death-defying stunt for Sean Connery, walking a rope bridge, launching himself 100ft down a cliff and landing on a tiny shelf. Michael Caine reportedly couldn’t watch it and director John Huston said it was “the darndest stunt” he’d ever seen. It was named one of the ten greatest stunts.

He performed other high falls for: A Night to Remember, filmed partly in Clydebank; The Guns of Navarone when he plunged 90ft into the sea; Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, when he plummeted 60ft. He was a double for Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins and Telly Savalas, among others.

Powell, who lived latterly in St Leonards-on-Sea, suffered various broken bones and was killed off spectacularly in numerous films. As he once said, after a particularly trying stunt, what a way to make a living.

Married twice, he was predeceased by his wives, Marguerite, known as Clem, and Juliet, and his daughter Shelley. He is survived by his sons John, Nick, Julian, Alex and daughter Penelope.

Stunts

Sigourney Weaver and Michael Caine in Half Moon Street (1986)

Half Moon Street

5.4

stunt arranger

1986

 

Roger Moore, Tanya Roberts, and Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill (1985)

A View to a Kill

6.3

stunt arranger (uncredited)

1985

 

Top Secret! (1984)

Top Secret!

7.2

stunt arranger

stunt performer (uncredited)

1984

 

Murder: Ultimate Grounds for Divorce (1984)

Murder: Ultimate Grounds for Divorce

4.5

fight arranger

1984

 

The Final Option (1982)

The Final Option

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1982

 

Brian Blessed, Max von Sydow, and Sam J. Jones in Flash Gordon (1980)

Flash Gordon

6.5

stunts (uncredited)

1980

 

Lewis Collins, Gordon Jackson, and Martin Shaw in The Professionals (1977)

The Professionals

8.0

TV Series

stunts

1980

1 episode

 

James Mason, Roger Moore, and Anthony Perkins in North Sea Hijack (1980)

North Sea Hijack

6.3

stunts (uncredited)

1980

 

James Mason, Anthony Quinn, Kay Lenz, and Paul Clemens in The Passage (1979)

The Passage

6.0

stunt arranger

1979

 

Caravans (1978)

Caravans

5.9

stunts (uncredited)

1978

 

Death on the Nile (1978)

Death on the Nile

7.3

stunts (uncredited)

1978

 

John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in The Sweeney (1975)

The Sweeney

8.1

TV Series

stunts

1975–1978

2 episodes

 

Golden Rendezvous (1977)

Golden Rendezvous

5.4

stunt arranger

1977

 

Barry Foster in Van der Valk (1972)

Van der Valk

7.0

TV Series

stunt arranger

1977

2 episodes

 

Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips in Valentino (1977)

Valentino

6.1

stunts (uncredited)

1977

 

The Squeeze (1977)

The Squeeze

6.3

stunts (uncredited)

1977

 

Peter Cushing, Doug McClure, and Caroline Munro in At the Earth's Core (1976)

At the Earth's Core

5.0

stunt arranger (uncredited)

1976

 

Sean Connery and Michael Caine in The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

The Man Who Would Be King

7.7

stunt double: Sean Connery

stunts (uncredited)

1975

 

The Land That Time Forgot (1974)

The Land That Time Forgot

5.6

stunts

1974

 

Jon Voight and Mary Tamm in The Odessa File (1974)

The Odessa File

7.0

stunts (uncredited)

1974

 

11 Harrowhouse (1974)

11 Harrowhouse

6.2

stunt adviser

stunt arranger

1974

 

The MacKintosh Man (1973)

The MacKintosh Man

6.3

stunts (uncredited)

1973

 

Sidney Poitier and Ester Anderson in A Warm December (1973)

A Warm December

6.1

stunts (uncredited)

1973

 

Fear Is the Key (1972)

Fear Is the Key

6.3

stunts (uncredited)

1972

 

Young Winston (1972)

Young Winston

6.7

stunts (uncredited)

1972

 

Michael Caine, Omar Sharif, and Florinda Bolkan in The Last Valley (1971)

The Last Valley

7.0

stunts (uncredited)

1971

 

Peter O'Toole in Murphy's War (1971)

Murphy's War

6.7

stunts (uncredited)

1971

 

The Last Grenade (1970)

The Last Grenade

5.3

stunts (uncredited)

1970

 

Hell Boats (1970)

Hell Boats

5.5

stunt coordinator

stunts (uncredited)

1970

 

Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, and George Lazenby in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

6.7

stunt double: Blofeld (uncredited)

1969

 

Mosquito Squadron (1969)

Mosquito Squadron

5.7

stunts (uncredited)

1969

 

Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, and Mary Ure in Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Where Eagles Dare

7.6

stunt arranger

stunts (uncredited)

1968

 

Great Catherine (1968)

Great Catherine

5.3

stunts (uncredited)

1968

 

Attack on the Iron Coast (1968)

Attack on the Iron Coast

5.5

stunts (uncredited)

1968

 

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

The Dirty Dozen

7.7

stunts

1967

 

Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice (1967)

You Only Live Twice

6.8

stunt rigger

stunts (uncredited)

1967

 

Africa: Texas Style (1967)

Africa: Texas Style

5.3

stunts (uncredited)

1967

 

Casino Royale (1967)

Casino Royale

5.0

stunts (uncredited)

1967

 

Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, and Roberta Tovey in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)

Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

5.9

stunts

1966

 

Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier in Khartoum (1966)

Khartoum

6.8

stunts (uncredited)

1966

 

Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Senta Berger, and Yul Brynner in Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)

Cast a Giant Shadow

6.3

stunts (uncredited)

1966

 

The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

The Heroes of Telemark

6.5

stunts (uncredited)

1965

 

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965)

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes

7.0

stunts (uncredited)

1965

 

Anthony Quinn and James Coburn in A High Wind in Jamaica (1965)

A High Wind in Jamaica

6.5

stunt double: Anthony Quinn (uncredited)

1965

 

Mister Moses (1965)

Mister Moses

6.1

stunts (uncredited)

1965

 

Vincent Price in The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

The Masque of the Red Death

6.9

stunts (uncredited)

1964

 

633 Squadron (1964)

633 Squadron

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1964

 

Zulu (1964)

Zulu

7.7

stunt arranger

stunt double: Jack Hawkins

stunts (uncredited)

1964

 

Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963)

Cleopatra

7.0

stunts (uncredited)

1963

 

Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Peter O'Toole, José Ferrer, and Jack Hawkins in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Lawrence of Arabia

8.3

stunts (uncredited)

1962

 

Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Sean Connery, Sal Mineo, Eddie Albert, Richard Beymer, Red Buttons, Jeffrey Hunter, Roddy McDowall, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, Paul Anka, Arletty, Mel Ferrer, Steve Forrest, Gert Fröbe, Fabian, Jean-Louis Barrault, Bourvil, Ray Danton, Irina Demick, Leo Genn, Henry Grace, John Gregson, Paul Hartmann, Werner Hinz, Curd Jürgens, Alexander Knox, Peter Lawford, Christian Marquand, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Ron Randell, Madeleine Renaud, Robert Ryan, Tommy Sands, Richard Todd, Tom Tryon, Peter van Eyck, and Stuart Whitman in The Longest Day (1962)

The Longest Day

7.7

stunts (uncredited)

1962

 

Billy Budd (1962)

Billy Budd

7.8

stunts (uncredited)

1962

 

David Niven, Gregory Peck, and Anthony Quinn in The Guns of Navarone (1961)

The Guns of Navarone

7.5

stunt coordinator

stunt double: Anthony Quinn

stunts (uncredited)

1961

 

"Exodus" (Saul Bass Poster) 1960 Columbia Pictures

Exodus

6.7

stunts (uncredited)

1960

 

A Night to Remember (1958)

A Night to Remember

7.9

stunts: High fall into water

1958

 

The Steel Bayonet (1957)

The Steel Bayonet

6.2

stunts (uncredited)

1957

 

Gordon Scott in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957)

Tarzan and the Lost Safari

5.7

stunt coordinator (uncredited)

1957

 

Anita Ekberg and Victor Mature in Zarak (1956)

Zarak

5.5

stunts (uncredited)

1956

 

Gregory Peck in Moby Dick (1956)

Moby Dick

7.3

stunts (uncredited)

1956

 

Alexander the Great (1956)

Alexander the Great

5.8

stunts (uncredited)

1956

 

Helen of Troy (1956)

Helen of Troy

6.1

stunts (uncredited)

1956

 

The Master of Ballantrae (1953)

The Master of Ballantrae

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1953

 

The Crimson Pirate (1952)

The Crimson Pirate

7.1

stunts (uncredited)

1952

 

Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo in Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)

Captain Horatio Hornblower

7.3

stunts (uncredited)

1951

 

Robert Newton in Waterfront Women (1950)

Waterfront Women

6.4

stunts (uncredited)

1950

 

The Spider and the Fly (1949)

The Spider and the Fly

6.7

stunt performer (uncredited)

1949

 

The Hideout (1948)

The Hideout

6.3

stunts (uncredited)

1948

 

Actor

Top Secret! (1984)

Top Secret!

7.2

Underwater Cowboy (uncredited)

1984

 

Golden Rendezvous (1977)

Golden Rendezvous

5.4

Male Nurse

1977

 

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

The Pink Panther Strikes Again

7.1

Taxi Passenger

1976

 

Nigel Davenport, Maurice Roëves, and Michael Witney in Oil Strike North (1975)

Oil Strike North

6.0

TV Series

Mate

1975

1 episode

 

11 Harrowhouse (1974)

11 Harrowhouse

6.2

Hickey

1974

 

Michael Caine, Omar Sharif, and Florinda Bolkan in The Last Valley (1971)

The Last Valley

7.0

Kaas (uncredited)

1971

 

Attack on the Iron Coast (1968)

Attack on the Iron Coast

5.5

Commando Sergeant (uncredited)

1968

 

The Avengers (1961)

The Avengers

8.3

TV Series

Martin (uncredited)

1967

1 episode

 

The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

The Heroes of Telemark

6.5

Quisling (uncredited)

1965

 

The Brigand of Kandahar (1965)

The Brigand of Kandahar

5.4

Color Sergeant

1965

 

Zulu (1964)

Zulu

7.7

Sgt. Windridge

1964

 

Heidi Brühl and Guy Williams in Captain Sindbad (1963)

Captain Sindbad

5.5

1963

 

The World's Greatest Sinner (1962)

The World's Greatest Sinner

6.3

Follower

1962

 

Peter Cushing, Maureen Connell, and Forrest Tucker in The Abominable Snowman (1957)

The Abominable Snowman

6.4

Yeti (uncredited)

1957

 

Wendell Corey, Margaret Lockwood, Ronald Shiner, and Forrest Tucker in Laughing Anne (1953)

Laughing Anne

5.8

Pierre

1953

 

Cardboard Cavalier (1949)

Cardboard Cavalier

5.9

Rider (uncredited)

1949

 

Casting Department

Genghis Khan (1965)

Genghis Khan

5.8

extras casting (uncredited)

1965

 

55 Days at Peking (1963)

55 Days at Peking

6.7

extras casting (uncredited)

1963

 

William Holden and Nancy Kwan in The World of Suzie Wong (1960)

The World of Suzie Wong

6.9

extras casting (uncredited)

1960

 

Ingrid Bergman, Robert Donat, and Curd Jürgens in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

7.2

extras casting (uncredited)

1958

Buddy Ryan obit

Buddy Ryan, Combative Defensive Genius in the N.F.L., Dies at 85

He was not on the list.

Buddy Ryan, pro football’s famously combative defensive innovator, who helped propel the Jets and the Chicago Bears to Super Bowl championships, died on Tuesday in Shelbyville, Ky. Although listed as 82 in some accounts, he was 85.

His death was confirmed by the Buffalo Bills; Rex, the former Jets’ head coach, is now their head coach, and his twin, Rob, is an assistant with the team.

James Solano, Buddy Ryan’s agent, said that Ryan owned a ranch in Shelbyville. He had been treated for cancer in recent years.

In his seven years as a head coach, with the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals, Ryan never won a playoff game. But he had already solidified his legacy as an assistant coach with his shifting and blitzing defensive alignments, which confused and clobbered opposing quarterbacks. His bruising “46” defense, in particular, took the Bears to their 1986 Super Bowl victory.

For all his football intellect, Ryan embraced pure aggression.

“It got mean, cruel,” defensive end Gerry Philbin, who played under Ryan at the University at Buffalo and on the Jets, once told Sports Illustrated. “I’ve never seen anyone better at bringing the animal out of you. If you didn’t hit as hard as he wanted, he’d humiliate you in front of everyone. Guys like me loved him, though. He was just so brutally honest.”

When Ryan became the Eagles’ head coach in 1986 and subjected his players to punishing drills in training camp, he spoke of his mind-set.

“They probably think I’m a no-good so-and-so,” he told The New York Times. “But that’s all right. That breeds closeness as a team. That way they can all dislike the same guy.”

His son Rex, having earned a reputation for brashness in his own right while coaching the Jets from 2009 to 2014, wrote in a memoir, “Play Like You Mean It” (2011), that he grew up “wanting to be Buddy Ryan,” though he acknowledged that his father “was a little over the top from time to time.”

While he was the Bears’ defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan largely ignored Mike Ditka, his presumed boss as the head coach, concluding that Ditka, once a brilliant tight end, knew nothing about defense. In 1985 they almost came to blows in the locker room during halftime of the Bears’ loss to the Miami Dolphins, the team’s only defeat that season.

In 1989, the Cowboys accused Ryan of offering bounties of a few hundred dollars to any of his Eagles players who knocked the Dallas kicker, Luis Zendejas, and quarterback Troy Aikman out of the Thanksgiving Day game, which Philadelphia won 27-0. Both players were roughed up in the game.

Zendejas, who had previously been cut by the Eagles, called Ryan “the fat little guy” and denounced him as essentially a coward. Ryan, a bit paunchy and bespectacled, denied offering bounties, and a league investigation could not substantiate the accusations.

When Ryan was the Houston Oilers’ defensive coordinator in 1993, he punched the team’s offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, in the face during a playoff game against the Jets, incensed that Gilbride’s disdain for ball control kept Ryan’s defenders on the field too long.

Ryan broke into professional football as the defensive line coach for the 1968 Jets, who shocked the football world and provided credibility for their American Football League by upsetting the N.F.L.’s Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

 

Working with Walt Michaels, the Jets’ defensive coordinator, Ryan developed the seeds of his “46” defense. That scheme flourished with the 1985 Bears, who went 15-1 in the regular season, won two playoff games by shutouts and routed the New England Patriots, 46-10, in the Super Bowl.

Named for the hard-nosed and frequently blitzing safety Doug Plank, who wore No. 46 playing for the Bears in Ryan’s first few seasons as defensive coordinator, the plan put as many as eight men on the defensive line to foil the opponents’ blocking plays, and it sprang blitzes by just about anyone. The aim was to pressure the opposing quarterback or knock him out of the game.

Ryan hoped to find out “who the second-string quarterback was,” he said.

N.F.L. teams eventually developed spread offenses to counter the “46,” which featured stars like Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton and Richard Dent, but the alignment survives in various forms.

Ron Jaworski, a former N.F.L. quarterback and an ESPN commentator, wrote in his book “The Games That Changed the Game” (2010, with David Plaut and Greg Cosell) that Ryan’s “46” was “the single most influential factor in shaping modern NFL blitz pressure packages.”

James David Ryan was born on Feb. 17, 1931, in Frederick, Okla., where his father was a house painter. (His birth year was often listed as 1934; as Rex Ryan said in his memoir, his father had subtracted a few years from his true age to come off as more youthful when first looking for an N.F.L. job.)

Buddy Ryan served in combat as a master sergeant during the Korean War, then played guard at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) and coached high school football in Texas.

He was an assistant coach at the University at Buffalo, Vanderbilt and the University of the Pacific before joining the New York Jets’ staff under Coach Weeb Ewbank.

Following eight years with the Jets, Ryan was an assistant to Coach Bud Grant for two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, overseeing the Purple People Eaters defense that helped take the Vikings to the 1977 Super Bowl, where they lost to the Oakland Raiders.

In 1978, George Halas brought in Ryan as defensive coordinator. With the Bears, Ryan created the 46 defense, named after then Bears safety Doug Plank, but it wasn't until 1981 that the scheme was perfected. This was due in large part to Mike Singletary's ability to single-handedly dominate the middle of the field. The defensive players were so loyal to Ryan that when Bears head coach Neill Armstrong was fired in 1982, the defensive players urged owner George Halas to name Ryan head coach or at least have the new coach keep Ryan as defensive coordinator. Ultimately, Mike Ditka was hired as the head coach. Ryan and Ditka "feuded openly", though Ditka mostly left the defense in Ryan's hands "Ditka challenged Ryan to a fight during halftime" of the Bears' 1985 matchup versus the Miami Dolphins, with the team at 12–0 and trailing 31–10 in a nationally televised Monday Night Football broadcast. "The guys on the team had to separate them—the offense getting Ditka away from Ryan and defensive guys holding Buddy." The Bears went on to lose the game 38–24, which was their only loss of the season. However, the team would go on to Super Bowl XX where they would dominate the New England Patriots 46–10. The Bears defense carried Ryan off the field on their shoulders "...right behind Mike Ditka", who was also being carried off the field. This was the first time two coaches were ever carried off the field at the Super Bowl.

The Bears defense set several NFL records in 1985, and led the league in turnovers forced and surrendered the fewest yards, points, and first downs.

That offseason, Ryan was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles as their head coach. Ryan released running back Earnest Jackson, who had rushed for more than 1,000 yards in both of the previous two seasons, and limited the playing time of veteran quarterback Ron Jaworski. Ryan coached players such as Randall Cunningham, Reggie White, and Andre Waters and drafted Pro Bowlers Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, Eric Allen, Cris Carter, Fred Barnett, and Keith Jackson. The Eagles made the playoffs in 1988, 1989, and 1990.

On October 25, 1987, he came under fire after a game against the Dallas Cowboys by scoring a touchdown in the final seconds, when the outcome was no longer in doubt. This was apparently Ryan's revenge against Dallas head coach Tom Landry, who Ryan felt had run up the score against the Eagles' replacement players during the 1987 players' strike, using many of the Cowboys players that had crossed the picket line.[25] The controversy marred a season in which the Eagles improved to 7-8, which included a 31-27 win over the eventual Super Bowl champion Redskins at Veterans Stadium.

Members of the vaulted 1985 Bears defense include Wilbur Marshall, Otis Wilson, Mike Singletary, Dave Duerson, Gary Fencik, William "the Refrigerator" Perry, Dan Hampton, Richard Dent, Steve McMichael, Shaun Gayle, Leslie Frazier, Mike Richardson and Ron Rivera. The team had an adequate offense led by Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, Jimbo Covert, Kevin Butler, Matt Suhey, Steve Fuller, Willie Gault, Tom Thayer, Mark Bortz, Keith Van Horne and Jay Hilgenburg.  

Players who played for Ryan with the Eagles and Cardinals of note were: Keith Byars, Randall Cunningham, Anthony Toney, Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Ron Jaworski, Matt Cavanaugh, Mike Quick, Reggie White, John Spagnola, Bobby Duckworth, Wes Hopkins, Jerome Brown, Chris Carter, Jimmie Giles, Andre Waters, Todd Bell, Keith Jackson, Eric Allen, Dave Rimington, Roger Ruzek, Mike Golic, Ron Hellar, Terry Hoage, Jeff Feagles, Aeneas Williams, Jamir Miller, Steve Beuerlein, Larry Centers, Gary Clark, Jay Schroeder, Garrison Hearst, Eric Swann, Dave Krieg and Rob Moore.

As a coach:

 

    Univ. of Buffalo (1961–1965)

    Defensive line coach

    Pacific (1966)

    Defensive line coach

    Vanderbilt (1967)

    Defensive line coach

    New York Jets (1968–1975)

    Defensive line coach

    Minnesota Vikings (1976–1977)

    Defensive line coach

    Chicago Bears (1978–1985)

    Defensive coordinator

    Philadelphia Eagles (1986–1990)

    Head coach

    Houston Oilers (1993)

    Defensive coordinator

    Arizona Cardinals (1994–1995)

    Head coach