Top 50 Coaches of all time per sporting news....

[Bernie32]

as much as I hate him, how is Jim Calhoun not on this list? Guy built UCONN up from zero to 2-time National Champs in an era of parity, a perennial powerhouse, a top-flight NBA pipeline, not to mention a brilliant in-game strategist. Shutting down Shaq in early 90's and his 99 upset in National Championship over Duke was a masterpiece as well. I love Coach K, but Coach K has only 1 more title and 30 or so more wins than Calhoun, and 1 is at 19, and 1 is not in the Top 50.

[packsyD22]

LOL you dont think Bilicheck is great?!?! Guy is the best coach in football. He makes the right decisions, knows the game on both sides of the ball, and a lot of people outside of the Pats may not like him but his players love him, thats so important.

Also, the Patriots play team football which is what it takes to win the dance in the NFL. I could see them winning it all again this season with a healthy Brady. And trust me I can not stand the NE Patriots. The fact that they play team football though is a reflection of the HC and I think hes one of the best that has graced the NFL.

[jsence2]

LOL you dont think Bilicheck is great?!?! Guy is the best coach in football. He makes the right decisions, knows the game on both sides of the ball, and a lot of people outside of the Pats may not like him but his players love him, thats so important.

Also, the Patriots play team football which is what it takes to win the dance in the NFL. I could see them winning it all again this season with a healthy Brady. And trust me I can not stand the NE Patriots. The fact that they play team football though is a reflection of the HC and I think hes one of the best that has graced the NFL.

All that could be true...and he STILL would not be better than Walsh or Rupp. Or, IMO, Torre.

[packsyD22]

I will agree that he is not better than Walsh yet.

The other two I think he has surpassed them. We all know why your bias opinion picks Rupp so I will not even go there. As far as Torre, he had some of the best teams in the majors and could not even get it done. Bilichick has taken the Patriots with a back up QB at the time and they won a Super Bowl.

Bilichick also was a great defensive Coordinator in the mid to late 80's as well so like I said he knows the game. And if you say its all his assistants why have the struggled as head coaches where they have gone and he continues to win? Give me a break. Rupp also coached in a very different time where the competition was not nearly as strong as it clearly is now and if Bilichick coud coach an Olympic football team I am about 101% sure they would win gold so dont gimme that one either.

Also if you AIm me with a youtube video of an Adolf Rupp video of some kind I am not watching it so do not bother please.

[DRiccio21]

Joe Torre shouldnt even be on the list

[Nole4real]

At the risk of being a homer...one of those Joe Paterno's MUST be supposed to be bobby bowden.

no way u have him at #13...then not have Bobby on the list at all

Go look at #24. I think your eyes are going.

geting old suxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[ReignOnU]

I'm all for history, but I think things like these rankings get out of hand and overhype the accolades of some of the coaches. The first thing a list like this needs to do, is note that their accomplishments are based on their time. Because John Wooden in today's game (while he was at his prime) wouldn't produce half of the results that he did. I'm calling that straight up. #1 - He wouldn't have had the amazing disparity in talent that he did. I'm not even going to go on a rant about how that talent alledgedly ended up @ UCLA. #2 - Who was the guy coaching against, nationally? It's not even close.

IMO, a great coach is one that always seems to get the most out of his teams, even when he isn't dealt the best hand. And as much as I hate the prick, Belichick has definitely been a success in that catagory. Brady was a backup. They have had a 25 different 3rd down backs playing in their backfield and they played Troy Brown @ CB because they were so thin there. That's coaching... that's getting the most out of a team.

[DRiccio21]

coaching to me is when a guy can go to multiple places and be successful despite the level of talent at the program/team

bill parcells jumps to the front of my mind, Rick Pitino, Calhoun, Urban Meyer, Larussa, Knight etc

Wooden was obviously an amazing coach and his track record speaks for itself but reignonu makes good points about his talent compared to other schools. Same goes with Phil Jackson, he's always had great players (thats not his fault, but its tough to judge what he's done as a coach because of it).

baseball managers and NBA coaches are by far the least important. the higher the level, the less coaching matters. A coach can win in college sports on his own, in the pros you can't do that (you have to have elite talent). Geno and Pat Summit are great coaches by definition, but again, its like Wooden back in the day with the talent gap. Geno had every high school player of the year for like 5 years in a row or something crazy.

to me there are very few pro coaches i truly admire as great. Parcells tho is one that i'll say knows how to produce winners.

for those who point at championships... my take on that is i'd much rather have a guy who can get you 95 wins in baseball or 55 in hoops or 25 in college hoops or 10 wins in college football almost EVERY yr and roll the dice on having a couple magical unbeaten or 100 win seasons mixed in. Championships have a lot to do with luck and getting good breaks, the more times you put yourself in the opportunity, the higher your odds of getting lucky so even tho some of the coaches i listed may not have the most titles, they have proven time and again they can create winners.

[Matt90210]

Belichik should be higher, Jackson lower.

[Travis]

[bearass]

WTF no Barry Switzer this list is worthless.

i actually thought that too matty...

I was like damn..wheres barry?

Media doesn't like him much. IMO he did nothing worse than Woody Hayes did. But, people love Woody. He retired with the best Winning Percentage ever, and in 16 seasons won 12 conference titles 3 Nat'l and never was worse than second in conference. Also, there's that little Super Bowl team he was in charge of, not that I'm saying it was him that won it for them. But, he has to get some credit for holding the office when that happened right?

this list has 11 College football coaches on it, and Barry is definitely one of the top 11 College Football coaches ever. He perfected the triple option as a coordinator and coach, an offense which dominated college football for 20+ years

[packsyD22]

Like Rein and Dave touched on, getting the most out of your players is what it takes to be one of the greats. Again thats something Bilicheck does. He takes guys that most in the league have given up on and he gets 110% out of them.

One other aspect of coaching thats so important is that your players "respect" you and not try and walk all over you. I know I use my high school as a reference a lot but our head coach is not feared by people but respected, I mean shit hes won something like 300 football games. I coach under him now and he still is a touch intimidating. I get that when I look at Parcells and guys like Bilicheck, Tomlin, and Gruden. You have to be a coach and friend second to the players and these guys are very good at it.

[jsence2]

Rick Pitino and "top coaches of all time" shoudln't be on the same page together.

He has won a single national title, with the 1996 Kentucky team--ranked by ESPN as the second greatest team in NCAA history--that beat a 5th seeded Syracuse team by 9 points in the title game. God that team was fucking fun to watch, but he almost got outcoached in the semifinal by the Calipari/Camby UMass team, which would have ruined the whole thing.

He also made one of the biggest coaching errors of all time: HE DIDN'T PUT A MAN ON HILL ON THE INBOUNDS!!!

And Packsy, it has nothing to do with a "bias" towards Rupp. The man won more than Bilichick has, did more than he has--tell me, please, how he has obviously surpassed him? I wouldn't put Bilichick in the top FIVE best NFL coaches of all time!

Lombardi
Landry
Halas
Walsh
Noll