Chuck Fairbanks, the Man Who Brought Credibiity to the New England Patriots

Chuck Fairbanks, shown in the accompanying photo with my daughter Emily at the Gridiron Club’s Man of the Year Dinner in 2005, died on April 2 at age 79. He was a victim of brain cancer.  

He made the Patriots into a powerful team in the 1970’s after a highly successful stint at the University of Oklahoma. The 1976 Pats squad was his best ever and, to my mind, the most talented and best in franchise history. That team finished 11-3 and was robbed of a playoff victory at Oakland by officiating that was so bad that the game-changing calls could not possibly have been “mistakes.”

Fairbanks built that team almost entirely through the draft.  He traded Jim Plunkett for a slew of draft picks, and he turned the offense over to a young quarterback named Steve Grogan.  Fairbanks’s early departure from the team, brought on in 1978 by friction with Chuck Sullivan of the owning family, was a big setback.

Chuck came to Boston and spoke at a couple of Gridiron Club dinners at the invitation of Tom Yewcic. He had played outfield for Michigan State’s NCAA champion baseball team. He was a teammate of MVP Yewcic, the catcher, and Earl Morrall, the shortstop.

When we gathered for a drink after the dinner, I asked Chuck how he had liked coaching Doug Flutie when Doug was on the New Jersey Generals of the World Football League.

Chuck said that he’d only coached New Jersey for one season, the team’s first. Doug got there the second year. But it turned out nicely for Fairbanks. As he explained, he had bought the Generals’ franchise for $25,000 and sold it to Donald Trump the following year for $10 million.

Now that’s what I call a big score.

Rest in peace, Chuck Fairbanks.