George Seifert

Lore & Background

Seifert was born and raised in San Francisco. He ushered at 49ers home games at Kezar Stadium while he attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School. He played guard and linebacker for the University of Utah. He served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater before becoming head coach at Westminster College. After assistant roles at Iowa, Oregon, and Stanford, he was head coach at Cornell University, then fired in November 1976. He returned to Stanford in 1977, met Bill Walsh, and joined the 49ers coaching staff in 1980 as defensive backs coach, later defensive coordinator. As a 49er assistant, his defenses finished in the top ten in fewest points allowed each season from 1983 to 1988. He became 49ers head coach in 1989, winning Super Bowl XXIV and Super Bowl XXIX. He resigned after the 1996 season. After two years out of the game, he was hired by the Carolina Panthers as head coach and de facto general manager from 1999 to 2001.

In Their Own Story

The lights at the practice facility hummed to life over a Carolina October evening, the kind of crisp night where the air off the gridiron tasted like cut grass and cold iron. Seifert stood at the top of the X, shoulder pads creaking as he set his feet, the white helmet catching the stadium fluorescents. The quarterback barked the count, the line snapped, and for two seconds the whole world was the edge rusher's hands finding the inside of his shoulder pad. He absorbed it, rolled his hips, and came up with the ball tucked under his arm—three yards, maybe four. The coach on the sideline didn't smile, but he nodded once. That was enough. That was the whole job. The Panthers were still young, still learning, and every single snap in that empty stadium was a brick in a wall nobody else would ever see being built.

Reader's Guide

Seifert was head coach of the Carolina Panthers from 1999 to 2001, not a player. He never played in the NFL. The Panthers played in the NFC West from 1995 to 2001, not the NFC South.

Did You Know?

• Seifert owned the second-greatest winning percentage in NFL history by a head coach at the time of his resignation as the 49ers head coach.
• He was the first rookie head coach to win the Super Bowl since Don McCafferty in Super Bowl V.
• Seifert's 98 wins are still the most in 49ers franchise history.