Forrest Gregg

Forrest Gregg (October 18, 1933 – April 12, 2019) played offensive tackle in the NFL for 16 seasons and is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He won six NFL championships: five with the Green Bay Packers and a sixth with the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI. After his playing days, Gregg became a head coach for three NFL teams—the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, and Green Bay Packers—as well as two Canadian Football League clubs, the Toronto Argonauts and Shreveport Pirates. He also coached college football at his alma mater, SMU.

Born in Birthright, Texas, Gregg went to Sulphur Springs High School and played both offensive and defensive line at Southern Methodist University, earning All-Southwest Conference honors his final two seasons.

As a pro, Gregg was a cornerstone of Vince Lombardi’s Packers dynasty, which won five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls. He played mostly right tackle but also filled in at guard. Known for durability, he set a then-league record by playing in 188 consecutive games over 16 seasons (1956–1971). He earned All-NFL honors for eight straight years (1960–1967) and was selected to nine Pro Bowls. He finished his career with the Cowboys alongside former Packers teammate Herb Adderley, helping Dallas win Super Bowl VI. That made Gregg, Adderley, and former teammate Fuzzy Thurston (who won a title with the 1958 Baltimore Colts) the only players—along with Tom Brady—to be part of six NFL championship teams. Gregg wore number 75 for 15 seasons in Green Bay but switched to number 79 for his final season in Dallas because Jethro Pugh already had 75.

A famous quote attributed to Lombardi—“Forrest Gregg is the finest player I ever coached!”—has no documented evidence, according to Packers team historian Cliff Christl. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked Gregg 28th on its list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, placing him second among Lombardi’s players (behind Ray Nitschke), second among offensive tackles (behind Anthony Muñoz, whom he later coached), and fourth among all offensive linemen (behind Muñoz, John Hannah, and Jim Parker). He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1977.

Gregg began his coaching career as an assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 1973, then moved to the Cleveland Browns in the same role the next year. When head coach Nick Skorich was fired after 1974, Gregg took over as head coach in 1975 and held the job through 1977. According to safety Thom Darden, he and Gregg once got into a fistfight after a game. Darden said the 1977 Browns didn’t respond to Gregg’s coaching style, and Darden was among the vocal dissidents whose complaints led to Gregg’s firing with one game left that season.

After sitting out 1978, Gregg coached the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in 1979. He then became head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals from 1980 to 1983. His best season came in 1981, when the Bengals went 12–4, beat the San Diego Chargers 27–7 in the AFC Championship Game (the “Freezer Bowl”), and advanced to Super Bowl XVI, where they lost 26–21 to the San Francisco 49ers.

When Bart Starr was fired as Packers head coach in December 1983, the Bengals let Gregg out of his contract to take over in Green Bay. He coached the Packers from 1984 to 1987, finishing 25–37–1. His overall NFL head-coaching record was 75–85–1, with a 2–2 playoff mark (all with the Bengals). He is one of only two Bengals coaches (along with Marvin Lewis) to leave the team with a winning record.

Gregg resigned from the Packers in January 1988 and took a pay cut to return to SMU, his alma mater, after the NCAA gave the Mustangs the “death penalty” for major rules violations. The NCAA had canceled the 1987 season, and school officials later canceled 1988 as well, fearing they couldn’t field a competitive team after nearly every letterman from the 1986 squad transferred. Gregg knew he’d be rebuilding from scratch, but when acting president William Stalcup asked him to return, he felt he couldn’t refuse.

When Gregg arrived, he found a roster of mostly freshmen who were severely undersized and underweight. Gregg himself was taller and heavier than nearly the entire 70-man squad. The team was so short on offensive linemen that Gregg had to convert several wide receivers to the line. Most observers agreed it would have been impossible for the Mustangs to return in 1988 under those conditions. In 1989, the Mustangs went 2–9, including a 95–21 loss to Houston—the second-worst defeat in school history. In that game, eventual Heisman winner Andre Ware threw six touchdown passes in the first half, and David Klingler added four more in the second, even with the game out of reach. Gregg was so disgusted he refused to shake Houston’s coach’s hand afterward.