Ted Marchibroda, who died Saturday at 84, helped build the foundation of Ravens football -- play with passion and keep fighting.
Fans appreciated his down-to-earth descriptions and ability to win games.
On Saturday, the NFL lost one of its great innovators. After confirming the death with his family, the
Indianapolis Colts announced that Marchibroda died at age 84.
He coached the Colts twice, for five years in Baltimore and four years in Indianapolis, and is the only man to have coached both Baltimore franchises, the Colts and
Ravens. He was probably one of the few who could have been accepted by both communities after the Colts' move from Baltimore.
He accepted the Baltimore Colts job in 1975 and immediately led them to three consecutive AFC East titles. He lost that job after the 1979 season, but his career was still taking off.
Marchibroda bounced around the NFL for almost a decade as an assistant with the
Chicago Bears,
Detroit Lions and
Philadelphia Eagles. In 1987, he was hired by Marv Levy in
Buffalo, which is where Marchibroda introduced the groundbreaking K-Gun offense. The Bills used that version of the no-huddle offense to win four straight AFC championships, and the principles are still used in today's more modern offenses.
In 1992, the Colts, now in Indy, gave Marchibroda a second chance, and he again had instant success. The Colts went 9-7 in his first season, after going 1-15 in 1991. In 1995, Marchibroda almost pulled off a seemingly impossible run through the playoffs by leading the Colts to wins at
San Diego and
Kansas City before losing at
Pittsburgh after Jim Harbaugh's Hail Mary pass fell incomplete on the game's final play.
Marchibroda went 71-58 in nine seasons with the Colts and 2-4 in the playoffs. He was the first head coach inducted into Indy's Ring of Honor.
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