Home > Furman Bisher > Archives > 2009 > January > 17 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWhisenhunt showed poise from his days at Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now the National Football League championship moves into the penultimate stage. And no, the Falcons are not in it, dismissed by the Arizona Cardinals, a team usually at leisure this time of year. Naturally, interest in the game between these Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles is not exactly a-boil in these parts because a sports fan is one whose interest is gauged by one factor: Does he have a dog in the fight, so to speak?
Naturally, Atlantans resent the Cardinals because they eliminated their Falcons, who had come to be beloved in our midst. So who cares how the Cardinals and Eagles make out in this fowl fight? If they were real birds of the feather, an eagle would always be a serious over-match for a cardinal. But let’s not be too swift to declare tepid interest, for as time has played out, our precinct does indeed have a “dog in the fight,” or in this case, a bird.
Ken Whisenhunt is in his second season coaching the Cardinals, which at first glance appeared to just what it was — a job in a desert. The Cardinals, when they resided in Chicago, haven’t reached such a peak in the NFL since the late ’40s. They beat Philadelphia — ah, yes, the Eagles — 28-21 in old Comiskey Park and became 1947 NFL champions, behind the skilled performance of a $100,000 rookie out of Georgia, Charley Trippi, who scored two touchdowns, one on a 75-yard punt return. The next season they lost the championship to the Eagles in Philadelphia 7-0 and have never had a whiff of such a lofty state until this moment.
Our interest in this crucial moment is heightened — or should be — by the fact that “our dog in the fight” is home-bred and trained. Ken Whisenhunt was born in Atlanta in 1962. True, he spent his growing-up years in Augusta, but he was back in Atlanta not long afterward. Bill Curry was the new coach at Georgia Tech, and he was attracted to any athlete who had a pulse and was breathing. Those were dismal times at Tech, and wouldn’t improve right away, by which time Whisenhunt was part of it.
“There was a kind of calmness about him that impressed you,” Curry said, “made him seem older than he was. It didn’t take much recruiting because he had been injured and missed most of the season and other coaches had lost interest.”
In his first two seasons here, Tech won just two games — but did tie Notre Dame, then No. l — in that historic game his freshman year, with Whisenhunt at quarterback. He became a tight end, and with John Dewberry at quarterback, finally beat Georgia his senior year. Then came four seasons with the Falcons, all losers and a merry-go-round of coaches. He played his last with Washington, then kind of dropped off into the obscurity that befalls assistants, then emerged as the coach directing the offense when Pittsburgh beat Seattle in the Super Bowl. You could feel then that the die was cast — he would soon be somebody’s head coach, and so it was that he wound up in Arizona.
There were those who had anticipated a better fit, for wherever the Cardinals had landed, they inevitably bedded down with defeat. Whisenhunt never wavered, through tragedy and the vagaries of adjusting to a new employ on strange ground. He is married to the daughter of the late John O’Neill (and Lucia), a former associate athletics director at Georgia Tech who died suddenly shortly after Whisenhunt was hired. There is that calmness about him, a sort of John Wayne-ish bearing, and a kind of comportment quite fitting on the Arizona desert. Something about him seems to build a wall against deterring influences.
He’ll need it this week, for the Eagles are tough as a bunch of longshoremen, and just as ill-mannered. “A pain to play against,” Whisenhunt said, and he should know. “I’ve has been directing offenses at Jim Johnson’s defenses for a long time.” On Thanksgiving Day, the Eagles ran up 48 points to the Cardinals’ 20. It’s not so much Donovan McNabb as it is the Eagles’ blitzes that Kurt Warner and his crew must engage. So, if you’re looking for a team upon which to feast your favor this weekend, I can’t recommend them personally. I would say they are the most civil, but beside that, they have a coach who was born and trained among us, and who has the look of a western kind of folk you’d prefer to have on your side in a gunfight.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Post your comment | Categories: Tech/ACC
Comments
By Joe
January 17, 2009 8:31 PM | Link to this
Good luck Coach Whisenhunt on Sunday.
By hal
January 18, 2009 7:16 AM | Link to this
Excellet Furman, I have been thinking more or less what your feelings are about this playoff game and Coach Wisenhunt and good luck to him and the Cardinals.
By Mowreck
January 18, 2009 7:28 AM | Link to this
Coach Wisenhunt was my first choice for coaching Ga Tech before we got coach Johnson, who I am very happy about. I knew Irk Russell from his days at Georgia and he was a great defensive coach. I watched coach Johnson’s team with that Tracy Ham who NO ONE could tackle, when he was winning all the division titles at Ga Southern, but his name never came up. I knew Wisenhunt from his days at Ga Tech, because I am a Ga Tech fan. I knew we wouldn’t have hired him when the Falcons needed a coach, ( the Ga fans would have gone bananas). But, coach Smith is super also. So, in all I guess everything worked out for Wisenhunt. He isn’t a Falcon or Yellow Jacket, but is doing OK.
By Old GT Nut
January 18, 2009 8:32 AM | Link to this
Before his NFL career is over, Whisenhunt will go down as one of THE greatest coaches in NFL history.
By Bob
January 18, 2009 9:00 AM | Link to this
The Jackets or the Falcons should have brought The Wiz home when they had a chance. Now with his success at AZ I don’t think either will ever have the chance. That is a pity seeing one of our own making a dismal team such as the Cards a success when our teams could use him. Yes the Falcons and Jackets had great seasons this year, but as a long time Falcon and Jacket fan I know how our new found success could just be an aberration.
By Harris
January 18, 2009 10:52 AM | Link to this
Your column on Ken Whisenhunt is right on target. I think, however yu did the St. Louis Cardinals of Charlie Johnsons ear in the mid 60’s a disservice. I remember an “epic battle” with Tittle and the Giants that was spectacular. Johnson was a very unassuming man with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering.
By SECophile
January 18, 2009 11:25 AM | Link to this
My guess is that a wordmaster like Furman would never say “has showed”, even though some might consider it correct.
By Cecil34
January 18, 2009 11:42 AM | Link to this
Furman, you brought back some good memories writing about Ken and good ol’ John Dewberry.
I was overseas in the Marine Corps sitting in some cold-azz hole in Korea when John, Ken and company beat GA and broke off pieces of the “legendary” privet hedges that surround that bog hole, and famliy back home sent me the sports page of the Journal that showed the picture of such.
It brought a smile to my face then and still does now as I have that paper still.
Ken, good luck to you today and John, I am praying for you to beat that cancer and win the “big” one!
I will never forget that win and it will always make me smile until I go guard the Pearly gates.
By Mr Charlie
January 18, 2009 12:43 PM | Link to this
You forgot to mention that 8 hours after Duberry got his big win, he was sitting in the Athens pokey with a DUI. Now that was a classic.
By jabster
January 18, 2009 7:19 PM | Link to this
Mr. Charlie:
That was, what, 24 years ago? Why don’t you bring up the DUIberry and 35-0.18 jokes for good measure if you’re going to dredge up that old crap? Keep that up and we’ll have to bring up Jan Kemp again.
Anyway, at least Dewberry had a good audience of UGA fans and players to talk smack to while in the cooler. UGA still lost.
Anyway, Whisenhunt is going to the Super Bowl…
By Sautee Dawg
January 19, 2009 8:35 AM | Link to this
Hey Furman,
Coach Ken has had a great year in Arizona, but nothing leads you to believe that he learned any coaching skills at Tech. He did however play for one of the best coaches Tech ever had in Bill Curry. UGA players on both sides of the Superbowl, hard to decide who to pull for.
By wes
January 19, 2009 10:50 AM | Link to this
Leonard Pope plays for the Cardinals.
Has he learned to spell his name, yet? What an embarassment that guy is to the “Dawg Nation”.
By Cecil34
January 19, 2009 11:24 AM | Link to this
Mr. Charlie
The folks didn’t send me that paper so I didn’t know - but it would have been worth it, especially in ‘85….
By Sautee Dawg
January 19, 2009 11:51 AM | Link to this
WES
Pope don’t have to spell in Arizona, just block and catch.
By Tron5000
January 19, 2009 12:04 PM | Link to this
The hits just keep on coming.
Falcons Should Have Drafted Glenn Dorsey
Feel free to let these guys have it.
By Night Train Lane
January 19, 2009 12:15 PM | Link to this
Cards 31 Steelers 24
By Realist
January 19, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this
By Bob
January 18, 2009 9:00 AM | Link to this
The Jackets or the Falcons should have brought The Wiz home when they had a chance. Now with his success at AZ I don’t think either will ever have the chance. That is a pity seeing one of our own making a dismal team such as the Cards a success when our teams could use him. Yes the Falcons and Jackets had great seasons this year, but as a long time Falcon and Jacket fan I know how our new found success could just be an aberration.
GT could never have ponied up that kind of money.
By Musketeer Jacket
January 19, 2009 4:12 PM | Link to this
For the record, Notre Dame tied us, not the other way around. One of the greatest Tech victories of all time.
By GTbooster
January 19, 2009 5:41 PM | Link to this
This article wasn’t intended to be a Georgia vs Georgia Tech column. So why don’t you Dawg fans, to whom this column probably had to be read, take your anti-GT sentiment to the Athens Daily News, (otherwise known as UGA Today)?
By noddy dred
January 20, 2009 9:59 AM | Link to this
COME BE APART OF THE BEST SUPERBOWL PARTY IN ATLEAST 11 YEARS WHEN THE 2 LIVE STEWS HOST THEIR 1ST ANNUAL STEWPERBOWL PARTY AT THE LUCKY LOUNGE. JOIN ME, THE STEWS, AND A SLEW OF CELEBRITIES FEB. 1, STEWPERBOWL SUNDAY. TELL’EM NODDY SENT YOU.
By Dan
January 20, 2009 6:15 PM | Link to this
Nice comments on Whisenhunt. Maybe Chris Collingsworth should talk to you as he ” prepares” for a broadcast with NBC. No one EVER mentioned that Ken Whisenhunt played for the Falcons or that he played for Tech during the Falcons/Cardinals broadcast. That may not seem like such a big deal but Wiz also played H-Back which was a Tight end type position in the slot. Why does this mean anything? Well, the Cards threw the 16 yard pass paly to THEIR tightend which destroyed Atlanta and kept the ball away from Matt Ryan. Great call? maybe. THE call as Keith Brooking fell asleep on the play. It’s always the little known players that help win a championship— i.e see Gene Tenace of the Oakland A’s. Anyway thanks Furman.
By wreckmaniac
January 23, 2009 6:25 PM | Link to this
Furman, thanks as always sir. This prompted me to re call the TECH-UGA game the following year in Atlanta when Dewberry was a senior. I flew from Paris that day to see the game at Grant Field. The fog was so thick you literally could not see across the field. Tech won on a kickoff run back by Gary (and I can’t recall the last name, shame on me). UGA had Henderson and Worley who were probably the best running back tandem in college. Awesome night.
By toemeetsleather
January 30, 2009 6:42 PM | Link to this
stufford and noshow morono=no championships…yellow fever///jackets rule
By Buzzfan1936
February 1, 2009 12:42 PM | Link to this
*wreckmaniac *
It was Gary LEE. I’ll always remember Paul Hornung:”There he goes. They won’t catch Gary Lee!”
Furman Bisher
Excellent prose as usual: Nostalgia Time - it’s great to wander down memory lane when you write.