Dick Vermeil, who led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance, is finally in the Pro Football Hall of Fame

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Dick Vermeil, the passionate, square-jawed coach who led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance in 1981 and then 19 years later won the NFL title with the Rams, was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday.

“As a football coach, you get here because of the people you surround yourself with,” Vermeil said after the announcement. “And I’m in debt to every one of them.”

In August, Vermeil was selected as a finalist by the Senior Committee, more than 15 years after he retired. His induction wasn’t automatic. Vermeil fell short two years ago when he was a finalist in the “Centennial Slate” class, and then failed to reach that stage last year.

But since the Hall created a separate coaching category in 2020, each of the finalists — first, Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson in the expanded Centennial group and then Tom Flores last year — garnered the necessary 80 percent approval from the 49-member selection board.

“Dick elevated the standard for success for this franchise and led the organization to its first Super Bowl appearance,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. “His passion and love for the game, his players, and our city are among the reasons he remains a beloved figure in Eagles history to this day.”

The 85-year-old Vermeil will enter the Hall just a year after Harold Carmichael, his star receiver on the Eagles’ 1970-80s teams, was enshrined. He is scheduled to be inducted in Canton, Ohio this summer along with the late former Philadelphia Stars linebacker Sam Mills, tackle Tony Boselli, receiver Cliff Branch, safety LeRoy Butler, defensive linemen Richard Seymour and Bryant Young, and official Art McNally, a Philly native.

After a season with the Browns and one in the Canadian Football League, the 5-foot-9 Mills was brought to the Stars, who were part of the fledgling USFL. He anchored their defense, and when Stars coach Jim Mora took the Saints job, Mills followed.

He made the Pro Bowl four times in eight seasons in New Orleans, and one more time after he left for the Panthers.

McNally, who attended Roman Catholic and then Temple, and taught and coached at Central High, joined the NFL in 1968 as supervisor of officials. He eventually became director and worked in the league office until 1990. He left for a similar position with the World Football League for five years, but returned to the NFL and held an assisting role for the next 19 years.

The 96-year-old McNally couldn’t attend the ceremony, but his son, Tom, came in his place.

Vermeil will be one of 27 coaches in the Hall and joins Greasy Neale as the only Eagles coaches to earn the honor. He may not have the career victories or titles that other coaches have — “I’m not sure I belong there,” he said when he first found out he was a finalist — but Vermeil’s success in two different eras after 14 dormant years is unique to the profession.

Vermeil’s 19-year span between Super Bowl appearances is the longest among coaches, ahead of Bill Belichick (18 years), Don Shula (17 years), and Andy Reid (17 years). He’s also one of only six coaches to guide two teams to the Super Bowl. Shula, Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, Mike Holmgren, and Reid were the others.

In 15 seasons, he had a 120-109 record (.524 winning percentage) and went 6-5 in the postseason. But numbers don’t reflect the excellence of Vermeil, who helped resurrect three moribund NFL franchises, most notably with the lowly Eagles.

“I think [the voters] identified with the fact that the first two years on three different teams we won 35 percent of our games and the third year we won 74 percent of our games,” Vermeil said. “And after the third year we won almost 65 percent of our games. So I think they appreciated that.

“But I do believe in all honesty there’s some coaches that are every bit as good as Dick Vermeil, if not better. Mike Holmgren, my gosh, what he’s done. Dan Reeves, who just passed away, 201 wins. Marty Schottenheimer, 203 wins. Tom Coughlin, two Super Bowl wins, takes Jacksonville, a new franchise, to the championship game.

“There’s so many. George Seifert — you ever look at George Seifert’s record. I’m humbled by the fact that they put me in before they put those guys in. But I’ll tell you what, I’m going to campaign for them.”

Vermeil, who lives in Chester County, was back in his native state for the announcement at the NFL Media Building, located next to SoFi Stadium, where Super Bowl LVI between the Rams and Bengals will be held on Sunday. He was born up north in Calistoga, attended San Jose State, and began his coaching career at area high schools and junior colleges before landing at Stanford as an assistant.

But it was at nearby UCLA and with the Rams that Vermeil first gained national recognition. He bounced back and forth between college and the NFL for several years before he became the Bruins’ head coach in 1974.

“I really learned how important relationships were as I moved up the coaching ladder,” Vermeil said. “Coaching young kids in high school, then junior college and then college. I found and then gradually learned and had taken the advice of [legendary UCLA basketball coach] John Wooden that my job wasn’t so much to win football games, it’s to make each player the best he could be.”

In 1975, UCLA won the conference championship and upset No. 1-ranked Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Seeking a firebrand to resurrect his floundering franchise, Eagles owner Leonard Tose hired the then-39-year-old Vermeil in 1976.

The Eagles were coming off nine straight seasons without a winning record and finished above .500 only two times since their 1960 NFL championship. The roster was weak, and Vermeil would be devoid of top picks for the next three drafts after the previous regime mortgaged much of the future.

Two losing seasons followed, but the hard-nosed Vermeil had the Eagles in the playoffs by 1978. They went 42-22 over a four-year span, made the postseason each season, and reached Super Bowl XV against the Raiders.

The Eagles lost, 27-10, in New Orleans, and were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round the next year, though. Following the strike-shortened 1982 season in which the Birds went 3-6, Vermeil stepped down as coach. He cited burnout from 20-hour workdays, but there was an emotional toll, as well.

Vermeil invested his entire being into coaching, and while it derailed his career, his passion and genuineness kept him a Philadelphia favorite. He remained in the area and was a spokesman and supporter for various businesses and charities, his toothy grin plastered on billboards across the region.

“Philadelphia … they identify with me and I identify with them,” Vermeil said. “I’ve invested a lot of time throughout the Delaware Valley, just being with people. I think they appreciate authenticity. I have a hard time BSing anybody. Sometimes it gets me in trouble.”

Vermeil flirted with the idea of returning to coach the Eagles in 1995. But Lurie, who was making his first coaching hire, chose Ray Rhodes instead, perhaps because of Vermeil’s tell-it-like-it-is approach.

He would get another chance, though, two years later when the Rams lured him away from a successful broadcasting career and back into coaching. He went 9-23 in his first two seasons, but reversed course when he brought Mike Martz and his “Air Raid” offense to St. Louis and elevated unknown Kurt Warner as quarterback. The Rams went 13-3 in 1999 and won Super Bowl XXXIV in dramatic fashion over the Titans.

Vermeil, in another teary-eyed news conference, shockingly announced his retirement after the Super Bowl. But it didn’t stick as long as the first – he still regrets walking away from the Rams – and returned to coach the Chiefs for five more seasons, going 44-36 over the span with one playoff appearance.

While Vermeil and his wife, Carol, still cite their suburban Philly ranch as home, they often return to his native Napa Valley to visit the vineyards that produce Vermeil wines. It was only fitting that he would learn his Hall of Fame fate in California.

But Vermeil will receive his gold jacket and bust in the Hall back east in Canton this summer. If there’s a dry eye during his speech, it won’t likely be his.