The Cincinnati Bengals and owner Mike Brown mourned the death of former head coach Forrest Gregg at age 85 on Friday.
Gregg was the fourth coach in Bengals history and took the team to Super Bowl XVI after the 1981 season, orchestrating a massive turnaround after a 4-12 season two years earlier.
An excerpt of the statement from Brown, via the team’s official website:
“As a coach, he was very successful here. We had good people, good players and he got the best out of them. He was demanding. The players didn’t try to cut corners. They went out and did what they had to do, and what we were doing worked. We were somewhat ahead of the curve at the time.”
Under Gregg’s guidance, the Bengals put up a franchise-best 12-4 mark with quarterback Ken Anderson as the league MVP. The fell short against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, losing 20-16 on a last-minute touchdown catch by John Taylor.
Gregg had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 after a decorated career during the Green Bay Packers’ decade of dominance in the 1960s.
