21 legendary coaches who had forgettable final jobs

Where hasn't Larry Brown coached? He's been a head coach in the ABA, at three different college basketball programs, in the Italian League, and for nine different NBA franchises. He's the only head coach to win an NBA championship and an NCAA tournament championship.

His final stop as a head coach in this hemisphere was at SMU from 2012-2016, and it was his first college coaching job since he won a national championship at Kansas in 1988. After a slow start, Brown led SMU to the NIT championship game in 2014 and back into the NCAA tournament in 2015, their first appearance in 22 years. That all fell apart after Brown was found not to have reported academic fraud violations in the program. Brown was suspended for nine games during the season and the Mustangs were ineligible for postseason play. He would resign as head coach that summer.

Of the three college jobs Brown had, he left all of them with some manner of violations behind. He went on to coach Auxilium Torino in  the Italian League before being fired during his first season. His final job was as an assistant and advisor to Penny Hardaway at Memphis. 

Jim Calhoun has coached many different sports in the New England area. He coached high school basketball in Connecticut and Massachusetts before moving to college at Northeastern University. After 14 seasons with those Huskies, he took over the Huskies of UConn in 1986. He took a program with no real history and built it into a powerhouse, winning three NCAA tournament championships and putting countless players into the NBA. He would retire from the school before the 2012-2013 season and handed the program to former player Kevin Ollie.

Calhoun didn't totally retire, however. Six years later, he became the first basketball coach for Division III University of St. Joseph's in Connecticut. In the Blue Jays second season, Calhoun's squad went 26-3 but lost in the first round of the DIII tournament. COVID limited the following season to just five games, and after three games into the 2021-2022 he stepped down.  

Pete Carroll is one of three head coaches to have won a Super Bowl and a college football national championship (Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer are the others). After leaving a massively successful era with the USC Trojans in the 2000s, Carroll tried once again to carve out an NFL coaching career after failed stops with the Jets and Patriots. His 14-year career with the Seahawks ended in 2023 after a 137-89-1 record, two Super Bowl appearances, and a Super Bowl XLVIII title.

After taking a year off, he emerged as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2025 during a complete rebuild. It went south quickly, going 3-14 and ending the year with the worst record in the league. He was fired at season's end, marking a very unremarkable tenure in Sin City. 

Chuck Daly is best known for his time with the Detroit Pistons, reaching three straight NBA Finals and winning back-to-back championships, but he has had a few short, forgotten stints at other stops. His first head coaching job in the Association was with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1981-1982, which ended when he was fired mid-season. A year later he began his nine-season run with the Pistons, and he was the head coach of the Dream Team in 1992.

He left Detroit for a two-year stint with the New Jersey Nets, where each season ended with a first-round exit. He retired for a few years before joining the Orlando Magic in the post-Shaq era. The Magic acquired veterans Mark Price, Derek Harper and Bo Outlaw to build around the young core, but Penny Hardaway spent most of the season injured and Orlando missed the playoffs in 1997-1998. The following season was the lockout-shortened 1999 campaign, where the Magic played much better with a healthy Hardaway and won the Atlantic Division, but would lose in the first round of the playoffs. After the season, Daly retired, and Penny was traded to the Phoenix Suns. 

The Saints will show up a few times on this list, as they seemed to prefer hiring coaches who may have been past their prime. Mike Ditka was one of those coaches who couldn't replicate his earlier success elsewhere. Ditka is best known for his 11 seasons with the Chicago Bears, winning six NFC Central division titles and taking the legendary 1985 team to a Super Bowl championship. After a dismal 5-11 season in 1992, they fired him.

Unlike many on this list, Ditka didn't return to coaching. He became an NFL analyst for four seasons before the Saints came calling. After two 6-10 seasons, Ditka's most memorable moment with New Orleans happened during the spring of 1999: he traded all of the Saints' 1999 draft picks (and a first-round pick in 2000) to Washington so they could move up to draft Ricky Williams. The trade was disastrous for the Saints in the short and long term as the losing clearly got to Ditka, as well as the criticism over his draft trade. He was fired after the season and retired from coaching. He would get back into broadcasting (which he did between the Bears and Saints jobs) and could be found in commercials, running restaurants and other projects. 

Ken Hitchcock has the fourth-most wins in NHL history, with 26 of those wins coming in his final season as a head coach -- his lone year with the Edmonton Oilers. Hitchcock won 317 games with the Dallas Stars, where he won his only Stanley Cup championship in 1999. He got Dallas back to the Cup Final the following year but lost to the New Jersey Devils. He moved on to have good, albeit relatively short, stints with the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets (who he led to their first playoff appearance) and St. Louis Blues before returning to the Stars for one more season before retiring.

He would be coaxed out of retirement to coach the Edmonton Oilers midseason after the team dismissed Todd McLellan just 20 games into the 2018-2019 season. Hitchcock finished the year, winning 26 more games before the team decided to open the coaching search for its next head coach. 

Bobby Knight elevated an already blue-blood program like Indiana to three national championships and made it one of the most winning programs in college basketball. As you probably know, his coaching style and run-ins with players, students, and university staff came under immense scrutiny in the late 1990s, which eventually led to his firing in 2000. Knight's dismissal created a chasm among the fan base that the program really hasn't recovered from.

After a year off, Knight took over at Texas Tech, where he led the Red Raiders to four NCAA tournament bids over six-plus seasons. His final two full seasons were mediocre (15-17 in 2005-2006 and 21-13 in 2006-2007), and he would retire 20 games into the 2007-2008 season. His son Pat took over for the rest of the season, while Bobby retired from coaching and took an analyst job at ESPN.

He remained estranged from the Indiana program he was so closely attached to until he appeared at halftime of a game in Bloomington in 2000, where the Hall of Fame coach—in ill health—received a standing ovation. 

Green Bay Packers icon Curly Lambeau actually had two stops that you may not remember after his long run of success in Wisconsin. Lambeau will be forever known for his 29-year career as the head coach of the Packers, winning 209 games, six NFL championships, and having his name adorn the stadium the team plays in. After leaving Green Bay after the 1949 season, Lambeau latched on with the Chicago Cardinals, but the franchise went just 7-15 over two seasons.

Afterwards, Lambeau would take the head coaching job with Washington in 1952. His time there was also unsuccessful, and he won just 10 games over two seasons. He was fired before the 1954 season after arguing with owner George Preston Marshall about players being seen at a bar. He would retire from football. 

While Tony LaRussa is best known for his 10 seasons with the Oakland Athletics (where he went to three straight World Series and winning the 1989 championship) and the 16 years he managed the St. Louis Cardinals (where he went to three more World Series, winning two), his career actually started with the Chicago White Sox. From 1979 to 1986, LaRussa won the 1983 AL West title and led the Pale Hose to four winning seasons.

What most people forget is that he returned to Chicago to manage the Sox in a surprising hire in 2021. At 76, he was the oldest manager in baseball and the first to return after being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He led the 2021 team to 93 wins and he AL Central championship, but lost to the Astros in the ALDS. The following season saw the White Sox playing average ball for most of the season; LaRussa stepped away from the club due to concerns about his heart. A month later, LaRussa announced he wouldn't return to the team and would retire.

LaRussa had the second-most managerial wins and games managed in MLB history and joins Sparky Anderson as the only managers to win World Series in both leagues. 

Obviously, people remember Vince Lombardi for his historic run with the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, winning five NFL championships -- including the first two Super Bowl titles. After stepping down as head coach in 1967 (and as the Packers' GM in 1968), he took over as general manager and head coach of Washington in 1969. With Washington, he changed the culture of a wayward franchise, producing their first winning season in nearly 15 years. Unfortunately, Lombardi would pass away from colon cancer prior to the start of the 1970 season. 

Bill Parcells was one of the most successful and most colorful coaches in the NFL during the 1980s and 1990s, winning two Super Bowls with the New York Giants and taking the woeful New England Patriots to a Super Bowl in 1996. He was known as a coach who could rebuild franchises if you were willing to give him control of the organization.

The Dallas Cowboys in the early 2000s needed a rebuild. Coming off their massive success of the 1990s, the Cowboys were coming off three straight 5-11 seasons, and owner Jerry Jones talked Parcells out of retirement to run his team in 2003. It immediately paid off, with Dallas going 10-6 and reaching the playoffs, but that would be the height of the Parcells era with the Cowboys. Quarterback controversies saw the Cowboys ending up starting 40-year-old Vinny Testaverde in 2004 and sinking to a 6-10 mark. Two more 9-7 seasons—with the second season featuring a postseason berth that included Tony Romo's infamous botched hold on a short field goal attempt—and Parcells hung up his whistle in 2006. He was just 34-30 with Dallas and 0-2 in the playoffs. 

Bum Phillips will forever be known for his six-year run with the "Luv Ya Blue" Houston Oilers of the 1970s. The Oilers went 55-35 during that time, reaching the AFC championship game twice (losing to the dynastic Pittsburgh Steelers both times) and three playoff berths. A falling out with owner Bud Adams over hiring an offensive coordinator led to his firing in 1980 ... despite Houston going 11-5 that season.

Phillips immediately joined the New Orleans Saints as head coach and general manager. While his Stetson hat came along with him, the on-field success didn't. The Saints went 4-12 in his first year, and they never had a winning season during his five seasons in New Orleans (he nearly gained the franchise's first one in 1983). Phillips would trade a first-round pick for his former great running back Earl Campbell during the 1984 season, but he was a shell of his former self -- rushing for a total of 208 yards over 24 games. When Tom Benson bought the franchise in 1985, Phillips stayed on as coach to help with the transition before stepping down mid-season and making his son, Wade, interim coach. 

Jack Ramsay is best known for his time with the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1970s and 1980s, when he wore colorful suits and led them to the 1977 NBA championship. Most people don't know that he had coached the Philadelphia 76ers and Buffalo Braves before he got to Portland. Even more people don't realize he coached the Indiana Pacers right afterward. After the Trail Blazers fired Ramsay, he immediately joined the Pacers, leading Indiana to a 41-41 mark in his first season and a 38-44 record the following season, which was Reggie Miller's rookie campaign. After losing the first seven games of the 1988-1989 season, Ramsay was fired.

After his coaching career ended, he would become a broadcast analyst (most notably for the Miami Heat) and called 15 NBA Finals on ESPN Radio. 

Glen Sather led one of the greatest dynasties in sports over the last half-century. His Edmonton Oilers—led by Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, and Grant Fuhr—won four Stanley Cups in five seasons in the late 1980s. Fortunes changed for Sather in 1988 when the Oilers traded Gretzky to the Kings and then were knocked out by LA in the next playoffs in 1989. Sather retired as head coach but stayed on as general manager, and the Oilers won another Cup championship in 1990. He later coached as an interim for 60 games before leaving the franchise in 2000 to take over the New York Rangers.

He would fire head coach Bryan Trottier in 2002-2003 after just 54 games into his first season and took over as interim head coach. He stayed on as head coach for the following season before stepping away mid-season, amassing a 33-39-11-7 record over 90 games.  

George Seifert was Bill Walsh's assistant coach for nine seasons as the San Francisco 49ers won three Super Bowl championships. When Walsh retired after winning Super Bowl XXIII, Seifert took over the head job and guided the Niners to a repeat Super Bowl. His time in San Francisco was successful ... winning six NFC West titles and two more Super Bowls in his eight seasons ... and navigating through the delicate transition from Joe Montana to Steve Young. Despite all that, the team didn't offer him a contract extension because it wanted Steve Mariucci as the head coach in waiting. Seifert resigned as the winningest coach in 49ers history and held the best winning percentage of any head coach in NFL history.

Two years later, he signed on as the second head coach in Carolina Panthers history. While his first team in Charlotte went just 8-8 (the worst record of his coaching career), it was a four-game improvement from the previous season. The 2000 team stayed mediocre with a 7-9 campaign, but crashed with a 1-15 record in 2001. The Panthers were the first team to win the season opener and then lose the next 15. He was fired at season's end and never coached again. 

After a failed 20-game bid as head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders, Mike Shanahan began a 14-year run as head coach of the rival Denver Broncos. In Denver, Shanahan won back-to-back Super Bowl titles and led the team to seven playoff appearances. Despite winning 138 games with the organization, Shanahan was fired after the 2008 season.

After a year off, he re-emerged as head coach of Washington. Washington had just one winning season under Shanahan -- Robert Griffin III's rookie season. The dysfunction that defined the Daniel Snyder ownership term clouded Shanahan's time in DC, with their disagreement over drafting Griffin III being the most prominent (Shanahan would draft Kirk Cousins later in the same draft). Snyder would fire Shanahan after four seasons. His legacy will be the unbelievable coaching staff he had in D.C.: Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, Danny Smith, and Raheem Morris. 

Even if you are younger, you are probably familiar with images of Hank Stram in a suit and tie, walking the sidelines during Super Bowl IV, chatting with coaches, players, officials... and himself. Stram is a Kansas City Chiefs legend: he was the franchise's first-ever coach and led the team during its first 15 seasons in the AFL and NFL. His team won the AFL championship in 1962 (as the Dallas Texans) and again in 1969, when he also won the Super Bowl. Despite the success, Stram was fired in 1974 after a 5-9 season. He trails only Andy Reid in franchise coaching victories.

After a year off, he became the head coach of the struggling New Orleans Saints. The team continued to struggle, with quarterback Archie Manning missing most of two seasons with an elbow injury and a rash of other issues. The Saints went just 7-21 over Stram's two seasons in New Orleans, with the lowest point coming when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their first-ever game in franchise history after losing their first 26 games to the Saints. He was fired, retired, and then carved out a nice career as a TV and radio analyst.  

Jerry Tarkanian is synonymous with UNLV basketball. His 19 years with the Runnin' Rebels was spectacular, inheriting a program with no winning history and taking them to four Final Fours and winning the 1990 national championship. Of course, his time in Las Vegas was mired in controversy and clouded by NCAA watchdogs that eventually led him to resign and take a job with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs in 1992.

The Spurs gig lasted all of 20 games before he was fired. After sitting out from coaching for a couple of years, Tark resurfaced at Fresno State where he led the Bulldogs to six straight 20-win seasons in seven years and two NCAA tournament berths. As at UNLV and Long Beach State before it, Tarkanian's Fresno State program drew the NCAA's scrutiny and was eventually placed on probation for various violations during his tenure.  

Joe Torre will forever be tied to his 12 seasons as manager of the New York Yankees, winning four World Series in a five-year span, but he previously managed the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, and St. Louis Cardinals.  While Torre's time with the Yankees was hugely successful, the partnership grew strained in later years, leading him to balk at a low contract offer and leave the organization.

What most people forget is that Torre managed the Los Angeles Dodgers just a few weeks after exiting New York, from 2008 to 2010. Torre's Dodgers won two NL West titles, but lost to the Phillies in the playoffs both seasons. During an 80-82 season in 2010, Torre announced he would retire at season's end. 

Lenny Wilkens  is a Hall of Fame player and a Hall of Fame coach who is most remembered for his time as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics (where he won an NBA championship), the Cleveland Cavaliers (where he battled against Michael Jordan's Bulls), and the Atlanta Hawks (in the post-Dominique Wilkins era). People forget that Wilkens would eventually not only coach the Toronto Raptors for three seasons, but also serve as head coach of the New York Knicks for parts of two seasons.

Wilkens, who was 66 years old at the time, took over the Knicks in the 2003-2004 midseason after the team dismissed Don Chaney. He coached 81 total games before resigning almost exactly one year later. Although he lasted just a year, it reflected how tumultuous the organization was at the time. Wilkens was one of seven head coaches over an eight-year stretch in New York. The Knicks went 40-41 under Wilkens.

Dick Williams is one of three managers to lead three different franchises to a World Series (Red Sox, Athletics, Padres), winning two titles with the powerful Oakland in the 1970s. He also managed the California Angels and Montreal Expos, but ended his career with the Seattle Mariners. Williams was successful, but his dominating style of managing rubbed players and front offices the wrong way.

He took over Seattle in 1986 after Chuck Cottier was fired after a 9-19 start to the season. The Mariners didn't fare well under Williams' hard-nosed culture, going 159-192 over parts of three seasons before he was fired early in the 1988 season. The timing was unfortunate for the future Hall of Famer -- the following season, Seattle brought up phenom Ken Griffey Jr. and traded for Randy Johnson.