The Jack Pardee Years

[SouperMeister]

Pardee was ultimately too loyal to veterans that were his former teammates in the Over the Hill Gang. In '78, he led the Skins to a 6-0 record out of the gate before they faltered badly to finish 8-8. That may be the only time that a team started 6-0 and didn't make the playoffs.

'79 was his best team. The Skins went into Dallas the last week of the year at 10-5. With a win, they would have clinched the division. It looked great as they jumped to a 17-0 lead. Dallas chipped away, but midway through the 4th quarter, John Riggins rumbled for a 66 yard TD to put the Skins up 13. That is when Roger Staubach led the Cowboys back with 2 TD drives in the closing minutes - what made it even more heartbreaking was that the last wild card came down to a point differential tiebreaker, which kept the Skins out of the playoffs. Going from near certain division champs with a road win over our most hated rival to out of the playoffs altogether is to this day the most devastating loss that I've suffered as a Skins fan.

The most notable news from Pardee's last season was that Riggins held out for the entire season, and the team finished 6-10. Beathard's desire to turn over an aging roster won the day when Jack Kent Cooke fired Pardee and brought in Gibbs.

It's funny that Pardee became a run & shoot (Mouse Davis/June Jones) proponent as a college coach at Houston, because by and large, he was a pretty conservative coach here, having learned the ropes playing for George Allen.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

Pardee was ultimately too loyal to veterans that were his former teammates in the Over the Hill Gang. In '78, he led the Skins to a 6-0 record out of the gate before they faltered badly to finish 8-8. That may be the only time that a team started 6-0 and didn't make the playoffs.

'79 was his best team. The Skins went into Dallas the last week of the year at 10-5. With a win, they would have clinched the division. It looked great as they jumped to a 17-0 lead. Dallas chipped away, but midway through the 4th quarter, John Riggins rumbled for a 66 yard TD to put the Skins up 13. That is when Roger Staubach led the Cowboys back with 2 TD drives in the closing minutes - what made it even more heartbreaking was that the last wild card came down to a point differential tiebreaker, which kept the Skins out of the playoffs. Going from near certain division champs with a road win over our most hated rival to out of the playoffs altogether is to this day the most devastating loss that I've suffered as a Skins fan.

The most notable news from Pardee's last season was that Riggins held out for the entire season, and the team finished 6-10. Beathard's desire to turn over an aging roster won the day when Jack Kent Cooke fired Pardee and brought in Gibbs.

It's funny that Pardee became a run & shoot (Mouse Davis/June Jones) proponent as a college coach at Houston, because by and large, he was a pretty conservative coach here, having learned the ropes playing for George Allen.

OMG do you remember that game against Dallas in 79???? Roger S. just killed us that day. He pulled that win out all by himself and sent us home. One of the best Redskin Cowboy games of all time. Sucks that we lost though.

[70Chip]

He was pretty popular with the fans because he was seen as a natural successor to Allen, having played for him. They had a great team in 1979. They just couldn't shut the door on Dallas in that final game. You talk about the town being depressed on the Monday after a loss. That Monday was X1000. After that, Riggins headed for Kansas and the wheels sort of came off the 1980 season. At the end of that year, Ken Houston lost his starting job, and Pardee wouldn't let him start the final home game even though he was retiring and the fans all thought it would be a nice gesture since the season was in the crapper anyways. He took a lot of heat in the press over that. At least that's how I remember it. Plus, I THINK that Mr. Cooke took over the day to day control of the team from Ed Williams AFTER Pardee had been hired, so I'm not sure he was ever Cooke's guy. I could be wrong about that. The exact details of the ownership and management and who owns what percentage of Pro Football Inc. and so forth is a part of the story that they never quite get around to telling.

[LRT]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

He was pretty popular with the fans because he was seen as a natural successor to Allen, having played for him. They had a great team in 1979. They just couldn't shut the door on Dallas in that final game. You talk about the town being depressed on the Monday after a loss. That Monday was X1000. After that, Riggins headed for Kansas and the wheels sort of came off the 1980 season. At the end of that year, Ken Houston lost his starting job, and Pardee wouldn't let him start the final home game even though he was retiring and the fans all thought it would be a nice gesture since the season was in the crapper anyways. He took a lot of heat in the press over that. At least that's how I remember it. Plus, I THINK that Mr. Cooke took over the day to day control of the team from Ed Williams AFTER Pardee had been hired, so I'm not sure he was ever Cooke's guy. I could be wrong about that. The exact details of the ownership and management and who owns what percentage of Pro Football Inc. and so forth is a part of the story that they never quite get around to telling.

I think you're absolutely right about the day-to-day control. Growing up my family never had season tickets, so no regular season games, but my Dad and/or cousin always took me to a preseason game. I used to treasure the programs that they bought me at the games. I remember the '78 program highlighted Edward Bennett Williams as the "managing partner" or something like that. I don't even remember if Jack Kent Cooke was mentioned. Later, in '79 or '80, I remember the ownership page being all about the Squire. Of course, those are just the musty memories of middle-aged man.