Allie Sherman Alexander " Allie " Sherman ( born February 10 , 1923 ) is a retired American football National Football League running back and head coach . He was born in Brooklyn , New York . Sherman was the coach of the NFL ' s New York Giants from 1961 to 1969 . His division titles with the Giants from 1961 to 1963 were the high points of his coaching career . Sherman collected two NFL Coach of the Year Award s in 1961 and 1962 , the first time such an honor was awarded to the same person in consecutive years . Early life . Sherman , who is Jewish , was the son of Russian Jews . At Boys ' High School in Brooklyn , he was captain of his high school handball team but did not make the football team . A very bright student , he graduated high school at the age of 16 . Brooklyn College . Sherman was the starting quarterback , beginning in 1940 . He was not only quarterback but captain of the 1941 – 42 Brooklyn College football team , and a teammate of future longtime Boston Celtics play - by - play man Johnny Most . NFL playing career . After graduating in 1943 at age twenty , he joined the NFL Philadelphia Eagles as both quarterback and defensive back . In his rookie season , he played with a combined Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers squad ( due to manpower shortages caused by World War II ) . The team , called the Steagles , finished third in the NFL East with a record of 5 – 4 – 1 . Sherman spent five seasons with the Eagles , who finished second in the NFL East from 1944 to 1946 . In 1946 , he completed 17 of 33 passes for , and led the league in yards per passing attempt ( 8 . 00 ) . The following year , he helped lead the Eagles to the NFL East title with a record of 8 – 4 – 0 . They tied the Pittsburgh Steelers for first , and then defeated Pittsburgh in a playoff to reach the NFL championship game , which they lost to the Chicago Cardinals ( led by All - NFL defensive back Marshall Goldberg ) , 28 – 21 . Sherman retired following the 1947 season after having played in 51 NFL games . NFL player record Coaching career . Upon his retirement Sherman turned to coaching , first with the New York Giants as backfield coach from 1949 to 1953 . That same year he became a head coach for the first time , with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers ( one of his players was Hall of Famer Bud Grant ) of the Canadian Football League . In 1957 , he returned to the Giants as a scout and then rejoined the coaching staff two years later as offensive coordinator , replacing Vince Lombardi when he was appointed head coach of the Green Bay Packers . Finally , in 1961 , Sherman was given a head coaching job in the NFL , and he made the most of it . That year , he led the Giants to the NFL Eastern Division championship which landed them in the NFL championship game . Although they lost to the Green Bay Packers on the road , 37 – 0 , Sherman was named NFL Coach of the Year because the Giants had improved from a 6 – 4 – 2 record in 1960 to 10 – 3 – 1 in 1961 . The following year , with players such as superstar quarterback Y . A . Tittle and star running back Frank Gifford , Sherman continued his winning ways and led the Giants back to the NFL championship game after repeating as NFL East champs with a 12 – 2 record . He became the first NFL Coach of the Year in back - to - back seasons , although his Giants again fell to the Green Bay Packers in the NFL championship Game , this time 16 – 7 at home on a frigid , windy afternoon . In 1963 the Giants won their third straight division title , but again lost in the championship game , this time to the defensive powerhouse Chicago Bears on the road , 14 – 10 , the Giants ' last appearance in an NFL championship game until Super Bowl XXI in 1986 – 87 . Sherman coached the Giants for another five seasons , but with the retirements of Tittle , Gifford and other stars , the team didn ' t have the same success . By 1966 , the fans were getting restless and talk of firing Sherman became more common . The spectators at Yankee Stadium took to chanting " Goodbye Allie , " waving banners to that effect and even putting the slogan to song . By 1968 , despite an improved record of 7 – 7 , the fans ' dissatisfaction reached a peak and , after a poor preseason performance in 1969 ( including a 34 – 17 loss to the AFL New York Jets ) , they got their wish and Sherman was dismissed , finishing 57 – 51 – 4 for his Giants coaching career . Speaking of the rigors of football , Sherman said , " In this game , a player aches from July to December . " NFL coaching record ( 1961 – 68 NY Giants ) : 57 – 51 – 4 ; 0 – 3 in the playoffs . Honors , and post - football . Sherman is a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Commack , Long Island , New York . In the mid - 1960s , while still the Giants ' head coach but after his first three division - champion seasons , he hosted a short - lived TV panel - discussion show called Pro Football Special in which he spoke with a Southern drawl ( once declaring he was from " Brooklyn , Texas " ) and , in reviewing touchdown plays , would say that the runner , once in the clear , " goes in for the touch ' . " During the 1980s and early 1990s , he was a professional football analyst for ESPN . From 1994 to 1997 , he was president of the New York City Off - Track Betting Corporation .