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Frank Ivy

1940 NFL Draft: Round 4 Pick 27

Roster Info

Season Class # Pos Ht Wt
1937
1938 JR 68 E 6-2 1/2 190
1939 SR 68 E 6-3 190

Personal Info

First Name: Frank
Middle Name:
Last Name: Ivy
Common Name:
Nickname: Pop
Hometown: Skiatook, OK
High School:
Birth Date/Place:
Death Date/Place: May 24, 2003
Related To:
Obituary:

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Frank "Pop" Ivy, the only coach to direct teams in the NFL, AFL and Canadian Football League, has died. He was 87.

The Arizona Cardinals, his NFL team, said Wednesday that Ivy had been in poor health for a long period before he passed away Saturday in Norman, Okla. He will be eulogized May 28 in a funeral service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Norman.

"I appreciated him as a coach and person," said Cardinals vice president Larry Wilson, a Pro Football Hall of Fame safety who broke in under Ivy in 1960. "He was a hard-nosed guy, which I liked."

Ivy played defensive end at Oklahoma from 1937-39. Pittsburgh drafted him in 1939, and he played for the Steelers in 1940 before they traded him to the then-Chicago Cardinals in mid-October.

Ivy was a two-way end for six seasons with the Cardinals from 1940-47, taking a 2½-year break to serve in the Army infantry in Europe during World War II.

His best years as a player were in 1942, when he was second in the NFL with 27 catches for 259 yards, and 1947, when the Cardinals won their only NFL title.

The next year, Ivy returned to Oklahoma as an assistant coach to Bud Wilkinson. He spent six years with the Sooners, who won the national championship in 1950.

The Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL hired Ivy as their head coach in 1954, and he led them to three consecutive Grey Cup championships. He stayed on through 1957 — compiling a CFL record of 50-14 — before returning to Chicago to coach the Cardinals in 1958.

Ivy was 17-31-2 with the Cardinals during a four-year period in which the franchise relocated in St. Louis.

He coached the Houston Oilers of the AFL from 1962-63, posting a 17-12 record. Ivy was the losing coach in the six-quarter AFL title game between Houston and Dallas on Dec. 23, 1963. The Texans won the game 20-17.

Ivy later served as an assistant coach and scout for the New York Giants until he retired in 1984.

He was renowned as an offensive innovator, spreading the field with double-wing and triple-flanker formations, and coming up with the "lonesome quarterback" set, a forerunner of the shotgun.

Notes

  • A (C) indicates that the player was a captain for that season (named before each game in 1982, 1995 through 1998, and 2022 to present).
  • Related To refers to other OU athletes only.
  • Calculations for career totals will be skewed if the season totals are incomplete.