Sport: Football
Born: July 2, 1924
Town: Somerville, New Jersey
Charles Height Winner was born July 2, 1924 in Somerville, NJ. His father operated a street-cleaning machine. Fast, tough and clever, Charley was a standout two-way halfback who excelled as a runner and pass defender for Somerset High School. He played one year of college ball for Southeast Missouri State before enlisting in the Army Air Force during WWII. He was a radio operator and gunner in a B-17 crew and spent 6 weeks in a POW camp after his plane was shot down in the spring of 1945.
Charley played football for Washington University in St. Louis for coach Weeb Ewbank from 1946 to 1948. He married Ewbank’s daughter, Nancy, and later joined his father-in-law on the Baltimore Colts’ staff in 1954. For several seasons, Charley coached the team’s defensive backs. The Colts grew from a team of castoffs to an NFL powerhouse. During the 1958 NFL Championship, Charley was perched atop Yankee Stadium with a pair of binoculars, transmitting reports and analysis to Ewbank. The Colts won the game in overtime, 23–17. The Colts repeated as NFL champs in 1959, with a big contribution from Charley’s coverage guys, who picked off 40 passes during the regular season.
In 1963, new coach Don Shula elevated Charley to the position of Defensive Coordinator. He held that job for three seasons before starting his first NFL head coaching gig, with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards were built around ALl-Pro defensive back Larry Wilson and a balanced offense starring Jackie Smith, Johnny Roland and quarterback Jim Hart. They had three winning seasons in four years with Charley at the helm and he was popular with the players. However, after missing the playoffs in 1969, he was fired.
After a brief stint on George Allen’s staff with the Redskins—during which the team made it to the Super Bowl—Charley was again hired by his father-in-law as an assistant with the Jets, and then replaced him as head coach when Ewbank retired in 1974. The Jets went 7–7 in Charley’s first season and Joe Namath was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year. But when the team started 2–7 in 1975, Charley was let go. His final NFL coaching record was 44–44.
Charley coached the defensive backs for the Cincinnati Bengals until 1979 and then reunited with Shula, filling a player-development role for the Miami Dolphins until 1992. In all, he worked 37 years in the NFL. Charley remained extremely active in his retirement, playing tennis competitively into his 90s. He is the last surviving coach (for either team) from the landmark 1958 NFL Championship. In 2015, Charley was inducted into the Washington U. Hall of Fame.