Coe, 1950
Marv Levy was an Honorary Inductee to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 1998.
Marvin (Marv) Levy was born in Chicago, Ill. in 1925 to his immigrant father Sam and his Russian-born wife Id. Following his high school graduation in 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. and spent the remainder of World War II in the military. In high school he wasn’t interested in school outside of athletics, but while recuperating in an Army hospital from a leg injury he learned to love English literature. After his discharge from the Army, Levy enrolled at Coe College in Iowa. There he excelled in athletics; earning varsity letters in football, track, and basketball. He studied for a degree in English literature, reading the classics. Levy lists Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Leon Uris, Thomas Wolfe, and Herman Wouk as his favorite authors. Levy was also a successful leader, elected twice as the student council president and a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He went to Harvard University for graduate studies in 1951, where he earned a masters degree in English history.
Levy returned to Iowa as an assistant football coach at Coe College for two years. He moved to the coaching staff at the University of New Mexico, and was eventually named head coach in 1958. He was also the head coach at the University of California (Berkeley) and the College of William and Mary, where he twice earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors. Levy started his professional football coaching career in 1969. He was the kicking teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, then a special teams coach for the Los Angeles Rams in 1970. Levy then spent five seasons with the Canadian Football League, as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes. He returned to the NFL in 1978 as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, where his team showed steady improvement each year. He later spent time as the head coach of the Chicago Blitz of the United States Football League, and again returned to the NFL as head coach of the Buffalo Bills. Levy is known for is high-powered “no-huddle” offense; setting a new standard for innovation among NFL coaches as he led his Bills teams to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.
Levy had taken a cautious approach with his new team. "What the team needed was realism," he said. "This was a weary football team, beaten down mentally by losing. I never mentioned the word 'win.' I talked about performance." Levy, the coach and teacher, built on the teams strength and became the winningest coach in Bills’ history, recording a 112–70 regular season record and was 11–8 in the playoffs during his eleven seasons with the Bills. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1988 and AFC Coach of the Year in 1988, 1993, and 1995.
At the start of every game, Levy presented his challenge trademark to his team asking, “Gentlemen, where would you rather be than right here right now?" Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2001 and the Academic All-America Class of 2008, Levy is very well respected in the football arena.