Alex "Allie" Sherman (February 10, 1923 – January 3, 2015) was an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
player and coach who played 51 games in six seasons in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL) as a
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
and
defensive back, and afterward served as head coach of the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fie ...
of the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
(CFL) and of the
New York Giants of the NFL. He later worked as a
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
and
sports marketing
Sports marketing as a concept has established itself as a branch of marketing over the past few decades, however, a generally accepted definition does not exist.
Academicians Kaser and Oelkers (2005, p. 9) define sports marketing as 'using spor ...
executive and
media personality
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
.
Sherman was head coach of the NFL's
New York Giants from
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
to the
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
preseason. He won three consecutive Eastern Conference titles with the Giants from 1961 to 1963, and coached in three NFL
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
s. Sherman collected two
NFL Coach of the Year Award
The National Football League Coach of the Year Award is presented annually by various news and sports organizations to the National Football League (NFL) head coach who has done the most outstanding job of working with the talent he has at his disp ...
s, in 1961 and 1962, the first time such an honor was awarded to the same person in consecutive years. He was the first "media" NFL head coach, producing and hosting his own shows on television and radio, and becoming a frequent on-air football analyst.
After coaching, he had a long career at Warner Communications (today
WarnerMedia
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
), where he developed the first cable television sports networks, pioneered interactive and pay-per-view television and events, oversaw and marketed the
New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to
* New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada)
* New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...
soccer team, and produced for ABC and worldwide syndication
Pelé's farewell game event (with
Muhammad Ali and other celebrities). Later, new New York City Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani tapped Sherman to become president of the failing
New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation
In the U.S. state of New York, off-track betting on horse racing is offered by five regional, government-owned corporations. As of 2014, the five operators had a total of 89 betting parlors and 5 tele-theaters around the state. They accepted a t ...
(OTB), which, within two years, Sherman made profitable for the first time while revitalizing its tawdry image.
Early life
Sherman was Jewish, and his parents migrated to New York in 1920.
[Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles—"The Steagles"—Saved ... - Matthew Algeo ]
/ref> Sherman was born in Brownsville in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
's borough of Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, then lived in New Lots, East New York
East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough li ...
, and Crown Heights.[There Were Giants in Those Days: The New York Giants Dynasty 1954-1963 - Gerald Eskenazi ]
/ref> He attended P.S. 202, and for junior high school attended P.S. 149, which was also attended by actor Danny Kaye and Henry Cohen Henry Cohen may refer to:
* Henry Cohen (numismatist) (1806–1880), French numismatist, bibliographer and composer
*Henry Cohen (rabbi) (1863–1952), Jewish Texan rabbi in Galveston, Texas, 1888–1952
*Henry Cohen (politician) (1872–1942), Aus ...
.
Always playing sandlot sports, especially football, as a sophomore at 13 years old and weighing 125 pounds, he tried out for the football team at Boys High School
Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...
in Brooklyn. The coach told him he was too small and should try handball instead, and because of his small size and young age his mother refused to sign the required permission slip.[Leveling the Playing Field: The Story of the Syracuse Eight - David Marc ]
/ref> Sherman became the captain of the Boys' High handball team, which won division titles. To earn spending money, on weekends he and his doubles partner would "cross over" to the tougher side of Brooklyn to hustle older players who bet big money and hopefully did not recognize them. He graduated in 1939 with a 96 average at the age of 16, and entered college.
Brooklyn College
Sherman entered Brooklyn College, and tried out for football again, but this time coach Lou Oshins took him on as a quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
, recalling, "His dedication to football was absolute, astonishing." When Sherman's mother saw how violent the game was, however, she made him quit. He and Oshins eventually made his mother relent. During the summer before his sophomore year, while Sherman waited on tables in the Catskills
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York (state), New York. As a cultural and geographic region, ...
, Oshins mailed Sherman weekly sections of Clark Shaughnessy's book about the new T-formation
In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarterba ...
, leading Sherman to refer to himself as "a correspondence school quarterback". Sherman had also taken a football with him to the Catskills, and spent time throwing it at trees to improve his accuracy.
He became the starting quarterback in 1940, and played for the team from 1940-42.[NFL Head Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary, 1920–2011 - John Maxymuk ]
/ref> One of the few colleges running the T-formation, he captained the 1941–42 Brooklyn College team that upset the favored cross-town rival City College, and completed seven straight pass
Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to:
Places
* Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland
* Pass, Poland, a village in Poland
* Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits
* Mountain pass, a lower place in a moun ...
es in a "scrimmage" against an NFL team then called the Brooklyn Dodgers. A teammate was future longtime Boston Celtics play-by-play man Johnny Most
John M. Most (June 15, 1923 – January 3, 1993) was an American sports announcer, known primarily as the raspy radio voice of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association from 1953 to 1990.
Most's radio call during the final moment ...
. Sherman graduated '' cum laude'' in 1943 just have turned 20 years of age, and 5' 10" and 160 pounds.
Sherman is a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, in Commack, New York, is dedicated to honoring American Jewish figures who have distinguished themselves in sports.
Its objective is to foster Jewish identity through athletics, and to commemo ...
in Long Island, New York, and the Brooklyn College Hall of Fame.
NFL playing career
After he graduated in 1943 (a psychology major), the Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...
' future Hall of Fame coach, Earl "Greasy" Neale, took Sherman on as a "prospect" and to help the Eagles and their All-Pro
All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...
quarterback Roy Zimmerman convert from a single wing offense into the T-formation. Neale commented, "Never have I seen a player with a greater understanding of the game. He was so dedicated, he insisted on rooming with a lineman. He wanted to absorb the way a lineman thought." He called Sherman "the smartest man in football." In his rookie season, he played with a combined Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers squad (due to manpower shortages caused by World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
). The team, called the Steagles
The Steagles were the team created by the temporary merger of Pennsylvania's two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season. The two franchises were compelled to field a sin ...
, finished third in the NFL East with a record of 5–4–1.
Playing both quarterback and defensive back, 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 264 yards, 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
Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...
, which they lost to the Chicago Cardinals
The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons.
Roots ...
, 28–21. In all, he completed 48.9% of his 135 pass attempts for nine touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...
s, while running for four more. After the 1947 season, having played in 51 NFL games, Sherman took Neale's advice and shifted to coaching.
Coaching career
Sherman spent the 1948 season as a rookie head coach and quarterback for the Paterson Panthers, a minor league New Jersey team, and won the championship. In 1949, upon Neale's recommendation, he became backfield coach for the New York Giants under head coach Steve Owen, and converted Charlie Conerly
Charles Albert Conerly Jr. (September 19, 1921 – February 13, 1996) was an American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1948 through 1961. Conerly was inducted into the College Football Hal ...
into a T-formation quarterback. In a 1950 preseason exhibition game against the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
, Sherman came out of retirement to play quarterback for the Giants in the first half of a game which New York won by the score of 27-6.
When Owen retired as the Giants' coach after the 1953
Events
January
* January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
* January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.
* January 14
** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...
season, and Sherman did not get his job, he became head coach of the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fie ...
. The Bombers made the playoffs three years in a row; and, with the CFL's 12-man squads and broad pre-snap motion rules, Sherman gained a reputation for designing complex offensive schemes that made defenses dizzy. "We had so many guys moving before the snap, it looked like a damned ballet", Sherman said. One of his players was future Hall of Famer Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant
Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. (born May 20, 1927) is a former head coach and player of American football, Canadian football, and a former player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Grant served as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings ...
. In 1957
1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...
he returned to the Giants as a scout, and then rejoined the coaching staff in 1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
as offensive coordinator, replacing Vince Lombardi
Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized a ...
when Lombardi was appointed head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Lombardi, a good friend, wanted Sherman to join him as the Packers' offensive coordinator; but Sherman wanted the Giants' head coaching position.
In 1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
, Sherman was promoted to head coach. He traded for a number of younger players to bolster an aging squad, such as star quarterback Y. A. Tittle, swift receiver Del Shofner
Delbert Martin Shofner (December 11, 1934 – March 11, 2020) was an American football wide receiver who played for eleven seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and the New York Giants from 1957 to 1967 in the National Football League (NFL).
Early ...
, and defensive backs Erich Barnes
Erich Theodore Barnes ( ; July 4, 1935 – April 29, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers (1956–1958), wh ...
and Allan Webb, and then led the Giants to the NFL Eastern Conference championship, which landed them in the NFL championship game
Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...
. Although they lost to the Packers
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thi ...
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
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Jan ...
to 10–3–1 in 1961. The following year, with running back Frank Gifford
Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...
returning from injury, Sherman led the Giants back to the NFL title game after repeating as NFL East champions with a 12–2 record. He was again named NFL Coach of the Year, the first awarded that in consecutive seasons, although his Giants again fell to Green Bay, this time 16–7 in Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...
. In 1963 the Giants won their third straight Eastern title, but lost in the championship game on the road, 14–10, to the Chicago Bears, who injured Tittle's leg, taking him out of the game. It was the Giants' last appearance in an NFL championship game until Super Bowl XXI in 1986–87.
Sherman and his coaching staff coached three NFL Pro Bowl games, from 1961 to 1963. In 1965 and 1966, with the support of owner Wellington Mara
Wellington Timothy Mara (August 14, 1916 – October 25, 2005) was the co-owner of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1959 until his death. He was the younger son of Tim Mara, who founded the Giants in 1925. Wellingto ...
, Sherman added two retired Giants to his staff, Emlen Tunnell
Emlen Lewis Tunnell (March 29, 1924 – July 23, 1975), sometimes known by the nickname "The Gremlin", was an American professional football player and coach. He was the first African American to play for the New York Giants and also the ...
and Rosey Brown
Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown Jr. (October 20, 1932 – June 9, 2004) was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965. He previously played coll ...
. In addition to being future Hall of Famers, both were African American, the first black assistant coaches in the NFL. With much racial strife in the country at the time, this caused controversy in both the press and parts of the league, particularly in the still-segregated southern areas. In 1968 Sherman and his coaching staff were invited to coach the Senior Bowl's North Team, played in Mobile, Alabama. During the practice week, the Bowl organization held a big banquet at a local country club. Shortly beforehand, Sherman was told that Tunnell and Brown were not invited because of the club's segregation policy. Sherman quickly informed the Bowl committee that no Giants personnel would attend the banquet unless everyone was invited. When it was clear nothing could change his mind, the club relented. That was the first evening in the club's history that two African-Americans were seated and served in the dining room. Sherman remained close friends with both until their deaths.
Sherman coached the Giants for another five seasons, but with an aging defense and retirements of Tittle, Gifford, and others, the team began rebuilding with younger players and went through up and down years. Some fans, used to a playoff club, did not like trades of favorite established players like Rosey Grier
Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier (born July 14, 1932) is an American actor, singer, Protestant minister, and former professional football player. He was a notable college football player for Pennsylvania State University who earned a retrospective plac ...
, Don Chandler
Donald Gene "Babe" Chandler (September 5, 1934 – August 11, 2011) was a professional American football player. He was a punter and placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons in the 1950s and 1960s. Chandler played coll ...
, and Sam Huff
Robert Lee "Sam" Huff (October 4, 1934 – November 13, 2021) was an American professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. He played college footba ...
. Some trades, however, authorized by Mara, occurred for unpublicized, inside-locker-room reasons. By 1966 some spectators at Yankee Stadium took to chanting "Goodbye Allie", waving banners to that effect and even putting the slogan to song. This never bothered Sherman; he told reporters that his pro philosophy was "They paid their money, and can do what they want," and joked that he owned the rights to the banners and song and made a fortune in royalties. Despite an improved season record of 7–7 in 1967, while being the leading NFL offensive team for much of it, and 7–7 again in 1968, one game away from the playoffs, after a poor preseason performance in 1969 (including a 37–14 loss to the Super Bowl champion New York Jets, led by Joe Namath, whom Sherman wanted to draft in 1965), Sherman was dismissed in September, a week before the regular season, finishing 57–51–4 for his Giants coaching career. With a ten-year contract signed in 1965 at $50,000 ($ in current dollar terms) annually, he was on the payroll through 1974.
NFL and media
Friends with new NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle
Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was an American businessman and executive. Rozelle served as the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) for nearly thirty years, from January 1960 until his retirement i ...
, a former public relations executive, Sherman saw merit in Rozelle's strategy to increase the NFL's value by increasing its television coverage, franchises, and entertainment marketing, which would expand NFL rights fees and revenues. Sherman developed himself into the first media-savvy professional coach. It was his policy to face the press regularly and answer questions with candor (but never knocking his players). He conducted never-before-done daily press conferences during training camp and, every Monday morning after a game, presented game film clips and evaluations. He held a big Christmas party for all of press, even his critics. Some critiqued Sherman as sometimes being "very Madison Avenue-ish."
Rethinking his 1963 rejection of writer George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...
's proposal to allow Plimpton to pose in training camp as a rookie quarterback (resulting in bestseller and movie ''Paper Lion''), in 1966 Sherman and Mara accepted author Eliot Asinof
Eliot Tager Asinof (July 13, 1919 – June 10, 2008) was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction best known for his writing about baseball. His most famous book was ''Eight Men Out'', a nonfiction reconstruction of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. ...
's proposal to spend two years with the team having total freedom and unlimited access to players, coaches, and executives, even closed coaches meetings. This resulted in a never-before seen behind-the-scenes look of the inner world of the professionals, ''Seven Days To Sunday'', published in 1968 (whose opening line is, "Allie Sherman's hundred-hour week began around 7am n Monday).
He produced and owned the first pro football coach's weekly television program, on independent NYC station WPIX, reviewing film of the Giants’ prior game and discussing football with invited players, coaches, and guests, giving many fans their first peek inside professional football and “up close and personal” moments with the players. He co-produced and hosted a Monday night radio program, ''Ask Allie'', airing on the Giants’ station, WNEW, where it was just himself sitting in a booth, smoking a cigar, and directly taking fans’ call-in questions and comments. The press respected Sherman for facing fans weekly (especially just 24 hours after a tough loss) and always treating them graciously. He also hosted the first nationally syndicated TV panel-discussion sports show called ''Pro Football Special'', where, in reviewing touchdown plays, he would say that the runner, once in the clear, "goes in for the touch."
During the 1980s and early 1990s he became the first pre-game pro football analyst and a frequent guest on the nascent ESPN and the networks. He also helped create what became NFL Films. In 1962 Sherman's friend and Giants fan Ed Sabol
Edwin Milton Sabol (September 11, 1916 – February 9, 2015) was an American filmmaker and the founder (with his son Steve Sabol, among others) of NFL Films. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011 as a contributor due to his wo ...
asked Sherman and Mara for exclusive rights to film game and off-field footage. Sabol would rush the film reels out of Yankee Stadium in team laundry baskets, spend all night developing them, and create special content for network sports shows. This enterprise evolved into NFL Films, eventually under Sabol's son Steve, with its large NFL catalogue and unique programming. In 1985 Sabol and Sherman co-created and produced a new type of show, ''Monday Night Matchup'', shown on ESPN just before ABC's national Monday Night game, where Sherman and co-hosts, such as Ron "Jaws" Jaworski, would break down the teams into key match-ups and use stop-action film and graphics to analyze the upcoming game. This format later became a standard feature in ESPN's and the networks’ sports programming.
Second career, after football
After Sherman was released by the Giants, he turned down several coaching offers from around the league. Foreseeing the coming major increase in NFL revenue and franchise values, he then wanted to be involved in a team management-ownership position. He led an effort with several New York friends and other parties to purchase an NFL franchise. They came close several times, including the New York Jets in 1970, but reluctant team owners and some investors' concerns about valuation prevented a purchase. One of the disappointed investors was Sherman's close friend, Warner Communications Inc.'s CEO Steve Ross, who was building cable television franchises and had recently purchased Warner Bros. Studio for its film and TV content. Ross agreed with Sherman that sports content also had great potential value, with cable television as a delivery system. Ross asked Sherman to join WCI and use his coaching and media expertise to build good teams and develop these potential assets.
While helping WCI win cable franchises in additional cities, Sherman was part of WCI's experimental QUBE system in Columbus, Ohio: the nation's first interactive cable system, enabling QUBE customers to individually order film and other content direct from home on a pay-per-view basis. Sherman recognized its marketing and revenue potential for sports programming. He created cable's first sports subscription package with Ohio State University Chancellor Gordon Gee. To provide special content for its Pittsburgh system, Sherman negotiated the purchase of minority ownership of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He managed WCI's position and built a similar Pirates subscription package for WCI cable customers. In each WCI cable system, in big cities like Dallas and Chicago, Sherman continued to acquire college and professional sports rights, and then built regional sports networks to exhibit the games and specially created related programming. Eventually they were all purchased, and are known today as the Fox Sports Networks. Sherman positioned WCI's growing cable systems as an integral part of the sales and marketing of national pay-per-view events, especially high-priced championship fights. He negotiated special rights deals with impresarios and friends Don King and Bob Arum.
In the mid-1970s, Ross created a soccer team, the New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to
* New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada)
* New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...
, which acquired talent from around the world, such as Brazil's Pelé and Germany's Franz Beckenbauer. The Cosmos became the emerging North American Soccer League's premier team and played at home in New Jersey's Meadowlands' 75,000-seat stadium (where the Giants and Jets played) to small crowds of mostly the nationality of the Cosmos's opponent. Sherman took over the team's management and marketing, to expand the fan base to bigger, broader audiences. Sherman used Pelé and other stars to sell the game's excitement, reached out to regional youth soccer clubs, negotiated a special television deal for more exposure, and made Cosmos games into an event. The next season, Meadowlands stadium sold out every Cosmos game with broad, inclusive audiences. Sherman became close with Pelé (who Pelé called "Allie Boss" and later they both shared WCI office space), and Pelé requested that ASherman produce his 1977 farewell game. Sherman put together a package of an ABC special game presentation, a worldwide syndicate of TV networks in 117 countries (including the Soviet Union), global sponsors to market it, had Frank Gifford as host with myriad celebrities and officials, ending with a special award presented by Muhammad Ali. It remains, as of 2014, was the most highly rated non-World Cup soccer event.
In 1994, new New York mayor Rudy Giuliani (one of whose campaign slogans was “OTB is the only bookie in the world that loses money every year”), asked Sherman to become president of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation
In the U.S. state of New York, off-track betting on horse racing is offered by five regional, government-owned corporations. As of 2014, the five operators had a total of 89 betting parlors and 5 tele-theaters around the state. They accepted a t ...
(OTB) and try to turn OTB into a money maker with a better image. With the mayor's support, during the next three years Sherman instituted new, multimedia marketing campaigns using NYC celebrities as spokespeople, closed a number of run-down OTB parlors around the city while cleaning up the remaining ones, opened OTB new betting facilities in upscale sports restaurants, cut costs and revamped antiquated OTB procedures, and created a phone betting system to provide customer convenience and increase volume. Also, in a private-public partnership, Sherman worked with the New York Racing Association
The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) is the not-for-profit corporation that operates the three largest Thoroughbred horse racing tracks in the state of New York, United States: Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens; Belmont Park i ...
and Warner Cable in a joint venture with OTB to create a new, low-cost daily racing channel, showing races from around the country that customers could bet on over the phone and then watch at home. The OTB Channel continued to run for over twenty years, in the black. By 1996 OTB was profitable for the first time, with a new, fresher image.
Personal life
Marty Glickman
Martin Irving Glickman (August 14, 1917 – January 3, 2001) was an American radio announcer who was famous for his broadcasts of the New York Knicks basketball games and the football games of the New York Giants and the New York Jets.
Glickman w ...
, former Olympian and sportscaster, introduced Allie to his future wife, Joan, in the early 1950s. Throughout the years, Sherman was involved with many charities, including children charities, especially for those with special needs, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and the Veteran's Bedside Network (where he regularly visited Veterans’ hospitals, to talk football and sports with disabled veterans). On January 3, 2015, he died at the age of 91.Allie Sherman's obituary
/ref>
NFL player record
:Physical: 5 ft 10 in, 168 pounds
:Games: 51
:Passes completed: 66
:Passes attempted: 135
:Passing percentage: 48.9
:Passing yards: 823
:Passing touchdowns: 9
:Interceptions thrown: 10
:Rushes: 93
:Rushing yards: 44
:Rushing average: 0.5
:Rushing touchdowns: 4
:Fumbles: 10
:Interceptions: 2
Head coaching record
See also
* History of the New York Giants (1925–1978)
* List of left-handed quarterbacks
This is a list of notable left-handed quarterbacks who have played professionally or for a major college program. In gridiron football, quarterbacks have been predominantly right-handed; only 33 left-handed quarterbacks have appeared in the Nati ...
* List of select Jewish football players
References
* The Encyclopedia of Football, by Roger Treat (New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1976 – 14th Edition)
* Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League, edited by Bob Carroll, Michael Gershman, David Neft, and John Thorn (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999)
* Encyclopedia of Jews in sports, by Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, and Roy Silver (New York: Bloch Publishing Co., 1965)
* Seven Days To Sunday: Crisis Week with the New York Football Giants, by Eliot Asinof (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968)
External links
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Career coaching stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Allie
1923 births
2015 deaths
American football quarterbacks
Brooklyn Kingsmen football players
New York Giants head coaches
Philadelphia Eagles players
Steagles players and personnel
Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches
Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni
People from East New York, Brooklyn
People from Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Sportspeople from Brooklyn
Players of American football from New York (state)
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Jewish American sportspeople
National Football League offensive coordinators
21st-century American Jews