Tom Bass ( August 2, 1935 - July 27, 2019) 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 ...

coach who spent 30 years as an assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals,

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

, and San Diego Chargers. He played at

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

as a lineman until a bout of polio left him unable to play football. He then served as an undergraduate coach, and upon graduation, as the only full-time assistant under

Don Coryell Donald David Coryell (October 17, 1924 – July 1, 2010) was an American football coach, who coached in the National Football League (NFL) first with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1973 to 1977 and then the San Diego Chargers from 1978 to 1986. ...

. He later worked on the Chargers staff with

Sid Gillman Sidney Gillman (October 26, 1911 – January 3, 2003) was an American football player, coach and executive. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or w ...

, coaching QB's with John Hadl, he was the first Coach hired by Coach

Paul Brown Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 – August 5, 1991) was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Clevela ...

on the inaugural Bengals staff, and the Buccaneers staff under John McKay. He joined the Buccaneers in their inaugural season as their director of pro scouting, and unofficially took over the offensive coordinator role when

John Rauch John Rauch (August 20, 1927 – June 10, 2008), also known by his nickname Johnny Rauch, was an American football player and coach. He was head coach of the Oakland Raiders in the team's loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II in early 1 ...

resigned. By the next season, he had become the team's defensive coordinator. He is credited with designing the Tampa Bay defense that ranked at or near the top of the league from 1978 to 1981. He left Tampa Bay before the

1982 NFL season The 1982 NFL season was the 63rd regular season of the National Football League. A 57-day-long players' strike reduced the 1982 season from a 16-game schedule per team to an abbreviated nine game schedule. Because of the shortened season, th ...

to join the Chargers, tasked with improving their league-last pass defense. In 1992, he was hired by the New England Patriots as their Vice President of Pro Personnel and Player Assistance. He was not retained after the season. He was also noted for teaching clinics to help female fans understand the game of football, and for having written two volumes of poetry. He has published several books of football drills and instructional techniques.

Personal life

He died in his home in Encinitas on July 27, 2019.
Fox 5 San Diego, “Former Chargers, SDSU football coach Tom Bass dies at 83” July 30, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Tom Living people Cincinnati Bengals coaches San Diego Chargers coaches San Diego State Aztecs football coaches San Diego State Aztecs football players Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaches National Football League defensive coordinators 1936 births