Ex-NFL coach, team executive

Mike Holovak, 88, a former coach with the Boston Patriots and a longtime NFL executive with the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a hospice in Ruskin, Fla., the Houston Chronicle reported. He was 88.

A native of Lansford, Pa., Holovak played football at Boston College under Coach Frank Leahy and was part of the undefeated 1940 team that won a share of the national championship.

Holovak also earned All-America honors as a running back and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1943.

Drafted by the Cleveland Rams in 1943, Holovak enlisted in the Navy and commanded a PT boat in the Pacific during the war.

He joined the Rams, who had moved to Los Angeles, in 1946, playing one year in Southern California before being traded to the Chicago Bears, where he played two seasons before retiring to become freshman football coach at Boston College. After two seasons, he was promoted to head coach.

In 1960, he was hired as the first director of player personnel for the newly founded Boston -- now New England -- Patriots. He became the Patriots’ second head coach in the 1961 season.

His 1964 Patriots reached the AFL championship game, losing to the San Diego Chargers.

He joined the Oilers -- now the Titans -- as personnel director in 1981. According to the Chronicle, he oversaw drafts that produced Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews, both of whom are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He was also instrumental in signing quarterback Warren Moon, another Hall of Famer.