Mora Goes From the Stars to the Saints in Being Named Head Coach of NFL Team

The New Orleans Saints plucked Jim Mora from the ranks of the United States Football League on Tuesday and gave him the task that six other men have failed to complete over a 19-year span: winning with the hapless National Football League team.

“In Jim Mora, we have a man who has won and knows what it takes to have a winner,” Saint owner Tom Benson said. “He’s won everywhere he’s been. He’s also the kind person we need for our team, our fans and our city.”

Mora, 49, replaces Wade Phillips, who coached the Saints to a 1-3 finish after his father, Bum, resigned in late November with the team languishing at 4-8.

The 5-11 finish was the Saints’ second worst in the Phillipses’ five seasons at New Orleans.

Excluding Wade Phillips and three other interim appointments, Mora becomes the seventh head coach hired to bring a winner to New Orleans. Mora, who received a four-year contract from the Saints, coached the Stars to 52 victories over three years, including back-to-back USFL championships the last two seasons, first at Philadelphia and then at Baltimore.

Before the Stars’ job, he coached at Occidental College, his alma mater, and later at Stanford, Colorado, UCLA and Washington as a defensive assistant.