Master Chief

Hank Stram didn’t use his knack for innovation just to win football games.

He used it pitching pennies too.

“The first time I met him, I went to his office and he asked me if I was good at lagging pennies,” recalled Mike Garrett, USC’s athletic director and a former Kansas City Chief running back under Stram. “I beat him at it. But when he got to the wall he moved the coins and said, ‘I won.’

“After it was all over, I said to myself, ‘This guy is as competitive as I am. This is going to be fun.’ ”

Stram, the most successful coach in American Football League history, died Monday in a suburban New Orleans hospital. He was 82, and had been in declining health for several years.

He was the consummate player’s coach, Garrett said, the kind of leader who won by tapping into the strengths of the people around him, instead of insisting that his players adjust to a rigid philosophy.

“One thing he did with me, after realizing that I could play, he immediately switched to an I-formation, the same offense I ran at USC,” said Garrett, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1965 and rushed for 3,221 yards in three seasons. “I could run that offense in my sleep. It didn’t change the passing plays for [quarterback] Len Dawson, but it sure changed the way we attacked a defense with the run.”

Stram was credited with developing the 3-4 defense, the two-tight-end formation and the moving pocket, which he used to better protect his quarterback. The coach also took chances on players, as he did with Garrett, whom many thought might be too small and fragile to be a good pro.

Garrett was just under 5 feet 9 and weighed about 190 pounds. He is the sixth-leading rusher in Kansas City history, with 3,246 yards and 23 touchdowns in five seasons.

When it came to choosing players, Stram scored big on a lot of unconventional decisions. He turned Curley Culp, a throwaway offensive lineman, into a dominating defensive tackle; transformed a 6-9 tight end, Morris Stroud, from a sideshow act into a respectable pass catcher, and took advantage of the outstanding hands of tight end Fred Arbanas, who was blind in one eye.

“Athleticism is what prevailed with him,” Garrett said of Stram. “He wasn’t afraid to take chances with people, particularly if they had character and could play football.”

Stram, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003, set league records by winning three championships and more games than any other AFL coach. Three years after losing the inaugural Super Bowl to the Green Bay Packers, his Chiefs upset the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings, 23-7, in Super Bowl IV.

The way Garrett sees it, Stram deserves the acclaim usually accorded such legendary coaches as Vince Lombardi, Paul Brown and Don Shula.

“I really think Hank Stram should rank right up there,” he said. “With the Chiefs, no one really wanted to give us credence, no one wanted to acknowledge that we played great football. Hank knew how to pick talent, and he knew how to design offenses and defenses that won games. He was as important in the AFL’s history as Al Davis and all the other guys.”

That said, Stram was as quirky as they come.

“He was one of the last guys to come to practice in high-top football shoes,” Garrett said. “He was a running back in college, and I think he still thought he could play football. He’d always come out and want to throw the ball.

“When I first got there, I’d say, ‘Why do I have to go out there and play catch with this guy?’ Guys would say, ‘You’d better do it. He runs the show, man.’ And he did.”