Longtime NFL player and coach Dick Jauron, former Jaguar Defensive Coordinator and who led the Chicago Bears to the playoffs and was voted AP Coach of the Year in 2001, died Saturday. He was 74.
Jauron was a two-sport star at Yale in the early 1970s, and he was drafted by both the Detroit Lions in the 1973 NFL draft and the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major League Baseball amateur draft. He ultimately made football his lifelong pursuit, beginning with five seasons as a defensive back in Detroit and three more with the Cincinnati Bengals. A Pro Bowl selection in 1974, Jauron recorded 25 interceptions -- including two returned for touchdowns -- in 100 career games with the Lions (1973-77) and Bengals (1978-80) before his retirement in 1980.
In 1995, Jauron was hired by Tom Coughlin as the defensive coordinator for the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, and he parlayed success there into the head coaching job in Chicago.
We at Fox Sports Radio send our deepest condolences to his family, the Jaguars, Bears, and Bills organization.