Dick Vermeil to speak at Riverview High's 'Night of Champions'

SARASOTA — On Saturday, Aug. 6, Dick Vermeil will give one of the most noteworthy speeches of his football career when he's inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

On Friday, Aug. 12, he will talk again, this time as guest speaker at Riverview High School's "Night of Champions," an annual fund-raiser for the Ram football team, at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota

To the 85-year-old, his first talk won't be any more consequential than his second.

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"It'll be every bit as important to me that day," said Vermeil, who will be inducted along with players Tony Boselli, Cliff Branch, LeRoy Butler, Sam Mills, Richard Seymour, Bryant Young, and official Art McNally. "I never turn down an opportunity to speak at a high school team banquet, or anything else, unless I have a conflict."

Vermeil is appearing in Sarasota as a favor to Riverview volunteer assistant coach Mike Gruttadauria. When Vermeil won Super Bowl XXXIV as head coach of the St. Louis Rams, Gruttadauria was his starting center.

"It allows me to pay my debt to Mike Gruttadauria," he said. "Without Mike Gruttadauria and his teammates, I'm not going into the Hall of Fame. So, what better way to show your admiration and respect for a man than by doing a favor for him, and I really look forward to being with him."

Dick Vermeil was an NFL head coach for 15 seasons. He left UCLA to take over the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976. Citing burnout, Vermeil retired after the 1982 season, but in 1997, returned to take over the Rams. His final job was head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001 to 2005.

Vermeil will be just the 28th head coach inducted into the Hall of Fame. He coached with three: Sid Gillman, George Allen, and Bill Walsh, and against 14 others. "So I know what they look like," he said.  "I know who they are. I'm just very honored to be put in that category.

"And there are a lot of coaches who deserve to get in there: Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert, Chuck Knox, Don Coryell. I think all those guys deserve it."

But to the guy who started his career in football in 1959 as an assistant coach at Del Mar High School in San Jose, California, Vermeil won't compare himself to head coaches already enshrined. Men such as Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, and Don Shula.

"I never put myself in the class of those people," he said. "I came out of high school coaching and junior college coaching. I never really put myself in the category of the Lombardis, the Shulas, Tom Landry, those kinds of people.

"I was a high school coach, and on Sunday afternoon, I would watch those guys coach and you would hold them up to a very high level of esteem. In awe of all of them. But I gradually worked my way up the ladder of coaching, around sophisticated coaches. I started to meet them and work with them and you gradually get accustomed to being around them."

He said the best players he coached against were Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor. Marshall Faulk was the best player on any team he coached. When he took over the Eagles in 1976, Vermeil used methods learned in high school. No Eagle player was allowed to take a knee, remove his helmet, or grab some water, without Vermeil's permission.

Many of the older Eagles brayed at his tactics. But in four years, the Eagles reached the Super Bowl.

"We were demanding," Vermeil said. "We wanted to build a structure and a culture and society with discipline and toughness. We wanted to synchronize the thing one way, so you had to do a lot of little things."

Though he'll have just eight minutes to deliver his HOF induction speech, Vermeil said he's yet to organize his thoughts. He'll have a lot more time when he appears at the Hyatt. And Vermeil will make every minute count.

"High school football was the reason I got into football."

IF YOU GO

• Individual seating for the Night of Champions is $200 per ticket. Table sponsorships, which include 10 seats, are $2,000. Half-table sponsorships, with five seats, cost $1,000. A cocktail reception with a cash bar starts at 6 p.m. The dinner and program will run from 7-10 p.m., with a silent auction to follow. For tickets, visit rhsfootball.eventbrite.com and search for "Dick Vermeil."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Dick Vermeil to speak at Riverview High's 'Night of Champions'