Mayer: Mather worked tirelessly to improve Kansas football

By Bill Mayer     Jun 3, 2005

Chuck Mather has been reading Journal-World stories about Bobby Douglass’s involvement in the resurgence of Lawrence’s Hotel Eldridge. The reaction establishes Chuck as the president of the Douglass Fan Club. Not for Bobby’s emergence as a hotel magnate but as a Kansas University All-America football quarterback whose professional career was blunted by lackluster coaching and a dearth of top-flight receivers.

Mather just turned 90. He was KU’s head coach for 1954-57, then was an assistant to George Halas with the Chicago Bears until the legendary Halas called it quits in 1967 after 47 years as an owner-coach. Chuck, several times a candidate for NFL head-coaching jobs, later scouted for the Bears, then became tremendously successful in the insurance business in Chicago, where he still works regularly. He plays tennis three times a week and golfs, with former players, when the weather is decent.

The sad news is that his wife of 62 years, Mildred, died in December after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Chuck keeps busy to fill what he calls a “horrible void.” Son George, a former Navy footballer, is 58, and daughter Nancy is 55.

Bob Douglass, often in the non-sports news here of late, starred at Kansas in 1966-68. A cannon-armed passer and a ferocious 6-foot-3, 235-pound rushing menace, he spent 13 seasons as a pro – 1969-74 with the Bears, 1975 with San Diego, 1976 with New Orleans and 1978-81 at Green Bay.

“There never was better pro quarterback prospect than Bobby,” Chuck said during a recent telephone visit. “If he’d had better pro coaching and had been put into a system designed to exploit his great running ability along with his passing, he could have wound up among the all-time greats. No coaches ever used him to the best advantage so he unfairly was rated as a hard-thrower who’d rather run than pass. Never got the chance to develop.”

Halas was succeeded as Bears’ coach by Jim Dooley, a smooth-striding Miami product who was used a variety of ways as a Chicago pro. Halas admitted he had a soft spot in his heart for Jim. But Dooley was replaced, after a losing 1968-71 record, by Abe Gibron, the great Cleveland Brown guard. Abe’s tenure was 1972-74; his lack of success led to Jack Pardee’s taking over.

“They seemed to be stuck in the Sid Luckman drop-back era (a Hall of Famer) and never seemed to understand what Bobby Douglass had to offer,” said Mather, who followed Bear fortunes closely as a scout and consultant. “Bob was an incredible talent. But he never was blessed with any really good receivers; in many ways, great receivers can be more important than a quarterback. No matter how good a QB is, if he has bad people to throw to, he’s dead.

“I think almost every quarterback has had a bad year when he lacked star receivers. Check Dan Marino, Otto Graham, Terry Bradshaw, John Elway, Steve Young, Bart Starr, John Unitas, Joe Montana. They all struggled without good receivers. Bobby could have been the greatest and I never accepted the criticism that he threw too hard. ALL the good ones do.” The Bears have retired 13 jerseys and only one belonged to a receiver, Bill Hewitt, 1932-36.

Another Kansan, Galloping Gale Sayers who fared rather well as a Bear superstar, feels about the only chink in Douglass’s armor was that he didn’t concentrate enough on studying defenses and relied too much on his awesome physical presence. Mather doesn’t concur. He believes proper tutelage by outstanding coaches in a system designed to feature Douglass on options, rollouts and draw plays would have negated that.

Mather saw most such people up close and personal as a pro coach and scout. Halas hired Chuck as an innovator and often said Chuck played a major role in Chicago’s 1963 NFL championship season. “In that ’63 game, we had studied the Giants’ Y.A. Tittle’s tendencies so well we intercepted him five times.” Two picks set up the touchdowns in the 14-10 Bear victory.

“When Bobby was sent to San Diego from the Bears, I called coach Tommy Prothro, whom I’d known quite a while, and said Douglass was a diamond in the rough who could do wonders in the right system,” Mather said. “Tommy said the offense already was set and it was too late to change.”

Mather came to KU in 1954 from an incredible career at Massillon, Ohio, High. His Tigers went 57-3 during six seasons, won six state titles and three national mythical titles. Chuck was among the first coaches at any level to use punch-card machines to grade players and chart opponents’ tendencies. His use of film was legendary, and that was another reason Halas brought him aboard. At Massillon, Mather topped even the brilliant Paul Brown, who moved from there to Ohio State success and later gained pro immortality.

Mather nearly was hired by Ohio State in 1951 but Woody Hayes won out. At Kansas, for all his background, dedication and hard work, he got tossed into a tough situation where the league was fierce, recruiting had tailed off after the J.V. Sikes tenure and things just never quite fit. “If Dutch Lonborg (athletic director) had told me now treacherous our schedules would be and how far we had to come back, I’d never left Ohio,” Chuck has said many times. Notre Dame’s Terry Brennan, Gerry Faust and other high schoolers never made the big jump, either.

Chuck left here with an 11-26-3 record. His 1957 swan song saw the Jayhawks get off to a 1-4-1 start. He told the players he was kaput, and they ran the table to finish at 5-4-1. That got Mather voted league coach of the year.

I’m not sure anybody ever worked harder than Chuck Mather and his Massillon-oriented staff to make Kansas a football winner. They were good people with strong backgrounds and were fine members of the community. But they couldn’t quite get over the hump. Among the blessings was that the staff hirings by Mather brought the likes of the Paul Schofer and Tom Triplett families to Lawrence. Their positive impact was immediate and has been long-lasting.

As for Bobby Douglass, he’s done pretty well even if Mather thinks he was misused at a pro. And don’t consider Chuck some senile old coot trapped in the past. He sounds as sharp and thinks as clearly as he did some 50 years ago. Bob Douglass is fortunate to have an analyst of this caliber in his corner.

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