Former Bengals coach Sam Wyche passes away

Sam Wyche, the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals from 1984-1991, has passed away. He was 74 years old.

A former NFL quarterback, who was one of the players on the Bengals’ first team in 1968, Wyche began his head coaching career with his former team in 1984. He had spent four years coaching quarterbacks for the San Francisco 49ers and was the head coach of Indiana University before spending eight seasons with the Bengals.

Wyche won 64 of his 130 career games in Cincinnati, including an AFC Championship and a Super Bowl appearance in 1988 when the Bengals won a franchise-best 12 games.

After Cincinnati, Wyche became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1992-1995. He returned to coaching in 2002 at the high school level for two years before coaching the Buffalo Bills quarterbacks from 2004-2005.

This past week, Wyche was admitted into hospice care for melanoma skin cancer. He is survived by his wife Jane and his two children, Zak and Kerry.

Bengals owner Mike Brown released a statement on Wyche’s passing:

“Sam was a wonderful guy. We got to know him as both a player and a coach. As our coach, he had great success and took us to the Super Bowl. He was friends with everyone here, both during his tenure as head coach and afterwards. We not only liked him, we admired him as a man. He had a great generosity of spirit and lived his life trying to help others. We express our condolences to Jane and his children Zak and Kerry.”

Wyche was one of the more prominent figures in Bengals history, and he will be missed. One last time, we must ask what Ohio city we live in: