Ray Perkins, the first head coach hired by George Young when he took over the as general manager of the New York Giants in 1979, has passed away. His family confirmed his death to the website AL.com. He was 79.
Perkins was born one day before the attack on Pearl Harbor — December 6, 1941 — in Petal, Mississippi and played his college football at Alabama as a wide receiver under legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. He earned SEC Player of the Year honors and was named an All-American in 1966. He went on to play in the NFL for the Baltimore Colts from 1967-1971, where he played in two Super Bowls.
Upon his retirement as a player, Perkins went into the coaching ranks where his most notable achievement would be the man who replaced Bryant at Alabama in 1983.
Perkins began his coaching career as an assistant at Mississippi State and moved on to the professional ranks in New England and San Diego before Young, who knew Perkins for their days in Baltimore, hired him to help turn around the Giants, who had jus two winning seasons since 1963 and had not qualified for the playoffs during that stretch.
Perkins went 6-10 in his first season and 4-12 in his second. His disciplinary style was questioned consistently as the team’s results and fortunes were still in the dumpster. That changed in 1981, when the Giants drafted Lawrence Taylor and posted a 9-7 record, qualifying them for the postseason as a wild card. They defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild card round before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.
Perkins came back for the 1982 season, which was marred by a long work stoppage. The Giants went 4-5 in the abbreviated season and failed to make the playoffs. Perkins left after the season to head back to Alabama to take the head coaching vacancy left by Bryant’s death in January of 1983.
Giant fans will remember Perkins as the man who got them back into respectable NFL circles after 18 years of what is now known as the “wilderness years.” He is also responsible for the hiring coaches Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Ron Erhardt and Romeo Crennel, the backbone of the Giants’ great staff of the 1980s.
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