Sunday was a special day in Jacksonville. The Jaguars not only achieved their first victory of the 2024 season but also inducted the first head coach in franchise history, Tom Coughlin, into the team’s Hall of Fame, the Pride of the Jaguars.
The Jaguars sported throwback uniforms, based on a combination of the team’s looks from 1998-2008, adding a touch of nostalgia to their 37-34 win over the Colts and to pair with the ceremony.
Watch Coughlin’s Pride of the Jaguars celebration below.
Tom Coughlin’s full induction into the Pride of the #Jaguars. Touching moment in Jacksonville. pic.twitter.com/CGdjkqoLMd
— Zach Goodall (@zach_goodall) October 6, 2024
Coughlin, 78, served as Jacksonville’s head coach for the 1995-2002 seasons, although he was hired in Feb. 1994 with the authority to build the Jaguars’ roster and football staff from scratch. He returned to the club as its executive vice president of football operations between 2017-19.
Coughlin achieved a 68-60 regular season record with the Jaguars, which made four playoff appearances under his lead, in consecutive years following the team’s 1995 debut.
Jacksonville reached the AFC Championship in 1996 and 1999 campaigns, falling one game short of a Super Bowl appearance each time, to New England and Tennessee, respectively.
Speaking with reporters after his enshrinement, Coughlin expressed gratitude for those who trusted and committed to his vision for the Jaguars, recalling the construction of the team and the growing pains it experienced, a 4-12 first season in the NFL, before finding success.
“I’m humbled. I’m very proud. I told the players last night that it’s because of them that I’m here, that I have this great honor bestowed, but for me it’s never about the individual. It’s always about the team. And I really regret the fact that I could never just stand there for lack of time and read, for example, the first staff off and the staff supporters and so on and so forth. And I think you’d get a kick out of it.
“We had, let’s see, 12 on the field coaches. 12, okay? And we had two strength coaches. That’s how we started. Because my day and age, we were raised like that. It was, I want everybody where I can look ’em in the eye where everybody’s on the same page. I don’t know how it happens with, but anyway, I would’ve loved to have been able to say the names and let them hear. And hopefully they understand that I am saying thank you. Because what we had in the very beginning was very unique.
“We were, yes, we were an expansion team, but because we took that [1994] year and I was here and I built the responsibilities as they were needed, the training staff, certainly personnel came right away. And they also were building the other side of the hall. And we did things together and we were unified when we won, we all won and we lost. We all lost. It was a heck of a feeling to get started like that.
“But in that first year, in [1995], we lost one game by a lot. The Detroit game. But we were in every other game that year. It was an amazing thing. When I look back, three points, seven points, 10 points, occasionally 14. But we were in them. We were in those games. And the reason those guys, our players that year came together, they weren’t real happy with me. They were unified. They didn’t like me, but it unified ’em because think about where they came from, all walks of life, expansion, draft, draft, street free agents, you name.
“But it is very gratifying to me to hear these guys come up to me this day and age and tell me they love me. It’s quite a feeling.”
Coughlin became the seventh member of the Pride of the Jaguars on Sunday, alongside former Jacksonville players, left tackle Tony Boselli, running back Fred Taylor, wide receiver Jimmy Smith and quarterback Mark Brunell, and former Jaguars owners Wayne and Delores Weaver.