Marv Levy is realizing among the advantages of turning 100 is no longer having to fudge his age.
“Well, I’d prefer to be turning 25, to tell you the truth,” the Pro Football Hall of Fame coach said, with a laugh, his distinct booming voice resonating over the phone from his hometown of Chicago last week.
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Acknowledging his age is actually a switch for Levy. It wasn’t until years after landing the Buffalo Bills head coaching job in 1986 when it was revealed how Levy shaved three years off his age out of fear NFL teams wouldn’t hire a 61-year-old.
“But no, I’m very appreciative,” Levy said of his milestone birthday, which is on Sunday. “I’ve been very fortunate with all the people I’ve associated with, including my dear wife Frannie and my daughter Kimberly.”
And many of those associates — family, friends, former players, coaches and executives — will all be on hand in Canton, Ohio, on Friday, when the Hall of Fame hosts a party to celebrate Levy’s 100th birthday.
He'll be arriving in first class, with officials hiring what Levy called “a special vehicle” to make the six-hour drive.
“I’m overwhelmingly complimented. It’ll be fun to see so many of my former cohorts and enemies," he said, laughing.
Hall of Fame festivities
The list is large, in part because there’ll be plenty of Hall of Famers already there, as his birthday coincides with the annual induction festivities. This year’s class features Antonio Gates, Jared Allen, Eric Allen, and Sterling Sharpe.
Among those making the trip specifically for Levy include former players, staff, and Mary Wilson, the wife of late Bills Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson.
“How could you miss it? I love him so much,” Wilson said. “What a gentlemen. He’s so gracious and I admire him. I’m so happy he had this wonderful relationship with Ralph, and I’m just thrilled I can be there.”
Levy’s career dates to coaching football and basketball at Country Day School in St. Louis, Missouri, in the early 1950s, before moving on to the college ranks with stops at New Mexico, California and William & Mary.
And while he moved on to the pros and won two Grey Cup titles with the CFL Montreal Alouettes in the 1970s, Levy’s claim to greatness began with his arrival in Buffalo.
Making his mark in Buffalo
It was during his 12-year stint when Levy made a lasting impression for overseeing a star-studded Jim Kelly-led team to eight playoff appearances and four consecutive Super Bowl berths, all ending in losses.
“Fortitude and resilience. He preached that continually,” said Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian, the Bills GM who hired Levy. “That message among the many that he delivered sunk in. His sense of humor and his eloquence just captured everybody from the day he walked into the meeting room.”
Levy’s more memorable messages included citing Winston Churchill by saying, “When you’re going through hell, keep on going.”
And his most famous line, which became the title of his autobiography and a rallying cry for the Bills and their small-market fans was: “Where else would you rather be than right here, right now.”
Author, poet and avid history buff, Levy can lay claim to having seen plenty of history over the past century as someone who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and had a front row seat in seeing the NFL become North America’s dominant sports league.
His first NFL break came as a “kicking teams” coach with Philadelphia in 1969, and he spent five seasons as the Kansas City Chiefs head coach. After retiring in Buffalo following the 1997 season, he returned to the Bills for a two-year stint as GM in 2006, with Ralph Wilson referring to the then-octogenarians as “the two golden boys,” and Levy calling himself “an 80-year-old rookie.”
Levy has outlived many of his contemporaries, from coach George Allen, whom he worked under in Washington, to AFC East rival Don Shula. He’s among the few Cubs fans who can boast outlasting the team’s World Series drought in attending their Game 7 loss in 1945, before celebrating their World Series return and title in 2016.
The one thing missing is a Super Bowl title for his beloved Bills, who have returned to prominence under coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen. Levy likes Buffalo's chances this season, and stays in touch with McDermott, a former William & Mary player.
“I’ll take any advice he wants to give me. It’s been huge,” McDermott said. “It’s one of the great honors of coaching the Buffalo Bills is to follow a coach like Marv Levy.”
Campaigning for Tasker
This will be Levy’s first trip to Canton in two years, when at 98, he insisted on leading the seven-block Hall of Fame Walk. He was ready to make the walk back before being coaxed into a golf cart.
And Levy has an agenda upon his return in resuming his campaign for former Bills special teams star Steve Tasker’s induction.
“Marv’s a hall of famer in every sense of the word. He’s a hall of fame human being and a hall of fame coach,” Tasker said. “And if his campaign to get me in the hall of fame keeps him alive, I hope I never get in.”
Hall of Fame historian Joe Horrigan is from Buffalo and described Levy’s era as uplifting for turning around a losing franchise and spurring a Rust Belt community struggling through an economic downturn.
“To see the legacy he has left just makes you feel good to be there,” Horrigan said of celebrating Levy's birthday. “You know, there’s no place I’d rather be than right there, right then.”
Levy is humbled by the attention, grateful people are still interested in his story, and ended the phone call with a familiar farewell: “Go Bills."
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