Chuck Fairbanks
 |
|
| Sport(s) | Football |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
June 10, 1933 Detroit |
| Died | April 2, 2013 (aged 79) Scottsdale, Arizona |
| Playing career | |
| 1952–1954 | Michigan State |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1955–1957 | Ishpeming HS (MI) |
| 1958–1961 | Arizona State (assistant) |
| 1962–1965 | Houston (assistant) |
| 1966 | Oklahoma (DB) |
| 1967–1972 | Oklahoma |
| 1973–1978 | New England Patriots |
| 1979–1981 | Colorado |
| 1983 | New Jersey Generals |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 59–41–1 (college) 46–40 (NFL) 6–12 (USFL) |
| Bowls | 3–1–1 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 3 Big Eight (1967–1968, 1972) | |
| Awards | |
| Sporting News College Football COY (1971) | |
Charles Leo Fairbanks (June 10, 1933 – April 2, 2013) was an American football coach, a head coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels.
Born in Detroit, Fairbanks graduated from Michigan State University in 1955, following three years of football with the Spartans. That fall, he began the first of three years as head coach of Ishpeming High School in Michigan.
In 1958, he accepted an assistant coaching position at Arizona State University in Tempe, spending four years there under former Spartan teammate Frank Kush before moving on for another four-year stint at the University of Houston under Bill Yeoman from 1962 to 1965. In 1966, he accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
Following the death of 37-year-old Sooner head coach Jim Mackenzie in April 1967, Fairbanks was promoted to head coach four days later at age 33. He had nearly left for another assistant position at Missouri under Dan Devine, but decided to stay in Norman when Mackenzie moved him to offensive coordinator after the 1966 season. Over the next six years, Fairbanks led Oklahoma to three Big Eight Conference titles, with 11–1 records in each of his final two seasons. Three months after his mid-contract departure to the New England Patriots of the NFL, Oklahoma was forced to forfeit nine games from the 1972 season after evidence of recruiting violations involving altered transcripts of student-athletes surfaced. Fairbanks denied any knowledge of this. The scandal under his watch made Sooners ineligible for bowl games or the UPI national championship for two years after he left. After the probation ended, however, the Sooners, under his successor Barry Switzer, won consecutive national titles in 1974–75.
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