Head Coach
"They've been telling Allie Sherman what he can't do ever since he was rejected for the football team at Boy's High School in Brooklyn as being too small. But he became a left-handed quarterback at Brooklyn College, and later made it into the pros for five years with the Philadelphia Eagles as a protege of Greasy Neale. Still bucking the odds, he served the Giants under the late Steve Owen as backfield coach from 1949 to 1953, and then moved on as head coach at Winnipeg in the Canadian League, where he made the title playoffs for three consecutive years. He returned to New York as offense coach, and in 1961 was appointed head coach of the Giants.
In each of his first three seasons, the Giants won the Eastern Conference title, and Al was named Coach of the Year in both 1961 and '62. When the Giants collapsed to a 2-10-2 record, the second-guessers came out of hiding with their I-told-you-so's. But Al ignored the grumblings and simply went back to work, building the club part by part last year and guiding it to a second-place tie with Dallas.
He's still surprising people."
-Jack Zanger, Pro Football 1966
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