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Buddy system Kuharich joins Peterson in Kansas City
Posted: Tuesday May 02, 2000 07:29 PM
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Bill Kuharich, the former New Orleans general manager, was hired Tuesday as director of pro personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs. He succeeds John Schneider, who left last week to become personnel director of the Seattle Seahawks. Kuharich, 47, the son of the former college and NFL head coach, will be reunited with Carl Peterson, the Chiefs president and general manager he worked with in his first pro football job with the USFL's Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars. "Bill worked very successfully with me during our tenure in the United States Football League," Peterson said. "He was also extremely instrumental in the tremendous turnaround and success of the New Orleans Saints franchise beginning upon his arrival there in 1986." "Bill is an astute evaluator of talent and will definitely make a valuable contributor to the Chiefs personnel department." Kuharich spent 14 years with the Saints, serving first as player personnel director, then becoming vice president of football operations after general manager Jim Finks died of lung cancer in 1994. After two years in that job he was named general manager and executive vice president, later becoming president and chief operating officer in addition to GM. Mike Ditka, the fiery and outspoken coach who won a Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears in 1986, spent four years as a television commentator after the Bears fired him in 1993. When Kuharich brought him back to football as head coach of the Saints in 1997, Ditka pledged to take the team to the Super Bowl. But he was 6-10 in both of his first two seasons and then last year the team slid to 3-13, for a three-year record of 15-33. In January Saints owner Tom Benson, saying he needed to "clear the slate," fired Ditka, his entire coaching staff, and Kuharich, who had been given a new five-year contract just last summer. "Unfortunately in this business if you don't win enough games, there are days like this," Kuharich said at the time. Earlier Kuharich and Finks had turned around a Saints franchise that had never made the playoffs in 19 years. In their second season together, their 1987 team was 12-3, making the playoffs that year and four more times after that. Kuharich's father, the late Joe Kuharich, was head coach of the Chicago Cardinals, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, serving the Eagles as general manager as well. On the college level, he coached at San Francisco and Notre Dame. And when Peterson was player personnel director of the Eagles, the elder Kuharich was a scout for the team.
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