Event Date: August 2nd, 1983
Event Description: Pittsburgh Preparations
Source: United Press International
Joe Pendry doesn't expect quite as many problems putting together a team for the Pittsburgh franchise of the U.S. Football League as he did in helping to build the Philadelphia Stars' squad a year ago.
“We are further ahead than we were last year at this time in Philadelphia,” Pendry, 36, former offensive coordinator of the Stars, said Monday after he was named head coach of the still unnamed USFL Pittsburgh franchise by club president Paul Martha and general manager George Heddleston.
“I started there Aug. 1 too,” Pendry added, “and we had to worry about more than just fielding a team. We had to form a league last year. We had to work out all the problems of a new league. All we have to worry about here is getting the Pittsburgh franchise started.”
Pendry played a larger role than that of offensive coordinator during his first few months with the Stars. When the Stars first head coach, George Perles, quit last summer to take the head coaching job at Michigan State, Pendry filled in until the Stars replaced Perles with Jim Mora later in the year.
“I saw the team put together,” Pendry said in an interview before he got the Pittsburgh job. “I ran the tryout camps. It was a great experience. I feel very qualified for the job.”
Pendry's experience with the Stars was one of three factors that made him what Heddleston and Martha called “the No. 1 guy for the job.”
Also in Pendry's favor were the fact that he is a native of nearby West Virginia and that he worked previously at both West Virginia University, his alma mater, and the University of Pittsburgh, as offensive coordinator. Pitt and WVU are among the five colleges allocated to the Pittsburgh USFL team as its talent pool.
“It became abundantly clear during our search that we needed a guy with local flavor and with a working knowledge of our allocated schools,” Martha said.
“And we thought it would be nice to get somebody with some familiarity with the USFL and with the starting of a franchise.”
Heddleston said other candidates interviewed included former NFL head coaches Marv Levy and Leeman Bennett, assistant Washington Redskins coach Joe Bugel and former Cincinnati assistant Lindy Infante, now head coach of the Jacksonville USFL team.
Heddleston said the other candidates were not officially offered the job.
Pendry said his first order of business would be to hire “personnel people” who can prepare the team for the USFL expansion draft Sept. 1, and assistant coaches.
“I already have some (assistant) candidates in mind,' he said. 'I won't name them. They're people who I've worked with before -- some of them in the USFL.”
When looking for players, Pendry said, “I want to get the best athletes and not worry about whether he plays offense or defense.”
Pendry said he would not consider signing any college underclassmen.
He also said that if any college seniors from the team's five territorial schools make the roster, the club will establish $1,000 scholarships in the players' names at their colleges. USFL rules also provide that teams pay for those players to finish school.
In the USFL college draft, each team may draft only players from institutions not named as any USFL team's territorial schools.
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