In 1951, the Eagles hired Bo McMillan to be their head coach, and McMillan hired an assistant named Jim Trimble to help him out. But two games into the 1951 season, McMillan was diagnosed with stomach cancer and had to step down. He handed the reins over to Wayne Millner. Millner coached the 1951 team to a 4-8 record, then stepped down two weeks before the 1952 season. Up stepped the unheralded Trimble, who struggled early on, as the Eagles fell to the Giants 31-7 and the mighty Browns 49-7. Afterwards, Philadelphia Bulletin writer Hugh Brown wrote, “The Eagles of 1952 are probably the worst football team to ever wear the Kelly green.”
Trimble posted the article in the locker room, and the team quickly got their act together. They then won 5 of their last 7 games to finish with a 7-5 record in 1952. The turnaround earned the 34-year old coach the NFL Coach of the Year Award. The next two years, they also won 7 games but finished 2nd to the Browns each year. In 1955, the team got stung with injuries and finished the year 4-7-1, losing 5 of those games by a touchdown or less. He was fired after the season, stating afterwards that, “I was completely stunned…It is the first time I ever lost a job.”
He was scooped up by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL in 1956, and led them to a Grey Cup victory in 1957. He would later coach the Montreal Alouettes as well. But his impact on football wasn’t just as a coach. In 1966, he, a man named Joel Rottman, and an engineering friend, Cedric Marsh, took out a patent on a new type of goal post, known as the “sling shot”. Until then, goal posts were H-shaped and placed on the goal line. Trimble and Rottman’s design was the Y shape that is used almost exclusively today.
He would also work in the New York Giants organization from 1967 until 1991. Trimble passed away in 2006 at the age of 87. Below is a very cool interview of him in 1954.
