Buffalo’s Best /The road to the Hall of Fame
McNally always new kid on blocks
This is the fifth in a series of stories on the 2008 inductees into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. The installments will appear in Saturday’s editions of the Buffalo News.
Jim McNally spent nearly all of his adult life away from Buffalo. He was on the coaching staff Marshall University cobbled together following the team’s tragic plane crash in 1970. He spent 15 years in Cincinnati, tutoring an offensive line anchored by Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz. And he went to the NFC Championship game with the Carolina Panthers in 1997 and the Super Bowl a few years later with the New York Giants.
Yet for McNally, one of the most well-regarded assistant coaches in NFL history, no place could ever match home.
“It’s funny, but my greatest friends are the ones I grew up with,” McNally said. “The closeness means more to me than all the other places, because I always took great pride in being from Buffalo. All along the way, I never forgot those buddies from Kenmore West.”
Buffalo never forgot McNally, either. Now 64 and retired after leading the Bills’ line the last four seasons, the coach affectionately known as “Mouse” is one of this year’s 13 inductees into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.
A career that’s taken the 5- foot-8 McNally from the high school fields at Kenmore West to starting on the University at Buffalo’s line to his final season coaching at Ralph Wilson Stadium will be celebrated Oct. 29 in HSBC Arena.
McNally’s football legacy, of course, will be defined by the players he made of others. Nonconfrontational by nature, McNally rarely raised his voice, relying instead on technique and an unrelenting intensity to help develop some of the game’s top offensive linemen.
“I always loved what I did, and I’ve always learned from my players,” said McNally. “I never dictated that you only have to do something one way. But I always tried to stay on top of the techniques.”
In fact, that emphasis is what landed him his first NFL job. In a 1980 interview with Cincinnati, McNally sold Bengals head coach Forrest Gregg with his positioning demonstrations.
“Here I had him in a three-point stance showing him what I wanted to do,” McNally said with a laugh. “We were in a little room sweating and there I was telling a Hall of Fame tackle to get over here to do this and do that.”
The job was his, and in 15 years in Cincinnati, McNally often coached one of the league’s top lines while helping shape Munoz into the game’s most dominant lineman. USA Today once described him as “perhaps the best offensive line coach in the game today.”
McNally’s love for teaching never ceased. Even last year, the finale of a 28-year NFL coaching career, he played a large part in Jason Peters’ Pro Bowl season and the development of unheralded guard Brad Butler.
“I can’t say enough good things about him,” said Butler, a fifth-round draft pick in 2006.
“I’m not a big guy, I’m not the strongest guy, I’m not the most athletic guy, but coach always stressed technique. And that’s really helped me in my career. He did a lot for me.”
And now, it’s time to say thanks.
For ticket information, go to gbshof.com
