Room At The Top

Fred Zollner , owner of the Detroit Pistons , performed what may be the most delicate and tactful coaching amputation of all time, the patient being Charley Eck-man. Under Eckman the Pistons played more or less as they had for other coaches, in other words not very well. In due time Zollner called Eckman and commented that things were going badly. Eckman agreed but said there was hope for improvement. Zollner said that even so he thought maybe some changes should be made in Eckman's department. "I said, 'Sure, O.K., Fred,'" recalls Eckman, "but then I remembered that I was the only one in my department."

In contrast to these gentlemanly proceedings there are occasional loud and antagonistic firings. The recent Baltimore Colt caper was a splendid example of what might be called a fit-of-pique firing, with Colt Owner Robert Irsay, an air-conditioning tycoon, outrunning Coach Howard Schnellenberger to the dressing room to announce to the team that the coach was fired. On the spot Irsay appointed a stunned Joe Thomas , the club's general manager, as new head coach. In Baltimore , Thomas has the reputation of being an active, even ruthless, firer. Since he arrived in 1972, the team has had five head coaches ( Thomas declining after the 1974 season to rehire himself for that spot), and players have come and gone like Las Vegas comedians. Nevertheless, Thomas is sensitive about his image as a super hook and in fact feels it is undeserved. "I've only fired one coach, Don McCafferty . The other guy [Sandusky] was strictly interim. This other thing [ Schnellenberger ] was precipitated on the field. I had nothing to do with it. You ought to pick on Rosenbloom, Rooney, all those nice guys. I'm sure Billy Bidwell [ St. Louis Cardinals ] has gone through three or four coaches. Wellington Mara [ New York Giants ] has gone through three or four. Just because I did it once doesn't qualify me." (By way of following up on the leads provided by Thomas : the Rams have had three coaches during the past five years, the Steelers one, the Cardinals three and the Giants two.)

While Irsay, Schnellenberger and Thomas were doing their number in Baltimore , Atlanta was enjoying a classic die-with-your-boots-on firing. In 1974, as in past seasons, there was a clamor for the dismissal of Coach Norman Van Brocklin. Unlike Baltimore 's impetuous Irsay, Atlanta Owner Rankin Smith was being faulted for being too indecisive; that is, he would have been faulted had anybody around Atlanta been able to find him during the moment of crisis. The word got around that Smith had no stomach for a confrontation with the spirited Van Brocklin, that like a man in a cyclone cellar he was lying low, hoping that the storm would pass. Finally this kind of talk forced Smith to surface. Through a flack he issued a statement: " Norman Van Brocklin has been relieved of his duties as general manager and coach of the Atlanta Falcons . Marion Campbell has been appointed head coach. I have not been hiding in Miami ."

Awkward and embarrassing as an adversary-type firing can be, dismissing a coach or manager who is a winner tends to place an even greater strain on sporting traditions and etiquette. When such a thing occurs it is invariably because of what is called a personality clash. It is almost always a traumatic experience because, contrary to the first rule of sport, there are things that are worse than losing. One is having a winning employee whom you positively cannot abide.

Take, for example, Billy Martin . During his five years as a major league baseball manager, Martin has won pennants with the Twins and the Tigers. Perhaps even more remarkable, last year he took the Texas Rangers , a team formerly regarded in the baseball community more or less as Liechtenstein is regarded in the community of nations, to second place. No team Martin has managed has ever finished worse than third and none of the teams was exactly swamped with talent. Nevertheless, Martin has been fired from two of his jobs and has not been with any club for as long as three full seasons. "The thing about Billy," says a front-office man, "is that when he takes over a club he regards it as his. He doesn't give a damn about how things were done before or about any pet theories the owner or general manager may have and he tells them he doesn't, which makes him very hard to take. He is not going to have any trouble getting jobs, because everyone knows he's a winner, but he probably won't keep a job very long because he comes down on too many toes too hard."

Examined individually and in detail, firings of field commanders may seem to be isolated and bizarre happenings. However, viewed from a certain detached vantage, the whole process takes on a kind of order and symmetry. And the kaleidoscopic shifting of coaches and managers provides, in an odd way, an element of continuity and stability in sporting life, serving somewhat the same function as domestic crises in soap opera. The short punt formation, real grass, and the white tennis ball may go the way of the buggy whip. Ohio State may throw the football and Gaylord Perry may not throw a spitter. Some year George Blanda may not finish a season and Dick Allen may, but in all the chaos and confusion there remain a few things upon which we can depend. One of them is that managers and coaches will continue to come and go in swift if not always stately procession.