Former Chargers Head Coach Don Coryell elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame

Former Chargers Head Coach Don Coryell has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was the first head coach to secure 100 wins at both the college and professional levels of football. 

Coryell, who had a lengthy coaching career spanning from 1950 to 1986, began with the University of Washington as an assistant coach while earning a Master's degree from the academy at which he played cornerback and boxed as a student. 

After 1950, Coryell would bounce from program to program over the next decade joining the Punahou School in Hawaii in 1951, Farrington High School in Hawaii in 1952, University of British Columbia from 1953 to 1954, Wenatchee Valley College in 1955, Fort Ord Army Post in 1956, Whittier College from 1956 to 1957 and University of California in 1960. While with USC, he helped introduce their offense to the I-formation.

Following that season with the Trojans, Coryell secured his first long term position with San Diego State University, where he would helm the Aztecs from 1961 to 1972, leading them to seven conference championships to the tune of a 104-19-2 record with three bowl game wins.

Coryell was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. 

His extremely successful collegiate career saw him join his first NFL franchise in 1973 when the then-St. Louis Cardinals, where he would remain until 1977, winning two division titles — the only two the Cardinals won before their relocation to Arizona. 

Coryell led the Bolts from 1978 to 1986, where he developed a prolific passing offense that became dubbed "Air Coryell," a scheme that continues to influence offenses in today's game. Despite their noted success during his tenure, in which they led the league in passing for seven out of eight seasons, Coryell was never able to lead the Chargers to the Super Bowl. 

He died in La Mesa in 2010 due to undisclosed reasons.

He was first considered for the Pro Football Hall of Fame back in 2010, but due to his lackluster performance in the playoffs, he has been skipped over until his name was one of 15 announced on Friday. He has been a member of the Chargers Hall of Fame since 1986.

Along with Coryell, the 2023 Hall of Fame Inductees are: 

• Joe Thomas,
• Zach Thomas, 
• DeMarcus Ware, 
• Darrelle Revis, 
• Rondé Barber
• Chuck Howley,
• Joe Klecko,
• Ken Riley.