Former Chiefs head coach Tom Bettis has died

Tom Bettis, who was the Chiefs’ head coach for seven games in 1977, died Saturday in Katy, Texas.

Bettis was 81.

Bettis graduated from Purdue University, where he was briefly teammates with Len Dawson, who later won Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs after the 1969 season. Bettis was an assistant coach on that team.

Green Bay drafted Bettis in the first round of the 1955 NFL Draft and he played seven seasons with the Packers. After playing for Pittsburgh and Chicago, he was hired by Hank Stram and joined the Chiefs’ coaching staff in 1966.

Bettis coached the defensive backs and helped players such as Gary Barbaro, who is in the Chiefs Hall of Fame.

“He was the guy who took me under his wing and taught me how to read quarterbacks, read offensive linemen and worked me hard after practice,” Barbaro told The Star in 2009. “He knew how to push me.

“Apparently he saw things in me that I didn’t even know existed. Then he brought those things out.”

After Paul Wiggin replaced Stram as Chiefs head coach for the 1975 season, Bettis was retained as an assistant. On Halloween Day in 1977, Wiggin was fired after the Chiefs started the season 1-6.

Bettis took over as an interim coach, but the Chiefs went 1-6 under him as well.

Marv Levy was hired prior to the 1978 season.

Bettis, who was born in Chicago, is in the Purdue athletic hall of fame and the Chicagoland sports hall of fame.

This story was originally published March 6, 2015 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Former Chiefs head coach Tom Bettis has died."