Jim Lee, Howell The Giants won the NFL championship in 1956 and six NFL Eastern titles in eight years from 1956 to 1963 under the direction of Jim Lee Howell in the late 1950s and Allie Sherman in the early 1960s. They had four consecutive losing seasons from 1964 to 1967.
The Giants' next head coach was George Allen, who took over for Howell after his death in a car crash on September 25, 1963. He led the team to a 7-7 record before being fired after one season.
Allen was followed by Ray Perkins, who coached the Giants to a 4-10 record in 1968. This was followed by the hiring of Ted Phillips, who had been the Chicago Bears' offensive coordinator. In 1969, he led the team to its first playoff appearance since 1956, but they were defeated by Baltimore 24-17 in the first round. After one more season with the Giants, Phillips left to become the first African-American coach in NFL history when he was hired by the Oakland Raiders in 1971. He was replaced by former Boston College assistant John McEwen, who had been serving as the Giants' defensive coordinator. In 1972, the Giants made their first postseason appearance since 1956 when they lost to Miami 16-3 in the first round. McEwen was dismissed after one season and was replaced by former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who had been hired earlier that year.
In taking over as head coach of the Giants in 1983, Parcells took over a team that had only made the playoffs once in the previous decade (1981) and had only one winning season in the previous ten. Parcells led the team to its first Super Bowl victory in four years. He resigned after one season to take over as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Fassel was named the Giants' 16th head coach on January 15, 1997, and led the team to a divisional title and was named NFL Coach of the Year in his first season. Jim Fassel's major break came before he became head coach, when he was appointed to instruct quarterbacks in 1991. The job lasted only one season, as Fassel was fired by the Giants after they lost all nine games he coached. He returned to the coaching staff in 1995 as an offensive assistant and held that position until becoming head coach.
The first coach of the New York Giants was Steve Owen. Before he joined the New York Giants, he played for two other NFL teams: the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers. He was a wide receiver with the Browns from 1968 to 1969 before moving over to defense where he played from 1970 to 1971. Owen worked as an assistant coach for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1972 to 1975 before being hired by the Giants as their 31st head coach. He managed to lead the team to a 9-7 record in his only season at the helm before being fired mid-season due to personal issues. He was 57 years old when he was let go by the Giants.
New York had no prior experience with football when they started up their franchise in 1957. Thus, they hired someone who had previously been working in the game as a way of establishing professionalism within the organization.
1925 Tim Mara formed the Giants in the then-five-year-old NFL in 1925. The squad was owned by Mara until his death in 1959, when it was passed down to his sons, Wellington and Jack. The Giants have won eight NFL titles, four of which have come in Super Bowls.
1926 The first game played by the New York Giants took place on September 21, 1926, at Columbia University's Baker Field. The Giants defeated Harvard, 12-0, before a crowd of 5,000 people. Irving Berlin wrote the fight song "Giants Sweep Home" as a tribute to this team. Today it is the official fight song of the New York Giants.
1927 The first season that the New York Giants were undefeated was 1927. They went 9-0-1 and earned the only perfect record in NFL history. The team was led by quarterback Benny Friedman, who had been voted the league's most valuable player after leading them to victory over Boston. However, he died during the season from tuberculosis. Center Dave Meggett was also named to the All-NFL Team for the first time in his career. He was joined on the team by five other players: end Art Davis, tackle Frank Gifford, guard Harry Hillman, center John McEwen, and halfback George Young.
1928 The second season that the New York Giants were undefeated was 1928.
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