He led the Baltimore Colts to consecutive NFL championships in 1958 and 1959 and the New York Jets to victory in Super Bowl III in January 1969.

Raised in Indiana, Ewbank attended Miami University in Ohio, where he was a multi-sport star who led his baseball, basketball, and football teams to state championships.

He immediately began a coaching career after graduating, working at Ohio high schools between 1928 and 1943, when he entered the U.S. Navy during World War II.

While in the military, Ewbank was an assistant to Paul Brown on a service football team at Naval Station Great Lakes outside of Chicago.

In 1956, Ewbank brought in quarterback Johnny Unitas, who quickly became a star and helped lead a potent offense that included wide receiver Raymond Berry and fullback Alan Ameche to an NFL championship in 1958.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978, and died twenty years later in Oxford on November 17, 1998, the 30th anniversary of the "Heidi Game".

[6][7] As a teenager, Ewbank and his father drove to Dayton, Ohio, to see early football star Jim Thorpe and the Canton Bulldogs play.

[9] He shared quarterback duties with Eddie Wohlwender on a squad that finished with an 8–1 win–loss record and won the Ohio Athletic Conference championship in 1927, his senior year.

[4][12] He remained there until 1930, when he moved back to Oxford and took a position coaching football and basketball at McGuffey High School, a private institution run by Miami University.

[4] He was assigned for training to Naval Station Great Lakes north of Chicago, where Paul Brown, a former classmate who succeeded him as Miami's starting quarterback, was coaching the base football team.

[13] Following his discharge from the Navy at the end of the war in 1945, Ewbank became the backfield coach under Charles "Rip" Engle at Brown University.

[22] Led by quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley, and ends Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie, the Browns won the AAFC championship in 1949, their fourth straight title.

[26] Ewbank got his first professional head coaching job in early 1954 for the NFL's Baltimore Colts, a franchise that had started play the previous year.

[29] During the draft, Ewbank allegedly sent the names of players Brown liked to the Colts through Baltimore sportswriter John Steadman, including end Raymond Berry, who went on to have a long and successful career.

[5] Ewbank brought in Otto Graham to tutor Unitas, who complemented an improving team that included Berry, fullback Alan Ameche, halfback Lenny Moore and defensive back Don Shula.

[32] Team owner Carroll Rosenbloom supported him, however, saying that while he had considered a coaching change in the past, Ewbank could stay with the Colts "forever – or until he fouls up".

[32] When he came to Baltimore, Ewbank had promised to create a system like Paul Brown's in Cleveland, but said he would need time to turn the team into a winner.

[33] The team made a turnaround the following year, posting a 7–5 record, but still finished third in the NFL's Western Division behind the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions.

[34] The team improved further in 1958, winning the Western Division with a 9–3 record and earning a spot in the NFL championship game against the New York Giants.

[41] Hall of Famer Raymond Berry stated in his book All the Moves I Had, "What it amounts to is that Ewbank knew exactly what he wanted his team to do and how to get them to do it well...

With that out of the way, I can also honestly say that Weeb was a screwball who held insane grudges, concentrated too much on what I considered the unimportant aspects of the game, thought he was smarter than God, and deep down inside was one mean sonofabitch.

A five-man syndicate led by Sonny Werblin bought the New York Titans franchise of the American Football League (AFL), an NFL competitor, as part of bankruptcy proceedings in 1963.

[44] Shortly thereafter, the team changed its name to the New York Jets and hired Ewbank in April as its head coach and general manager.

[45] In 1964, they outbid cross-town NFL rival New York Giants for Matt Snell, a top running back prospect out of Ohio State.

[45] Linebacker Larry Grantham became a consistent All-Pro selection and safety Dainard Paulson had 12 interceptions in 1964, which remains a team record.

[57] After Jim Turner kicked a field goal for the Jets that gave them a 32–29 lead with just over a minute left to play, NBC cut away from the game to a scheduled broadcast of the children's movie Heidi.

[57] Namath threw three touchdowns as the Jets won 27–23, putting them through to the third World Championship game, a matchup between the winner of the AFL and NFL now known as Super Bowl III.

[58] Ewbank and the Jets played an unconventional game against the Colts, opting for an uncharacteristically conservative strategy in part because star wideout Don Maynard was nursing a hamstring injury.

[75] Paul Brown "had the exact same approach: Don't do too much, but what you do, execute it flawlessly", Raymond Berry said in 2013, adding that the Colts' 1958 championship team had only six passing plays.

[79][80] Ewbank suffered a dislocated hip in the aftermath of the Jets' 1968 AFL championship game win, and had other health issues in his later years.