Former Penn football coach Harry Gamble dies at 83

Harry Gamble, coach of Penn football from 1971-80, died Tuesday morning. He was 83.

Gamble is perhaps most well-known for his time as team president and chief operating officer of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1985 to 1995. Gamble's son Tom is currently the Eagles' vice president of player personnel.

Gamble went 34-55-2 in 10 seasons as Penn head coach, tying George Woodruff (1892-1901) as the second-longest tenured coach in Quakers history behind George Munger (1938-53). Gamble resigned after the 1980 season, taking a job as an unpaid assistant coach working for Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil. He was named general manager of the franchise in 1985 and team president and chief operating officer a year later.

In 1962, Gamble got his coaching start at Penn as a line coach under then-head coach John Stiegman and also served under Stiegman's successor Bob Odell, who Gamble replaced in turn in 1970. Since 1954, only current head coach Al Bagnoli has won more games for Penn than Gamble.

In this Dec. 6, 1970 edition of the Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily reporting his hiring as Penn head coach, it was reported that Gamble was known for "being always clad in shorts on the practice field no matter what the temperature."

As Eagles team president, Gamble presided over the Buddy Ryan era in franchise history, in which coach Ryan led the Eagles to three straight first-round playoff losses, and the Rich Kotite era, in which coach Kotite led the Eagles to a 36-28 record from 1991-94. The Eagles went 96-78-1 overall during Gamble's tenure with the team.

Gamble's football life began at Pitman High School in South Jersey, where he played high school football. After playing college football at Rider, he coached at two South Jersey high schools - Clayton and Audubon, leading the latter to an undefeated 1960 season and Group III Championship. From 1967-70, Gamble was the head coach at Lafayette.