Wally Lemm

Who was Wally Lemm?

Wally Lemm was a football coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels and achieved his greatest prominence as head coach of the American Football League's Houston Oilers and the National Football League's St. Louis Cardinals.

Lemm graduated from Carroll College in 1942 playing football for head coach John Breen at running back. After service in World War II during the next two years, Lemm then served as an assistant coach at the University of Notre Dame under Hugh Devore in 1945. Lemm returned to Carroll as an assistant coach with the school's football team the following year, then became a head coach for the first time, accepting the top job for Waukesha High School, in Wisconsin, in 1948.

Following Lemm's one year at Waukesha, Carroll's former coach, Breen, took the head coaching position at Lake Forest College. Lemm served under his leadership for the next three years, while also working as the school's head basketball coach, then replaced Breen in 1952. During his two seasons, he compiled an 11-4-1 record before leaving to accept the head coach position at Montana State University. An 8-1 season in 1954 was followed the next year by a 4-4-1 campaign. On May 14, 1956, he reached the NFL when he accepted a defensive assistant position with the Chicago Cardinals.