Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
Tom Catlin, one of the more indomitable figures in Seahawks history, has passed away after a long illness. An All-American center at Oklahoma, Catlin played mostly for the Cleveland Browns during a five-year NFL career in the 1950s. People associated with the Seahawks for any length of time might remember "Tomcat" as the finest defensive coordinator in the team's 32-year history. He served during the Chuck Knox years and into the mid-1990s.
Former Seahawks linebacker Dave Wyman, now a radio analyst for the team and a high school football coach in the Seattle area, remembered the steely Catlin fondly when reached this morning:
"He was the best coach I ever had. The thing about Tom was that he would put in a defense on the board and he was very calm, very, very dry. He did have some humor, but he was a very dry guy, not a lot of words. He would say, 'Let me put this up and install it. Save your questions to the end.' I can think of twice, maybe, where there was a question at the end because he was such a great teacher. I was proud; I was one of the only guys to ask a question. He said, 'Good question.' That was my proudest moment in the NFL."
Wyman also played at Stanford and for the Denver Broncos. His nine-year NFL career began as a second-round draft choice. Wyman said he uses the principles he learned from Catlin when working with high school athletes:
"I don't know that Tom ever wanted to be a head coach. He just liked teaching defense. He was such a calming force on the sidelines. You would be coming off the field in a rage and he would just leave you alone. I never saw him lose his cool. He is a hero of mine. I'm coaching football now and the principles I use are Tom Catlin. He is sound. The things he says make sense and he left it up to you to make plays. There were always rules and they were logical. That's what made it easy to follow."
Catlin was in declining health for much of his retirement. I recall him dropping by Seahawks practices in the late 1990s when he served as a consultant. He never said much then, either, but you felt his presence.
"I'll never forget going back to Cleveland," Wyman said. "He played linebacker with the Browns. Just to watch him look around in that stadium in the stands, to see him reminisce, it was neat to stand next to him and watch him take it all in."
