Mike McCarthy (football Coach) life and biography

Mike McCarthy is the head coach for the Green Bay Packers of the NFL.

• Named the Packers’ 14th head coach on Jan. 12, 2006.
• Has led the Packers to a top-10 ranking in total offense each of his four seasons, joining New Orleans as the only teams to accomplish that from 2006-09.
• Has coached two of the four highest-scoring teams in franchise history (2007, 2009).
• Has been on Green Bay’s coaching staff four of the nine times in team history (1999, 2007-09) the offense has produced a 4,000-yard passer.
• Honored as 2007 ‘NFL Coach of the Year’ by Motorola and NFL Alumni.
• Became the first Packers coach since Vince Lombardi to lead the team to a championship game in his second season, and tied Mike Sherman for the most regular-season wins by a Packers coach in his first two years (21).
• Has worked with a stable of quarterbacks that has combined for 36 Pro Bowl selections, nine Super Bowl starts, and six Most Valuable Player awards.
• Prior to Green Bay, had never been a head coach at any level, breaking into the NFL as a quality-control assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993, his first of 13 years as an NFL assistant, which included six seasons as an offensive coordinator calling plays in New Orleans (2000-04) and San Francisco (2005).
• Was inducted into the Baker University athletic hall of fame in October 2007
• Born and raised in Pittsburgh, one of five children. His father, Joe, was a longtime firefighter and police officer.

COLLEGE COACHING
& PLAYING CAREER

McCarthy began his six-year collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Fort Hays State in Hays, Kan., in 1987, just after completing his playing career at nearby Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan.

At Baker, McCarthy earned a degree in business administration and was an all-conference tight end and senior captain in 1986, helping lead the Wildcats to an NAIA Division II national runner-up finish. He was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame in October 2007.

At Fort Hays under head coach John Vincent, McCarthy coached linebackers for two years while earning a master’s degree in sports administration.

The return to his hometown came in 1989 under Pittsburgh head coach Mike Gottfried, now an ESPN college football analyst, followed by three years under Hackett with the Panthers.

As quarterbacks coach, McCarthy worked with Alex Van Pelt as he topped the school’s career and single-season records for passing yards established by Dan Marino.

PERSONAL

Born Michael John McCarthy in Pittsburgh, he grew up one of five children in the Irish-Catholic family of father Joe and mother Ellen in Greenfield, a Pittsburgh neighborhood just a couple of miles from downtown. He graduated from Bishop Boyle High School in Homestead, Pa. McCarthy's family includes wife Jessica and children Alexandra, Jack, George and Gabrielle.

In Green Bay, McCarthy has immersed himself in several community events, including the Mike McCarthy Celebrity Golf Open, a fundraiser for local and statewide cystic fibrosis organizations that has had a longstanding relationship with the Packers. This past June, he also started the Mike & Jessica McCarthy Golf Tournament to benefit American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, and he and Jessica were the featured guests at the “Teaming Up For Kids” event, a kickoff ceremony for the organization’s new pediatric center in Watertown.

In addition, McCarthy has served as honorary chairperson for the local Cerebral Palsy Telethon and worked with the American Heart Association on its Red Cap campaign to recognize heart disease and stroke survivors and to raise awareness of those conditions.

On an annual basis, he visits cancer patients at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, participates in the Lombardi Award of Excellence Dinner Ball, which supports the Vince Lombardi Charitable Funds in the fight against cancer, and serves as host of the Green & Gold Gala, a fundraiser for Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin.

In 2009, McCarthy partnered with the Packers to make donations of $100,000 each to the Autism Society of Northeast Wisconsin, Baker University’s football program and a group of organizations (St. Rosalia Academy, the Greenfield Baseball Association and the Greenfield Organization) in his native Greenfield Neighborhood of Pittsburgh. McCarthy and the Packers teamed up to make $100,000 donations to the Boys & Girls Club of Green Bay, Baker’s football program and the same group of organizations in the Greenfield Neighborhood in 2008.

Among several other events, McCarthy has participated in Jerry Parins’ Cure for Cancer Motorcycle Ride, the team’s regular Make-A-Wish Foundation practice and game visits, and various local Get Motivated seminars.

McCarthy also was honored with the Distinguished Service award at the Lee Remmel Sports Awards Banquet in April 2008, and then in the fall as the 2008 Person of the Year from his native Greenfield Neighborhood.

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