Vince Tobin, a former Mizzou football player, assistant coach and defensive coordinator before embarking on a long professional coaching career, died on Monday at his home in Goodyear, Arizona, the Arizona Cardinals confirmed. Tobin, defensive back at Mizzou in 1963-64 and once the frontrunner for the school's head-coaching job, served as the Cardinals head coach from 1996-2000.
Tobin, who was 79, came to Mizzou from his family's farm in Burlington Junction, Missouri, and became a two-year starter in the secondary while also playing halfback. In 1965, he joined Dan Devine's coaching staff and stayed in the program through 1976, serving his final six years as defensive coordinator under head coach Al Onofrio. He later coached as an NFL assistant for the Bears and Colts before taking over as the Cardinals' head coach in 1996. Under his watch, in 1998 the Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs for the franchise's first postseason victory since 1947, when they were the Chicago Cardinals.
Before then, not long after he was fired from the Bears' staff, Tobin was a finalist for the head-coaching job at his alma mater following the 1993 season when Bob Stull stepped down.
