Born To Coach
Tampa Bay's Marcum holds records others aim to reach.

Tampa Bay, FL -03.01.03 - Tim Marcum prides himself on his pragmatism.

He has been known to answer questions about how his team will handle its
next challenge with lectures on the crossing of the Rubicon. Rarely is there
a situation for which he can't find some historical perspective.

Except for his own.

Instead, it will be Arena Football coaches to come that will forever be
measured by Marcum, the Denver Dynamite, Detroit Drive and current Tampa Bay Storm head coach.

He has won ArenaBowl championships at each stop, six in all, and finished second another three times. Until 1997, the League's marquee event had only twice been played without the sly silver-haired coach on one sideline - in 1990 and '94, when he was out of the League and coaching in the college and NFL ranks.

Detroit fans recognize Marcum's name as the engineer of their own AFL
dynasty where he claimed four of his six AFL titles as head coach of the
Detroit Drive, before venturing south to join Tampa Bay.

Against the Fury, who began play in 2001, Marcum's Storm squads are 2-0, including a narrow 49-47 victory at The Palace at Auburn Hills last July.

Historically, when it comes to coaching Arena Football, Marcum has had no
equal.

"If there is one guy out there that has been the strongest in overall
developing teams, it's him,'' said former Detroit Fury Head Coach Mouse
Davis, who initially hired Marcum for the AFL in 1987. "He knows how to
build great football teams.''

Marcum won the first three AFL championships, taking Denver (1987) and
Detroit (1988-89) to titles. After a year away coaching at the University of
Florida with Steve Spurrier, he returned to the game and took Detroit to the
next three ArenaBowls, winning a '92 championship that was sandwiched by
losses in '91 and '93 to Tampa Bay.

Marcum then joined that very Tampa Bay team in '95 after another brief
sabbatical coaching for the Atlanta Falcons and took the Storm to
championships that year and the next.

The most successful coach in AFL history boasts a 145-53 overall record (.732)
and is one of only two AFL coaches (Arizona's Danny White) to surpass the
century-mark in victories. Marcum has become the League's standard.

"He's a well-respected coach throughout the ranks,'' said Miami Dolphins
defensive coordinator Jim Bates, a former Marcum assistant in Detroit.
"Everybody that knows Tim or who has worked with Tim really respects him as
a football coach and a friend.''

Marcum was able to build AFL powerhouses with a knack for scouting talent
(see George LaFrance and current New York Giant Johnnie Harris) and by
figuring out before everyone else the keys to Arena Football: you need a
great quarterback, solid short-yardage running game and defense; all of
which hardly seems a consideration in a League that was priding itself on
50-49 games.

For Marcum, it was a serious consideration, as he helped design the original
plans for the League. His calling card was finding and employing speed
rushers and converting them into offensive linemen for the League's two-way
play, not the other way around as many teams did.

Rarely has any team won a title without having one of the League's top
defenses. With his defensive background and quarterback's mentality (he
played the position in college at Texas A&M and McMurry University), Marcum
was a perfect fit for the AFL game.

Marcum was, quite literally, born to be a coach. Though his father passed
away in 1978, D.V. Marcum's influence is still a strong guiding force in his
son's life.

One of eight children and the son of migrant workers, D.V. was a
tough-nosed, hardscrabble coach and educator, a Southern Baptist who served
in the Army and raised a good family.

Marcum can remember following his father to all his practices at Rotan High
School in 1949, and though he was only five, he had his own uniform complete
with a pair of black high-top football shoes that were the smallest they
had, but still five sizes to big.

"That's all I ever thought I was going to be,'' Marcum said. "I was the son
of a football coach. I knew I was going to be a football coach.''

In 1978, Marcum earned his first head-coaching job at Ranger Junior College
and one year later won his first championship. Marcum went on to coach at
Rice, then San Antonio and Arizona in the USFL. When the League folded Aug.
5, 1986, Marcum had come to his own Rubicon. He beat the pavement for jobs,
attended the national coaching clinic in San Diego, and made call after call
and could not find work.

While he waited, he sold cars. Mouse Davis, who Marcum had met in the USFL,
called in March of 1987 and welcomed him to the world of Arena Football.

Marcum has made both friends and enemies in Arena Football despite his
success, or perhaps in spite of his success. Bates thinks it is mostly envy,
but Marcum has been described as outspoken, headstrong and stubborn.

He has butted heads many, but when it comes to the actual game itself, there have
been few better ambassadors. He is the game's ultimate pitchman, more than
willing to sell a visitor on the game's excitement, affordability and great
possibilities.