Always wearing a business suit and hat, Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the baseball team's first 50 seasons -- and occasionally fell asleep in the dugout during his latter years -- before retiring at age 87 in 1950. Of course, he also was the team's partial or sole owner those 50 years, so Mack didn't have to worry about a boss calling him into the office and ordering him to pack his bags.
That isn't the case for pretty much everyone else in the coaching profession, who can face dismissal after even one bad year. Why, only five of the 30 active NBA coaches have been with their current club for more than three years. As former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wrote in his autobiography about his 27 years with that club: "The control I was able to exert over Manchester United was a privilege few managers will be lucky enough to know."
That's what makes Arsene Wenger's tenure as Arsenal's manager impressive. Oct. 1 will mark the 20th anniversary of when he officially took over for what has been by far the longest managerial tenure in club history. He is the only active Premier League manager who has been with his current club more than four seasons. That is noteworthy, even outside soccer.
"To have that kind of longevity," former baseball manager Tony La Russa said, "he must not only have a tremendous knowledge of the game and how to manage, but he also does something well to relate with the players."
Yet even as successful as Wenger has been -- three Premier League championships and six FA Cup titles -- this past spring there were fans jeering and holding banners with such wording as: "Thanks for the memories but it's time to say goodbye."
It isn't easy keeping a coaching job. For most people. Jim Boeheim started as the Syracuse University men's basketball coach in 1976 and still holds that position 40 years later, longer than any other active coach or manager in a major American sport. What advice would he give to someone just starting out?
"Try to do a great job and win. Then you can last another year," Boeheim said with a laugh. "Just keep winning and you'll be all right. Nothing else will matter. If you win, you'll be OK. If you don't win, you'll be looking for another job."
Maintaining a managerial position is difficult anywhere, but coaches tend to last longer at the college level. In addition to there being more teams, coaches can acquire much more control at schools than in the pros, and the universities are not bought and sold by multibillionaire owners who want to make instant changes.
"I think [control] is something coaches ask for when they take a job," former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said. "You can imagine the control Nick Saban has at Alabama. He probably has the biggest staff in the country, and whatever he wants, he gets. If you have the biggest weight room, he will get one bigger. If you have the biggest dormitory, he will get one bigger."
Bowden coached Florida State for 34 years before leaving at age 80 after the 2009 season. That's a long time, but consider that Eddie Robinson was Grambling State's football coach for 55 years.
The professional level is different, with the great majority of coaches and managers in major sports having been with teams less than four years. Gregg Popovich, who has been coaching the NBA's San Antonio Spurs since 1996, is the longest-tenured active coach with one team in U.S. major professional sports. Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who both took over their teams in 2000, are the longest serving in Major League Baseball and the NFL, respectively. Claude Julien, about to enter his 10th season with the Boston Bruins, is the longest tenured in the NHL.
"The professional ranks are more difficult to last a long time in," Boeheim said. "It's just a different dynamic to the whole thing. If you don't get some good players, you're not going to last very long. In college, you have the chance to recruit more players and maybe get better. It's harder and the longevity is more difficult in the NBA than it is in college."
Another factor, Scioscia says, is that a successful college coach is "not only the coach, he's his own general manager. He's going to go out and recruit the players he wants. He's going to run the program the way he wants to. As a baseball manager, you are definitely part of a team of not only coaches but a team connected with executives and front office guys that are the people who put the team together.
"As a baseball manager, I've been very fortunate to have this opportunity, but that becomes more fragile the length of time you're in one place because general managers change very often and there are a lot of things you're not just in control of."
"When I started coaching in the 1950s after World War II, you'd tell a kid to do something and he would not bat an eye. He just did it. And if not, you threatened to get rid of them. Nowadays you have to sell them on it." Bobby Bowden
Just staying with one team doesn't inherently make the job all that much easier.
"We've probably had four or five, six turnovers -- or different looks -- with this team. It's not like you manage the same players for 16 years," Scioscia said. "There are always new challenges about team building and figuring out how the parts work. A lot of managers have to do that when they go to different organizations. I've just been doing it at one organization, but I think the challenges are the same."
Generational changes are part of that dynamic.
"When I started coaching in the 1950s after World War II," Bowden said, "you'd tell a kid to do something and he would not bat an eye. He just did it. And if not, you threatened to get rid of them. Nowadays you have to sell them on it. Tell them that if you do it that way, it will help you in this way."
As the athletes' approach changes over generations, so must the coaches. Which is part of the reason why La Russa, now chief baseball officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks, always made certain to read up on and research leadership methods.
"Probably the key to longevity is you have to maintain a really fresh and 'What's next?' attitude," said La Russa, who had two managerial stops that lasted at least a decade, 10 years with the Oakland Athletics and 16 with the St. Louis Cardinals. "You can have a couple good years and human nature is to get complacent. It's really vital to free your mind so that you're always looking at what's next. It's good. It makes you hungry to do more.
"Just to stay fresh is really important, especially with the people you're leading. If you stand up and just start yakking, they may tune you out because they've heard you say it before."
While coaches and managers get older, being around young athletes helps them retain some youth. Scioscia says that coaching players from different cultures also is very beneficial.
"I think it's fun if you embrace the cultural differences of kids from Latin America or kids from California or North Carolina or South Korea," he said. "It's been a learning experience for me. I think when you sift through all the cultural difference and changes not only in our club today but how things that have evolved in 16 years, the one thing that these players are connected with is their passion for the game. And that's what you need to tap into to motivate them."
Bear Bryant coached the University of Alabama football team for 25 years and won six national championships. After his final game, a reporter asked Bryant what he planned to do in retirement. He replied, "Probably croak in a week." He died of a heart attack a month later.
Bowden has been enjoying retired life after his full 57 years in coaching.
"All of a sudden, there is a big weight lifted from your shoulders," he said. "I didn't have to worry about players' grades, worry about conduct, worry about a 2 o'clock call from the police. All of a sudden a weight was lifted off my shoulders. And boy, was it different. Boy, what a relief. Now, I just have to worry about food that I still have to buy."
Boeheim, who turns 72 in November, says he will retire in two years. We'll see whether that is the case. And how many more years Wenger, who turns 67 in October, keeps going. After all, when Ferguson turned 60 in 2001, he planned to retire at the end of the season, his 16th at Man U. His family, however, told him to continue managing. "One, your health is good," his wife told him. "Two, I'm not having you in the house. And three, you're too young anyway." So he continued for another 11 years.
Although now retired, Ferguson's presence still remains at Old Trafford, not just in legend but in the form of a bronze statue with arms folded in a commanding manner.
Meanwhile, there are new coaches and managers just beginning their careers and hoping to be able to match those of Ferguson, Wenger, Boeheim, La Russa, Bowden and others.
"I tip my hat to anyone who has sat in that head-coaching position for that long, whether it's baseball, football or whatever sport," Seattle Mariners first-year manager Scott Servais said of Wenger's 20-year reign. "It's not just the game action; it's all of the other stuff. The fans don't see it, but experience really does help. I marvel at those people.
"I hope I get in that position."
Well then, he better keep winning.