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Wade Phillips played his junior and senior seasons under his father, Bum Phillips, at Port Neches-Groves High School before Bum took the defensive coordinator position under Bill Yeoman at the University of Houston for the 1965 season.

The coaching icon stopped by the PNG football coaches office Saturday to help them celebrate Friday’s 22-21 victory over Nederland in the Mid-County Madness Bum Phillips Bowl.

Wade Phillips was a quarterback at PNG but converted to a linebacker on his father’s UH defense.

He served as a graduate assistant in 1969 before joining the staff at Lutcher Stark High School in Orange (since consolidated with West Orange-Stark), beginning a long career that has covered 42 years in the NFL and three head coaching gigs.

Phillips coached in the NFL from 1976 to 2019, working under his father in Houston and has been head coach in Denver (1993-94) and Buffalo (1998-2000). He was interim head coach in New Orleans (1985) and Houston (2013).

Phillips’ defense (Rams) in 2019 gave up 22.8 points per game, 16th-best out of 32 NFL teams, and 339.6 total yards per game for 13th best. Both averages were improvements from its run to the Super Bowl in 2018 season, when it allowed 24 points and 358.6 yards per game.

The Rams went 33-15 in the past three regular seasons with Phillips as defensive coordinator.