Longtime assistant coaches Dick Hoak, Elijah Pitts and Jim McNally will be honored with the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Awards of Excellence for the 2025 class.
The three assistants were announced Tuesday as the fourth class of assistant coaches to receiver the award given to coordinators or position coaches.
Hoak played 10 years for Pittsburgh before joining Chuck Noll's staff in 1972 as running backs coach. He held that job for 35 straight seasons and helped tutor Hall of Famers Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis. Hoak was part of five Super Bowl champions and the Steelers led the NFL in rushing during his time as an assistant.
Pitts won five NFL championships and two Super Bowls as a running back in Green Bay in the 1960s before starting a long coaching career that include time with Hall of Famers Earl Campbell and Thurman Thomas. Pitts helped the Rams make the playoffs in four straight seasons with a strong rushing attack in the 1970s before following head coach Chuck Knox to Buffalo.
He spent three seasons with the Bills, three years with Houston and one year in the CFL before returning to Buffalo in 1985. He helped the Bills make four straight Super Bowl trips before retiring after the 1997 season.
McNally spent 43 seasons in the NFL with as an offensive line coach and consultant beginning in Cincinnati in 1980. He coached Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz for his entire 13-year career with the Bengals and helped the team reach two Super Bowls.
He also coached for Carolina, the Giants and Buffalo before serving as a consultant for New Orleans, the Jets and the Bengals following his retirement from coaching. He retired for good in 2023.
The three coaches will be honored at a ceremony in June along with Pete Abitante, Jason Jenkins and Bill Keenist, who were picked earlier this month as the recipients of the Awards of Excellence in the public relations directors category. The Hall will still announce winners for athletic trainers, equipment managers and film and video directors.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
FILE - Buffalo Bills offensive-line coach Jim McNally voices his displeasure on player's blocking scheme during mini-camp practice in Orchard Park, N.Y., May 27, 2004. (AP Photo/Don Heupel, File)
FILE - Buffalo Bills acting head coach Elijah Pitts prior to his team's game against the New England Patriots at Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. Oct. 22, 1995. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - Pittsburgh Steelers running backs coach Dick Hoak, in his 34th season as a Steelers assistant coach, talks with running back Verron Haynes before a team workout at the Pontiac Silverdom, Feb. 1, 2006 in Pontiac, Mich. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
BANGKOK (AP) — Shares slipped in Tokyo and Shanghai on Wednesday, two of only a handful of world markets open on Christmas day.
Oil prices rose.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index edged 0.1% lower to 38,997.02, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.2% to 3,387.41.
Thursday will bring a weekly update on U.S. unemployment benefits.
Also early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 93 cents at $70.17 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 6 cents to $73.23 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 157.37 Japanese yen from 157.11 yen. The euro rose to $1.0431 from $1.0397.
On Tuesday, stocks closed higher on Wall Street in a shortened holiday session. Gains in Big Tech stocks helped the S&P 500 to a 1.1% gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3%.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by more than 3-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Broadcom rose 3.2%, Apple gained 1.1% and Amazon closed 1.8% higher. Super Micro Computer climbed 6%.
Tesla jumped 7.4% for the biggest gains among S&P 500 stocks.
American Airlines shook off an early loss and ended with a 0.6% gain after the airline briefly grounded flights nationwide due to a technical issue.
Elsewhere in the market, U.S. Steel rose 1.9% a day after an influential government panel failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of the nearly $15 billion proposed sale to Nippon Steel of Japan.
NeueHealth surged 74.9% after the health care company agreed to be taken private in a deal valued at roughly $1.3 billion.
Tuesday’s U.S. market “Santa rally” comes as the stock market enters what’s historically been a very cheerful season. The last five trading days of each year, plus the first two in the new year, have brought an average gain of 1.3% since 1950.
So far this month, the U.S. stock market has lost some of its gains since President-elect Donald Trump’s win on Election Day, which raised hopes for faster economic growth and more lax regulations that would boost corporate profits. Worries have risen that Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation, a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade.
Even so, the U.S. market remains on pace to deliver strong returns for 2024. The benchmark S&P 500 is up 26.6% so far this year and remains within roughly 1% of the all-time high it set earlier this month — its latest of 57 record highs this year.
Lights marking the entrance to a subway station frame the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person runs in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of Tokyo Stock Exchange building Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
