Professional Bio

Bill Kuharich was promoted to the post of Vice President of Player Personnel by Chiefs President Carl Peterson on February 10, 2006. He enters his second season in that role with Kansas City after spending the previous three seasons as the club’s Vice President of Pro Personnel. He originally joined the Chiefs as Director of Pro Personnel in 2000.

“Bill’s outstanding background and experience certainly qualifies him to run an NFL franchise and we’re very pleased to have someone of his caliber and expertise working for the Kansas City Chiefs,” Peterson commented.

Entering his 25th season in professional football and his 22nd in the National Football League, Kuharich is widely regarded as one of the league’s most respected evaluators of talent. He oversees all aspects of the Chiefs player personnel department, including the club’s pro and college scouting efforts. In 2006, Kuharich was responsible for orchestrating a draft that yielded a number of immediate contributors for the club.

Kuharich is currently serving his second tour of duty on the NFL’s College Advisory Committee that counsels college underclassmen on their potential draft status. He rejoined that working group in 2006 after being a part of the original committee that was formed in ‘93.

Prior to his arrival in Kansas City, Kuharich enjoyed a 14-year tenure with the New Orleans Saints beginning in ‘86, serving as that club’s Director of Player Personnel until ‘93. He was promoted to Vice President of Football Operations, working in that role from ‘94-95 before being named Executive Vice President/General Manager in ‘96. Kuharich was then elevated to the post of President/General Manager/Chief Operating Officer of the Saints in ‘97, a position he held through the ‘99 season.

Kuharich was hired in New Orleans by the late Jim Finks, who was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in ‘95. When Finks and Kuharich arrived in New Orleans in ‘86, they inherited a franchise which had never enjoyed a winning season and had never been to the postseason in its 19 previous seasons of existence. By ‘87, Finks had constructed a team which went 12-3 and made the franchise’s first playoff berth. With Kuharich’s continued assistance in the personnel area, the Saints would total four postseason appearances from ‘87-92.

During his tenure in the NFL, Kuharich has assembled an impressive array of talent. Four of his first-round draft choices with the Saints went on to earn Pro Bowl berths, including 11-time Pro Bowl T Willie Roaf, who was later acquired by Kansas City in a trade with New Orleans in 2002. He subsequently earned four Pro Bowl selections with the Chiefs.

Adept at acquiring athletes through any available means, Kuharich obtained S Sammy Knight for the Saints as a rookie free agent in ‘97. Knight would later go on to earn a Pro Bowl berth with Miami in 2001 and joined the Chiefs in 2005. Other notable Kuharich acquisitions in New Orleans included DT La’ Roi Glover who was claimed off waivers from Oakland in ‘97 and went on to earn five Pro Bowl selections with the Saints and Cowboys.

Kuharich was also the first NFL executive to spot the potential of QB Jake Delhomme, signing him as a rookie free agent with the Saints in ‘97. Delhomme later led Carolina to a berth in Super Bowl XXXVIII and has earned a pair of Pro Bowl invitations. Other noteworthy Chiefs players that Kuharich played a role in procuring in Kansas City include three-time Pro Bowl RB Priest Holmes, two-time Pro Bowl QB Trent Green, two-time 1,000-yard WR Eddie Kennison and DE Tamba Hali (D1-06), who started all 16 games for the club a year ago.

Kuharich inaugurated his pro football career with the USFL’s Stars in ‘83 working under Peterson and was promoted to Assistant General Manager/Director of Player Personnel the following year. During the league’s three-year existence, the Stars compiled a 48-13-1 overall record, made three championship game appearances and won two league titles.

A member of a football family, Kuharich’s father, the late Joe Kuharich, served as a college head coach at San Francisco (’48-51) and Notre Dame (’59-62). Kuharich’s undefeated ‘51 USF Dons are regarded as one of the finest teams in college football history. That squad featured three future Pro Football Hall of Famers — Gino Marchetti, Ollie Matson and Bob St. Clair — with another Hall of Famer, future NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle serving as the team’s publicist. The elder Kuharich also served as an NFL head coach with the Cardinals (’52) and Redskins (’54-58), in addition to a stint as the head coach/GM of the Eagles (’64-68). During the ‘55 season with the Redskins, Kuharich was named NFL Coach of the Year. In addition, Kuharich’s brother Lary currently serves as the offensive coordinator of the Arena Football League’s Nashville Kats.

A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont with a degree in History, Kuharich began his football career as a graduate assistant coach at Brown in ‘76. The following year he went to work for the United States Department of Defense, while still serving as a volunteer assistant coach at Georgetown. In ‘79, he returned to coaching at St. Lawrence and earned a master’s degree in Education before spending two seasons (’80-81) at Columbia University.

Personal Bio

Kuharich and his wife Betsy reside in Leawood, Kansas. The Kuharichs have three daughters - Megan, Alexis and Kelli.