EAST LANSING, Michigan, May 17, 2026, 13:03 EDT
Sherman Lewis, an All-American halfback at Michigan State who went on to claim four Super Bowl rings as an NFL assistant, died Friday at 83, the university said. Michigan State announced his passing Saturday but did not specify a cause.
His passing resonates far outside a single school. Lewis spent decades moving from Duffy Daugherty’s Michigan State to Bill Walsh’s 49ers, later joining Mike Holmgren’s Packers. He sat in some of the game’s most influential coaching meetings, though he never landed an NFL head coaching job.
Lewis ran the Packers’ offense as coordinator from 1992 through 1999. That included 1996, when Green Bay not only took Super Bowl XXXI but also led the league in scoring with Lewis calling the shots, according to a 2023 piece on the team’s website.
Lewis broke out at East Lansing, taking third in the 1963 Heisman Trophy voting—college football’s highest individual honor—and wrapping up his Michigan State run with 1,566 rushing yards plus 23 touchdowns, according to The State News. On the track, he collected three Big Ten titles.
Lewis went north to the Canadian Football League after college, then took the field with the New York Jets in the American Football League—back when the AFL was the NFL’s chief competition. He circled back to Michigan State in 1969 to coach as an assistant, before making the leap to the 49ers in 1983, brought aboard by Walsh.
Lewis’s career jumped through several teams—San Francisco, Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit. The Vikings noted in 2023 that he served as their offensive coordinator in 2000 and 2001, following an eight-year stint in that role with the Packers. Later, Lewis landed with the Lions and then Washington.
Jimmy Raye, who also played at Michigan State before moving on to NFL assistant and coordinator roles, described Lewis as “a tremendous football coach and excellent teacher” in a 2023 piece published when Lewis received the Pro Football Hall of Fame Award of Excellence. Tom Shanahan Report
The résumé fell short of landing Lewis the head coaching gig. Speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel back in 2015, as later quoted by Sports Illustrated, he admitted he wanted the top job: “I had a great career and was fortunate to coach in the NFL.” SI
Details on his passing were scarce as of Sunday. WLUK reported Lewis died on May 15; the university confirmed both the date and his age but gave no cause of death.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame put Lewis, along with Tom Moore and Dante Scarnecchia, on its 2023 Awards of Excellence roster for assistant coaches—an award that recognizes those working in the background. For Lewis, the recognition arrived well after the fact. His real legacy: those staff meetings, the planning, four championship rings.
