By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Sam Wyche coached more games than anybody in Bengals history. At 64-68, he was the last of the franchise's head coaches to even sniff .500.

Wyche also played in the franchise's first three seasons, 1968-70. He took the team to its second and last Super Bowl as head coach in January 1989.

So he's as qualified as anyone to write an insider's book about the Bengals.

With the working title "Tales of the Bengals," the book is expected to publish in July or August.

"It's not a critical thing," Wyche said in a phone interview from his South Carolina home. "It will be about Super Bowl week. Women (reporters) in the locker room. What training camp was like.

"There will be a lot of short tidbits. Like my rookie season, 1968, when tickets at Nippert Stadium were $6 and $7. You could get season tickets for the good seats for $49."

Wyche also is writing a column for the weekly Pickens (S.C.) Sentinel about the NFL. The column is called "Know Huddle," a spin-off from his former cartoon strip, "No Huddle." Each column includes a cartoon.

Writing is the latest undertaking for Wyche, who had to give up his chosen second career - broadcasting NFL games - because of a paralyzed left vocal cord.

"I thought I had found what I wanted to do," Wyche said. "I really enjoyed that."

The nerves in Wyche's left vocal cord were severed during an operation more than two years ago to determine if he had cancer. He does not.

In addition to the paralyzed vocal cord, Wyche has a heart condition, cardiomyopathy, which limits his endurance. He can no longer run, although he tries to do sprints.

Wyche coached quarterbacks this season as a volunteer for the Pickens High School Blue Flames. Although he can't speak above a normal telephone voice, Wyche communicated well with his players.

"I learned how to whistle," he said. "I couldn't yell."

The return to coaching showed Wyche he could handle the rigors of a 2 1/2-hour practice in the sun, and endure chilly, damp weather.

He was pleased with the results. At age 57, Wyche started to notice a bad habit taking form because he had no deadlines in his life.

"You start getting up later and later," he said. "Then it's getting close to noon and you get up because it's time to eat lunch."

To get himself going in the morning, Wyche also took a job as a substitute teacher at four area high schools.

"Any subject, every subject," he said. "I've been teaching classes in economics, history, English literature. I even taught jazz ensemble. That was the best. I sat back and listened to the kids play for an hour."

Besides coaching with the Bengals, Wyche also coached in Tampa Bay and San Francisco. Those are the teams he follows in the NFL.

But he follows the Bengals closest of all.

"I'm not right there, but I do see so many parts of the puzzle in place with the Bengals," he said. "A lot of it's there. It just seems to come down to one or two things that happen. There are some obvious weaknesses.

"In 1987, the strike year, we had a bad record (4-11). But we came back the next season and went to the Super Bowl.

"There's always hope."

In football and in life.

E-mail: mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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