The standing line in head coaching searches is that everybody wants the next Sean McVay. But how does one replicate the background of a coach whose grandpa was a major force for five Super Bowl winners after coming through Massillon and Canton?

Like so many NFL stories, going back to the founding of the league in Canton, Sean McVay's came through Stark County.

McVay would not be in Super Bowl 53 as the youngest head coach in the game's history, or anywhere else, without a line of grandparents. His grandfather on his father's side is John McVay Sr., who is in the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame based on his play with a Massillon Tigers state championship team and his stellar work as a head coach at Canton Central Catholic.

McVay Sr. lives in retirement in California. A primary architect of five 49ers rosters that won Super Bowls, he turned 88 this month. The real celebration came Sunday when Sean's Los Angeles Rams reached Super Bowl 53 with an overtime win at New Orleans.

"We're all very excited, needless to say," said John McVay Jr., Sean's uncle.

John McVay Jr. lived in Stark County from 1984 through late 2018 before a business opportunity took him to Chattanooga, Tenn.

"My heart is in Stark County," John Jr. said Monday morning. "Sean is very well aware of the family background in Stark County. Sean and my dad talked last night. As you can imagine, dad is as proud as he could be."

The elder John McVay was a senior center at Massillon when the Tigers won a state poll championship. He began a family tradition by enrolling at Miami University in Oxford, where he played for Woody Hayes. He landed a high school teaching-coaching job in Lancaster, where Tim McVay, Sean's father, was born (John Jr. arrived two years earlier).

John Sr. brought the family to Canton in 1957 when he was hired to be head football coach at Central Catholic. His work opened doors. In 1972, he became a college head coach at Dayton. John Jr. wound up playing safety at nearby Miami on 1970s teams that beat Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in consecutive Tangerine Bowls.

John Sr. finished the decade as an NFL head coach (Giants) and then an executive (49ers). He played a general manager role for teams that won Super Bowls capping the 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989 and 1994 seasons.

When former 49ers owner Eddie Bartolo was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016, he told us McVay deserves to be in the Hall with him.

Sean was born in January of 1986, two days before Mike Ditka's Bears beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XX in New Orleans. Sean turned 3 the week his grandpa's 49ers beat Paul Brown's Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII. Brown, whose fame traces to Massillon, became a friend of McVay, who at league meetings would call the old man "The Grand Kahuna," as many football people did.

"Sean went to high school in the Atlanta area," John Jr. said. "He won a state championship with Marist High School. Sean's parents, my brother Tim and his wife Cindy, still live in Atlanta. And Sean is going to a Super Bowl the year it's in Atlanta. Tim and Cindy are going to have a very busy house."

On Sean's way up in the football world, the family influence led him to Miami, where he gave up his high school position, quarterback, to be a wide receiver and kickoff returner.

How recently Sean played college ball is part of his boy-wonder story. He was a Miami senior in 2007, four years after Ben Roethlisberger's four years at Miami.

Sean will turn 33 on Thursday. Expect a tidal wave of stories about Boy Wonder vs. Bill Belichick (the Patriots' head coach is 66).

Another story: Sean McVay, grandson of a Massillon center, will be calling plays for one Super Bowl team. Josh McDaniels, former Canton McKinley quarterback, is the play caller for the other team.

Reach Steve at 330-580-8347 or

steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP