Judy Coughlin, Wife of Super Bowl Champion Coach Tom Coughlin, Dead at 77 After Rare Brain Disease
Courtesy Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Judy and Tom Coughlin
Judy Coughlin, the wife of two-time Super Bowl winning NFL coach Tom Coughlin, died Tuesday morning at age 77.
In a statement released to PEOPLE, Tom wrote, "My cherished wife and our beloved mother and grandmother, Judy Whitaker Coughlin, passed away this morning at the age of 77."
"Judy was a remarkable woman in every way. She lived a life filled with love and unselfishly gave her heart and soul to others. Judy made you feel like an old friend from the first hug to the last. She was a mother to all on and off the field. For everyone who knew and loved Judy, the enormity of her absence cannot be put into words, but the immense kindness she showed to others will always endure. Our hearts are broken, but we know she is free from suffering and at peace with our Lord."
Judy's death came two years after her 2020 diagnosis with progressive supranuclear palsy, an incurable brain disorder that deteriorates a person's ability to think, speak and control movement.
RELATED: Tom Coughlin Details Wife's Battle with Brain Disorder That's Left Her Without Ability to Speak
In a 2021 essay for The New York Times, Tom, who coached the New York Giants to Super Bowl championships in the 2007 and 2011 seasons, wrote, "We've helplessly watched her go from a gracious woman with a gift for conversation, hugging all the people she met and making them feel they were the most important person in the room, to losing almost all ability to speak and move."
Courtesy Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Judy Coughlin
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Tom added: "Judy's decline has been nothing but gut-wrenching and has placed me in a club with the tens of millions of other Americans who serve as a primary caregiver for a loved one."
Courtesy Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Judy, Tom Coughlin, and family
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Tom and Judy first started dating when they were students at Waterloo High School in the Finger Lakes region of New York, when Tom was a junior and Judy (née Whitaker) was a senior. They married in 1967, before Tom's junior year at Syracuse and after Judy had graduated from Brockport State University, now known as SUNY Brockport.
Tom is the founder of the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund, which helps families of children diagnosed with cancer.
