The Dallas Shotgun was Ditka's idea!

[fgoodwin]

I've been a Cowboy fan since I first became aware of football around 1965. So I thought I knew the Cowboys pretty well but today I became aware that the Dallas Cowboy shotgun was really Mike Ditka's idea. Forgive me if you guys know this already, but it was a surprise to me.

I saw a guy make this claim on FB but rather than shoot my mouth off as is my unfortunate habit, I did a little research first and darn, he was right. I found this link:

https://www.espn.com/chicago/nfl/story/ ... as-cowboys

and in it Dan Reeves is quoted as saying about Ditka:

People don't understand how extremely smart Mike is, just as far as his IQ. But his thought process coaching was [equally impressive]. Mike was the one who brought up the shotgun because we were so bad the year before on third-down conversions. ... Coach Landry had some experience with it and said he'd think about it, that we had to work on our pass protection because the first thing people would do is blitz us. But we used the shotgun a long time before anyone else did. ... Roger Staubach was awesome in the shotgun and that was something Mike brought up first.

[RichardBak]

Didn't Tommy Thompson occasionally work out of the shotgun with the Eagles in the '40s? I was surprised to find George Blanda once worked out of the shotgun for an entire game vs the Lions sometime in mid-50s. Basically the short punt formation, not what we've come to know as today's shotgun.

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

Okay, editing this because now I see that he does mean he brought it up specifically for Staubach. Coach Landry first used the shotgun in the 60s to help Eddie LeBaron see over the line.....

[Brian wolf]

When the Chiefs used it in the 60s, Dawson would get the snap 10 - 15 yards back sometimes ...

I have never liked the shotgun, I prefer QBs dropping back or backpeddaling from center ...

[John Maxymuk]

When Dallas instituted the shotgun as a regular part of their offensive package in 1975, Red Hickey had worked for them for about 10 years, first as a coach and then scout. I would think he would have had some influence as well. Not to dispute Reeves, of course, but I suspect the real story more involved.

Richard's point about the short punt formation is well taken.The short punt and several spread formation varieties were used in the late 40s and throughout the 50s, a very exciting time to watch pro football. I know the Yanks used a version with 5'10' Bob Celeri at QB in 51. Around the same time Gene Ronzani would put Tobin Rote in another version for the Packers as a second example. But throughout that period you see on film teams lining up in a 3-4, flexing their D linemen, dropping D linemen into short coverage zones and many other practices that we tend to think of as more recent. Paul Brown and Sid Gillman both experimented with alternating QBs before Landry did so with Dallas is another example.

It's very difficult to claim anyone invented or started something in football. The best we can say usually is someone popularized it.

[John Maxymuk]

Richard is also correct that the Eagles sometimes used a two-minute type spread offense with Thompson or backup Allie Sherman taking a deep snap.

[RichardBak]

The shotgun is what got Y.A. Tittle traded to New York. Red Hickey installed the shotgun midway through the 1960 season and the 49ers went 4-1 with it, but old Y.A. was a straight drop-back passer and gave way to the trio of Billy Kilmer, John Brodie, and Bobby Waters. That trio just tore up the league the first few games of '61. They came into Detroit for the Lions' home opener and destroyed their pride and joy defense, 49-0. Hickey rotated the 3 QBs who confused the Lions with roll-outs, bootlegs, and a couple of quick kicks that went 57 and 64 yards. Next week SF bombed LA, 35-0, then followed up by putting up 38 points vs Minnesota.

The shotgun is thought of as a passing formation, but the 49ers averaged 254 yds rushing and piled up 15 total rushing TDs in those 3 wins. Only one of their scores came via the pass. Billy Kilmer, who a lot of us remember as the slow-footed Washington QB of the '70s with a bit of a belly, had 3 straight 100-yd games. Check it out:

16 carries, 103 yds, 2 TD vs Detroit
19 carries, 131 yds, 2 TD vs LA
20 carries, 115 yds, 4 TD vs Minnesota

I know that Kilmer had played tailback in the single wing at UCLA, but those are some Jimmy Taylor/Jim Brown kind of numbers.

The Bears finally solved the shotgun by putting MLB Bill George on the line of scrimmage and having him stunt and generally raise hell in the SF backfield. Bears beat SF, 31-0, and the shotgun kind of lost its pop. The players reportedly lost confidence in it.

[rhickok1109]

The Packers were using something like the shotgun from 1951 through 1953. It was called the R-formation for Gene Ronzani, the coach, and Tobin Rote, the quarterback. Ronzani designed it to take advantage of Rote's abilities as a runner. They used the R formation so much in 1951 that Rote led the team in rushing ass well as passing. He rushed for 523 years, averaging 6.9 a carry.

[RichardBak]

Wasn't Rote the first QB to lead his team in rushing?