Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I'm working on a book about the college playing days of some professionals, and because the audience for my book will be a general audience, I felt like I needed to write up an explanation of the offensive formations that were being used at the time (1931). I wrote up the following explanations, based on my research, but I want to be sure I'm understanding them correctly, so if anyone sees any mistakes or adjustments that need to be made, I would appreciate your help. I'm trying to keep the understanding of these formations as they were played circa 1930.

T FORMATION

The T Formation, thought to be the oldest offensive formation in American football and pioneered by Walter Camp, is built around a balanced line and begins with backfielders forming what resembles the letter "T". The quarterback stands behind center. Farther back, the fullback stands directly behind the quarterback and two halfbacks (left halfback and right halfback) stand on either side of the fullback and directly behind the guards. The quarterback calls the signals and the center snaps the ball to the quarterback who may run, pass, or hand-off the ball to one of the other backs. Depending on the play, the backfielders without the ball may be called upon to block or become the target for a pass, or the ends may be targets for a pass.


SINGLE-WING (A.K.A. "The Warner System")

First used by Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner while coaching at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the single-wing formation is built around an unbalanced line, with the left tackle moved to the right side of the line. The four backfielders include a quarterback, fullback, tailback, and wingback. The tailback and wingback are essentially each a right or left halfback shifted to a new position, depending on the direction of the strong side of the single-wing formation. Teams often continued to refer to these players as right and left halfbacks instead of using the tailback and wingback monikers. In this new alignment, the wingback stands behind the line but outside the end. The quarterback stands behind the tackles and farther back than the wingback, while the fullback and tailback stand behind center, with the fullback split to the strong side of the formation and the talkback split to the weak side and farthest back. The result is a formation in the shape of a wing. The wingback and quarterback are the primary blocking backs, with the quarterback calling the signals. The center snaps the ball to either the fullback or the tailback, and either player may run, pass, or hand-off the ball; depending on the play, any backfielder might become involved in these activities or become the target for a pass, or the ends may be targets for a pass.


NOTRE DAME BOX (A.k.a. "The Rockne System")

Pioneered by Knute Rockne at Notre Dame, the Notre Dame Box is built around the traditional balanced line and begins with the quarterback, fullback, right halfback, and left halfback in the traditional T formation. Before the snap, and after the quarterback signals which side will be the strong side of the formation, the quarterback moves behind the strong-side guard and the right or left halfback stands behind the strong-side tackle and end. Further back from the line, the fullback stands directly behind the halfback while the tailback (who started out as the right or left halfback on the weak side of the formation) stands behind center. The result is a formation that resembles having the backfielders forming a square with two elongated sides. The quarterback, halfback, and fullback are the primary blocking backs, but the center may snap the ball to either the tailback or the quarterback, and either player may run, pass, or hand-off the ball; depending on the play, any backfielder might become involved in these activities or become the target for a pass, or the ends may be targets for a pass. In this formation, the halfback may also stand in a wingback position, behind the line but outside the end, to allow for more single-wing-like offensive play options.

Good job of 'splaining. Maybe add a line about the Split T vs tight T?

Nice ... might want to include the double wing as well. Part of the Warner system and the formation that made Nevers famous.

BTW--some scholarship suggests that Pop was using the single wing while still at Cornell ...

Warner later used the double wing (which he also created) not the single wing.

The single wing involved a tailback, wingback, fullback and blocking back.
The double wing had the blocking back as a second wingback.

The Notre Dam Box was actually only one of three formations that a team could shift into after initially lining up in the T formation, so it's perhaps to refer to the system as the Notre Dame shift. Rockne, so far as i know, never referred to the box formation; he called the three formations the Square, the Z, and the V. I'll try to illustrate the formations below (based on Rockne's own diagrams in his Coaching: The Way of a Winner.

The Square (aka Box):

E T G C G T E
Q F

H H

The Z:
E T G C G T E
Q H
F
H

The V:
E T G C G T E
Q H

H F

It should be noted that there were plays in the Notre Dame system in which the team ran directly out of the T formation without shifting.

The Notre Dame shift system was originally developed by Jess Harper and elaborated by Rockne, who played for Harper.

Pop Warner's teams, like Rockne's, up in the T formation (which Warner called the "Regular" formation) before shifting into the single wing. The single wing is almost always depicted as being strong to the right but, in fact, the left side could also be the strong side. If strong to the right, the left tackle or left guard moved to the right side of the center and the right halfback shifted to the wingback spot and the left half shifted to the tailback spot. If strong to the left, obviously the shifting was reversed.

Warner called the single wing "Formation A" and the double wing "Formation B." But he actually developed two versions of the double wing, the first at Carlisle and the second at Cornell. By the time he became the head coach at Stanford in 1924, he was using the second version of the double wing exclusively and no longer starting in the T.

In the original double wing (formation B), the QB moved about 2 yards to the right, the right and left halfbacks moved into the wingback spots, and the fullback moved back a yard or so to become the tailback. In the second version of the double wing, the QB moved to the right wingback spot, the left half moved to the left wingback spot, the right half remained basically where he originally lined up (in what would be considered the fullback's position in the single wing) and the fullback again became the tailback.

It's somewhat misleading that Ernie Nevers was considered a fullback. He was a triple threat, like single-wing tailbacks, and would have been called the left halfback on most other teams.

As far as I know, the double wing was used as the primary formation by only two NFLteams, the Duluth Eskimos in 1926-27 and the Chicago Cardinals in 1929-31. It's no coincidence that Nevers was the fullback for both those teams.

The short punt formation should also be considered. It was used by most teams primarily in long yardage situations because it was more suitable for passing. The simple idea of the short punt was that, if the defense dropped the safety deep to handle the punt, the offense would run a play (probably a pass) because they were now facing only 10 defenders. If the safety didn't drop deep, the tailback would quick kick.

The NFL teams that Benny Friedman played for used the short punt formation as their basic formation (as had the University of Michigan, when Friedman played there).

rhickok1109 wrote:The Notre Dam Box was actually only one of three formations that a team could shift into after initially lining up in the T formation, so it's perhaps to refer to the system as the Notre Dame shift. Rockne, so far as i know, never referred to the box formation; he called the three formations the Square, the Z, and the V. I'll try to illustrate the formations below (based on Rockne's own diagrams in his Coaching: The Way of a Winner.

Thank you for this!