Shotgun Formation - History

History

The shotgun evolved from the single wing and the similar double-wing spread; famed triple threat man Sammy Baugh has claimed that the shotgun was effectively the same as the version of the double-wing he ran at Texas Christian University in the 1930s.

In the latter part of the 1940s, the Philadelphia Eagles, under Hall of Fame Coach Earl "Greasy" Neale, implemented the shotgun formation in their offensive attack with quarterback Tommy Thompson.

The formation was named by the man who actually devised it, San Francisco 49ers coach Red Hickey, in 1960. John Brodie was the first NFL shotgun quarterback, beating out former starter Y. A. Tittle largely because he was mobile enough to effectively run the formation.

The shotgun was used by the New York Jets as they employed the formation during the latter part of the Joe Namath era, as documented in the 1971 Sporting News article "Joe and the Booyah Tribe", to give the bad-kneed, and often immobile quarterback more time to set up plays by placing him deeper in the backfield.

Starting with the 1975 season, the Dallas Cowboys used the shotgun frequently with Roger Staubach at quarterback. No other NFL teams used this formation during this time and it is assumed this formation was devised by Tom Landry; it became a "signature" formation for the Cowboys, especially during third down situations. Landry re-introduced the shotgun to give Staubach more time to pass as the Cowboys had a relatively young and inexperienced team that year - 12 rookies were on that 1975 team.

The Cowboy shotgun differed from the 49er shotgun as Staubach generally had a back next to him in the backfield (making runs possible) where Brodie was normally alone in the backfield. The shotgun was adopted more teams throughout the 1980s, and was part of almost every team's offense in the pass-happy 1990s.