Gillman Wasn’t First to Throw Ball Deep

Sid Gillman was unquestionably an innovative football genius and contributed tons to the modern passing game. However, Sam Farmer’s article credits Gillman -- in the mid-1950s -- with incorporating the deep pass into the pro football offense.

One wonders, then, what it was the Rams were doing under coaches Joe Stydahar and Hampton Pool in the early ‘50s with Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield as quarterbacks and Tom Fears, Elroy Hirsch and Bob Boyd as deep receivers.

Those Ram offenses were, this writer recalls, designed by Clark Shaughnessy, who introduced the T-formation at Stanford in the ‘40s.

Kip Dellinger

Los Angeles