1937 Wonder Team, '45 Rams, short punt formation

[74_75_78_79_]

Are any of you familiar with the 1937 Northampton High School (Northampton, PA) 9-0 Wonder Team? They averaged 58 points per game and allowed a total of 25 points that entire season. Very scary stuff! They were invited to Chicago at season's end to play against Austin High led by Bill DeCorrevont. They weren't able to make it there, however, by lack of school funds. Some of the players threatened to 'strike' but it just so happened that the football HC, Woody Ludwig, was also the high school's basketball coach and threatened anyone who didn't get back in line to not be able to play on their basketball team; and they all wanted to play b-ball so they all abided (the core of that football team, in addition to being the core basketball players, were also the core baseball players - all three great squads).

Three players from that Wonder football team went on to play pro ball, two of them for the '45 World Champion Cleveland Rams team. One of them was starting WR Steve Pritko who's still alive at 94. Before the Rams, he played for the Giants and after the Rams, went on to play for the Boston Yanks/NY Bulldogs before finishing things off as a Packer in '50. His Northampton High teammate, Walt Ziriniski, was with him on that championship Rams team in '45 but chose not to move to LA with him the next year instead staying in that area. Walt would end up playing for the Bethlehem (Chuck Bednarik's hometown) Bulldogs of the American Association. The other member of that Wonder Team from Northampton High would be Pete Schneider (grandfather of MLB's recently retired, Brian Schneider) who would also play for the Bethlehem Bulldogs. There was a Paul Onkotz on that high school squad but not sure if he was related to Dennis Onkotz (also from Northampton) who, of course, would go on to basically give Penn St its "Linebacker-U" name by leading the Nittany Lions to back-to-back undefeated seasons in '68 & '69 and then get drafted by the Jets only to, unfortunately, suffer a career-ending injury his rookie year in '70.

The formation that was Northampton's 'trademark' in that '37 season was the 'short punt'. It was originally made popular by Michigan U earlier on, Northampton High was known all-too-well for it in the decades after to much success but in the pros it apparently was used for the very last time in the 'second' 'Sneakers' game by Driscoll's Bears in the '56 Title Game in attempt to rally vs the Giants. Was the short punt ever applied in the NFL again after that, and do you think that in today's game that any coach would dare re-experiment with it as was the case a few years back with the 'wildcat'?

[oldecapecod11]

Didn't Bobby Layne and Doak Walker play together in High School?
Walker, of course, had a pretty good teammate right behind him at SMU although they also played in the same backfield.
Kyle Rote.

[John Maxymuk]

Coach could probably address this better, but my understanding of the short punt formation is that it was sort of a precursor to the shotgun. The 1951 NY Yanks ran the short punt with Bob Celeri as signall caller.

[coachtj]

.....recently saw a write-up on the '60 Niners win over the colts from 11-27-60(red hickey coached)and their offensive alignments. the play by play calls it "short punt". hickey "shotgun". no matter what it is called and how many teams actually used this formation in previous seasons....sf gets the nod historically because of their success late in '60 and in early '61. have seen a number of teams in the 50's align in a form of shotgun or short punt. do we want details? questions answered? why did that team use it when they did? how much success did they have with it? situation? the reasons they did not stay with it, or use it more? the packers of the tobin rote/babe parilli era should have aligned in a form of shotgun. they had the receivers and rote was one helluva runner. since gbay did not win during this era what did they have to lose?

[rhickok1109]

.....recently saw a write-up on the '60 Niners win over the colts from 11-27-60(red hickey coached)and their offensive alignments. the play by play calls it "short punt". hickey "shotgun". no matter what it is called and how many teams actually used this formation in previous seasons....sf gets the nod historically because of their success late in '60 and in early '61. have seen a number of teams in the 50's align in a form of shotgun or short punt. do we want details? questions answered? why did that team use it when they did? how much success did they have with it? situation? the reasons they did not stay with it, or use it more? the packers of the tobin rote/babe parilli era should have aligned in a form of shotgun. they had the receivers and rote was one helluva runner. since gbay did not win during this era what did they have to lose?

The Packers did use something similar to the shotgun in 1952; they called it the "R Formation," for Rote and Ronzani, who was their coach. After losing 3 of their first 5 games, they won 4 in a row using the R Formation and were actually in the playoff race, but they lost their last 3 in a row and never went back to it. Rote led the team in rushing that year.

[Bryan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxdlIwh0XfU

'45 Rams benefited from the "short punt" formation...Redskins lined up in the formation with Baugh and faked a quick kick, but Baugh's pass hit the goal post thus giving the Rams a safety and eventually the margin of victory in the Championship game.

Edit: Here is footage of the Skins-Bears 1937 Championship game...go to the 0:58 mark and you'll see the same "short punt from own endzone" ploy that cost the Skins the 1945 game...this time it works (although Baugh almost hits the goal post again)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hayDcmtBv7A

[Byron]

I still remember the Eagles lining up in the shotgun (or short punt) formation with Randall Cunningham in his own end zone. He punted quickly and it ended up being a 90 yard punt (if I recall correctly)! This was in the 90s.

EDIT: found a video clip and it appears it was an actual punt in 1989 (although the offensive personnel appear to be on the field). However, I'm pretty sure he also quick-kicked a "punt" out of the shotgun formation at one time.

[Rupert Patrick]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxdlIwh0XfU

'45 Rams benefited from the "short punt" formation...Redskins lined up in the formation with Baugh and faked a quick kick, but Baugh's pass hit the goal post thus giving the Rams a safety and eventually the margin of victory in the Championship game.

Edit: Here is footage of the Skins-Bears 1937 Championship game...go to the 0:58 mark and you'll see the same "short punt from own endzone" ploy that cost the Skins the 1945 game...this time it works (although Baugh almost hits the goal post again)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hayDcmtBv7A

I've also seen this quasi-shotgun formation in game film from the 1945 Thanksgiving game between the Lions and Rams, with the Lions running it. The Eagles also used it against the Cardinals in the 1947 NFL Championship game, and I know I've seen it in other games from the 30's and 40's. It seems to have dried up after 1947 until Hickey brought it back in San Francisco, but again, it failed to be become a standard formation. When Landry had success with it in Dallas in 1975, within two years every team had shotgun plays in their playbooks.