Buck Shaw

Lawrence Timothy "Buck" Shaw (March 28, 1899 – March 19, 1977) played and coached American football. He led teams at Santa Clara University, the University of California, Berkeley, the San Francisco 49ers, the United States Air Force Academy, and the Philadelphia Eagles. Shaw played at Notre Dame, starring on Knute Rockne’s first undefeated squad. He began coaching with a single season as head coach at North Carolina State, followed by four years as a line coach at Nevada in Reno.

At Santa Clara, Shaw posted a remarkable record; his first two teams won consecutive Sugar Bowls against LSU. After serving during the war, his lone California team went 4–5–1 in 1945. In 1946, Shaw became the first head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), staying through 1954; the team joined the NFL in 1950. After two seasons as the first varsity head coach at the Air Force Academy (1956–1957), he returned to the NFL with Philadelphia in 1958.

In 1960, he led the Eagles to an NFL Championship over Vince Lombardi, who said of Shaw, “That right there is a good man...an honest man.” Shaw retired after three seasons, following that title win; he remains the only coach to beat Lombardi in a playoff game. Nicknamed “the Silver Fox,” Shaw posted a winning record in ten of his twelve professional seasons, reached championship games in two different leagues, and won 62% of his games.

Shaw was born in Mitchellville, Iowa, ten miles east of Des Moines, to cattle ranchers Tim and Margaret Shaw. One of five children, his family moved to Stuart when he was ten; high school football there had been abolished after a fatality. He played only four games as a prep after the sport returned in 1917, his senior year. He enrolled at Creighton University in fall 1918, playing one game before the flu epidemic wiped out the season.

He transferred to Notre Dame in 1919, initially drawn by track and field. There, coach Knute Rockne turned him into one of the program’s great tackles and placekickers. At the 1921 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Shaw placed fifth in the shot put, earning All-American honors for Notre Dame. He started for Rockne from 1919 to 1921, first at left tackle, then right tackle, opening holes for George Gipp.

He was named an All-American by Football World Magazine and set a record by converting 38 of 39 extra points in his varsity career, a mark that stood until 1976. Shaw is a member of the all-time Fighting Irish football team.

In his senior spring, Rockne gave Shaw letters from Auburn and Nevada. He started coaching at North Carolina State in 1924 but did not want to go further south to Auburn. A friend from Notre Dame who was from Nevada said football was new out there—they had played rugby before. Shaw later said, “It sounded like an interesting challenge, so I took the Nevada job as line coach.”

After four years at Nevada, he took a job with an oil firm and planned to leave coaching, but his old teammate Clipper Smith talked him into becoming an assistant at Santa Clara. Shaw was line coach under Smith from 1929 to 1935; during that first season, the stock market crashed. “I had a heck of a time getting on my feet,” Shaw said. “Santa Clara could only afford to hire us on a seasonal basis… I was working for Standard Oil when I became head coach in 1936.”

His first two Bronco teams went 18–1 combined, with back-to-back Sugar Bowl wins over LSU. He may have been the first major coach to “phone it in”: ill, he did not travel with the team but coached them to victory over the telephone. Santa Clara dropped football after the 1942 wartime season, and Shaw stayed two years to assist the Army’s physical education program.

While waiting for the All-America Football Conference to launch, Shaw rebuilt the University of California squad, beating a Frankie Albert-led St. Mary’s Pre-Flight team 6–0. The Bears finished 4–5–1, but Shaw and his staff said they had a good group of players. In 1944–45, the Morabito brothers began organizing the 49ers for the AAFC. Shaw and assistant Al Ruffo were hired but allowed to take a one-year contract at California when the league’s start was delayed until 1946. That year, Shaw took over the 49ers; with left-handed Frankie Albert directing the attack, the team finished second to the Cleveland Browns four times (1946–1949).