27 Facts About Buck Shaw

Lawrence Timothy "Buck" Shaw was an American football player and coach.

Buck Shaw was the head coach for Santa Clara University, the University of California, Berkeley, the San Francisco 49ers, the United States Air Force Academy and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Buck Shaw attended the University of Notre Dame, where he became a star player on Knute Rockne's first unbeaten team.

Buck Shaw started his coaching career with one year as head coach at North Carolina State and four years as a line coach at Nevada in Reno.

In 1946, Shaw became the San Francisco 49ers' first head coach in the old All-America Football Conference and continued through 1954; they entered the National Football League in from 1950.

Lawrence "Buck" Shaw was born in Mitchellville, Iowa, ten miles east of Des Moines, to cattle ranchers Tim and Margaret Shaw.

One of five children, the family moved to Stuart when Buck Shaw was ten, where high school football had been abolished because of a fatality.

Buck Shaw played only four games as a prep after the sport was brought back in 1917, his senior year.

Buck Shaw enrolled at Creighton University in Omaha in the fall of 1918 and went out for football; he played one game before the rest of the schedule wiped out by the flu epidemic.

Buck Shaw transferred to the University of Notre Dame in 1919.

Buck Shaw enrolled at South Bend and went out for the track team.

However, Buck Shaw fell into the hands of coach Knute Rockne and became one of the greatest tackles and placekickers in Notre Dame history.

At the 1921 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Buck Shaw was 5th in the shot put, earning All-American honors representing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish track and field team.

Buck Shaw was a starter for Rockne from 1919 to 1921, first at left tackle and then in 1920 and 1921 as right tackle opening holes for George Gipp.

Buck Shaw finished his playing career being selected an All-American by Football World Magazine.

Buck Shaw set a record by converting 38 of 39 extra points during his varsity career, a mark that stood until 1976, more than 50 years after he graduated.

Buck Shaw is a member of the all-time "Fighting Irish" football team.

Buck Shaw heard from a friend at Notre Dame who was from Nevada that American football was new out there; they'd been playing rugby before.

Buck Shaw was at Nevada for four years, then took a job with an oil firm and wanted to stay out of the coaching field, but was talked into becoming an assistant coach at Santa Clara University by his old teammate, Clipper Smith.

Buck Shaw was line coach under Smith from 1929 to 1935; during the first season, the stock market crashed.

Santa Clara dropped football after the 1942 war-time season, and Buck Shaw stayed on campus for two years to assist the Army's physical education program on campus.

In 1946, Buck Shaw took over the 49ers, and with the left-handed Frankie Albert leading and directing the attack, the team placed second to the Cleveland Browns four times in the Western Division of the AAFC.

Unfortunately for Buck Shaw and the 49ers, their 1954 draft was an extremely poor one, with 1st round quarterback Bernie Faloney opting to play in Canada and only 9th round guard Ted Connolly providing a significant addition to the roster.

In 1958, Buck Shaw took over a last-place Philadelphia Eagles team and started a rebuild of his own.

Buck Shaw immediately dealt Buck Lansford, Jimmy Harris, and a first-round draft choice to the Los Angeles Rams for 32-year-old, nine-year veteran quarterback Norm Van Brocklin.

In 1962, led by Sal Sanfilippo, former players, friends, and fans of Buck Shaw banded together to form the Bronco Bench Foundation to raise money for and build a football stadium on the Santa Clara University campus in his honor.

Buck Shaw died of cancer on March 19,1977, aged 77, at Stanford University's Branch Convalescent Hospital.