1940 Stanford Indians football team
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The 1940 Stanford Indians football team, nicknamed the "Wow Boys", represented
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
during the
1940 college football season The 1940 college football season was the 72nd season of college football, intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the 1940 Big Ten Conference football season, Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast Conferen ...
. First-year head coach Clark Shaughnessy inherited a team that finished with a 1–7–1 record the previous season.Wow Boys: The Team That Changed the Game
''Stanford Magazine'', Stanford Alumni Association, January/February 2007. Accessed 2009-07-28.

2009-07-30.
He installed his own version of the
T formation In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarterba ...
, a system that had largely fallen into disuse since the 1890s and was viewed as obsolete. The Indians shocked observers when they won all ten of their games including the Rose Bowl, which prompted several selectors to declare them the 1940 national champions. Stanford's dramatic reversal of fortunes prompted football programs across the nation to abandon the single-wing formation in favor of the new T formation.


Preseason

Clark Shaughnessy had served as the head coach at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
since 1930. While there, he developed a new version of the
T formation In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarterba ...
based upon the "pro T" that was concurrently in use by the
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
. The T formation, in which three backs lined up abreast and behind the
quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
who was himself behind the
center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
, was an obsolescent system that had been disused since the 1890s in favor of the
single-wing In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback and a hand ...
and
double-wing formation In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback and a hand ...
s.A Melding Of Men All Suited To A T: Clark Shaughnessy was a dour theoretician, Frankie Albert an unrestrained quarterback and Stanford a team of losers, but combined they forever changed the game of football
''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'', September 5, 1977.
Shaugnessy, however, incorporated several new features in his own version of the T. It utilized flankers and the man-in-motion concept,The 1940s: The Bears roll out the T formation
''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'', August 30, 1999.
and it emphasized deception and quickness over the brute force necessitated by the wing formations. Shaughnessy was not very successful at Chicago and his teams never finished a season with more wins than losses.Clark D. Shaughnessy Records by Year
College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved July 28, 2009
Archived
2009-07-31.
In 1939, the
Chicago Maroons The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as ...
compiled a 2–6 record and failed to defeat any of their conference opponents. All six losses were defensive
shutouts In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...
, the worst being an 85–0 rout by
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. After the season, the University of Chicago disbanded its football program. Instead of remaining at Chicago, where he also held a position as a professor and earned a comfortable salary of $10,000 per year, Shaughnessy elected to continue coaching football, which he described as his hobby and passion. For 1940, he was hired by
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
whose Indians had finished the previous season with a 1–7–1 record. Stanford center
Milt Vucinich Milt is the seminal fluid of fish, mollusks, and certain other water-dwelling animals which reproduce by spraying this fluid, which contains the sperm, onto roe (fish eggs). It can also refer to the sperm sacs or testes that contain the seme ...
said, "We'd been reading about all those beatings Shaughnessy's men had taken, so we were joking among ourselves that wasn't it just like Stanford to hire somebody like this to coach us."James W. Johnson
The Wow Boys: a Coach, a Team, and a Turning Point in College Football
pp. xvii-xix, University of Nebraska Press, 2006, .
In his first address to the team, Shaughnessy told them, "Boys, I am not to be addressed as 'Clark' or, especially,
he nickname of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
'Soup'. To you, I am 'Mr. Shaughnessy' or 'Coach.' Nothing else. I am a professor of football . . . Now, I have a formation for you that if you learn it well will take you to the Rose Bowl." He asserted that one of his plays, a line plunge by a back without a blocker, would score ten to twelve touchdowns alone, which was more than the Indians had scored the entire previous season. The players were understandably skeptical, and they were not alone. Football innovator and single-wing proponent Glenn "Pop" Warner said before the season, "If Stanford wins a single game with that crazy formation, you can throw all the football I ever knew into the Pacific Ocean." Shaughnessy later discovered that the players, who were mostly returners from the 1939 team, were talented, but not suited to the single wing. As a contemporary newspaper noted, "The 939team looked great in some games and sour in others. The machinery was there but it wasn't running as smoothly as had been hoped for."


Season

Stanford opened the season with a road game against San Francisco U at
Kezar Stadium Kezar Stadium is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It is the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders (first AFL se ...
. It was part of the first-ever major college football doubleheader, which also featured Santa Clara and
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
. The Indians defeated San Francisco convincingly, 27–0.Stanford Yearly Results: 1940–1942
College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved July 28, 2009
Archived
2009-07-30.
In attendance was their next opponents' head coach,
Tex Oliver Gerald Allen "Tex" Oliver (November 21, 1899 – April 10, 1988) was an American football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Arizona from 1933 to 1937 and at the University of OregonMcCann, Michael C. (1995). Oregon Ducks Foo ...
of
Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, and he said, " lf of the time neither we or the spectators knew who was the ballcarrier until someone would dart out from the sidelines with the pigskin under his arms... and it was probably Frank/nowiki>_Albert.html" ;"title="Frankie_Albert.html" ;"title="uarterback Frankie Albert">Frank/nowiki> Albert">Frankie_Albert.html" ;"title="uarterback Frankie Albert">Frank/nowiki> Albert." Oliver added, "If we expect to stop their attack, we'll have to work fast", and immediately returned home to conduct intense practices in preparation for Stanford.Tex Oliver Rates Stanford on Par With 1939 U.S.C. Champs; Oregon Mentor Scouts Indians
''Eugene Register-Guard'', p. 6, September 30, 1940.
The extra preparation did not halt the Stanford attack, however, and according to Harold Parrott in ''The Milwaukee Journal'', "the duped Webfoots chased phantom ball carriers all over the field. They tackled everybody but the nonchalant-looking Stanford man who actually had the ball." Stanford won again, 13–0. The following week, the Indians narrowly edged Santa Clara, 7–6, to remain "the only untied, undefeated team in the Far West." After defeating
Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...
at home, 26–14, Stanford met the defending
Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...
(PCC) champions,
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
. With 90 seconds remaining to play, the game was tied at seven, but Stanford used its deception tactics to score two touchdowns to win, 21–7. The Indians then beat
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
the next week in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, 20–14.
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, the only other team with a perfect Pacific Coast Conference record, led Stanford by a touchdown at half time. In the third quarter, the Huskies extended their lead when they capitalized on an
interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...
with a
field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...
. Before the end of the period, though, Albert engineered two long drives that culminated in touchdowns. In the final quarter, Indians back
Pete Kmetovic Peter George Kmetovic (December 27, 1919 – February 8, 1990) was an American football player. A halfback, Kmetovic played college football for Stanford University, helping the team reach the 1941 Rose Bowl. In the game, Kmetovic rushed for 141 ...
caught an interception and tallied the final score. Stanford won, 20–10. After beating
Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...
, 28–14, Stanford traveled to
Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...
to face
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in the annual rivalry, the " Big Game". The Indians defeated the Bears, 13–7, to guarantee a Rose Bowl invitation in lieu of Washington, which despite losing to Stanford head-to-head, had beaten UCLA more convincingly, 41–0.


Postseason

In the final
Associated Press Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
, which was published on December 2 before the
bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
s, Stanford was ranked second in the US behind
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. On December 1, Stanford accepted its invitation to represent the Pacific coast in the
1941 Rose Bowl The 1941 Rose Bowl was the 27th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday, January 1. The undefeated and second-ranked Stanford Indians of the Pacific Coast Conference defeated the # ...
, and
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
was selected to represent the East. Nebraska had compiled an 8–1 record with its only loss against Minnesota.Stanford is Choice to Defeat Nebraska in Rose Bowl Today
''
The Milwaukee Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...
'', p. 4B, January 1, 1941.
Pundits deemed Stanford to be the favorite to win the Rose Bowl. The game was attended by 91,300 spectators and each team was paid $140,916 for its participation. Nebraska received the opening
kickoff Kickoff or kick-off may refer to * Kick-off (association football) * Kickoff (gridiron football) * ''Kick Off'' (series), a series of computer association football games * ''Kick Off'' (album), a 1985 album by Onyanko Club * ''Kick Off'' (mag ...
and halfback returned it 27 yards to the Stanford 48-yard line. The drive culminated in a short rush by fullback Ike Francis, and with the extra point, the Cornhuskers took a 7–0 lead on the first possession. Stanford drove into Nebraska territory, but fumbled the ball away on the 28-yard line. The Cornhuskers punted it away and the Indians mounted a touchdown drive to equalize the score. In the second quarter, Nebraska recovered a fumbled punt return and on the subsequent possession scored on a 33-yard pass. Stanford responded immediately, and Albert passed to
Hugh Gallarneau Hugh Harold "Duke" Gallarneau (April 2, 1917 – July 14, 1999) was an NFL halfback from 1941 to 1942 and 1945 to 1947 for the Chicago Bears. He played college football at Stanford, where he was an All-American. College career Gallarneau at ...
for a 40-yard touchdown to tie the game at 13. Albert made the extra point kick to take the lead. In the third quarter, the Indians drove 76 yards to within inches of the opposing goal line, but the Cornhusker defense held and took over on downs. Nebraska punted the ball away and Kmetovic returned it 40 yards for a touchdown. Albert made the extra point and Stanford went on to win the game, 21–13.Stanford Trims Nebraska, 21-13
''
St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
'', January 1, 1941.
After the season, three NCAA-recognized selectors named Stanford the national championship team. At the time, the
Poling System The Poling System was a mathematical rating system used to select college football national championship teams on a current basis from 1935 to 1984. Its selections were published in the ''Football Review Supplement'' and several newspapers.
bestowed that title upon the Indians. In later years, the Billingsley Report and the
Helms Athletic Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...
retroactively declared Stanford the 1940 champions.
Frank Albert Frank Cullen Albert (January 27, 1920 – September 4, 2002) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He played as a quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). Albert attended Stanford Universit ...
was named a consensus All-American at quarterback and finished fourth in the
Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
voting. The
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named
Hugh Gallarneau Hugh Harold "Duke" Gallarneau (April 2, 1917 – July 14, 1999) was an NFL halfback from 1941 to 1942 and 1945 to 1947 for the Chicago Bears. He played college football at Stanford, where he was an All-American. College career Gallarneau at ...
an All-America back.''ESPN College Football Encyclopedia'', p. 1180, New York: ESPN Books, 2005, .


Legacy

An earlier doubter, Pop Warner acknowledged the unexpected success of the revived formation. During Stanford's meteoric 1940 season, Warner said, "Shaughnessy has taken that T formation we used when I played at
Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in and made it work as it has never worked before. This is because he has added his own ideas. There is no mystery about Shaughnessy's success at Stanford as I see it. The only mystery is where the ball is on some of those tricky plays of his." The 1940 Stanford Indians, who became known as the "Wow Boys", proved the value of the T formation, and in response, football coaches around the nation adopted it for their own teams. Notre Dame coach
Frank Leahy Francis William Leahy (August 27, 1908 – June 21, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He served as the head football coach at Boston College from 1939 to 1940 and at ...
caused a stir in 1942 when he scrapped the venerable box formation in favor of the T. A survey conducted by ''
Football Digest ''Football Digest'' was a sports magazine for fans interested in professional American football, with in-depth coverage of the National Football League (NFL). The magazine modeled the ''Reader's Digest'' idea, to bring the best in football journali ...
'' at the end of the decade revealed that 250 of the 350 best football teams were utilizing the formation. Shaughnessy's T gave rise to various incarnations, including the
pro set In American football, the pro set or split backs formation is a formation that has been commonly used as a "base" set by professional and amateur teams. The "pro set" formation features an offensive backfield that deploys two running backs ali ...
, power I,
veer The Veer is an option running play often associated with option offenses in American football, made famous at the collegiate level by Bill Yeoman's Houston Cougars. It is currently run primarily on the high school level, with some usage at t ...
, and the
wishbone formation The wishbone formation, also known simply as the bone, is an offensive formation in American football. The style of attack to which it gives rise is known as the wishbone offense. Like the spread offense in the 2000s to the present, the wishbone ...
. Clark Shaughnessy was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...
in 1968. Today, his variant of the T formation remains in use, with some modifications, and according to ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'', it "remains the longest-running formation in the history of the game".


Schedule


Players drafted by the NFL


Notes


References

{{Pac-12 Conference football champions
Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
Stanford Cardinal football seasons College football national champions Pac-12 Conference football champion seasons Rose Bowl champion seasons College football undefeated seasons
Stanford Indians football The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference's North Division. The team is known as the Cardinal, adopted prior to the 1982 seas ...