Saul S. Sherman (September 25, 1917 – October 10, 2010) was a professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

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 ...

in 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 ...

. Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, he played two seasons for the Chicago Bears.

Career

Sherman played collegiately for the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, initially as a halfback, before converting to

his senior year. It was during his time at UChicago that he had learned 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 ...

, at the time a novel offensive scheme, from Maroons head coach Clark Shaughnessy. Sherman only played two seasons in the pros before he retired to go fight in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but not before he helped teach the T-formation to his Bears teammate, future

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...

Sid Luckman Sidney Luckman (November 21, 1916 – July 5, 1998) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1939 through 1950. During his twelve seasons with the Bears, ...

, who would go on to use the T to revolutionize the NFL's passing game and quarterback the Bears to four

NFL championships Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

. This remains arguably Sherman's most lasting legacy in pro football.

References

Solly Sherman's obituary
1917 births 2010 deaths Players of American football from Chicago American football quarterbacks Chicago Maroons football players Chicago Bears players Jewish American sportspeople 21st-century American Jews {{quarterback-1910s-stub