Five game-changers football.

1 THE T FORMATION

Probably the greatest architectural venture in football since 1931 has to be the T formation. It came into the game in 1940 and remains the ne plus ultra of attack ever since.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The formation was the brainchild of three coaching buddies named Clark Shaughnessy, Ralph Jones, and George Halas. It took them parts of three summer vacations at Lakeland College (IL)--where Jones coached--to put it all together.

It wasn't exactly a "new" formation. It was the quarterback who made the difference--and what a difference! Instead of aligning somewhere in the backfield, as he did in the single wing, he got right over the center and cupped his hands beneath him to take the snap.

The debut of the T formation was one for the books: Shaughnessy at Stanford, Halas with the Chicago Bears, and Jones at Lakeland all won their league championships, and both Shaughnessy and Jones went undefeated.

Over the years the T has morphed into the Y, I, split, veer, and other forms of deceptive Ts. Yet, after 65 years, the T retains all its freshness.

2 THE EXTRA PLATOON

As World War II started drafting our young men into the armed forces, it created a problem for sport. Where were you going to find the personnel needed for sports such as football?

It took the brilliant coach at Michigan, Fritz Crisler, to come up with the answer: "Check the rule book under 'Free Substitution.' The coach can substitute a player any time he chooses."

Crisler had to figure out how he could use it against the great Army team that included Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, and five other All-Americans.

How could Crisler get the most out of his outmanned squad? He came up with an answer that put him in the football history books:

Whenever Michigan got the ball, he'd put in his best 11 offensive players. Whenever Army got the ball, he put in his best 11 defensive players.

The Wolverines gave the great Army team a terrific battle before losing. They also gave the sport a rule that was going to become a permanent part of every game.

3 THE GREATEST GAME

Ask any one of a thousand gurus to name the greatest football game he ever saw, and the chances are that he would get a thousand different answers. It's simply too hard to make a call from all of the sensational games that have been played.

So be our guest. We have an impeccable contender: Notre Dame vs Michigan State in 1966. Imagine a perfect matching of two undefeated, untied giants for the national championship. What also made the game a dream was that the teams could put nine All-American players on the field.

At the end of the first 59 minutes with the scored tied at 10-10, Notre Dame had the ball in the middle of the field, first down, probably with time for two plays. What do you call?

Coach Ara Parseghian's response has never been forgotten. He chose to settle for the tie. "A tie will give me 50% of the national championship," he said. "So what is the sense of taking a gamble that I can't really win? I think I can live with the boos."

He said this on the day he was elected to the Hall of Fame.

4 SOCCER-STYLE PLACEKICKING

It may sound weird, but the person who did the most to put the foot back into football was an immigrant from Hungary. Pete Gogolak of Cornell, a great soccer player, startled the Big Red football coach when he came out for football.

"I didn't know you played football, Pete," said the coach. "What position do you play?"

"None," was the answer. "I just want to be a place-kicker."

Until then, every American kicker kicked with his toes. Pete knew something that none of the coaches knew. The best way to kick is with the instep, soccer style.

Within a few years, the straight-on kicker was extinct, a complete victim of progress. Gogolak rewrote the record book, made All-American and All-Pro, and became rich and famous. He was also one of the catalysts to the merger of the National Football League and the American Football League. But Pete was just keeping "instep" with the times.

5 OPENING UP THE GAME

If it was rugby that set up the world for American football, it took a lot of friendly rules and sparkling players to open up the game and make it a national pastime.

It all started with the ball itself. It was, originally, on the chubby side, which made it hard to throw or kick. It took perhaps 40 or 50 years go give the ball a "nose job"--take the chubbiness out and give it the shape of a projectile. You could now rifle the ball with the speed and accuracy you needed to hit the receivers short or long.

Sammy Baugh started it all at TCU, where he learned his mechanics from Coach Dutch Meyer. After three All-American years, he turned over the job to a smaller, stubbier version of himself, Davey O'Brien. And it was four more years of great passing for TCU.

By this time, the game had opened up to take advantage of the streamlined ball, friendly rules, open formations, men in motion, and the appearance of one great passer after another (such as Starr, Unitas, Namath, Staubach, Montana, Marino, and Elway).

By Herman L. Masin, Editor-in-chief, Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director