Del Shofner, One of the more brilliant Professional football move receivers of his time, who combined with Y.A. Tittle to aid propel the New York Giants to a few consecutive league championship games inside the early 1960s, died on Wednesday in La. He was 85.
His death was announced by his daughter Laurie Shofner Corwin, who didn't specify the induce. Shofner lived in Bradbury, Calif., but was for some of his existence a resident of San Marino, nearby.
A tall, slender Texas indigenous who could outrun and outmaneuver most any defensive back again, Shofner revived his profession in Big apple after The la Rams had specified up on him when he was only 26 yrs previous. He was a 5-time Pro Bowl participant and went on to get named by the Pro Football Corridor of Fame to the N.F.L’s all-ten years group to the 1960s.
“We known as him ‘Trim’ or ‘Blade,’ and when I consider him I visualize Clint Eastwood,” Sam Huff, the Giants’ Hall of Fame Center linebacker, recalled in his memoir “Rough Things” (1988). “Lean and suggest out on that field, excellent speed and much better moves, with legs solid enough to interrupt tackles and leap in the air.”
As Claude Crabb, a Washington Redskins defensive again, when put it: “If he includes a pattern of any variety, it’s his weaving motion. It drives you insane viewing him dip in and dip out as he moves downfield. He’s so quick that when you make the wrong go it is possible to’t Recuperate.”
The Giants obtained Shofner and Tittle, his fellow Texan, two months apart. They bought Tittle, the San Francisco 49ers’ star quarterback from the nineteen fifties, in mid-August 1961 when he was 34, sending the lineman Lou Cordileone to San Francisco in what grew to become one of professional soccer’s most just one-sided discounts. They acquired Shofner within the Rams for 2 superior draft picks after the recently arrived Tittle, whose 49ers had commonly confronted the Rams, raved about him towards the Giants’ operator, Wellington Mara.
The acquisition of Shofner and Tittle gave the Giants a long-assortment passing danger within an offense now that includes Kyle Rote, Alex Webster and the getting old quarterback Charlie Conerly from the backfield. (Frank Gifford was to return in 1962 from his devastating strike by the Philadelphia Eagles’ Chuck Bednarik inside of a 1960 sport.) Getting won a few conference titles and an N.F.L. championship in the next 50 percent on the nineteen fifties, the Giants also had a brand new coach in Allie Sherman and have been about to embark on Chapter two in their glory a long time.
The Tittle-to-Shofner extensive-distance passing performs thrilled Giants followers. Shofner, 6-foot-3 and 185 lbs or so and adept at likely up about the outstretched arms of defenders, caught sixty eight passes, an individual-time Giants history at the time, in 1961. When Tittle threw seven touchdown passes against the Redskins within an Oct 1962 activity, Shofner, who snared one of these, experienced eleven receptions, tying Gifford’s solitary-video game club mark, and he amassed 269 yards on pass receptions, however a Giants document.
He was the primary Big to realize at least 1,000 yards in receptions inside a period, exceeding that milestone in Just about every of his 1st three years with the staff.
The Giants went for the N.File.L. championship sport in 1961, ’sixty two and ’63, but missing two times to the Environmentally friendly Bay Packers and after that to your Chicago Bears. Shofner caught 32 touchdown passes when racking up in excess of 3,four hundred yards in that span.
“I was awfully unfortunate to go,” he said of his trade from the Rams on the Giants, as quoted by Jim Baker and Bernard M. Corbett in their oral heritage “Probably the most Memorable Video games in Giants History” (2010). “It took me in all probability several months just before I spotted how Blessed I used to be.”
Delbert Martin Shofner was born on Dec. eleven, 1934, in Center, Texas. He played halfback at Baylor, starred like a sprinter and was named most respected participant from the 1957 Sugar Bowl recreation for his 54-yard operate that setup a touchdown in a very 13-7 upset of unbeaten Tennessee.
The Rams selected Shofner in the 1st round of your 1957 draft. Just after participating in at defensive back again, he was switched to separate conclude in 1958 and acquired a cheap jersey China league-leading 1,097 yards in go receptions. He had A further high-quality period in 1959 but caught only 12 passes in 1960, when he battled ulcers and a leg injury, prompting the Rams to ship him to your Giants.
Brilliant as it was, the Tittle-to-Shofner mix thrived for only 3 seasons. Tittle, whose leveling by a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman in a very 1964 sport was captured inside of a memorable Image, retired after that season. Shofner’s ulcers and leg accidents constrained his Participate in in his past 4 years as a large. He retired following the 1967 year with 349 occupation receptions for fifty one touchdowns and almost 6,five hundred yards.
He later on owned a business offering components for animal feed.
Shofner lived in San Marino for more than fifty many years. His spouse, Carol Shofner, died in 2015.
As well as Ms. Corwin, He's survived by One more daughter, Stacey Shofner Gates; a son, David; and 5 grandchildren.
Tittle grew to become a celebrity in New York — the balding, generally-battered warrior who located a 2nd daily life in football and was later elected to the professional Football Corridor of Fame. Shofner couldn't match Tittle’s charisma.
However the Texan referred to as Slender, together with his teammate Conerly, graced billboards and magazines through the entire place. They ended up Among the many figures selected to model as that American promoting icon in their working day, the Marlboro Male.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.