Del Shofner, Probably the most good pro football move receivers of his time, who combined with Y.A. Tittle to help you propel the The big apple Giants to three consecutive league championship game titles from the early sixties, died on Wednesday in La. He was eighty five.
His Loss of life was declared by his daughter Laurie Shofner Corwin, who did not specify the bring about. Shofner lived in Bradbury, Calif., but was for some of his existence a resident of San Marino, nearby.
A tall, slim Texas indigenous who could outrun and outmaneuver most any defensive back again, Shofner revived his profession in Ny immediately after the Los Angeles Rams experienced provided up on him when he was only 26 years outdated. He was a five-time Professional Bowl player and went on to become named by the professional Soccer Corridor of Fame on the N.File.L’s all-10 years team for the 1960s.
“We named him ‘Slim’ or ‘Blade,’ and Once i visualize him I think of Clint Eastwood,” Sam Huff, the Giants’ Hall of Fame Center linebacker, recalled in his memoir “Tough Stuff” (1988). “Lean and indicate out on that industry, great velocity and better moves, with legs powerful adequate to break tackles and leap into your air.”
As Claude Crabb, a Washington Redskins defensive again, at the time put it: “If he incorporates a sample of any kind, it’s his weaving motion. It drives you crazy observing him dip in and dip out as he moves downfield. He’s so speedy that should you make the incorrect shift you can’t Get well.”
The Giants received Shofner and Tittle, his fellow Texan, two months apart. They received 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 became 1 of professional soccer’s most 1-sided bargains. They obtained Shofner with the Rams for 2 substantial draft picks after the newly arrived Tittle, whose 49ers experienced often faced the Rams, raved about him into the Giants’ operator, Wellington Mara.
The acquisition of Shofner and Tittle gave the Giants a protracted-assortment passing danger in an offense now showcasing Kyle Rote, Alex Webster along with the ageing quarterback Charlie Conerly while in the backfield. (Frank Gifford was to return in 1962 from his devastating strike with the Philadelphia Eagles’ Chuck Bednarik inside a 1960 recreation.) Getting won three conference titles and an N.File.L. championship in the next fifty percent on the nineteen fifties, the Giants also experienced a new coach in Allie Sherman and ended up about to embark on Chapter 2 in their glory many years.
The Tittle-to-Shofner extensive-distance passing performs thrilled Giants lovers. Shofner, 6-foot-three and 185 lbs or so and adept at heading up more than the outstretched arms of defenders, caught 68 passes, only one-year Giants report at enough time, in 1961. When Tittle threw 7 touchdown cheap replica jerseys passes from the Redskins in an October 1962 game, Shofner, who snared one of them, had eleven receptions, tying Gifford’s one-match club mark, and he amassed 269 yards on pass receptions, nonetheless a Giants report.
He was the 1st Big to gain at the least one,000 yards in receptions inside of a period, exceeding that milestone in Each individual of his initial 3 several years Along with the group.
The Giants went on the N.File.L. championship match in 1961, ’62 and ’63, but lost 2 times into the Eco-friendly Bay Packers and afterwards for the Chicago Bears. Shofner caught 32 touchdown passes when racking up more than 3,four hundred yards in that span.
“I was awfully unhappy to go,” he said of his trade from your Rams towards the Giants, as quoted by Jim Baker and Bernard M. Corbett in their oral heritage “By far the most Unforgettable Game titles in Giants Historical past” (2010). “It took me possibly a few months in advance of I realized how lucky I had been.”
Delbert Martin Shofner was born on Dec. eleven, 1934, in Centre, Texas. He performed halfback at Baylor, starred being a sprinter and was named most beneficial player in the 1957 Sugar Bowl sport for his 54-property run that set up a touchdown inside of a thirteen-seven upset of unbeaten Tennessee.
The Rams chosen Shofner in the initial spherical with the 1957 draft. Right after taking part in at defensive back again, he was switched to split close in 1958 and attained a league-foremost 1,097 yards in pass receptions. He experienced Yet another fine season in 1959 but caught only twelve passes in 1960, when he battled ulcers plus a leg injury, prompting the Rams to ship him to the Giants.
Wonderful as it had been, the Tittle-to-Shofner mixture thrived for only three seasons. Tittle, whose leveling by a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman inside a 1964 video game was captured inside a memorable Image, retired after that time. Shofner’s ulcers and leg accidents confined his Participate in in his last 4 several years as an enormous. He retired following the 1967 time with 349 job receptions for fifty one touchdowns and practically 6,five hundred yards.
He later on owned a company providing ingredients for animal feed.
Shofner lived in San Marino for over 50 several years. His wife, Carol Shofner, died in 2015.
In combination with Ms. Corwin, he is survived by An additional daughter, Stacey Shofner Gates; a son, David; and 5 grandchildren.
Tittle became a star in Big apple — the balding, normally-battered warrior who located a second existence in football and was later elected to the professional Soccer Hall of Fame. Shofner couldn't match Tittle’s charisma.
But the Texan known as Slim, in addition to his teammate Conerly, graced billboards and Journals all over the state. They were among the figures decided on to product as that American promoting icon of their day, the Marlboro Person.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.