Del Shofner, One of the more brilliant pro soccer move receivers of his time, who combined with Y.A. Tittle to assist propel the New York Giants to 3 consecutive league championship game titles within the early nineteen sixties, died on Wednesday in La. He was 85.
His Loss of life was introduced by his daughter Laurie Shofner Corwin, who didn't specify the result in. Shofner lived in Bradbury, Calif., but was for the majority of of his daily life a resident of San Marino, close by.
A tall, slim Texas indigenous who could outrun and outmaneuver most any defensive again, Shofner revived his job in New York following The l. a. Rams experienced offered up on him when he was only 26 a long time aged. He was a 5-time Professional Bowl player and went on to be named by the Pro Soccer Hall of Fame towards the N.File.L’s all-10 years crew for the nineteen sixties.
“We identified as him ‘Slim’ or ‘Blade,’ and After i consider him I visualize Clint Eastwood,” Sam Huff, the Giants’ Hall of Fame Center linebacker, recalled in his memoir “Challenging Stuff” (1988). “Lean and necessarily mean out on that industry, excellent pace and much better moves, with legs robust plenty of to break tackles and leap in to the air.”
As Claude Crabb, a Washington Redskins defensive again, when place it: “If he incorporates a sample of any type, it’s his weaving motion. It drives you crazy looking at him dip in and dip out as he moves downfield. He’s so fast that should you make the incorrect transfer it is possible to’t Get well.”
The Giants acquired Shofner and Tittle, his fellow Texan, two months apart. They acquired Tittle, the San Francisco 49ers’ star quarterback in the fifties, in mid-August 1961 when he was 34, sending the lineman Lou Cordileone to San Francisco in what turned just one of pro soccer’s most a person-sided offers. They received Shofner within the Rams for 2 high draft picks following the recently arrived Tittle, whose 49ers had usually confronted the Rams, raved about him to your Giants’ owner, Wellington Mara.
The acquisition of Shofner and Tittle gave the Giants a protracted-assortment passing threat within an offense presently that includes Kyle Rote, Alex Webster and also the growing older quarterback Charlie Conerly from the discountjerseys.co/tag/cheap-nfl-football-jerseys backfield. (Frank Gifford was to return in 1962 from his devastating hit via the Philadelphia Eagles’ Chuck Bednarik in a 1960 recreation.) Getting won a few convention titles and an N.File.L. championship in the next fifty percent of your nineteen fifties, the Giants also had a whole new coach in Allie Sherman and have been about to embark on Chapter two of their glory many years.
The Tittle-to-Shofner extensive-length passing performs thrilled Giants admirers. Shofner, 6-foot-3 and 185 lbs or so and adept at likely up above the outstretched arms of defenders, caught 68 passes, a single-season Giants document at some time, in 1961. When Tittle threw 7 touchdown passes versus the Redskins in an Oct 1962 game, Shofner, who snared one of these, experienced eleven receptions, tying Gifford’s single-match club mark, and he amassed 269 yards on pass receptions, continue to a Giants document.
He was the initial Huge to get at the least 1,000 yards in receptions in the year, exceeding that milestone in Each and every of his first 3 several years While using the team.
The Giants went on the N.File.L. championship match in 1961, ’62 and ’63, but shed two times towards the Environmentally friendly Bay Packers and after that towards the Chicago Bears. Shofner caught 32 touchdown passes although racking up in excess of 3,four hundred yards in that span.
“I was awfully unhappy to go,” he said of his trade with the Rams for the Giants, as quoted by Jim Baker and Bernard M. Corbett of their oral record “Probably the most Memorable Online games in Giants Record” (2010). “It took me almost certainly a handful of months just before I spotted how Fortunate I had been.”
Delbert Martin Shofner was born on Dec. eleven, 1934, in Centre, Texas. He played halfback at Baylor, starred as a sprinter and was named most valuable participant within the 1957 Sugar Bowl sport for his fifty four-yard operate that create a touchdown in a very 13-7 upset of unbeaten Tennessee.
The Rams selected Shofner in the main round in the 1957 draft. Following participating in at defensive back again, he was switched to split conclude in 1958 and acquired a league-leading one,097 yards in move receptions. He had A different high-quality period in 1959 but caught only twelve passes in 1960, when he battled ulcers plus a leg injuries, prompting the Rams to ship him into the Giants.
Amazing as it had been, the Tittle-to-Shofner combination thrived For under a few seasons. Tittle, whose leveling by a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman within a 1964 activity was captured in a very memorable Picture, retired following that period. Shofner’s ulcers and leg injuries restricted his Enjoy in his final four years as a large. He retired adhering to the 1967 year with 349 occupation receptions for fifty one touchdowns and nearly six,five hundred yards.
He afterwards owned a company promoting components for animal feed.
Shofner lived in San Marino for a lot more than 50 yrs. His spouse, Carol Shofner, died in 2015.
In combination with Ms. Corwin, he is survived by another daughter, Stacey Shofner Gates; a son, David; and 5 grandchildren.
Tittle grew to become a celeb in The big apple — the balding, generally-battered warrior who identified a 2nd lifestyle in soccer and was afterwards elected to the Pro Soccer Hall of Fame. Shofner could not match Tittle’s charisma.
Although the Texan often known as Slim, in addition to his teammate Conerly, graced billboards and Journals through the country. They had been among the figures preferred to product as that American promoting icon in their day, the Marlboro Male.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.