University of Minnesota Athletics
Clark Shaughnessy - M Club Hall of Fame
Clark Shaughnessy
Class of 2010
Football: 1911-13
Clark Shaughnessy earned varsity letters in 1912 and 1913 for the University of Minnesota football team. He was a star running back in the early days of Gopher football, earning All-America and All-Big Ten honors during his senior season of 1913.
Shaughnessy shared the Gopher backfield with legendary Minnesota coach Bernie Bierman.
Following his playing career, Shaughnessy coached at Tulane and Loyola of the South from 1915-32. He was the head coach at the University of Chicago from 1933-39, where he coached Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger. Shaughnessy moved on to coach the Stanford Cardinal from 1940-41. He Stanford to victory in the 1941 Rose Bowl and earned Coach of the Year accolades following the 1940 season.
After coaching at Maryland and Pittsburgh, he joined the Los Angeles Rams as head coach. In his second season, the Rams went 8-2-2 and won their division. In 1951, Shaughnessy joined the Chicago Bears organization as a technical adviser and vice president and served for 11 years. He finished his career with a one-year stint as the head coach at the University of Hawaii in 1965.
Shaughnessy was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968.
Shaughnessy was known in football circles as an innovator. His revitalized T Formation revolutionized the game in the 1940s. Within 10 years of his installation of the new offense at Stanford, all but a handful of college football teams were using some variation.
He was equally adept at strategy on the defensive side of the ball. During his stint with the Bears, he was charged with devising a strategy to stop the T-Formation offense. He stressed man-to-man coverage, along with zone techniques, combination-style coverage and innovative blitzes to help the Bears create an attacking defense.
Shaughnessy was nominated for inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.