Inventor of shotgun offensive formation dies at 89

[MrMustang1965]

Howard "Red" Hickey, the inventor who invented the shotgun offensive formation in the NFL, has passed away at the age of 89.

Hickey was part of the 1945 Cleveland Rams championship team as a player and the 1951 Los Angeles Rams as an assistant coach. It was with the San Francisco 49ers as head coach, though, that he developed the shotgun.

“He made history in 1960 when he combined elements of a punt formation, a spread passing attack and a double-wing formation invented by Stanford's Pop Warner into the shotgun - so named by Hickey because it sprayed receivers around the field,” the Associated Press reported yesterday. “Before a game against Baltimore in November 1960, Hickey instructed quarterbacks John Brodie and Bob Waters to stand several yards behind the center to receive snaps, giving them more time to survive the Colts' formidable pass rush.”

The formation worked, injecting a run of late-season wins into the team's schedule. While the 49ers abandoned the formation the following year, his next employer did not.

Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys, with whom Hickey spent two decades as an assistant and as a scout, incorporated the shotgun and popularized its use.

Hickey is survived by his sons Michael, Patrick and Jeffrey, his brother, Bailey, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He wife Cecelia passed way in 1995 after they had been married 50 years.