Background
He was born on March 6, 1892 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States, the son of Edward Shaughnessy and Lucy Ann Foster.
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He was born on March 6, 1892 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States, the son of Edward Shaughnessy and Lucy Ann Foster.
In 1908 he entered the University of Minnesota, where he watched the Minnesota football team host the Carlisle Indians, coached by the legendary "Pop" Warner. In 1909 he tried out for the team, but he received little attention from the coaches that year and in 1910. For a time he dropped out of school, apparently for financial reasons, but his devotion to football never flagged. He received his B. A. in 1914.
An injury prevented him from playing in 1911, but in 1912, Shaughnessy came into his own as an athlete. In that year he was named an alternate on Walter Camp's all-American team, and in 1913, he received accolades as both an offensive fullback and a defensive end.
In 1914 Clark worked as a high school coach. Within a year he was head coach at Tulane University. This was the first of a number of faltering programs he would build to the point of national recognition. During his years at Tulane he compiled a record of 58-27-6. In 1928, Shaughnessy moved to Loyola of the South in New Orleans, where he coached until 1932 with a record of 38-16-2.
In 1933 he succeeded Amos Alonzo Stagg, one of the most famous names in the annals of football, at the University of Chicago. His tenure there was not a happy one. The school's president had decided to deemphasize football, and working with few talented players, Shaughnessy's record was an inferior 17-34-4. After the 1939 season the school abandoned its program and he found himself without a coaching job, although he had ample job security as a tenured full professor of physical education.
Within months Shaughnessy accepted a coaching position at Stanford, where he accomplished what many consider his greatest achievement. The Stanford Indians, which had been winless the previous season, went 10-0 and defeated Nebraska in the 1941 Rose Bowl. Shaughnessy remained in California one more year before moving east, where he coached at the University of Pittsburgh until 1946 and then the University of Maryland for one year. His overall record as a college coach was an impressive 149-106-14.
In 1946, Shaughnessy took a coaching position with the Washington Redskins. The following year he went to the Los Angeles Rams and guided that team to a divisional championship in 1949. He left the Rams in 1951, when he joined the Chicago Bears as a technical adviser and vice-president.
After retiring from football, he had an active interest in his son's publishing business. He died in Santa Monica, California.
Clark Daniel Shaughnessy was "father of the modern T", that revolutionized football. He also was the original founder of the forward pass, employed his innovations most famously on offense, but on the defensive side of the ball as well, and he earned a reputation as a ceaseless experimenter. This innovation resulted in the height of his success, when he led his team the Indians to an undefeated season that culminated with a Rose Bowl victory. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. He was inducted into the University of Minnesota "M" Club Hall of Fame in 2010, the Tulane University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1977, and the Stanford University Athletic Hall of Fame.
The T formation, as he coached, had three key elements: psychology, deception, and personnel.
Quotations: "The object in football, " he often said, "is not to annihilate the other team, but to advance the ball. "
At six feet and almost 200 pounds, he was big for a player of his time. Shaughnessy did not take criticism well.
Shaughnessy was noted as a hardworking man totally devoted to football. His day regularly began at 3:30 A. M. , and he was known to have as many as 20, 000 play diagrams. He worked his players hard, but they respected him and liked his emphasis on offense. He had a rigid policy that a team member with even a minor injury could not play.
Quotes from others about the person
In The Big Ten: A Century of Excellence, Shaughnessy was called "one of the most versatile athletes in Minnesota's history. "
On December 5, 1917, he married Louvania Mae Hamilton; they had three children: one son and two daughters: Clark Shaughnessy, Jr. ; Janice Shaughnessy (mother of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann); and Marcia Wilson.
