Background
He was born on March 28, 1899 on a farm near Mitchelville, Iowa, United States, the son of Timothy Shaw and Margaret Kelly.
He was born on March 28, 1899 on a farm near Mitchelville, Iowa, United States, the son of Timothy Shaw and Margaret Kelly.
After playing football at Stuart High School and for a year at Creighton University, in Omaha, Shaw transferred to Notre Dame University, where he became one of Knute Rockne's greatest linemen (1919 - 1921).
A six-foot, 175-pound tackle, he played on Notre Dame football teams that lost one game in three seasons. During the 1920 season, Shaw blocked five punts and helped lead Notre Dame to its first national championship, and as a senior in 1921, he was also the team's kicker and converted thirty-eight points after touchdown.
Influenced by Rockne, Shaw passed up a professional football career to become a coach. On Rockne's recommendation, he was hired by the University of Nevada in 1922 as an assistant coach. Shaw moved to North Carolina State in 1924 as head football coach, then returned to Nevada in 1925 in a similar capacity.
It was at the University of Santa Clara that Shaw stepped out of Rockne's shadow. Working as a line coach from 1929 to 1935, and after 1936 as Santa Clara's head coach, he turned a losing football team into a national power. At the end of his first Santa Clara season, the Broncos played in the 1937 Sugar Bowl.
"At a time when multiple defenses were unheard of, Buck designed and used six different defenses against LSU, " recalled Casanova, his assistant. By shifting his defense throughout the game, the Santa Clara team kept LSU off balance and won a 21-14 victory. It was the critical game of Shaw's career. In Shaw's tenure at Santa Clara, he compiled a 47-10-2 record and national ranking in five of his seven years. He took on formidable teams from large universities and defeated Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford, California State, and UCLA.
His unbeaten, untied 1937 team returned to the Sugar Bowl in 1938 and held LSU scoreless for the first time in fifty games.
In 1941, Shaw was offered the head coaching job at Notre Dame, but Shaw, declined the position, which went to Frank Leahy of Boston College. Shaw never regretted his decision. "You're a teacher without tenure, " he said of the pressures of college coaching. "The history teacher doesn't have to send his class out before 64, 000 people on Saturday to compete against classes from other schools, classes which may have much better material than he has. But you send your class out and your status keeps changing, according to what happens to it out there. "
Shaw resigned as the Bronco coach in 1943, when Santa Clara suspended football for the duration of World War II, and served in a United States Army ROTC athletic program. After the war San Francisco businessman Tony Morabito, a Santa Clara graduate, signed Shaw to coach a new professional football team, the San Francisco 49ers, in a new league, the All-American Football Conference (AAFC). Because the AAFC would not begin play until the 1946 season, Morabito allowed Shaw to coach at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1945 season.
From 1946 through 1949, his team, the 49ers, played in the All-American Football Conference and were runners-up for four seasons in the Western Conference to the Cleveland Browns. Shaw's 49ers defeated the Browns in their first meeting in 1946 and broke Cleveland's twenty-nine-game undefeated streak in 1949. The Browns, however, defeated the 49ers in the 1949 AAFC championship game by 21-7. Shaw's 1948 team won twelve of fourteen games, finishing second to the Browns. With speed, power, and durability, the 49ers of 1948 ran for more yardage than any team in professional football history.
Shaw had his only losing season with the 49ers in his first year in the NFL. He responded to the challenge by rebuilding with new talent. Within four years, Shaw had signed five future members of the Professional Football Hall of Fame: quarterback Y. A. Tittle, running backs Hugh McElhenny and John Henry Johnson, and tackles Leo Nomellini and Bob St. Clair. Under Shaw the 49ers were at their best against top teams, winning five consecutive games against the Detroit Lions, a team that won the NFL championship in 1952 and 1953.
Frustrated that Shaw couldn't deliver a title, Morabito fired him after the 1954 season despite Shaw's winning teams in eight of his nine 49er seasons. When he left, the team faltered.
Shaw had planned to retire but was lured back into the NFL by the Philadelphia Eagles. He took the job on the condition that the Eagles sign a veteran quarterback. Norm Van Brocklin of the Los Angeles Rams was acquired in a trade. The Eagles, who won two of twelve games in 1958, finished tied for last in the Eastern Conference. In 1960, Shaw was voted NFL Coach of the Year after the Eagles won the league championship. "I can't think of a better time to bow out, " Shaw said in announcing his retirement after the game. "I can't soar any higher than being the head coach of a world championship professional football team. "
Shaw became vice-president of the Royal Container Corporation of San Francisco. In retirement, Shaw served as a university regent for Santa Clara. He died of cancer in Menlo Park, California.
Lawrence Timothy Shaw developed a reputation as one of football's innovators, he became the first coach to win back-to-back Sugar Bowl championships. While he had been renowned for his defensive genius at Santa Clara, as a professional coach, he developed a razzle-dazzle offensive attack that made professional football more exciting. Shaw was among the first professional football coaches to sign and play African Americans, including Joe ("The Jet") Perry in 1948. The football stadium at Santa Clara was later named Buck Shaw Stadium. He was inducted into the Helms Foundation Football Hall of Fame in 1960 and the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1972.
He was soft-spoken, calm, and thoughtful, avoided personal involvement in recruiting and disliked public speaking.
Quotes from others about the person
Shaw's assistant and successor at Santa Clara, said that " what set Shaw apart from other coaches of his era was an ability to change" .
He married Majorie Bowerman; they had two children.
