From: timr@sco.COM (Tim Ruckle)
Subject: Wing formations (was Re: Terminology question)
Organization: The Gifted and the Damned
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 21:09:02 GMT
Summary: QB used to be blocking or wing back
Keywords: quarterback, halfback, fullback, tailback


Va negvpyr <1992Aug19.160918.12741@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
ded@aplcen (nod sivad) jevgrf:
} >
} >What I mean is that the name seems confusing. It would make more sense
} >to have the quarterback, then the halfback and then the fullback, right?
} 
} In the original "T" formation, and I presume the single wing and other
} precursors, it was logically done as you descibe above: quarter, half,
} full.  Of course, no one (PRO) uses 3 running backs anymore.  One half
} back is usually a flanker and the other is often an H-back, leaving only
} one pure running back.

Yup, a lot has changed since the early days of football.  Try going all
the way back to era where professional football was just beginning...

The devastating "flying wedge" formation was introduced in the second
half of a Yale-Harvard game.  Already criticized for being too rough,
this and other mass formations and plays led to football becoming ever
more violent, and in 1905 18 deaths and 159 serious injuries were reported.
There was a public outcry calling for an end to the game, and finally
President Theodore Roosevelt summoned college athletic leaders to the
White House and threatened to ban football by executive order if the
violence wasn't curbed.  So sweeping rules changes occured in 1906, and
almost all mass formations and plays were outlawed.

Now, we still see serious injury from time to time, but I think the
last game-related death in pro football was some fellow who had a
heart attack thirty years ago or so.  (Though there was a California
kid who died of hyperthermia this last week, not to mention Ex-Raider
and former Davis Aggie--from the town I grew up in BTW--Mike Wise who
blew his head off Friday after being released by the Cleveland Browns)

Sorry, didn't mean to get so morbid...it's been one of those weeks.
Anyways:

The single wing formation employed an unbalanced line in which the ball
was snapped directly to the tailback (positioned about 5 yards behind
the center) or to the fullback (about a yard in front and to the side of
the tailback on the strong side).  The remaining two backs lined up on
the strong side, the quarterback being used as a blocking back behind
the guard or tackle and the other as a wingback behind and just outside
the end.  Something like this:

                     O  O  0  0  0  O  O
                                 O       O
                              O
                           O

In the double wing the quarterback and halfback are both positioned
as wingbacks just behind and outside either end (the quarterback on
the weakside).

                     O  O  0  0  0  O  O
                   O                     O
                              O
                           O

The triple wing was similar to the double wing, but with the fullback
playing close behind and just outside the tight end, and the halfback
lining up on the weak side in the slot several yards back.

(Note: I'm not totally sure about this one, since there are contemporary
formations with these same names, but with the QB in his "modern" role)

So yes, at one time the naming conventions made more sense.  It'd be
interesting to find out when exactly the quarterback was switched from
a blocking or wing back to the primary snap receiver.  Probably some
inovative coach who managed to confuse the hell out of the opposing
defense with a shifting formation.

-timr

--
An *individual* playing quarterback may not be the most important person
on *his* team, but the position itself *is*, and, in professional football,
if an individual quarterback is not the most important person on his team,
then that team has an inadequate quarterback.                 --Sam DeLuca
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro