Which employer did Buck Shaw work for from 1922 to 1924?
Buck Shaw Lawrence Timothy Buck Shaw ( March 28 , 1899 – March 19 , 1977 ) was an American football player and coach . He was the head coach for Santa Clara University , the University of California , Berkeley , the San Francisco 49ers , the United States Air Force Academy and the Philadelphia Eagles . He attended the University of Notre Dame , where he became a star player on Knute Rocknes first unbeaten team . He started his coaching career with one year as head coach at North Carolina State and four years as a line coach at Nevada in Reno . At Santa Clara , he compiled an impressive record ; his first two teams posted consecutive Sugar Bowl wins over LSU . After war-time service , his only team at California went 4–5–1 in 1945 . In 1946 , Shaw became the San Francisco 49ers first head coach in the old All-America Football Conference and continued through 1954 ; they entered the National Football League in from 1950 . After two seasons as the first Air Force Academy varsity head coach ( 1956–1957 ) , he returned to the NFL in 1958 with Philadelphia . In 1960 , he led the team to an NFL Championship victory against Vince Lombardi , who said of Shaw , “That right there is a good man...an honest man.” He stepped down after three seasons , following their win in the championship game over Vince Lombardis Green Bay Packers . Early life . Shaw was born in Mitchellville , Iowa , east of Des Moines , to cattle ranchers Tim and Margaret Shaw . One of five children ( brothers Bill , Jim , and John , and sister Mary ) , the family moved to Stuart when Shaw was ten , where high school football had been abolished because of a fatality . He played only four games as a prep after the sport was brought back in 1917 , his senior year . College . Shaw enrolled at Creighton University in Omaha in the fall of 1918 and went out for football ; he played one game before the rest of the schedule wiped out by the flu epidemic . He transferred to the University of Notre Dame in 1919 . Shaw apparently loved track and field competition . In fact it was track , not football that attracted him to Notre Dame . He enrolled at South Bend and went out for the track team . However , Shaw fell into the hands of Knute Rockne and became one of the greatest tackles and placekickers in Notre Dame history . Shaw was a starter for Rockne from 1919 to 1921 , first at left tackle and then in 1920 and 1921 as right tackle opening holes for George Gipp . He finished his playing career being selected an All-American by Football World Magazine . Shaw also set a record by converting 38 of 39 extra points during his varsity career , a mark that stood until 1976 , more than 50 years after he graduated . Shaw is a member of the all-time Fighting Irish football team . Coaching career . College . In the spring of Shaws senior year at Notre Dame , Rockne came to Shaw with a couple of letters from schools seeking coaches , one from Auburn University in Alabama , and another from the University of Nevada in Reno . Although he started his coaching career at North Carolina State in 1924 , he apparently did not want to go further south to Auburn . He heard from a friend at Notre Dame who was from Nevada that American football was new out there ; theyd been playing rugby before . In a 1970 interview , Shaw said , It sounded like an interesting challenge , so I took the Nevada job as line coach . Shaw was at Nevada for four years , then took a job with an oil firm and wanted to stay out of the coaching field , but was talked into becoming an assistant coach at Santa Clara University by his old teammate , Clipper Smith . He was line coach under Smith from 1929 to 1935 ; during the first season , the stock market crashed . I had a heck of a time getting on my feet , explained Shaw , Santa Clara could only afford to hire us on a seasonal basis in those years , and I was working for Standard Oil when I became head coach in 1936 after Clipper resigned to go to Villanova . Shaws first two Bronco teams ( 1936 and 1937 ) went a combined 18–1 , including back-to-back wins in New Orleans over local favorite LSU in the Sugar Bowl in January 1937 and 1938 . Possibly the first major coach to phone-it-in when because of an illness , he did not travel with the team but coached them to victory over the telephone . Santa Clara dropped football after the 1942 war-time season , and Shaw stayed on campus for two years to assist the Armys physical education program on campus . Shaw , while waiting for the professional All-America Football Conference to get off the ground , managed to mold California into a representative team and defeated a Frankie Albert-led St . Marys Pre-Flight team , 6–0 . It was a losing season overall for the Bears , but they had a good bunch of players , Shaw and his staff remarked after the 1945 season . The second Air Force Academy varsity head football coach , Shaw guided the Falcons to a 6–2–1 mark in 1956 and a 3–6–1 record in 1957 . Professional . Shaw was the San Francisco 49ers’ first head coach , working with such pro luminaries as Frankie Albert , Y . A . Tittle and Hugh McElhenny . In 1944 and 1945 , before World War II ended , the Morabito brothers , Victor and Tony , began organizing the San Francisco 49ers for entry into a new professional league , the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ) . Shaw and his assistant , Al Ruffo , were hired by the 49ers , but then were permitted to accept a one-year contract at California when the AAFC league kickoff was delayed until 1946 . In 1946 , Shaw took over the 49ers , and with the left-handed Frankie Albert leading and directing the attack , the team placed second to the Cleveland Browns four times ( 1946–1949 ) in the Western Division of the AAFC . In 1950 , the 49ers along with the Browns and the Baltimore Colts merged with the rival NFL . In 1958 , Shaw took over a last-place Philadelphia Eagles team and started rebuilding . He immediately dealt Buck Lansford , Jimmy Harris , and a first-round draft choice to the Los Angeles Rams for 32-year-old , nine-year veteran quarterback Norm Van Brocklin . Shaw and Van Brocklin led the Eagles to the NFL championship in 1960 with a 17–13 victory at Franklin Field over Vince Lombardis Green Bay Packers , the only time the Lombardi-era Packers lost a postseason game . The contest ended on a game-saving tackle of Green Bays Jim Taylor inside then ten-yard line . It was made by center/linebacker sixty-minute-man Chuck Bednarik , who because of early season injuries at linebacker revived , at Shaws request , the long-discarded concept of two-way football . After winning the 1960 championship , the 61-year-old Coach Shaw retired , saying I wanted to get out while I was ahead . In the quiet Green Bay dressing room , Lombardi said he was happy for Buck . Seeing hes going to retire , thats a nice note for him to go out on . Shaw was the oldest head coach to win an NFL championship for over 39 years , until Dick Vermeils victory with the St . Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV in early 2000 . Later life and legacy . After retiring from coaching , Shaw returned to California to work for a paper products company , and spent the later years of his life in Menlo Park . He and his wife had two married daughters who also lived in California . In 1962 , led by Sal Sanfilippo ( SCU 30 , J.D . SCU 32 ) , former players , friends , and fans of Shaw banded together to form the Bronco Bench Foundation to raise money for and build a football stadium on the Santa Clara University campus in his honor . On September 22 , 1962 , the first football game , a contest between Santa Clara and UC Davis , was played in Buck Shaw Stadium . Shaw died of cancer on March 19 , 1977 , nine days shy of his 78th birthday , at Stanford Universitys Branch Convalescent Hospital . References . - Much of the information in this article comes from John C . Hibners biography of Coach Shaw in The College Football Historical Societys Newsletter Vol . II , No . I , Nov . 1988 and the Des Moines ( Ia. ) Register 1970 article