Buck Shaw Lawrence T . " Buck " Shaw ( March 28 , 1899 – March 19 , 1977 ) was an American football player and coach . He served as 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 Rockne ' s 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 the University of Nevada . As a coach at Santa Clara , he compiled an impressive 47 – 10 – 4 record . In 1937 and 1938 , his teams posted back - to - back Sugar Bowl wins over Louisiana State . After war - time service , he served in 1945 as the head football coach at the University of California , where he compiled a 4 – 5 – 1 record . Shaw was the San Francisco 49ers ' first head coach in the old All - America Football Conference and continued in that position from 1950 through 1954 , when they entered the National Football League . After two seasons ( 1956 – 1957 ) as the first Air Force Academy Varsity head coach he returned to the NFL as the Philadelphia Eagles ' head coach between 1958 and 1960 . His record as a pro coach was 91 – 55 – 5 , with one league championship with the Eagles in 1960 . He was the only coach to beat the legendary Vince Lombardi in an NFL Championship game . Early life . Shaw was born 10 miles east of Des Moines , Iowa in Mitchellville on March 28 , 1899 to Tim and Margaret Shaw , who were cattle ranchers . He was one of five children along with brothers Bill , Jim , and John and a sister , Mary . When Shaw was 10 , the family moved to Stuart , Iowa , 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 playing career . Shaw enrolled at Creighton University in the fall of 1918 and went out for football and played one game before the rest of the schedule wiped out by a 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 the 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 point s 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 Shaw ' s senior year at Notre Dame , Rockne came to Shaw with a couple of letters from schools seeking coaches , one from Auburn University , and another from the University of Nevada . 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 . They ' d been playing rugby before . Shaw in a 1970 interview said , " It sounded like an interesting challenge , so I took the Nevada job as line coach . " In 1925 , Shaw moved to the state of Nevada , where he stayed for four years . He 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 Maurice J . " Clipper " Smith . He served as line coach under Smith from 1929 to 1935 . He was in his first year at Santa Clara when the stock market crashed in 1929 . " 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 " . Shaw ' s first two Bronco teams in 1936 and 1937 went a combined 18 – 1 including back - to - back wins over local favorite LSU in the 1937 and 1938 Sugar Bowl s . 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 Army ' s physical education program on campus . Shaw , while waiting for the professional All - America Football Conference to got off the ground , managed to mold California into a representative team and defeated a Frankie Albert - led St . Mary ' s 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 original 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 . He was the Falcons ' only winning coach until Fisher DeBerry became head coach in 1984 . 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 . Shaw took over a last - place 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 National Football League Championship in 1960 with a 17 – 13 victory over Vince Lombardi ' s Green Bay Packers , the only time the nearly invincible Vince was beaten in his six title appearances . The contest ended on a game - saving tackle of Green Bay ' s Jim Taylor made by Eagle ' s center / linebacker " sixty - minute - man " Chuck Bednarik who because of early season injuries at linebacker revived , at Shaw ' s 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 he ' s going to retire , that ' s a nice note for him to go out on . " Later life and legacy . After winning the 1960 NFL Championship , Coach Shaw went back 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 . On March 20 , 1977 , Shaw died at the age of 77 at Stanford University ' s Branch Convalescent Hospital .