Del Shofner, Among the most good pro soccer go receivers of his time, who combined with Y.A. Tittle to help propel the The big apple Giants to three consecutive league championship games while in the early sixties, died on Wednesday in L. a.. He was 85.
His death was declared by his daughter Laurie Shofner Corwin, who didn't specify the result in. Shofner lived in Bradbury, Calif., but was for most of his daily life a resident of San Marino, nearby.
A tall, trim Texas native who could outrun and outmaneuver most any defensive back again, Shofner revived his career in The big apple right after The l. a. Rams experienced specified up on him when he was only 26 a long time previous. He was a five-time Professional Bowl participant and went on to be named by the Pro Football Corridor of Fame on the N.File.L’s all-10 years crew for the sixties.
“We known as him ‘Slim’ or ‘Blade,’ and After i imagine him I consider Clint Eastwood,” Sam Huff, the Giants’ Hall of Fame middle linebacker, recalled in his memoir “Difficult Stuff” (1988). “Lean and imply out on that area, good velocity and superior moves, with legs robust ample to break tackles and leap into the air.”
As Claude Crabb, a Washington Redskins defensive back, after put it: “If he includes a pattern of any variety, it’s his weaving movement. It drives you mad watching him dip in and dip out as he moves downfield. He’s so rapid that in case you make the incorrect shift you could’t recover.”
The Giants acquired Shofner and Tittle, his fellow Texan, two months aside. They obtained Tittle, the San Francisco 49ers’ star quarterback in the 1950s, in mid-August 1961 when he was 34, sending the lineman Lou Cordileone to San Francisco in what turned a single of pro soccer’s most 1-sided bargains. They acquired Shofner from your Rams for 2 higher draft picks once the freshly arrived Tittle, whose 49ers had often confronted the Rams, raved about him to your Giants’ operator, Wellington Mara.
The acquisition of Shofner and Tittle gave the Giants a protracted-range passing menace within an offense already featuring Kyle Rote, Alex Webster along with the getting old quarterback Charlie Conerly inside the backfield. (Frank Gifford was to return in 1962 from his devastating strike with the Philadelphia Eagles’ Chuck Bednarik within a 1960 activity.) Acquiring won a few meeting titles and an N.F.L. championship in the second 50 % on the 1950s, the Giants also had a whole new coach in Allie Sherman and had been going to embark on Chapter two in their glory a long time.
The Tittle-to-Shofner prolonged-length passing performs thrilled Giants fans. Shofner, six-foot-3 and 185 kilos or so and adept at heading up about the outstretched arms of defenders, caught 68 passes, one-time Giants report at some time, in 1961. When Tittle threw 7 touchdown passes versus the Redskins within an October 1962 activity, Shofner, who snared one of these, experienced eleven receptions, tying Gifford’s solitary-video game club mark, and he amassed 269 yards on pass receptions, even now a Giants history.
He was the first Large to get at the least one,000 yards in receptions in a time, exceeding that milestone in Each individual of his first a few decades While using the crew.
The Giants went to the N.F.L. championship video game in 1961, ’sixty two and ’63, but dropped twice towards the Environmentally friendly Bay Packers after which on the Chicago Bears. Shofner caught 32 touchdown passes while racking up in excess of three,four hundred yards in that span.
“I used to be awfully sad to cheap cycling jersey go,” he claimed of his trade with the Rams towards the Giants, as quoted by Jim Baker and Bernard M. Corbett inside their oral heritage “Probably the most Unforgettable Online games in Giants Heritage” (2010). “It took me likely a handful of months right before I spotted how Blessed I had been.”
Delbert Martin Shofner was born on Dec. 11, 1934, in Middle, Texas. He performed halfback at Baylor, starred being a sprinter and was named most respected participant inside the 1957 Sugar Bowl video game for his 54-lawn run that set up a touchdown inside a thirteen-7 upset of unbeaten Tennessee.
The Rams chosen Shofner in the very first round of the 1957 draft. Following playing at defensive again, he was switched to separate stop in 1958 and attained a league-primary 1,097 yards in go receptions. He experienced One more good season in 1959 but caught only 12 passes in 1960, when he battled ulcers plus a leg harm, prompting the Rams to ship him for the Giants.
Magnificent as it was, the Tittle-to-Shofner mixture thrived For less than three seasons. Tittle, whose leveling by a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman inside of a 1964 activity was captured in a unforgettable photo, retired following that season. Shofner’s ulcers and leg accidents constrained his Enjoy in his previous 4 yrs as a large. He retired pursuing the 1967 period with 349 occupation receptions for fifty one touchdowns and practically 6,five hundred yards.
He later owned a company promoting substances for animal feed.
Shofner lived in Click for more info San Marino for a lot more than fifty decades. His spouse, Carol Shofner, died in 2015.
As well as Ms. Corwin, he is survived by another daughter, Stacey Shofner Gates; a son, David; and five grandchildren.
Tittle turned a celebrity in The big apple — the balding, normally-battered warrior who observed a 2nd life in football and was later elected to the Pro Soccer Corridor of Fame. Shofner couldn't match Tittle’s charisma.
Although the Texan often called Slender, along with his teammate Conerly, graced billboards and Publications through the entire state. They had been Among the many figures picked out to model as that American advertising and marketing icon in their working day, the Marlboro Person.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.