2025 HOFame Coach list cut to Nine

We stick with Shaughnessy despite a bad childhood memory

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s quest to select the Class of 2025 with a new process and personnel. Written by Frank Cooney, a Seniors Blue Ribbon Selection Committee member in his 32nd year as a selector.)

Nine coaches including five who distinguished themselves in a combined total of nine Super Bowls, were announced Tuesday (Oct. 31) as Semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

The Coaches Blue-Ribbon Selection Committee picked the nine from a list of 14. The committee will next meet virtually on Nov. 19 to name one Finalist for the full 50-person Committee to consider for possible induction the HOF Class of 2025.

The nine Semifinalists in the Coach category this year are (alphabetically):

Bill Arnsparger: Longtime defensive coordinator. Won two Super Bowl titles with Miami Dolphins and appeared in two other Super Bowls (Miami and San Diego). Also head coach of New York Giants.

Tom Coughlin: Two-time Super Bowl-winning coach (XLII, XLVI) with the New York Giants. Also first head coach of the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, taking team to two AFC Championship Games. Overall NFL record of 182-157 in 20 seasons.

Mike Holmgren: Head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1992-98 and the Seattle Seahawks from 1999-2008. Overall record of 174-122 includes victory in Super Bowl XXXI with the Packers and an NFC crown in Seattle.

Dan Reeves: Head coach of the Denver Broncos (1981-1992), New York Giants (1993-96) and the Atlanta Falcons (1997-2003). Overall coaching record of 201-174-2 and four conference championships in 23 seasons; two-time AP Coach of the Year.

Chuck Knox: NFL Coach of the Year in 1973, 1980 and 1984. Posted 186-147-1 record during 22 NFL regular seasons as head coach of the Rams, Bills and Seahawks.

Marty Schottenheimer: Head coach of the Cleveland Browns (1984-88), Kansas City Chiefs (1989-1998), Washington Redskins (2001) and the San Diego Chargers (2002-06). Overall NFL coaching record of 205-139-1 in 21 seasons.

George Seifert: Two-time Super Bowl champion head coach with the San Francisco 49ers. Coached 11 years with 49ers and Carolina Panthers. Career regular-season record of 114-62.

Mike Shanahan: Head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders (1988-89), Denver Broncos (1995- 2008) and the Washington Redskins (2010-13). Two Super Bowl titles in his 20 seasons with an overall record of 178-144.

Clark Shaughnessy: Head coach of the Los Angeles Rams from 1948-49 and longtime assistant coach for the Washington Redskins from 1944-47 and Chicago Bears from 1951-1962.

Coughlin, Holmgren, Reeves, Schottenheimer, Shanahan and Shaughnessy reached this point in the selection process last year, when coaches and contributors competed in the same category.

Which coach would pick? If you have a strong commitment let us know in comments.

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My preference on this list, in the interest of historical impact, is a relatively little-known and lightly regarded mystery man whose influence lingers in games we see every week.

He is Clark Shaughnessy.

Thanks to the urging of selectors and campaigns, Shaughnessy is at least on this list, despite an NFL resume that shows him as a head coach only two years with the Los Angeles Rams (1948–49) with stints as an assistant with the Washington team now known as the Commanders (1944-47) and the Chicago Bears (1951–62)

Historian John Turney, now a selector on the Senior Blue-Ribbon Player’s Committee and long-time selector Clark Judge, a long-time member of the Contributors committee, led a movement to find Shaughnessy a place in the Hall of Fame.

Why Shaughnessy? We’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating as the committee will next cut to the Finalist nominee.

In a previous part of this series, I admitted it was difficult to discern a definition for a Hall of Fame Contributor. I then proved it by mistakenly mentioning Shaughnessy as a Contributor, which he certainly is in some definition of the word. However, he belongs with the Coaches because he made his significant contributions as a coach.

Shaughnessy was known as “the father of the T-formation,” although he didn’t invent it. He modernized and popularized it and then invented ways to defend it. He took the formation Chicago’s George Halas used and adapted it at the University of Chicago in the 1930s.

Then, after coaching at Stanford, the University of Maryland and Pitt, Shaughnessy took his version back to the NFL.

When he replaced coach Bob Snyder with the Rams in 1948, Shaughnessy introduced the quarterback-friendly pro set — with three wide receivers. He wanted to maximize the talent of Hall-of-Famer Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch as a flanker.

In two seasons, the Rams went 14-7-3 and won the Western Division.

But Shaughnessy was an insular academic, a polite way of saying he was not exactly gregarious and outgoing. He was a teetotaller — a rare breed in football back then —who did not handle criticism well. Owner Dan Reeves never warmed up to him, and Shaughnessy was often at odds with the media and not bashful about saying so.

Shaughnessy left the Rams and signed with the Bears, where he was a technical advisor, vice president, and defensive assistant. Over time, Shaughnessy acquired a cult following among the coaching fraternity.

And with good reason.

Shaughnessy created multiple schemes on offense and defense, adapting the T-formation to feature the quarterback rather than the running game as the NFL moved more towards passing the ball.

Do we see the result of that change of direction now? You bet. Just turn on any NFL game, and there will be remnants of Shaughnessy’s creations on both offense and defense.

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Let’s take a time out to share how Shaughnessy impacted my own appreciation of football.

Damn him.

San Francisco 49ers fans might remember that Schaugnessy, as a defensive coach with the Chicago Bears, disarmed Coach Red Hickey’s red-hot shotgun offense with brilliant defensive tactics in 1961.

I remember it all too well. I was a sophomore playing football for Balboa High in San Francisco when the 49ers drafted UCLA’s Billy Kilmer in 1961. Often listed as a quarterback, many correctly recall Kilmer as the last big school tailback who ran a single-wing formation.

Regardless of the semantics of his position name, I admired Kilmer’s ability as a triple-threat player who could run, pass, and kick. Today, most fans probably remember Kilmer as a paunchy team leader for the Washington team in the 1970s. That was after he crushed his legs in a car accident, which I remember well as a car collector because it totaled his beautiful 1957 Chevrolet convertible. Kilmer missed a year of football and adapted his playing style to continue with the New Orleans Saints and Washington.

However, when Kilmer was drafted, I knew about his outstanding senior season at UCLA. He threw for over 1,000 yards, ran for over 800, scored eight touchdowns, and was the punter. Kilmer won the 1960 W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast, and finished fifth in voting for the Heisman Trophy.

As an aspiring 14-year-old runningback/quarterback/punter/kicker, I wore his jersey No. 17. Although I was never a Billy Kilmer, his number stayed with me all the way into semi-pro football in the 1970s. That No. 17 is on the AFA, Semi-Pro Hall of Fame ring from my induction in 2007.

Getting back on topic, the 49ers jumped out to a 4-1 record in 1961 using coach Red Hickey’s shotgun offense. They were leading the league in points scored, rushing, and passing yardage when they faced the Bears at Wrigley Field on October 22. The shotgun featured Kilmer’ multiple talents and seemed unstoppable. 

Shaughnessy noticed that in the shotgun, 49ers' center Frank Morze was slow to look up before the snap. Shaughnessy's plan was to put two players over the center and two players over the guard. Shaughnessy shifted middle linebacker Bill George and the pass rushers . The Bears beat the 49ers, 31-0, and that was essentially the end of the shotgun.

It was fun while it lasted.

In a recent story on Shaughnessy, Turney points out “He had such a profound impact on pass defenses — devising man-to-man coverages, dropping linebackers into pass coverages and utilizing blitzes from multiple directions — that a collection of his play sheets are housed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So why not the man himself?

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When the Hall changed the selection process in August with new selection personnel, it separated the Coaches and Contributors. As the Coach selectors are now reducing thier list so are selectors for Seniors, Contributors and the whole 50-person committee is trimming the Modern-Era list.

Eventually, 20 Finalists will be presented at the Selection Committee’s annual meeting next year in advance of Super Bowl LIX: 15 Modern-Era Players, three Seniors, one Coach, and one Contributor.

The list of five that includes three Senior players, one Coach and one Contributor will be reduced to a total of three, meaning the process again puts players in direct competition with Coaches.

In 2022 the Hall increased potential Senior Player inductees to three with their consideration separate from Coaches and Contributors. Now all three categories go head-to-head (to-head?). This means the final three nominees could include only one senior player, or any combination of the three.

While there is no set number for any class of Enshrinees, the Hall of Fame’s selection process bylaws stipulate that between four and eight new members will be selected.

Among the Hall's changes was a reorganizaton with some new personnel in the Blue-Ribbon Selection Committees for the Senior players, Coaches and Contributors. 
Here are the subcommittee members

Seniors BRC                         Coach BRC                        Contributor BRC
1.	D. Orlando Ledbetter  Jarrett Bell                         Dan Fouts
2.	Frank Cooney               Vic Carucci                        Clark Judge
3.	Gary Myers                   Mike Sando                        Sal Paolantonio
4.	Jeff Legwold                  Charean Williams             Jim Trotter
5.	Rick Gosselin                Barry Wilner                      John McClain
6.	Ron Borges                    Bill Polian                          Bob Glauber
7.	Howard Balzer              Dan Pompei                       Sam Kouvaris
8.	Ron Wolf                        Peter King                          John Czarnecki
9.	John Turney                   Pat Kirwan                         Ken Crippen
Alternates:
          Paul Kuharsky                     Lindsay Jones                    Joel Bussert