By Howard Balzer
The Sporting News

August 13, 1990

The flex defense, shifting offensive schemes, the revival of the shotgun formation are just a few of the marks Tom Landry left on pro football.

CANTON, Ohio -- When you see offensive players jumping around like choreographed ballet dancers at the scrimmage line and defensive players responding with similar gyrations, you can blame it on Tom Landry. He invented it all.

The longtime Dallas Cowboys coach, one of football's most brilliant innovators, concluded that offenses were scoring almost at will and needed to be handcuffed. Thus, he perfected what he called the flex defense, a variation of the basic 4-3 alignment.

"When I developed the flex defense," Landry recalled, "it was Paul Brown's Cleveland Browns offense that I was trying to stop."

Landry's new defense was so successful that it was widely copied, with variations depending upon personnel and coaching whims. So Landry developed his multiple offensive schemes to attack the defenses he had created.

In the 1970s, Landry revived the shotgun offense. This was simply another version of the spread offense and was perfect for quarterback Roger Staubach, who was both a fine passer and runner. The shotgun bought Staubach extra time to get his passes away because it enabled him to keep his eyes fixed on the defense.

Landry, who was believed to be a unanimous choice of the Hall of Fame voters in secret balloting last January, coached the Cowboys for 29 years -- from 1960, the team's inaugural season, until February 25, 1989, when the team was sold to Arkansas oilman Jerry Jones, who brought in former University of Miami coach Jimmy Johnson as coach.

Landry's record, including playoff games, was 270-178-6. His 270 victories are topped only by the legendary George Halas of the Chicago Bears and Miami's Don Shula, who still is active.

A native of Mission, Texas, Landry was a fullback in high school who went on to the University of Texas, where, as a freshman, he joined the Army Air Corps. At 19, he earned his wings and became the co-pilot of a B-17 bomber. He was stationed in England and flew 30 missions for the Eighth Air Force, surviving a crash in Belgium after a bombing run over Czechoslovakia.

Landry played fullback and defensive back for Texas teams that won the 1948 Sugar Bowl and the 1949 Orange Bowl. After receiving a degree in business administration in 1949, he joined the New York Yankees of the All-America Football Conference.

When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, Landry wound up with the New York Giants of the NFL. From 1950 to '55, he was a defensive back, kick returner and punter, and even filled in once at quarterback.

Landry became a player-coach in 1954 and a fulltime assistant to Coach Jim Lee Howell as the Giants' defensive coordinator two years later.

When Tex Schramm, assistant director of sports at CBS, was hired as general manager of the new Cowboys franchise in 1959, he immediately picked Landry as coach. It turned out to be a wise choice. Under Landry, the Cowboys posted 20 consecutive winning seasons (1966-85), won 13 divisional titles, five conference championships and two Super Bowls.

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