On the birth of the wishbone

[WoadBlue]

Royal and Bellard

 

[1156jack]

The Wishbone was a wonder to behold.

 

[oldpanther]

Royal and Bellard

I believe that the introduction of the Wishbone was first used by Coach Jim Owens of the University of Washington but with little or no success. Years later the Southwest Conference adopted the Wishbone and Texas, Oklahoma and a few others had great success for a decade or so. Once again I believe Owens was the father of the Wishbone but don’t bet the mortgage.

 

[WoadBlue]

I believe that the introduction of the Wishbone was first used by Coach Jim Owens of the University of Washington but with little or no success. Years later the Southwest Conference adopted the Wishbone and Texas, Oklahoma and a few others had great success for a decade or so. Once again I believe Owens was the father of the Wishbone but don’t bet the mortgage.

The key to the wishbone, which gave it the name, was the FB lined up closer to the OL than were the 2 RBs/HBs. Did Owens have that feature? if so, and he did it before 1968, he developed it.

Owens played at OU with Darryl Royal. If he was tinkering with a wishbone type offense, then he may well have told Royal about it.

I think Jim Tatum recruited Owens to OU and may have been his HC for his freshman year.