Y.A. Tittle, a Throwback Thrower, Dies at 90

One of the greatest pre-Super Bowl era NFL quarterbacks passed away on Sunday night.

Y.A. Tittle died at 90. But the Bald Eagle looked old, and played in an old-school fashion, even when young. He blamed his iconic chrome-domed look on the football helmets he wore. At LSU, Tittle played tailback in the single wing before coach Bernie Moore switched to the more modern T formation with Tittle lining up at quarterback. He played in the famous 1947 Cotton Bowl “Ice Bowl” that ended in a 0-0 stalemate with Arkansas.

He competed for 17 seasons professionally. His accomplishments with the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants led to the former team placing Tittle in their Ring of Honor and the latter team retiring number 14. In 1954, he became the first NFL player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. He coined the familiar sports phrase “alley oop” to describe an up-for-grabs heave he often completed to receiver R.C. Owens. He twice set the NFL record for touchdown tosses in a season and once threw for seven scores in a game. Despite his accomplishments, he frequently battled for the top spot on the depth chart and played for three professional teams.

His career stats remind modern fans that the football he played differed greatly from the football we watch. Like his hero Sammy Baugh, he retired with more interceptions than touchdowns. In 17 professional seasons, he threw for fewer than 35,000 yards. But yellow laundry flew rarely in the postwar NFL, and Tittle’s accomplishments as a quarterback garnered him seven Pro Bowl nods. He won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1963 at 37 years old. The Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him into its ranks in 1971.

“I did everything the way I thought Baugh would do it,” the slow-footed Tittle once said, “even to the point of throwing footballs through the loops. I had seen Sammy do that in newsreels. I don’t think running ever crossed my mind.”

In his throw-first philosophy, the old-school quarterback helped usher in the modern passing age. He outlived his high school sweetheart and wife of 64 years, who passed away in 2012, and died surrounded by his family in Atherton, California.