Sidney Luckman (November 21, 1916 – July 5, 1998) was an American professional football player. During his 12 seasons as a quarterback with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), he led them to four NFL championships in 1940, 1941, 1943, and 1946. He also played safety on defense for most of his career.
Sportswriter Ira Berkow wrote that Luckman was "the first great T-formation quarterback", and he is considered the greatest long-range passer of his time. He was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1943, when he became the first quarterback to throw for more than 2,000 yards in a season and the first to throw 25 touchdown passes. Luckman was also a 3× NFL All-Star (1940–1942), 6× First-team All-Pro (1940–1944, 1947), Second-team All-Pro (1946), 3× NFL passing yards leader (1943, 1945, and 1946), 3× NFL passing touchdowns leader (1943, 1945, and 1946), NFL completion percentage leader (1941), 3× NFL passer rating leader (1941, 1943, and 1946), named to the NFL 1940s All-Decade team, had his No. 42 retired by the Bears, and tied the NFL record of 7 touchdown passes in a game. To date, Luckman still holds the all-time NFL record for touchdown percentage, at 7.9 percent.
Luckman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965, and in 1988 he was declared a joint winner of the Walter Camp Distinguished American Award. In 2020, ESPN included him on its list of the 150 greatest college football players of all time. Following his retirement from playing, Luckman continued his association with football by tutoring college coaches, focusing on the passing aspect of the game.
Luckman was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Germany, Meyer and Ethel Druckman Luckman. His father sparked his interest in football at age eight, by giving him a football to play with. He and his parents lived first in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and then in a residence near Prospect Park in Flatbush, in Brooklyn, and it was here as a youngster that Sid first started throwing a football.
He played both baseball and football for Erasmus Hall High School, with his football skills impressing recruiters from about 40 colleges. Playing quarterback, he led the Erasmus Hall High School football team to two all-city championships.
Luckman chose Columbia University after meeting Lions coach Lou Little during a Columbia/Navy game at the university's Baker Field athletic facility. Luckman was not admitted to Columbia College; instead, he attended the New College for the Education of Teachers, an undergraduate school which was within Teachers College at Columbia. He competed on the football team from 1936 until the New College closed in 1939, at which point he transferred to Columbia College. Coach Little had a problem getting good high school athletes because of the entrance requirements at Columbia, and Columbia didn't have any physical education undergraduate program so when New College was started, Lou Little was happy because they had a P. E. Department. In fact, the 1936 varsity football squad had five other New College students; Hubert Schulze, Edward Stanzyk, Oscar Bonom, Harry Ream, and Antoni Mareski.
At Columbia, Luckman was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. Wanting to remain at Columbia and stay close to his family, he supported himself by working various jobs around campus, including as a dishwasher, babysitter, and messenger. On the football team, Luckman was a versatile two-way player, playing quarterback and defensive back while also handling punting, field goals, extra points, and kick and punt returns. Over his collegiate career, he completed 180 of 376 passes for 2,413 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for nine additional touchdowns. A two-time All-American, Luckman finished third in the 1938 Heisman Trophy voting behind Davey O'Brien and Marshall Goldberg.
Hearing of Sid Luckman's exploits as a single-wing tailback at Columbia University, Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas believed Luckman had the ability to become an effective T-formation quarterback, and traveled to New York to watch him play. Halas then convinced the Pittsburgh Pirates (later the Steelers) to draft Luckman second overall and then trade him to the Bears, because he was interested in using Luckman's skills to help him restructure the offensive side of the game. However, despite his successes at Columbia University, Luckman initially declined any further interest in pro football, instead preferring to work for his father-in-law's trucking company. Halas went to work on convincing him otherwise. After gaining an invitation to Luckman's tiny apartment for a dinner which Luckman's wife Estelle prepared, Halas produced a contract for $5,500 ($125,800 today), which Luckman immediately signed. At that time both at the college and pro levels, offenses were a drab scrum of running the ball with only occasional passes. In what was then the predominant single-wing formation, the quarterback was primarily a blocking back and rarely touched the ball. Most passing was done by the tailback, and then usually only on third down with long yardage to go. Halas and his coaches, primarily Clark Shaughnessy, invented a rather complex scheme building on the traditional T-formation, but needed the right quarterback to run it properly.
Upon starting with Halas, Luckman mastered an offense that revolutionized football and became the basis of most modern professional offenses. Eventually, Luckman tutored college coaches across the Big Ten, Notre Dame and West Point in the intricacies of the passing game.
After Chicago's 1939 season had ended, the Bears sent Luckman to play for their farm team, the Newark Bears of the American Association. On December 10, 1939, Luckman played in Newark's 13–6 playoff victory over the Wilmington Clippers. There was controversy after the game as to whether Luckman should have been allowed to play.
In 1940, during his second season with the Chicago Bears, Luckman took over the offense and led the Bears to the title game against Sammy Baugh and the Washington Redskins. The Redskins had beaten the Bears, 7–3, during the regular season. Using the "man-in-motion" innovation to great advantage, the Bears destroyed the Redskins, 73–0, in a game stated to be "the most one-sided game in the history of the sport". Luckman passed only six times, with four completions and 102 yards in the rout.
From 1940 to 1946, the Bears displayed their dominance in the game, playing in five NFL championship games, winning four, and posted a 54–17–3 regular-season record. In 1942, the Bears posted a perfect 11–0 record and outscored their opponents, 376–84, however, they lost the championship game to the Redskins. Although the T-formation had been used many years before Luckman joined the Chicago Bears, he was central to Chicago's successful use of this style of play because of his game-sense and versatility. Perfecting Halas' complex offensive scheme of fakes, men in motion, and quick-hitting runs, Luckman added the dimension of accurate downfield throwing. He was instrumental in his team's record-setting 73–0 win over the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL championship game. Sportscaster Jimmy Cannon once said in reference to Luckman's years at Columbia, "You had to be there to realize how great Sid was." Luckman later became a sought-after tutor and instructor for universities wishing to install the T-formation as an offense.
Service with the Merchant Marine
In 1943, as soon as the season had ended, Luckman volunteered as an ensign with the U. S. Merchant Marine. He was stationed stateside and while he could not practice with the team, he did receive permission to play for the Bears on game days during the following seasons. He returned to the Bears full-time in 1946 and led the team to another NFL championship, his fourth.
During his career, Luckman completed 51.8% of his passes for 14,686 yards and 137 touchdowns with 132 interceptions. He averaged 8.4 yards per attempt, second all-time only to Otto Graham (9.0), and also has a career touchdown rate (percentage of pass attempts that result in touchdowns) of 7.9 percent. Luckman also had 17 interceptions on defense for 310 yards and two touchdowns.