Sidney "Sid" Gillman (October 26, 1911 - January 3, 2003) was an American football coach and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, made football into the modern game that it is today.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gillman played college football at the Ohio State University under legenda...
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Sidney "Sid" Gillman (October 26, 1911 - January 3, 2003) was an American football coach and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, made football into the modern game that it is today.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gillman played college football at the Ohio State University under legendary coach Francis "Shut the Gates of Mercy" Schmidt, forming the basis of his offense. He was a Team Captain and All-Big Ten end in 1933.
Always deeply interested in the game, while working as a movie theater usher, he removed football segments from newsreels that the theater would show, so that he could take them home and study them on a projector he had bought. This dedication to filmed football plays that made Gillman the first coach to study game footage, something that all coaches do today.
Gillman played one year in the American Football...
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