Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

While looking at a team from another thread I think I have the answer but am not sure.

Without looking, I'm guessing Hornung or Lincoln ...

Maybe Tom Tracy or Gifford.

Not an easy question to answer due to the technicalities of the backfield positions.

Glen Dobbs, playing tailback for the 1948 Los Angeles Dons (AAFC), holds the record for the most touchdowns (21) in a season by a player not designated as a quarterback.

However, given that the tailback (or anyone designated a "back" of any kind) often played the role of the modern quarterback in older offensive systems, you probably have to scroll down the list of throwers to Keith Byars, who as a running back for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1990 completed 4 of 4 pass attempts for 4 touchdowns. Tom Tracy threw for as many touchdowns out of the halfback position for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1960, but it took him 22 attempts to reach that milestone. I guess if you're looking for impressiveness, I'd go with Byars.

Marcus Allen, Walter Payton and/or LaDainian Tomlinson should be on the list.

Andy Johnson had four in 1981.

JWL wrote:Andy Johnson had four in 1981.

That's the one I noticed from the unlucky team thread. The 1981 Pats threw a ton of pics. While looking at the QBs I saw Johnsons stats 7-9 4 TDs 1 Pic

RyanChristiansen wrote:Not an easy question to answer due to the technicalities of the backfield positions.

Glen Dobbs, playing tailback for the 1948 Los Angeles Dons (AAFC), holds the record for the most touchdowns (21) in a season by a player not designated as a quarterback.

However, given that the tailback (or anyone designated a "back" of any kind) often played the role of the modern quarterback in older offensive systems, you probably have to scroll down the list of throwers to Keith Byars, who as a running back for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1990 completed 4 of 4 pass attempts for 4 touchdowns. Tom Tracy threw for as many touchdowns out of the halfback position for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1960, but it took him 22 attempts to reach that milestone. I guess if you're looking for impressiveness, I'd go with Byars.

Tracy threw a lot of passes 4 years in a row 16,12,22, and 12, I wonder if he lined up in the QB position for some of those?

From what I can tell, Frank Gifford holds the record for most TD passes by a non-QB in a career, with 14. Tracy edges out Gifford for most career passing yards, though, 854 to 823.

Tom "The Bomb" has always intrigued me. He came out of nowhere to have that great performance in the '57 divisional playoff between SF and Detroit, scoring the first 2 TDs of his career to spark the Lions' comeback. The following year he joined Buddy Parker and Bobby Layne in Pittsburgh, where he became a workhorse and 2-time Pro Bowler. (He also was Layne's roommate and drinking companion, which didn't hurt.) As far as I can tell, all those pass attempts were designed halfback option plays. Tracy could either pass or tuck it in and run. It was one of Parker's standard plays, and Layne (who called all his own plays) didn't mind going back to the well. I just looked at Tracy's game logs, and on 6 different occasions he threw 3 or 4 passes in a game. So much for the element of surprise.

Layne and Parker utilized Tracy as they previously did with LH Doak Walker and RH Bob Hoernschemeyer during their 6 seasons (1950-55) together in the Detroit backfield. Both were former tailbacks and used to throwing the ball. Hunchy was deadly on the run-pass, with 10 of his 11 completions as a Lion going for TDs. The Doaker was less lethal, tossing 3 TD passes, but one of those occurred in the '52 playoff vs. the Rams. The following year in the title game, Walker hit Layne for a TD on the same kind of play, though it was called back for obvious reasons.

Paul Hornung and John David Crow also did a lot of option passing.

In the late 1950s/early 1960s it was more of a standard play. The halfback passed while running, and only threw 10-15 yards past the line of scrimmage. So the option might have been there 3-4 times a game.

By the late 1960s, teams stopped running the sweep so much. Then it became what you saw in the Ice Bowl, a trick play, a home run play.