Sid Luckman

High school

Erasmus Hall High School

College

Columbia University

Pro team(s)

Chicago Bears

Hall of Fame

⭐ Pro Football Hall of Fame

Sidney Luckman was born on November 21, 1916, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the son of a Jewish immigrant family. He attended Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush, then went to Columbia University where he was a two-time All-American quarterback — the first Columbia player ever to achieve that distinction. Pittsburgh drafted him in 1939 but immediately traded him to the Chicago Bears, where coach George Halas and offensive innovator Clark Shaughnessy were building the T-formation attack that would transform professional football. Luckman mastered the new system with breathtaking speed, and the 1940 Bears — with Luckman at quarterback — defeated the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the NFL Championship Game, the most lopsided victory in the history of the sport. Luckman won four NFL championships with the Bears (1940, 1941, 1943, 1946), was named the 1943 NFL MVP, and on November 14, 1943 — "Sid Luckman Day" at the Polo Grounds — he threw seven touchdown passes against the New York Giants in a single game, a record that stood for a generation. He completed 51.8 percent of his passes for 14,686 yards and 137 touchdowns over his career at a time when the forward pass was still a novelty. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.