Frank Cullen Albert (January 27, 1920 – September 4, 2002) was an American

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

player and coach. He played as a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's Nationa ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL). Albert attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, where he led the 1940 football team to an undefeated season and the Rose Bowl. Many who saw Albert in action credit him as being the greatest left-handed quarterback ever to play the game.

Early life

Albert was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and attended Glendale High School in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth-larges ...

. He went to

, where he was coached by

T formation In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarter ...

innovator

Clark Shaughnessy Clark Daniel Shaughnessy (originally O'Shaughnessy) (March 6, 1892 – May 15, 1970) was an American football coach and innovator. He is sometimes called the "father of the T formation" and the original founder of the forward pass, although that ...

. Albert played as Stanford's quarterback and in 1940–41 became an all-American. He was the first college T-formation quarterback in modern football history. He led the team of 1940 to a 9–0 regular season, 21–13 victory over Nebraska in the Rose Bowl and a No. 2 national ranking, behind Minnesota. He was also a member of Stanford's chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Professional football career

After graduation Albert served in the Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

for four years. In the 1942 NFL Draft the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

selected Albert with the 10th overall pick. After quarterbacking the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football League in 1945, he launched his All-Pro career with the

of the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

in 1946. He played seven seasons with the 49ers. Albert, a , 166-pound, left-handed passer, was credited for inventing the

bootleg play In American football, a bootleg play is a play in which the quarterback runs with the ball in the direction of either sideline behind the line of scrimmage. This can be accompanied by a play action, or fake hand off of the ball to a running ba ...

, in which the quarterback fakes a handoff then runs wide with the ball hidden on his hip. In 1948, he had the record for most passing touchdowns in a season in the league's history, and was named AAFC co-Most Valuable Player with Otto Graham. He played his last two seasons competing with

Y. A. Tittle Yelberton Abraham Tittle Jr. (October 24, 1926 – October 8, 2017) was a professional American football quarterback. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, and Baltimore Colts, after spend ...

. In 1950, Albert was named to the Pro Bowl when the 49ers joined the National Football League. He retired after the season of 1952. In seven pro seasons, Albert threw for 10,795 yards and 115 touchdowns. Albert played one final season with the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...

's Calgary Stampeders.

Coaching career

After his retirement, the

hired him as a scout and coach. He became the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in asso ...

in 1956 by owner

Tony Morabito Anthony James Morabito (January 12, 1910 – October 27, 1957) was the founder of the San Francisco 49ers. Following his graduation from the University of Santa Clara he had a moderately successful lumber hauling business in San Francisco, Californ ...

. In his

second year Second year (also known as S2 in Scotland) is the second year of schooling in secondary schools in Scotland and in the Republic of Ireland, and is roughly equivalent to Year 9 in England and Wales and Year 10 (Third Form) in Northern Ireland. M ...

, Albert led the 49ers to their first winning record since 1954. They won five of their six games before a three-game losing streak had them at 5-4. They won the final three games to finish 8-4. They finished in a tie for first in the Western Conference with the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

, with both teams winning against the other at home. As such, they had to play a

one-game playoff A one-game playoff, sometimes known as a pennant playoff, tiebreaker game or knockout game, is a tiebreaker in certain sports—usually but not always professional—to determine which of two teams, tied in the final standings, will qualify for a ...

to determine who would play in the NFL Championship Game, with this being their first playoff game since 1949. On December 22, they played the Lions at Kezar Stadium. Facing backup

Tobin Rote Tobin Cornelius Rote (January 18, 1928 – June 27, 2000) was an American football player who played quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football Le ...

(subbing in for Bobby Layne, hurt two weeks earlier), the 49ers led 24–7 at halftime on the strength of three touchdown passes from

. They led by twenty after a field goal in the third quarter, but Detroit roared back in a monumental comeback, scoring 24 unanswered points to win 31-27. Albert led the team to a 6-6 record the following year before he was replaced by Red Hickey; the 49ers would not threaten for a playoff spot until 1970. He coached the 49ers for three seasons, compiling a 19–16–1 record. The

Professional Football Researchers Association The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by writer/hist ...

named Albert to the PFRA Hall of Very Good Class of 2007

Later life

After football, Albert got into real estate as he helped raise three daughters with his high school sweetheart and wife of 60 years, Martha. All three of his daughters attended Stanford. One of his daughters, Jane Albert Willens, ’67, was an All-American tennis player. He died on September 4, 2002, from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...

. In addition to his wife, Martha, Albert was survived by his three daughters: Nancy James of Bend, Oregon; Jane Willens of Palo Alto; and Terry Levin of San Francisco; and as well as seven grandchildren.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albert, Frankie 1920 births 2002 deaths American football quarterbacks College football announcers Saint Mary's Pre-Flight Air Devils football players San Francisco 49ers (AAFC) players San Francisco 49ers head coaches San Francisco 49ers coaches San Francisco 49ers players Stanford Cardinal football players National Football League announcers All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Western Conference Pro Bowl players United States Navy personnel of World War II Players of American football from Chicago Sportspeople from Glendale, California Coaches of American football from California Players of American football from California Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Deaths from dementia in California Glendale High School (Glendale, California) alumni