Clyde Earl Shugart (December 7, 1916 – July 2, 2009) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

guard 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 ma ...

(NFL) for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

. He played college football at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

and was drafted in the seventeenth round of the

1939 NFL Draft The 1939 National Football League Draft was held on December 9, 1938, at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Chicago Cardinals selected center Ki Aldrich. Player selections Round on ...

Early life

Shugart was born in

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines in central Iowa. It is best known as the home of Iowa State University (ISU), with leading agriculture, design, engineering, and veterinary med ...

and attended Ames High School. During his

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partl ...

career, he earned first-team all-state honors and was named as "the finest prep lineman in the state" by the

Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...

College career

Shugart then attended and played college football at

, where he was a member of one of Iowa State's best football teams in school history. During his senior season, he played

right tackle Tackle is a playing position in gridiron football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a tackle played on both offense and defense. In the modern system of specialized units, ...

with

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n guard Ed Bock on the 1938 "Cyclone Eleven" squad that produced a 7-1-1 record for coach Jim Yeager. Shugart earned all-

Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associat ...

honors and received All-America board recognition, playing all but 20 minutes of the entire season. In a 1960s poll, Shugart was named the best tackle in school history.

Professional career

Shugart was drafted in the fifteenth round of the

by the

. In 1939, the Redskins finished 8-2-1 and fell short of the Eastern Division championship. During the 1940 season, the Redskins posted a then-franchise-record nine wins and earned a trip to the

1940 NFL Championship game The 1940 NFL Championship Game, sometimes referred to simply as 73–0, was the eighth title game of the National Football League (NFL). It was played at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. on December 8, with a sellout capacity attendance o ...

, where they lost to 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 ...

, 73-0, the most one-sided victory in NFL history. The Redskins then beat the Bears in the

1942 NFL Championship game The 1942 NFL Championship Game was the tenth title game of the National Football League (NFL), played at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. on December 13, with a sellout capacity attendance of 36,006. It matched the undefeated Western Divi ...

, 14-6, before a sellout crowd of 36,000 at

Griffith Stadium Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW. The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boun ...

. The following season, the Redskins went 6-3-1 and again met the Bears in the

1943 NFL Championship game The 1943 NFL Championship Game was the 11th annual title game of the National Football League (NFL), held at Wrigley Field in Chicago on December 26 with an attendance of 34,320. In a rematch of the previous year's game, the Western Division ...

, where they lost 41-21. Shugart retired after the 1944 season after making a salary of $4,400. Shugart played his entire career for the Redskins (1939–1944) and never missed a game in his career. During this time, he was named to two

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

s (1941, 1942) and was named second-team

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

in 1943.

Life after football

After retiring from football, Shugart took a job as a manager of a High's Ice Cream branch plant in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. He worked at High's for 47 years before retiring in 1986, and at one point owned 50 percent of the corporate stock. In 2007, he moved to

Gulf Breeze, Florida Gulf Breeze is a city in Santa Rosa County, Florida. It is a suburb of Pensacola, and is in the Pensacola Metropolitan Area. The population estimate was 6,900 in 2020. Gulf Breeze is located just north of Pensacola Beach, and south of Pensaco ...

, where he died from a stroke on July 2, 2009 at age 92.

Legacy

In 2000, Shugart was inducted in the Iowa High School Football Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2004, he was inducted into the Iowa State Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shugart, Clyde 1916 births 2009 deaths People from Tama County, Iowa Players of American football from Iowa American football offensive guards Iowa State Cyclones football players Washington Redskins players Sportspeople from Ames, Iowa