George Shaw (American football)
Shaw ahead of the 1957 season | |||||||||||||||
| No. 14, 15, 17 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position | Quarterback | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | July 25, 1933 Portland, Oregon, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | January 3, 1998 (aged 64) Portland, Oregon, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 183 lb (83 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Grant (Portland, Oregon) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Oregon | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1955: 1st round, 1st overall pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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George Howard Shaw (July 25, 1933 – January 3, 1998) was an American professional football quarterback who played seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and one season in the rival American Football League (AFL). He was the first overall selection of the 1955 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts, for whom he started 17 consecutive games.
A leg injury to Shaw in 1956 forced the Colts to insert free agent backup Johnny Unitas at quarterback, launching the latter on what would become a Hall of Fame career.
Shaw was part of the Colts team which won the 1958 Championship Playoff over the New York Football Giants in sudden death overtime, long regaled in football lore as "the Greatest Game Ever Played."