| No. 11 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position | Quarterback | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1946-12-18)December 18, 1946 Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | October 4, 2024(2024-10-04) (aged 77) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Nashua (NH) | ||||||||||||||
| College | UMass | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1968:1st round, 11th overall pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
Playing | |||||||||||||||
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Coaching | |||||||||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Gregory Paul Landry (December 18, 1946 – October 4, 2024) was an American professionalfootball player who was aquarterback in theNational Football League (NFL) andUnited States Football League (USFL) from 1968 to 1984. He playedcollege football for theUMass Minutemen from1965 to1967 and was selected in the first round of the1968 NFL draft with the 11th overall pick. Landry played in the NFL for theDetroit Lions,Baltimore Colts andChicago Bears. He became an assistant coach after his playing career. Landry is considered a forerunner of the dual threat quarterback.
Landry was born on December 18, 1946, inNashua, New Hampshire to Alvin and Felixa "Fannie" (Worsowicz) Landry, both of whom were factory workers. Fannie's parents had emigrated fromPoland. He attended Nashua High School, where he played on the football team, graduating in 1964.[1]
In 1962, as a junior he was selected to theNashua Telegraph's New Hampshire All-Scholastic football team.[2] He was co-captain of the football team in his senior year, and received the Buddy Harvey trophy after his teammates selected him as Most Valuable Player.[3][4] He also starred in baseball and was named the school's Athlete of the Year in 1964.[4][5]
Landry also played shortstop inAmerican Legion baseball.[6] He was considered a fine major league prospect in baseball.[4]
Landry earned a scholarship to theUniversity of Massachusetts (UMass). The UMass team won twoYankee Conference championships, with Landry leading the conference in both rushing and passing twice. Landry still has the school record forquarterback efficiency rating, 145.4, set in 1965.[1][7][8] The team's record with Landry was 20-7, and 14-1 in the Yankee Conference.[9]
In December 1967, he played in theNorth-South Shrine Game before the 1968 draft, and drew attention for playing well in the game against other college all stars.[1][7][10] He was in the 1968Chicago Charities All Star Game, playing with the collegians against the NFL championGreen Bay Packers. Landry threw a touchdown pass to future Lions teammateEarl McCullough.[8]
He was selected All-Yankee Conference for two seasons.[11] In 1967, he received the George Bulger Lowe Award from the Gridiron Club of Boston as the outstanding college football player inNew England.[12] In 1980, he was inducted into the UMass Hall of Fame.[13] In 1996, he was named to the Yankee Conference 50th Anniversary Team.[9]
Landry was selected in the first round of the1968 NFL/AFL draft (eleventh overall) by the Detroit Lions, and was the first quarterback taken in that draft.[1] No UMass player has ever been taken higher in the draft.[9] With the Lions in1971, hepassed for 2,237 yards and 16touchdowns, was named first-teamAll-Pro, and went to his onlyPro Bowl that year.[1] In1976, Landry passed for 2,191 yards and 17 touchdowns and was named theNFL's Comeback Player of the Year.[13] He was benched by Lions head coachTommy Hudspeth late in1977 and supplanted byGary Danielson as the starting quarterbackthe following year.[14]
Landry's request to be traded was granted when he was acquired by the Colts from the Lions for fourth- and fifth-round selections in1979 (88th and 131st overall–Ulysses Norris andPittsburgh center Walt Brown respectively) and a1980 third-round pick (62nd overall–Mike Friede) on April 29, 1979.[14][15] During his 11 years with the Lions, he had a 40-41-3 record, and passed for 12,451 yards and 80 touchdowns. He rankedsecond in quarterback wins for the Lions toBobby Layne and has been passed by justMatthew Stafford.[1][13]
During his three seasons with the Colts, he played brilliantly in1979 despite a 5–11 record, after a season-ending injury to starting quarterbackBert Jones. Landry passed for a career best 2,932 yards and 15 touchdowns that season.[16] He then played forGeorge Allen on theChicago Blitz andArizona Wranglers in theUnited States Football League (USFL) in 1983 and 1984. He started one game as an emergency quarterback for theChicago Bears in1984 before retiring as a player.[17]
Landry was also notable as a rusher; in the1970 opener atGreen Bay, he ran for 76 yards on aquarterback sneak,[18] which was for a time the longest rush by a quarterback in NFL history.[19] Over his entire career, Landry passed for 16,052 yards, had 98 touchdown passes and 103 interceptions; and he rushed for another 2,655 yards and 21 touchdowns.[13] He exceeded 500 yards on the ground in both1971 and1972,[1] as well as averaging ten yards per carry in 1970, and scoring nine touchdowns in 1972.[20] He ranks fifth on the all-time Lions career passing yardage list (12,451), and ranks fourth in touchdown passes with 80.[21]
Landry is considered a forerunner of the modern dual threat quarterbacks, who are both runners and passers. There were running quarterbacks in his era who could scramble and run when a play broke down, such asFran Tarkenton; but unlike those quarterbacks, the Lions designed running plays for the 6 ft 4 in physically imposing Landry. The Lions even ranoption plays with his Lions running backsSteve Owens andAltie Taylor. In 1971, Sports Illustrated writerTex Maule said Landry "probably has ... the pro offense of the future, only he has it right now."[22][1]
Landry began his coaching career in 1985 handling theCleveland Browns quarterbacks, and later joinedMike Ditka's staff as quarterback coach in 1986, following the Bears' rout of theNew England Patriots inSuper Bowl XX. With the Bears, he was also thewide receivers andtight ends coach before taking over asoffensive coordinator from 1988 to 1992.[1][23]
Following the 1992 season, Landry was hired as the offensive coordinator at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for two seasons. The1994 Illinois Fighting Illini had the second-best passing offense in theBig Ten Conference, which carried the team to a 30–0 win in theLiberty Bowl overEast Carolina.[24]
The following year, Landry returned to the Lions as quarterback coach, helping them to become the top offensive unit in the NFL and guidingScott Mitchell to record-setting passing numbers that season.[17] He retired from coaching after the 1996 season[17] to become a local radio host.[9]
Landry met his wife Jeannine Burger at UMass. She was a gymnast and led UMass to a national gymnastics title in 1973. She was a two time All-American and the first female All-American at UMass. In 1981, she was the first female inducted into the UMass Hall of Fame. They had been married 47 years at the time of his death. They have five children and 18 grandchildren.[9][8][25][1] From 2000 to 2021, Landry and his son Greg Jr. operated a manufacturer's representative business for automotive suppliers.[9]
Landry died in Detroit on October 4, 2024, at the age of 77.[1][26]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Passing | Rushing | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Record | Cmp | Att | Pct | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Int | Rtg | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1968 | DET | 4 | 2 | 0–2 | 23 | 48 | 47.9 | 338 | 7.0 | 80 | 2 | 7 | 45.7 | 7 | 39 | 5.6 | 14 | 1 |
| 1969 | DET | 10 | 7 | 5–2 | 80 | 160 | 50.0 | 853 | 5.3 | 43 | 4 | 10 | 48.3 | 33 | 243 | 7.4 | 26 | 1 |
| 1970 | DET | 12 | 6 | 5–1 | 83 | 136 | 61.0 | 1,072 | 7.9 | 58 | 9 | 5 | 92.5 | 35 | 350 | 10.0 | 76 | 1 |
| 1971 | DET | 14 | 14 | 7–6–1 | 136 | 261 | 52.1 | 2,237 | 8.6 | 76 | 16 | 13 | 80.9 | 76 | 530 | 7.0 | 52 | 3 |
| 1972 | DET | 14 | 14 | 8–5–1 | 134 | 268 | 50.0 | 2,066 | 7.7 | 82 | 18 | 17 | 71.8 | 81 | 524 | 6.5 | 38 | 9 |
| 1973 | DET | 7 | 7 | 2–4–1 | 70 | 128 | 54.7 | 908 | 7.1 | 84 | 3 | 10 | 52.5 | 42 | 267 | 6.4 | 18 | 2 |
| 1974 | DET | 5 | 3 | 1–2 | 49 | 82 | 59.8 | 572 | 7.0 | 45 | 3 | 3 | 77.9 | 22 | 95 | 4.3 | 19 | 1 |
| 1975 | DET | 6 | 3 | 2–1 | 31 | 56 | 55.4 | 403 | 7.2 | 36 | 1 | 0 | 84.2 | 20 | 92 | 4.6 | 14 | 0 |
| 1976 | DET | 14 | 12 | 5–7 | 168 | 291 | 57.7 | 2,191 | 7.5 | 74 | 17 | 8 | 89.6 | 43 | 234 | 5.4 | 28 | 1 |
| 1977 | DET | 11 | 11 | 4–7 | 135 | 240 | 56.3 | 1,359 | 5.7 | 39 | 6 | 7 | 68.7 | 25 | 99 | 4.0 | 13 | 0 |
| 1978 | DET | 5 | 5 | 1–4 | 48 | 77 | 62.3 | 452 | 5.9 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 77.4 | 5 | 29 | 5.8 | 19 | 0 |
| 1979 | BAL | 16 | 12 | 2–10 | 270 | 457 | 59.1 | 2,932 | 6.4 | 67 | 15 | 15 | 75.3 | 31 | 115 | 3.7 | 17 | 0 |
| 1980 | BAL | 16 | 1 | 1–0 | 24 | 47 | 51.1 | 275 | 5.9 | 32 | 2 | 3 | 56.6 | 7 | 26 | 3.7 | 14 | 1 |
| 1981 | BAL | 11 | 0 | – | 14 | 29 | 48.3 | 195 | 6.7 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 56.0 | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 11 | 0 |
| 1984 | CHI | 1 | 1 | 1–0 | 11 | 20 | 55.0 | 199 | 10.0 | 55 | 1 | 3 | 66.5 | 2 | 1 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 |
| Career | 146 | 98 | 44–51–3 | 1,276 | 2,300 | 55.5 | 16,052 | 7.0 | 84 | 98 | 103 | 72.9 | 430 | 2,655 | 6.2 | 76 | 21 | |
In 2012, Landry was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, with former Lions teammate and Pro Football Hall of Fame receiverCharlie Sanders giving the induction speech.[8]