I have done some reading on former Highlands coach Homer Rice, and he has been credited with creating the triple-option.

http://www.georgiatrend.com/features-sports-leisure/homer-rice.shtml

http://www.flipkart.com/lessons-leaders-homer-rice-building-book-1563526328

http://www.football-plays-and-drills.com/triple-option-football.html

 

Does anyone have more information on him, or him being credited with the invention on the triple option?

He tells the stories very well. He was back in town for the 50th Anniversary of the FTJFL (which he helped / encouraged to found in order to improve the football team) 2 yrs ago. He was also the Marshal of the 4th of July parade in 2010 (I think) and recognized during HHS Alumni Weekend a few years ago. Pretty impressive credentials across the board. I suspect BadBill has LOTS of information.

He was also honored with his football team at the first Ryle vs Highlands game at Highlands this year. JD

I have done some reading on former Highlands coach Homer Rice, and he has been credited with creating the triple-option.

http://www.georgiatrend.com/features-sports-leisure/homer-rice.shtml

http://www.flipkart.com/lessons-leaders-homer-rice-building-book-1563526328

http://www.football-plays-and-drills.com/triple-option-football.html

 

Does anyone have more information on him, or him being credited with the invention on the triple option?

 

What kind of info do you need on him? Homer is "Uncle Homer" to Henry and she can tell you a lot about him. Not a true uncle, but a close enough relationship between his family and Henry's family, that he was called Uncle Homer by Henry and her brothers. If BadBill can't get you the needed info, Henry probably can.

 

And he has been widely credited with the Triple Option offense. Great guy by the way. He'll be back in town for some upcoming event in the near future but I forget exactly when and why.

 

As jpa mentioned, Homer tells great stories about his experiences as a high school football coach. Henry and I were honored to sit at his table at the 1960 team re-union lunch. He, Owen and Bill Hermann had some great stories about their days coaching at Highlands.

On JBwills Highlands football web site under background, you can find more info. on Homer. Also Leadership Fitness is his latest book.

What kind of info do you need on him? Homer is "Uncle Homer" to Henry and she can tell you a lot about him. Not a true uncle, but a close enough relationship between his family and Henry's family, that he was called Uncle Homer by Henry and her brothers. If BadBill can't get you the needed info, Henry probably can.

 

And he has been widely credited with the Triple Option offense. Great guy by the way. He'll be back in town for some upcoming event in the near future but I forget exactly when and why.

 

As jpa mentioned, Homer tells great stories about his experiences as a high school football coach. Henry and I were honored to sit at his table at the 1960 team re-union lunch. He, Owen and Bill Hermann had some great stories about their days coaching at Highlands.

 

I'm not sure that the stories I have on "Uncle Homer" are the ones that anyone would be interested in.:lol::lol:

What kind of info do you need on him? Homer is "Uncle Homer" to Henry and she can tell you a lot about him. Not a true uncle, but a close enough relationship between his family and Henry's family, that he was called Uncle Homer by Henry and her brothers. If BadBill can't get you the needed info, Henry probably can.

 

And he has been widely credited with the Triple Option offense. Great guy by the way. He'll be back in town for some upcoming event in the near future but I forget exactly when and why.

 

As jpa mentioned, Homer tells great stories about his experiences as a high school football coach. Henry and I were honored to sit at his table at the 1960 team re-union lunch. He, Owen and Bill Hermann had some great stories about their days coaching at Highlands.

 

I don't think many people really know that he was credited for creating the triple-option offense. I think it is awesome that part of the roots of the triple-option started at Highlands. There isn't any information in specific, but I wanted to know if in fact it was him that was the inventor. I read somewhere that Bill Yeoman takes credit for the veer option offense, yet it was just a few tweaks to the offense already created by Homer Rice. In one of Rice's books he credits Yeoman with creating the "Houston Veer" but others believe that Rice had already created the offense. I wish I could find the article that said that but it is out there somewhere on the web.

 

In this article http://veersite.blogspot.com/2004/06/coach-homer-rice.html it says it would "Be a stretch to say Rice "invented" the west coast offense." I know he wrote one of the first books on the passing game, but is there any information or credit given to him for creating the basics of the west coast offense?

The Triple Option was first used at the Collegiate level by Darryl Royal at Texas. He called it " Homer's Triple " in tribute to Homer Rice who developed the play at Highlands in 1960. Keep in mind the Triple is a play and not a formation. The wishbone formation was developed by Texas to run the Triple. I believe the first use of the play was at Highlands under Homer Rice in the 1960 game VS. Louisville Male. The reason it was used was because Male had an all state tackle and an all state end who the Highlands coaches believed could not be blocked. Homer overcame that fact by simply not blocking them and optioning ( with a very good quarterback Roger Walz ) The defensive tackle and defensive end. The other 2 players involved in the triple option were the Burt brothers John and Jim. John was the fullback and took the first option, Walz would then option the end by either keeping the ball or option 3 pitching the ball to Jim Burt around the end. Now I was quite young then but I dont believe Male stopped this play all night. Highlands went on to win 26-20. The play was not run out of the wishbone formation but was run out of the short tee which is similar to the wishbone except the third running back is lined up between the offensive guard and tackle very close to the line of scrimmage, almost another lineman and he is used exclusively for blocking.

The Triple Option was first used at the Collegiate level by Darryl Royal at Texas. He called it " Homer's Triple " in tribute to Homer Rice who developed the play at Highlands in 1960. Keep in mind the Triple is a play and not a formation. The wishbone formation was developed by Texas to run the Triple. I believe the first use of the play was at Highlands under Homer Rice in the 1960 game VS. Louisville Male. The reason it was used was because Male had an all state tackle and an all state end who the Highlands coaches believed could not be blocked. Homer overcame that fact by simply not blocking them and optioning ( with a very good quarterback Roger Walz ) The defensive tackle and defensive end. The other 2 players involved in the triple option were the Burt brothers John and Jim. John was the fullback and took the first option, Walz would then option the end by either keeping the ball or option 3 pitching the ball to Jim Burt around the end. Now I was quite young then but I dont believe Male stopped this play all night. Highlands went on to win 26-20. The play was not run out of the wishbone formation but was run out of the short tee which is similar to the wishbone except the third running back is lined up between the offensive guard and tackle very close to the line of scrimmage, almost another lineman and he is used exclusively for blocking.

 

That ranks up there as one of my favorite posts of all time. Thank you very much for sharing. This was the kind of information I was trying to get by starting this thread.

As a lover of the Bone this was very imformative by Bluejacket. Coach Bryant 1971 sent his whole staff to Texas and they stayed quite a while in learning the Triple Option. We lost 10 games in the 10 years.

Very good history by Bluejacket. Many people call the "Triple Option" a formation, a substitute for the calling it the "Wishbone", because most of the teams that have ran it over the years do it out of the Wish Bone formation. When in fact many Wish Bone teams do not run the Triple Option. Now, the Triple Option is more of a scheme then a play. Some Wish Bone teams run their entire offense off of a Triple Option scheme. They do this by making the "First Option" at different locations - between the center and guard, or between the guard and tackle - depending on what kind of defense they are playing against - a wide four or five front. Passes have been developed off the the first option - faking the first hand off then a quick three step drop instead of flow down the line. Then reverses off the first option have been developed to take advantage of the flow going toward the option side. The triple option has become more of a philosophy then a play over the years. An offense has been developed simply because of one play.

The Triple Option was first used at the Collegiate level by Darryl Royal at Texas. He called it " Homer's Triple " in tribute to Homer Rice who developed the play at Highlands in 1960. Keep in mind the Triple is a play and not a formation. The wishbone formation was developed by Texas to run the Triple. I believe the first use of the play was at Highlands under Homer Rice in the 1960 game VS. Louisville Male. The reason it was used was because Male had an all state tackle and an all state end who the Highlands coaches believed could not be blocked. Homer overcame that fact by simply not blocking them and optioning ( with a very good quarterback Roger Walz ) The defensive tackle and defensive end. The other 2 players involved in the triple option were the Burt brothers John and Jim. John was the fullback and took the first option, Walz would then option the end by either keeping the ball or option 3 pitching the ball to Jim Burt around the end. Now I was quite young then but I dont believe Male stopped this play all night. Highlands went on to win 26-20. The play was not run out of the wishbone formation but was run out of the short tee which is similar to the wishbone except the third running back is lined up between the offensive guard and tackle very close to the line of scrimmage, almost another lineman and he is used exclusively for blocking.

 

 

Well done Bluejacket. In my prior post, I should have told robdiggity that you could provide the football related info on Homer and Henry could provide the non-football related info on Homer.

I don't think many people really know that he was credited for creating the triple-option offense. I think it is awesome that part of the roots of the triple-option started at Highlands. There isn't any information in specific, but I wanted to know if in fact it was him that was the inventor. I read somewhere that Bill Yeoman takes credit for the veer option offense, yet it was just a few tweaks to the offense already created by Homer Rice. In one of Rice's books he credits Yeoman with creating the "Houston Veer" but others believe that Rice had already created the offense. I wish I could find the article that said that but it is out there somewhere on the web.

 

You would actually be surprised how many people know Coach Rice and Highlands. And, yes everyone in KY knows who these two are.

For example, a few weeks ago my better half was flying with a co-worker from California and they started talking Football and Highlands was brought up and the lady said "oh you mean Highlands Football KY we know who they are". She apparently knew this because her son played for a little team in Cal that some may know as "De LaSalle". Impressive company to say the least.

 

Maybe Uncle Homer has a niece in Cal as well that we dont know about........ LOL

I don't think many people really know that he was credited for creating the triple-option offense. I think it is awesome that part of the roots of the triple-option started at Highlands. There isn't any information in specific, but I wanted to know if in fact it was him that was the inventor. I read somewhere that Bill Yeoman takes credit for the veer option offense, yet it was just a few tweaks to the offense already created by Homer Rice. In one of Rice's books he credits Yeoman with creating the "Houston Veer" but others believe that Rice had already created the offense. I wish I could find the article that said that but it is out there somewhere on the web.

 

You would actually be surprised how many people know Coach Rice and Highlands. And, yes everyone in KY knows who these two are.

For example, a few weeks ago my better half was flying with a co-worker from California and they started talking Football and Highlands was brought up and the lady said "oh you mean Highlands Football KY we know who they are". She apparently knew this because her son played for a little team in Cal that some may know as "De LaSalle". Impressive company to say the least.

 

Maybe Uncle Homer has a niece in Cal as well that we dont know about........ LOL

 

Actually he has a granddaughter and grandson that live in California.:thumb:

The Triple option or the veer as it is called today is the greatest play in football. It is truely the only play that allows a team with less talent to stand a chance to defeat better teams. Then when teams with great talent run it properly it looks awesome and fun to watch.