Nose Guard (1966) and Nose Tackle (1977)

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:29 PM -0500 12/16/03, Sam Clements wrote:
>   "Nose tackle" does appear in Ancestry just a tiny bit earlier, you just
>have to tweak the engine a bit.
>
>Using my "The Football Encyclopedia" by Neff and Cohen, I looked at the
>rosters of teams year by year before and including 1977.  While I can find
>'NT' next to two names on the roster of the 1974 New England Patriots,
>trying to link their names with 'nose tackle' in Ancestry newspapers
>produced no hits.  Using other 'NT' names in later years produced nothing
>until October 23, 1977, The Marion(OH) Star, page 24, col. 6.
>
>      <<Nose tackle Ruben Carter heads the vaunted Denver defensive front,
>.....>>
>
>I think that if you look at a program for the New England Patriots from the
>1974 season, you might find 'NT' listed beside the names of Ray Hamilton and
>Art Moore.  Why they were the first team to list such is unknown(to me).
>

Ray "Sugar Bear" Hamilton was routinely referred to as a nose tackle
on the Pats, through the mid-70's. I don't remember Art Moore; maybe
he'd been phased out by '76-'77.  That was the great (and unexpected)
season all New England football fans remember with anguish, the
season snuffed out by a bad call; indeed, it was a phantom roughing
the passer penalty against that very Sugar Bear himself that handed a
playoff game to the Oakland Raiders.  (I lived a mile away from the
Foxboro Stadium that year; it was all very traumatic.)

As far as why it's hard to locate other NTs (or NGs), one constraint
is that only teams that play 3-4 defenses (three defensive linemen,
four linebackers) have them, and there aren't many such teams.  The
majority of teams have always featured a 4-3 defense, with two
defensive ends and a left and right tackle.  The nose tackle or nose
guard plays across from the center.

Larry