Hail Mary (1972)

[Dave Wilton]

Quoting Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>:

> Which may be why that more general use didn't catch on.  I always
> assumed that the quarterback was praying while the ball was in the
> air, so the higher and farther it went and the longer it stayed up
> there, the more likely the prayers were to reach Our Lady and the
> pass to be completed.
>
> And speaking of trajectories, I think this is a case where a
> Read-style trajectory of the history of the lexical item could be
> usefully invoked.  Just as OK was helped mightily along (although not
> originated by) the Old Kinderhook connection and the Martin Van Buren
> campaign's "OK Club", it was really that long pass from Staubach to
> Drew ("I'm no Columnist") Pearson that eliminated the Vikings in the
> 1975 playoff game that put the Hail Mary on the lexical map, although
> clearly it had been around for at least three years before that.

But somewhat different in that the earlier uses are all by Staubach. This would
seem to be a case where the term was in his personal vocabulary, and few if any
others', until the famous pass against the Vikings.

As to whether the term can be applied to short dump-offs as well as long bombs,
it appears as if Staubach didn't originally make a distinction. It was simply a
desperation pass of any kind. The famous incident cemented the more specific
sense in the general vocabulary.

--
Dave Wilton
dave at wilton.net
http://www.wilton.net/dave.htm