Following up on the Tidbit from several days ago about the body or rolling block, Today's Tidbit looks at pass blocking in the early 1950s. The illustration shows Dick Tamburo, a center and linebacker at Michigan State who was a first-team All-American for the Spartans in 1952. 

Until the mid-1940s, most teams treated pass blocking like run blocking, using driving blocking or body blocking techniques. However, the introduction of the Modern T with the dropback quarterback in 1940 led to a rethinking and the formulation of cup or pocket protection with more passive, zone-oriented blocking. Offensive linemen still could not use their hands, however.

After pass blocking for the last time, Tamburo spent more than a decade as an assistant coach and then turned to administration, becoming the AD at Texas Tech, Arizona State, and Missouri.

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