Triple threat man

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In college football, the phrase triple threat man refers to a player who excels at all three of the skills of running, passing, and kicking. A football historian states that "in 1912 Pop Warner sprang his single wing or 'Carlisle' formation on the football world, and the triple-threat back was born."^[1] Prior to this, passing had been a less important part of the game in the East.

However, in the same volume, the author, College Football Hall of Fame coach David M. Nelson, writes of the introduction of the forward pass by St. Louis University coach Eddie Cochems in 1906. Some consider Cochems' star passer, Bradbury Robinson, to be the first "triple threat man". But because St. Louis was geographically isolated from both the dominating teams of the era and the major sports media (newspapers)... all centered in and focused on the East... Cochems' revolutionary offense was not picked up by other teams. Pass-oriented offenses would not be adopted by the major football powers until the next decade.

The term was used frequently by sportwriters in the 1920s and thereafter. Thus a 1920 New York Times article reports that a player

is well built, tall, and possessed apparently of natural football ability. He is a first-class punter, an excellent drop kicker, an adept thrower of forward passes and a hard, fast runner. He would be the ideal triple threat man for the backfield.^[2]

Triple threat is a term also used in basketball when a player with the ball is in a position near the three point line to launch three different offensives. The player may shoot from the current position, pass to another player closer to the basket, or drive the ball themselves to score a closer shot.

The term "triple threat man" subsequently became popular as a way of describing any man with three conspicuous talents, e.g.

When "Sail Away," the first of the new season's big musical, berths Tuesday night at the Broadhurst, there will be a program line you don't see often these days. It is the crediting of words, music, and direction to a single name. The name in this instance—and of course—is Noël Coward, a triple threat from 'way back.^[3]

"Triple threat" is a common way of describing any situation that the phrase literally fits, e.g."

Islam is often portrayed as a triple threat: political, civilizational[sic], and demographic.^[4]

The expression triple threat is commonly used in the performing arts to describe a performer who is equally talented at singing, acting, and dancing.

[edit] See also

• Triple Threat (in ECW professional wrestling in the 1990s)
• Triple Threat (game show)
• A Triple Threat Man (story by P. G. Wodehouse)

[edit] References

1. ^ Nelson, David M. (1994). The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0874134552. , p. 156
2. ^ "Progress by Columbia. Students See Football Gain in First Season Under O'Neill." The New York Times, November 23, 1920, p. 22
3. ^ Nichols, Lewis (1961), "Triple Threat. Coward Yields Fourth Post in New Show." The New York Times, October 1, 1961, p. X1. Nichols goes on to note that Coward had formerly been a "quadruple threat" but, in this show, is not also performing.
4. ^ Esposito, John L.; François Burgat (2003). Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in the Middle East and Europe. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813531985.