Jim Shofner
American football player and coach
James Bernard Shofner (December 18, 1935 – July 17, 2021) was an American football player and coach at both the collegiate and professional levels. He was twice a head coach: first at Texas Christian University (TCU) from 1974 to 1976, then in an interim capacity with the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) in 1990.
Early life and playing career
Shofner was a four-sport star at North Side High School in Fort Worth, Texas, serving as captain of three squads. He played college football on both sides of the ball at Texas Christian, leading the Southwest Conference in rushing in 1957 with 682 yards, while scoring six touchdowns. He was a first round draft selection of the Cleveland Browns the following year, and after seeing little action as a rookie, became a starting cornerback in 1959.
During this period, the magic that Paul Brown had enjoyed during his first decade as head coach of the Browns had faded, with the team failing to reach the playoffs during Shofner's six years with the team. On March 17, 1964, Shofner announced his retirement, citing a business opportunity involving the insurance business in which he was involved. That opportunity apparently disappeared when Shofner signed as an assistant coach at Texas Christian, his alma mater, beginning a three-decade run in the coaching ranks.
Coaching career
Shofner served for one season in his role at TCU, before returning to the NFL as an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers on March 6, 1967. Despite a head coaching change after the first season, Shofner would stay with the team for another six years, starting on defense before shifting to the offensive side.
The public source identifies “Jim Shofner” as american football player and coach. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Shofner, American and football.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6198093. The first chronological checks are 1935, 2021, 1974 and 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jim Shofner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.