# Origin of Football Term "Hail Mary"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-football-term-hail-mary/216700>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 3, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-football-term-hail-mary/216700 "2003-12-03T13:25:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-football-term-hail-mary/216700/21 "2003-12-05T16:40:18Z")

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The only cite I will use is my own memory. I distictly remember Staubach calling it a Hail Mary pass in the after game interview and then explaining that he meant that he threw it and then began praying that it would be caught. The comment greatly ammused my father and made an impression on me even though it came from a hated Cowboy.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-football-term-hail-mary/216700/22 "2003-12-06T04:02:10Z")

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As promised, an update.

Barry Popik, the premier searcher of databases, found a 1972 cite, which he posted to the American Dialect Society Mailing List after my 1974 find.

It also was a quote involving Staubach, from the Sporting News. It was a quote from his Navy coach, Wayne Hardin.

> [@](#):
>
> "I remember a game at Michigan. We were on the 20 and Roger rolled right and got hammered in.  
> He was bobbing and weaving and kept retreating, back to the 30. He was  
> surrounded and upended.  
> "He was parallel to the ground, his feet in mid-air and he threw a pass to  
> Pat Donnelly, who made a one-yard gain. Afterward, I asked if he really saw  
> Pat or if he was throwing it away.  
> “He said, ‘Let’s just call it my Hail Mary Play.’”
> 
> So, I’ll wager that Staubach was the popularizer of the term. Perhaps not the inventer, but he certaily seems to be in on the ground floor of its use in the popular press.

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**Author:** ![doctordoowop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-football-term-hail-mary/216700/23 "2003-12-06T05:49:31Z")

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Hail Mary was also used by late Laker announcer Chick Hearn to refer to a last second desperation shot in basketball.

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