We can thank Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach in part for that. We also start to see its usage shift from any act of desperation, to specifically describe long, last-second touchdown attempts. But over time the term got more widespread usage, especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Hail Mary plays would remain largely exclusive to Catholic universities at first. After the game, Notre Dame head coach Elmer Layden, who had been one of the Four Horsemen, called it a “Hail Mary play.” In 1935, Notre Dame beats Ohio State with a late, 19-yard touchdown. It’s around this time that a “Hail Mary” came to refer to any kind of play made out of desperation. Crowley would tell this story well into the 1930s. The team seemed to like the idea, and would go repeat the ritual before other touchdowns. Well according to Crowley, lineman Noble Kizer suggested saying a Hail Mary before the team’s first touchdown in a 1922 game against Georgia Tech. So where does the Hail Mary play come from? These men were Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden. It was actually just a nickname given to Notre Dame’s backfield in the early 1920s under coach Knute Rockne. But football’s Four Horsemen did not bring war, death, or famine. Perhaps ironically, applying the Hail Mary to sports is owed to football’s Four Horsemen. So linguistically, hailing Jesus is probably a slight against him and a sign of disrespect? Hail Mary & The Four Horsemen Hence, people felt the need to “hail” her.īut why no Hail Jesus? Poking around some Catholic blogs and other prayers, one thing is clear: there is a huge distinction between worship, owed to God and honor, owed to Mary. So Mary holds significance in the church because of her immaculate conception and the birth of Jesus. Regardless, if we take the prayer at face value, Mary is blessed among women because of the “fruit of her womb,” also known as Jesus. Remember that there is a diversity of opinions not only in the Christian religion, but within the Catholic Church itself. Okay, so this is one of those things that depends almost entirely on who you ask. In case you’re wondering, the “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners” as an independent prayer caught on in like 1555. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
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“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. It’s that version, after translation, gives you the following. It was petitioned to be thrown in around 1495 thanks to Girolamo Savonarola. However, the west’s contemporary version of the prayer did not arise from Greek origins. Praying for Jesus’ mom dates back to the Greeks, with early forms of the prayer dating back to at most 1050. It’s pulled straight from the Gospel of Luke, though because Christianity is split into a bunch of different ways of following the Bible (most of which are mutually exclusive or have historically not liked each other at all) the actual use of the Hail Mary prayer differs. The whole thing is in regards to Jesus’ mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. We’re not going to do a super extensive religious deep dive, but the Hail Mary is basically ubiquitous in Catholic prayer.
But the name is significant for good reason it’s Latin for “Hail Mary.”
You might recognize Ave Maria as that song that plays in tons of movies and trailers.
Where did the phrase originate? A History of the Hail Mary Pass Ave Maria So let’s explore history of the Hail Mary pass. This is especially true if you’re into American sports, where the term Hail Mary is used a lot. People just kind of say it when they’re about to do something that probably won’t work. The idea of the Hail Mary anything is a kind of cultural touchstone.