Bobby Layne


Robert Lawrence Layne was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for 15 seasons in the National Football League. He played college football for the Texas Longhorns before being selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the third overall pick of the 1948 NFL draft and traded to the Chicago Bears. Layne played one season with the Bears, and then with the New York Bulldogs in 1949, the Detroit Lions from 1950 to 1958, and the Steelers from 1958 to 1962.
Layne was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. His number 22 is retired by the Texas Longhorns and the Lions.

Early life

Born in Santa Anna, Texas, Layne grew up on a farm in Coleman County just north of Santa Anna. His father, only 36, died of a heart attack when Layne was eight years old. His mother, Bea, was so destitute, she could not afford to keep the family together. Layne's two sisters stayed with his mother while he was sent to Fort Worth to live with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and Wade Hampton. The Hamptons eventually adopted Layne and moved to Highland Park, Texas, which was then a suburb just north of Dallas. He attended Highland Park High School in University Park. Layne's best friend and football teammate was fellow future hall of famer Doak Walker, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1948 for the SMU Mustangs and a pro teammate with the Detroit Lions.
In his senior year, Layne was named to the all-state football team, played in the Oil Bowl All-Star game, and led Highland Park to the state semifinals where they fell to eventual state champions San Angelo, 21–20.

College football

One of the most successful quarterbacks ever to play for Texas, Layne was selected to four straight All-Southwest Conference teams from 1944 to 1947, and was a consensus All-American in his senior year. World War II caused a shortage of players, and rules were changed to allow freshmen to play on the varsity, thereby allowing Layne a four-year career.
Freshman play was sporadically allowed by various conferences during wartime, but would not be allowed universally until the rules were permanently changed in 1972. In his freshman season, Layne became a very rare player to start his first game. He missed his second game due to an injury and was replaced by future North Texas transfer Zeke Martin, but Layne played the rest of the season and led the Longhorns to within one point of the Southwest Conference Championship when they lost to TCU 7–6 on a missed extra point.
Prior to and during his sophomore year, he spent eight months in the Merchant Marine, serving with his friend Doak Walker. He missed the first six games of the season, and was replaced by Jack Halfpenny. The last game he missed was the team's only loss, to Rice, by one point. Texas went 10–1, won the Southwest Conference, and despite playing only half a season, Layne again made the all-conference team.
In the Cotton Bowl Classic following that season, Texas beat Missouri 40–27, and Layne played perhaps the best game of his career. He set several NCAA and Cotton Bowl records that have lasted into the 21st century. In that game, he completed 11 of 12 passes and accounted for every one of the team's 40 points, scoring four touchdowns, kicking four field goals, and throwing for two other scores, thus he was named one of the game's outstanding players.
In 1946, the Longhorns were ranked first in the preseason for the first time, but after beating No. 20 Arkansas, they were upset by #16 Rice and later by unranked TCU. They went 8–2, finished third in the conference, ranked fifteenth nationally, and missed out on any bowl games. Layne led the Southwest Conference in total offense, total passing, and punting average. Despite the unexpected finish, Layne was named All-Conference again and finished eighth in Heisman Trophy balloting to Glenn Davis of Army.
In 1947, Blair Cherry replaced Dana X. Bible as head coach at Texas and he decided to install the T-formation offense. Cherry, Layne, and their wives spent several weeks in Wisconsin studying the new offense at the training camps of the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. The change was a success, as Layne led the Southwest Conference in passing yards, made the All-Conference and All-American teams, and finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting to John Lujack of Notre Dame. The Longhorns, after beating #19 North Carolina, started the season ranked third. They then beat No. 15 Oklahoma, but as happened in 1945, Texas was again denied an undefeated season by a missed extra point. After coming back once against Walker's No. 8 SMU, Texas again found itself behind late in the game.
Layne engineered a fourth-quarter touchdown drive that would have tied the game, but kicker Frank Guess pushed the extra point wide and the Longhorns lost 14–13. They fell to eighth, and finished behind SMU in the Southwest Conference, but gained an invitation to the Sugar Bowl, where Layne and the Longhorns beat number-six Alabama. As a result of his 10-of-24, 183-yard performance, Layne won the inaugural Miller-Digby award presented to the game's most valuable player. The Longhorns finished ranked fifth, the best finish in Layne's career. Layne finished 6th in Heismann voting that season as well. Layne finished his Texas career with a school-record 3,145 passing yards on 210 completions and 400 attempts and 28 wins.
Layne was one of the first inductees into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame and made the Cotton Bowl's All-Decade team for the 1940s. Later, both of Layne's sons, Rob and Alan, played college football. Robert L. Layne Jr., was a kicker for Texas, playing on the 1969 national championship team, and Alan played tight end for TCU in 1973.

Records

  • NCAA & Cotton Bowl - Most touchdowns responsible for, bowl game, tied by Chuck Long in 1984, Dan LeFevour in 2007 and Paul Smith in 2008
  • NCAA & Cotton Bowl - Most points responsible for, bowl game
  • NCAA - Highest completion rate, bowl game, surpassed by Mike Bobo in 1998
  • NCAA - Most points scored, bowl game, surpassed by Barry Sanders in 1988
  • UT - Most Pass attempts, career, surpassed by Bret Stafford in 1986
  • UT - Most Pass completions, career, surpassed by Stafford in 1986
  • UT - Passing Yards, career, surpassed by Stafford in 1986
  • UT - Lowest percentage of passes intercepted, career, surpassed by Donnie Little in 1981
  • UT - Most starts, career, surpassed by Marty Akins in 1975
  • UT - Best winning percentage, career, surpassed by T Jones in 1952
  • UT - Most quarterback victories, career, surpassed by Vince Young in 2005
  • UT - Most touchdowns, game, tied by Jim Bertelsen in 1969, Steve Worster in 1970, Earl Campbell in 1977 and A.J. "Jam" Jones in 1979; surpassed by Ricky Williams in 1997
  • UT - Most touchdown passes, career, surpassed by Peter Gardere in 1992
  • UT - Most points scored, game, broke his own record of 24 set earlier that year, surpassed by Williams in 1997
  • Cotton Bowl - Most consecutive completions, game, tied by Tony Graziani in 1996 and Clint Stoerner in 2000
  • Cotton Bowl - Highest completion rate, game
  • Cotton Bowl - Most points scored, game and career
  • Cotton Bowl - Most touchdowns, game & career, tied by Tony Temple in 2008
  • Cotton Bowl - Most points responsible for, career
  • Cotton Bowl - Most touchdowns responsible for, game & career
  • Cotton Bowl - Most points rushing, game, surpassed by Temple in 2008
  • Cotton Bowl - Most touchdowns rushing, game, tied by Dicky Maegle in 1954 and Jim Brown in 1957, surpassed by Temple in 2008
  • Cotton Bowl - Most touchdowns rushing, game, tied by Maegle in 1954, Brown in 1957, and Jim Swink in 1957, surpassed by Temple in 2008
  • Cotton Bowl - Most yards per attempt, game, surpassed by James Street in 1969

    College baseball

Layne was one of the best pitchers to ever play at Texas. He made the All-Southwest Conference team all four years he played, and played on teams that won all three Conference Championships available to them. He won his first career start, in 1944, when he was managed by his future football coach Blair Cherry, versus Southwestern, 14–1, in a complete-game, 15-strikeout performance. Similar to football, he missed the 1945 season because he was in the Merchant Marines, but returned to play three more seasons. In 1946, he threw the school's first and second no-hitters and posted a 12–4 record. In 1947, he went 12–1 and led Texas to a third-place finish in the first NCAA baseball Tournament.
In 1948, he went 9–0 and again helped Texas win the Southwest Conference, but though they qualified for it, Texas decided not to attend the 1948 NCAA tournament because the players felt they had too many obligations with family and jobs.
Texas went 60–10 overall, and 41–2 in the SWC during Layne's final three years in Austin. When his career was over, Layne had a perfect 28–0 conference record and set several school and conference records during his time on the team, including a few that still stand today. Between baseball and football, he was All-Conference an astounding eight times and won four conference championships.
In 1948, after earning his degree in physical education, Layne played a season of minor league ball for the Lubbock Hubbers baseball team of the Class C West Texas–New Mexico League. He went 6–5 with a 7.29 ERA, and had bids from the New York Giants, the Boston Red Sox, and the St. Louis Cardinals to join their staffs, but he preferred to go to the National Football League, where he could play immediately rather than grind out several years in the minor-league system.

Records

  • Southwest Conference & UT - Most conference victories, career, pitcher
  • Southwest Conference & UT - Highest conference winning percentage, career
  • UT - Most runs scored, game, tied 11 times since
  • UT - Most shutouts, season, tied Bus Gillet, surpassed by Burt Hooton in 1969
  • UT - Winning percentage, season , surpassed by Hooton in 1969
  • UT - Most bases on balls, career, surpassed by Richard Wortham in 1976
  • Southwest Conference & UT - Most strikeouts, season, surpassed by Hooton in 1969
  • UT - Most strikeouts, career, tied by Hooton in 1971, surpassed by Wortham in 1976
  • UT - Most strikeouts per nine innings pitched, career, surpassed by Hooton in 1971
  • UT - Most wins, career, surpassed by Hooton in 1971
  • UT - Highest winning percentage, career, surpassed by Terry Jackson in 1961
  • UT - Most innings pitched, career, surpassed by Wortham in 1976
  • Southwest Conference & UT - Most no-hitters, season, tied by Hooton
  • Southwest Conference & UT - Most no-hitters, career, tied by James Street, Hooton and Greg Swindell
  • Southwest Conference & UT - Most consecutive conference victories
  • Southwest Conference - Most strikeouts in conference play, season
Bold means "active" record; as the Southwest Conference became defunct in 1996, these records have essentially become permanent