The Story And Significance Of Bobby Layne - "The Toughest Quarterback Who Ever Lived"

Robert Lawrence Layne  was an American football quarterback who played for 15 seasons in the National Football League. He played for the Chicago Bears in 1948, the New York Bulldogs in 1949, the Detroit Lions from 1950–1958, and the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1958–1962.

Layne was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the third overall pick of the 1948 NFL draft. He played college football at the University of Texas. Layne was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. His number, 22, has been retired by the University of Texas Longhorns and Detroit Lions.

Drafted into the National Football League by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Layne was the third overall selection in the 1948 NFL draft and was the second overall selection in the 1948 AAFC Draft by the Baltimore Colts. Layne did not want to play for the Steelers, the last team in the NFL to use the single-wing formation, so his rights were quickly traded to the Chicago Bears.

He was offered $77,000 to play for the Colts, but George Halas, who attended the Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama and sat with Cherry and Layne after the game, "sweet talked" him into signing with the Bears. He promised a slow rise to fame in the "big leagues" with a no-trade understanding.

After one season with the Bears in 1948, during which Layne was the third-string quarterback behind both Sid Luckman and Johnny Lujack, Layne refused to return and tried to engineer his own trade to the Green Bay Packers. Halas, preoccupied with fending off a challenge from the AAFC, traded Layne to the New York Bulldogs for their first-round pick in the 1950 draft and $50,000 cash. The cash was to be paid in four installments.

With Layne at quarterback, the Bulldogs won only one game and lost 11, but Layne played well and developed quickly. Layne compared one season with the soon-to-be-defunct New York Bulldogs as worth five seasons with any other NFL team.

In 1950, he was traded to the Detroit Lions for wide receiver Bob Mann, and the Lions agreed to make the final three payments to Halas (Halas later remarked that the Lions should have continued the yearly payments indefinitely to him in view of Layne's performance). For the next five years, Layne was reunited with his great friend and Highland Park High School teammate Doak Walker, and together they helped make Detroit into a champion.

In 1952, Layne led the Lions to their first NFL Championship in 17 years, and then did so again in 1953 for back-to-back league titles. They fell short of a three-peat in 1954 when they lost 56–10 to Cleveland Browns in the NFL championship game, a loss which Layne explained by saying, "I slept too much last night."

In 1955, the team finished last in their conference and Walker surprisingly retired at the top of his game. As Walker had been the team's kicker, Layne took over the kicking duties in 1956 and 1957, and in 1956 led the league in field-goal accuracy. In 1956, the Lions finished second in the conference, missing the championship game by only one point. In 1957, the season of the Lions' most recent NFL championship, Layne broke his leg in three places in a pileup during the 11th game of the 12-game season. His replacement, Tobin Rote, finished the season and led the Lions to victory in the championship game in Detroit, a 59–14 rout of the Cleveland Browns.

After the second game of the 1958 season, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Buddy Parker, formerly in Detroit, arranged a trade on October 6 that brought Layne to the Steelers. During his eight seasons in Detroit, the Lions won three NFL championships and Layne played in four Pro Bowls, made first-team All-Pro twice, and at various times led the league in over a dozen single-season statistical categories.

Following the trade, Layne played five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Though he made the Pro Bowl two more times, he never made it back to the playoffs, and the team's best finish was second in the conference in 1962. During his last year in the NFL, he published his autobiography Always on Sunday. Later he stated that the biggest disappointment in his football career was having never won a championship for the Pittsburgh Steelers and specifically, Art Rooney.

By the time Layne retired before the 1963 season, he owned the NFL records for passing attempts (3,700), completions (1,814), touchdowns (196), yards (26,768), and interceptions (243). He left the game as one of the last players to play without a face mask and was credited with creating the two-minute drill. Doak Walker said of him, "Layne never lost a game...time just ran out on him."

Following his retirement as a player, Layne served as the quarterback coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1963 to 1965 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1965. He was a scout for the Dallas Cowboys from 1966–67. He later unsuccessfully sought the head coaching job at Texas Tech, his last professional involvement with the sport.

For his on-the-field exploits, Layne was inducted into a vast assortment of halls of fame. These included the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1960, the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, the state halls of fame in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the Texas High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1981, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Tom Landry. He was presented alongside fellow honoree Doak Walker.

In 2006, he was a finalist on the initial ballot for pre-1947 inductees to the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a finalist again the following year.

In a special issue in 1995, Sports Illustrated called Layne "The Toughest Quarterback Who Ever Lived." In 1999, he was ranked number 52 on the Sporting News' list of Football's 100 Greatest Players. After retirement, Layne spent 24 years as a businessman back in Texas in Lubbock, working with his old college coach, Blair Cherry. His business ventures included farms, bowling alleys, real estate, oil, and the stock market.

In his younger days, he was often accompanied by Alex Karras, and was well known for his late-night bar-hopping and heavy drinking. It was said of him, "He would drink six days a week and play football on Sunday", and Layne would in fact drink during games - this heavy drinking may have contributed to his death.

Layne is reported to have stated: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself." That line was later used by baseball player Mickey Mantle, a Dallas neighbor and friend of Layne's, who also died in part due to decades of excess alcohol consumption. Layne suffered from cancer during his last years.

For his on-the-field exploits, Layne was inducted into a vast assortment of halls of fame. These included the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1960, the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, the state halls of fame in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the Texas High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1981, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Tom Landry. He was presented alongside fellow honoree Doak Walker.

In 2006, he was a finalist on the initial ballot for pre-1947 inductees to the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a finalist again the following year.

In a special issue in 1995, Sports Illustrated called Layne "The Toughest Quarterback Who Ever Lived." In 1999, he was ranked number 52 on the Sporting News' list of Football's 100 Greatest Players. After retirement, Layne spent 24 years as a businessman back in Texas in Lubbock, working with his old college coach, Blair Cherry. His business ventures included farms, bowling alleys, real estate, oil, and the stock market.

In his younger days, he was often accompanied by Alex Karras, and was well known for his late-night bar-hopping and heavy drinking. It was said of him, "He would drink six days a week and play football on Sunday", and Layne would in fact drink during games - this heavy drinking may have contributed to his death.

Layne is reported to have stated: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself." That line was later used by baseball player Mickey Mantle, a Dallas neighbor and friend of Layne's, who also died in part due to decades of excess alcohol consumption. Layne suffered from cancer during his last years.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

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Who Were The New York Yanks?

The New York Yanks were an American football team that played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons, but started as a franchise in 1949 as the New York Bulldogs.

The team began in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, owned by Kate Smith's manager, Ted Collins. He wanted a team in New York City, but had to be content with one in Boston after the New York Giants refused to let his new team share the New York area.

In 1949, however, Collins, suspecting that the All-America Football Conference was on its last legs, got permission to move the Yanks to New York; rather than a formal relocation, however, Collins asked the NFL to fold his Boston franchise and grant him a new one for New York, most likely as a tax write-off. This new team played as the New York Bulldogs and shared the Polo Grounds with the Giants during the 1949 season. The team also drafted in the first round before the 1949 season a future Hall of Fame halfback in Doak Walker who would not play a single down for the team.

The 1949 Bulldogs were a disaster on the field (1–10–1) as well as the box office, drawing just 48,007 fans to their six home games, with by far the largest crowd (17,704) coming against the Giants. The team even had a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Bobby Layne in 1949. The worst came during a 13-13 tie with the Washington Redskins on October 30, which drew a meagre 3,678 fans, the third lowest attendance at any professional football game since 1939 (excluding 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited attendance).

In 1950, Collins changed his franchise's name to the New York Yanks and moved to Yankee Stadium, essentially merging the woeful Bulldogs with the New York Yankees of the now-defunct AAFC, as part of a deal in which he bought the rights to most of the Yankees players. (Eighteen players from the '49 Yankees played for the Yanks in 1950, while only four players from the 1949 Bulldogs which included Joe Domnanovich, Joe Golding, John Nolan and John Rauch.)

After splitting their first two games, the Yanks went on a five-game winning streak, putting them on top of the NFL's new National Conference with a 6–1 record. Led by quarterback George Ratterman (who the Yanks acquired after his old team, the Buffalo Bills, failed to be accepted in the NFL-AAFC merger), New York rolled up 190 points in those five victories. (Attendance improved as well; after attracting barely 30,000 total to their first three home games (all Yanks victories), 48,642 showed up for their next home game against Chicago, followed by 42,673 against the Rams.) That proved to be the team's high-water mark, however; a porous defense led to a four-game losing streak that knocked the Yanks out of the race. A win over the expiring Baltimore franchise (playing its last game) upped their final record to 7–5, good enough for third place and a definite improvement over 1949.

The football Yanks had two future Hall of Fame linemen in Art Donovan and Mike McCormack in 1951.

Their biggest opponent turned out to be their co-tenants, the baseball Yankees, who won the American League pennant, and did not want the field torn up during the 1951 World Series.

The Yanks were forced to move their first two home games to Los Angeles and Detroit, both of which were blowout losses. Their next five games resulted in four losses by a total of 16 points and one tie, all but one of which were also played on the road (only four of their 12 games for the season were at home).

With a 0–6–1 record, the Yanks season was already over, and their attendance crashed in response: their sole home game in that span, a 29–27 loss to Green Bay, drew just 7,351 fans.

The Yanks finished the 1951 season with only one victory, a 31–28 win in their road game against Green Bay. Their final game, at Yankee Stadium against the Giants, was played on an icy field with a game time temperature of 17 °F (−8 °C), and drew only 6,658 fans to Yankee Stadium.
The Yanks lost 27–17 to finish their season at 1–9–2 and last place in the league.

After only 37,268 people attended their four home games in 1951 (three losses and a tie), the New York Yanks were reported to have been sold back to the league following the season, but it is more likely the franchise was simply cancelled by the NFL.

In any case, shortly thereafter, a group of Dallas businessmen bought the Yanks' roster and player contracts, though it was ostensibly a new franchise, and moved them to Dallas as the Dallas Texans, playing at the Cotton Bowl. That franchise, in turn, failed after only one season, and the remains were awarded to a Baltimore-based group that used it to start the new Baltimore Colts.

However, the NFL and the Colts organization (which relocated to Indianapolis in 1984) do not consider the Colts to be a continuation of the New York Yanks or any other franchise.

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 An NFL game on Thanksgiving Day 1952, between the Dallas Texans and the Chicago Bears, which had been moved to Akron, Ohio due to paltry ticket sales in Dallas, drew only 2,208 people; meanwhile, an AAFC game between in Miami between the Miami Seahawks and the Brooklyn Dodgers on December 13, 1946 drew just 2,340 people.

 Bruce Alford, George Brown, Brad Ecklund, Don Garza, Sherman Howard, Duke Iverson, Harvey Johnson, Bob Kennedy, Lou Kusseow, Pete Layden, Paul Mitchell, Barney Poole, Martin Ruby, Jack Russell, Ed Sharkey, Joe Signaigo, John Wozniak and Buddy Young

Who Were The Original Baltimore Colts?

The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The first team to bear the name Baltimore Colts, it was a member of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1947 to 1949 and then joined the National Football League for one season before folding. The Colts were one of the least successful teams in the AAFC and NFL both on and off the field, winning only 11 of their 54 games in their history. In 1953, Baltimore was granted an expansion team that revived the Colts name. Since 1984, this team is now the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts' origin is with the Miami Seahawks, one of the charter franchises of the AAFC. After playing a single disastrous season, the Seahawks were seized by the league, and were purchased and reorganized by a group of businessmen as the Baltimore Colts. The new team struggled through the next three seasons, but managed to grow a sizable fan base in Baltimore. In 1949, the Colts were one of three AAFC teams, along with the San Francisco 49ers and the Cleveland Browns, to be brought into the NFL following the AAFC-NFL merger. They played only during the 1950 season before financial pressures forced them to fold.

The All-America Football Conference had initially intended to place a team in Baltimore in its opening 1946 season, but this fell through as its prospective owner, retired boxer Gene Tunney, was unable to secure a stadium deal. Needing an eighth team to avoid byes, the AAFC granted a franchise to a group of Miami-based boosters, the Miami Seahawks.

Unfortunately, the Seahawks were beset with problems: they were in the second-smallest market in the NFL or AAFC (ahead of only Green Bay), while Seahawks owner Harvey Hester was the only AAFC owner who was not a millionaire. The season saw them play seven of their first eight games on the road, and combined with a very poor team, the Seahawks drew a paltry total of 49,151 fans to their seven home games.

At the end of the season, the team was $350,000 in debt, including $80,000 in outstanding travel and payroll costs. This was well beyond Hester's ability to pay, and to make matters worse, his boosters walked away upon realizing the extent of the debt. Hester was subsequently declared bankrupt, leaving AAFC Commissioner Jim Crowley with no option but to seize the franchise.

Five businessmen, led by Washington, D.C. attorney Robert D. Rodenburg, made a bid to purchase the Seahawks' assets and use them to start a new team in Baltimore. The AAFC quickly approved the deal, and the team was reorganized as the Baltimore Colts, a name chosen due to the city's long history of horse racing and breeding. Due to the club's inherited talent drought, the Colts were permitted to recruit a player from each of the AAFC's four strongest teams.

Nevertheless, the Colts struggled financially through the 1947 season, leading the owners to walk away after the season. The team was little better on the field, winning only two games to finish in the Eastern Division basement.

Sensing a crisis, the AAFC supplied its three weakest teams (the Colts, the Chicago Rockets and the Brooklyn Dodgers) with superior players. The team found new ownership, but its financial crisis was not resolved.

Even with stronger players, the Colts were barely competitive on the field in 1948. However, the Eastern Division was rather poor that year; none of its four teams tallied a winning record. The Colts tied for first with the Buffalo Bills with a 7–7 record, and lost the division championship playoff to the Bills. The team then regressed in 1949, finishing dead last with a 1–11 record.

In 1948, both the AAFC and the NFL were struggling, and determined that the continued viability of professional football depended on a merger between the leagues. The leagues began negotiating a deal in which three AAFC teams would be brought into the NFL, and the owners of the others would be compensated for their interest. The Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, clearly the AAFC's strongest teams, were obvious choices.

It initially appeared that the Bills would be the third team in the merger. However, the Colts' owners pressed to be included in the Bills' place, even though they were one of the weakest teams in the league, but George Preston Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins, initially refused to cooperate. He considered Baltimore to be part of his home territory, and believed the Colts would infringe on his rights.

Marshall finally relented in exchange for the Colts paying him $150,000 for the infringement. With this obstacle overcome, the merger was finalized, and the Colts were brought into the NFL.

The Bills were arguably a better choice for entry into the NFL; they were in a more isolated market, had stronger attendance and performed better on the field. The newly merged league's owners scheduled a second vote to add the Bills in order to balance the schedule. However, in those days, adding a new team required a unanimous vote, and the Chicago Bears's George Halas and the Los Angeles Rams' Dan Reeves persuaded two other clubs to vote with them in blocking the merger. (The Bills were not the same as the modern Buffalo Bills franchise, which joined the NFL in 1970.)

The Colts were nominally part of the "National Conference" along with the other eastern teams in the merged league, but unlike the other twelve teams, Baltimore was scheduled as a "swing team" and played every team in the NFL over the course of the 1950 season; the other twelve teams played a double round robin schedule in their conference, plus one crossover game with the opposing conference and a game with Baltimore.

Despite the addition of the Bills players, the Colts struggled through the 1950 season, ending with a record of 1–11–0.

Facing a financial crisis, Colts owner Abraham Watner sold the team and its player contracts back to the NFL for $50,000, and the team officially folded.

Interestingly enough, the Baltimore Colts in 1950 had two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Y.A. Tittle and George Blanda (only one game) on their roster. Tittle was the Colts starter for most of his time with Colts but after three disappointing seasons went on to be one of the best quarterbacks of his generation. They also had another future Hall of Famer in Art Donavan. The team even drafted Bobby Layne second overall in the 1948 draft but he ended up playing in the NFL and eventually went on to have a Hall of Fame career. In 1950, just like Blanda, they also had Frank Filchock for one game, a player who was banned from the NFL. Another quarterback the Colts had was Adrian Burk. Burk in his rookie season would not win a game in his five starts but had a solid career with the Philadelphia Eagles including a seven touchdown pass game in 1954. Burk who was a first round pick by the Colts only played one year for them since the team folded and he went on to the Eagles then later became an official in the NFL after his playing career.

Despite this, fan support continued in many quarters: notably, the team's marching band and fan club remained intact. Three years later, another franchise, also named the Colts, came to Baltimore.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

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