Longhorns QB Layne Scores Every Point in Cotton Bowl 1946 40-17 Rout

This college football postseason is unlike any other in the sport's history. With the first year of the expanded playoff format, the season will run through the third week of January. Along the way, there will be 11 games that decide the national champion with contests being played on campus for the first time that will incorporate the six major bowls. A full lineup of bowl games kicked off on Dec. 14 and will run concurrently with the playoffs until the Bahamas Bowl on Jan. 4. Included will be the December 26 GameAbove Bowl that will feature Pitt versus the Toledo Rockets. The 46 game post-season schedule would overwhelm even the most devoted college football fan.

Even if a thousand games are played, no one will ever match future Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Bobby Layne’s performance with the Texas Longhorns in the 1946 Cotton Bowl. On the UT campus, undergraduates and alums still talk about the game against Missouri where Layne completed 11 of 12 passes and scored every point in the Longhorns’ 40-27 win. For the day, Layne had three running, two passing, one receiving touchdown and kicked four extra points. (See You Tube video here). In 1948 when #5 Texas‘ beat #6 Alabama 27-7 in the Sugar Bowl, Layne got the Longhorns off to a quick start with his 99-yard first quarter touchdown strike.

As Steelers', Detroit Lions' - for whom he played before arriving in Pittsburgh - and Longhorns' football fans know, Layne’s college and professional career spanned 18 years from 1944 to 1962, is a four-time All-Southwest Conference pick, a six-time Pro Bowler, a six-time All-Pro selection who was chosen for the NFL’s 1950s All Decade team, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967. In 1995, Sports Illustrated named Layne the “toughest quarterback who ever lived” and in 1999, the Sporting News placed him #52 on its list of the 100 greatest players ever.

Layne remains a Pittsburgh legend not only for his heroic efforts that lifted the Steelers out of the doldrums after his abrupt and controversial trade from the Lions but also for his late night, non-stop partying. His propensity for heavy drinking aside, Layne’s achievements are beyond question and earned him a spot in the Steelers’ Hall of Honor.

For all of Layne’s football skills, he could just as easily have been an outstanding major league pitcher. During Layne’s three seasons as a Longhorns’ starter, he posted a 39-7 record including two no hitters. When his pitching career was over, Layne had a perfect 28–0 conference record and set several school and conference records including some that still stand today. Between baseball and football, he was All-Conference an astounding eight times and won four conference championships.

Layne had bids from the New York Giants, the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals to join their staffs. But in the late 1940s, the road to the bigs was long and arduous. Rookies started out in Class D where teams were located in small towns with substandard facilities. From there, players progressed slowly from minor league stop to stop, Class C, then B, A, AA, AAA and finally for the best of them, the major leagues.

Without question, Layne could have contributed to those 1950s Giants, Red Sox and Cardinals teams. A look at their pitching showed little depth. But the slow road wasn’t Layne’s way. Drafted into the NFL by the Steelers in 1948, Layne was the third overall selection. But Layne did not want to play for the Steelers, the last team in the NFL to use the single-wing formation; he was promptly traded to the Chicago Bears who eventually sent him to the Lions.

Following his 1958 trade from Detroit to Pittsburgh, Layne played five seasons with the 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 Steelers and specifically for owner and good friend, Art Rooney.

By the time Layne retired just 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. My only request," Layne once said, "is that I draw my last dollar and my last breath at precisely the same instant." Layne died from intestinal bleeding at age 59 in Lubbock, his passing accelerated by decades of untreated alcoholism. Fellow Steelers reported that Layne frequently drank during games. As a Lions’ teammate said of him, "Layne never lost a game...time just ran out on him."

Bobby Layne, one of the great ones, can rest assured that time will never run out on his unparalleled Cotton Bowl achievements.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com