Layne, the Odd Man Out at QB

George Halas, the father of the National Football League, was a shrewd operator who became the winningest coach in the game, but he did make mistakes. One of the biggest was letting Bobby Layne get away from the Chicago Bears after his rookie year in 1948.

Layne, who died Monday, explained it this way: “Johnny Lujack and I were rookies together at Chicago. Mr. Halas thought Sid Luckman was going to retire, but Sid decided to play two or three more years.

“Mr. Halas was a great man. He told me, ‘Bobby, I can’t afford to keep three quarterbacks and I can’t make Sid retire. He’s Jewish, which means a lot of season tickets. Johnny’s from Notre Dame, which means more season tickets. And you’re a Baptist from Texas. You have to understand.’ ”

Layne was traded to the New York Bulldogs, where he played a year before going to the Detroit Lions. The Bulldogs were a hapless franchise owned by Ted Collins, the manager of singer Kate Smith.

Said Layne: “Every time Kate got a sore throat, we worried about getting paid. If she couldn’t sing ‘God Bless America,’ there wouldn’t have been any checks.”

Add Layne: After retirement, his interests included oil and other business ventures, but he expressed the following philosophy: “If a man works after noon, the job is too big for him in the first place.”

Last add Layne: Dallas Cowboy Coach Tom Landry had the ultimate accolade for Layne, describing him to Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post as “the only guy I know who could play football without training camp.”

Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune quotes Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls as saying: “I’ll do what I can to help the team. If it’s scoring, it’s scoring. If it’s rebounding, it’s rebounding. If it’s defense, it’s defense. I’m just trying to be the utility man.”

Said Lincicome: “If you believe that, get Lee Iacocca on the phone. I want him to fix my transmission.”

Trivia Time: How did Penn State get the name of Nittany Lions? (Answer below.)

Ouch: From The Sporting News: “Former Golden State Coach John Bach, now an assistant with the Chicago Bulls, remembers Warrior center Joe Barry Carroll, but not fondly. ‘Overall, it was like living with a corpse,’ Bach said.”

Add Sporting News: It reports that William Perry has yet to meet his 320-pound maximum weight for his twice-weekly $1,000 bonuses from the Chicago Bears.

Coach Mike Ditka was asked if Perry had been close to where he wanted him.

“Yeah,” Ditka said. “He’s been in Chicago all the time.”

From former catcher Joe Garagiola: “Show me a guy who can handle a pitching staff and I’ll show you a guy hitting .210.”

Wait a Minute: Said Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler, explaining the recent dominance of the Pacific 10 in the Rose Bowl: “You’ve got to remember that most of the years, we’re playing a team on their home turf in UCLA or USC. That’s a tremendous advantage. It’s tough to win on the road against an average team, let alone a champion from a conference.”

So how did the Big Ten manage to win 12 of the first 13 games in the series? In the first one, Illinois beat UCLA, 45-14. In the second, Michigan beat USC, 49-0.

Trivia Answer: The school is located in the Nittany Valley at the foot of Mount Nittany, where mountain lions have been known to roam.

Quotebook

Former Kansas City Chief Coach Hank Stram, making his first public speaking appearance in Kansas City since being fired in 1974: “I gave Lamar Hunt 15 of the best years of my life. Then I wanted to give him a couple of bad ones and he fired me.”