Elmer Layden
| Elmer Layden | |
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Position (s): Fullback |
Jersey Number (s): 5 (College) |
| born May 4, 1903 in Davenport , Iowa | |
| died on June 30, 1973 in Chicago , Illinois | |
| Career information | |
| Active : 1925 - 1926 | |
| College : University of Notre Dame | |
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| Career statistics | |
| Games (AFL) | 2 |
| Games (college) | 30th |
| gained from it | 28 |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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| College Football Hall of Fame | |
Elmer Francis Layden ( May 4, 1903 in Davenport , Iowa , † June 30, 1973 in Chicago , Illinois ), nickname : The Thin Man , was an American football player and coach , and executive director of the National Football League ( NFL). He played at the University of Notre Dame , among others .
Career
College player
Layden played from 1922 to 1924 in South Bend at the University of Notre Dame with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish trained by Knute Rockne . In the first year it was mainly used as a halfback , but then switched to the position of fullback . Layden was also used in other positions. Together with three other players from the attack by the Fighting Irish, quarterback Harry Stuhldreher and the halfbacks Jim Crowley and Don Miller , he formed the formation known by sports journalist Grantland Rice as the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame , which was extremely feared by the opposing defensive ranks. In 1924, the Indiana team won the national college football championship . On January 1, 1925, his team played in the Rose Bowl against Stanford University and defeated them with 27:10. Layden played brilliantly. So he was able to carry two interceptions and a fumble , which arose from a dropped punt , back into the opposing end zone. He then scored his fourth touchdown by means of a run .
Professional player
Layden played only a few games as a professional footballer in 1925 and 1926. In 1925 he ran for the Hartford Blues , which only became a member of the NFL in 1926. In the American Football League (not identical to the league of the same name founded in 1960!) He only played one game each with the Brooklyn Horsemen and the Rock Island Independents . He could not achieve personal success in the league. The league stopped playing after a year.
Trainer
Layden trained a total of three colleges until 1940 : Columbia College in Dubuque , Iowa , from 1925 to 1926 , Duquesne University in Pittsburgh from 1927 to 1933, and the team at the University of Notre Dame from 1934 to 1940. Although he was able to regularly win more games than lose, he was not awarded a national title with any team.
Managing Director in the NFL
Layden signed a five-year contract with the NFL in 1941 and led them through the difficult times of World War II for an annual income of $ 20,000 . At this point, many players were unavailable because they had been drafted by the American forces. As a result, former players like Bronko Nagurski or Bill Hewitt were reactivated. Due to the lack of players, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers were even forced to temporarily merge to form the Phil-Pitt Steagles . Other teams failed completely. After his contract expired, Layden withdrew into private life.
Off the field
In 1931, Layden starred in the feature film The Spirit of Notre Dame alongside his former teammates Stuhldreher, Miller and Crowley. Lew Ayres played the main role in this Hollywood film .
Honors
Layden was elected All American in 1924 and has been a member of the College Football Hall of Fame since 1951 . He was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) for his performance in the Rose Bowl in 1925 . The US Post honored the Four Horsemen on a postage stamp in 1998.
After the football career
Layden was married and worked as a businessman in Chicago after his football career. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Evanston , Illinois.
Web links
- College Football Hall of Fame Famer Search . July 23, 2012. Archived from the original on February 20, 2012.
- Elmer Layden at the Rose Bowl ( March 20, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
- Elmer Layden in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ History of the Hartford Blues ( Memento of May 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Postage stamp from the Four Horsemen .
- ^ Tomb of Elmer Layden in Find a grave .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Layden, Elmer |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Layden, Elmer Francis (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American football player and coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 4, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Davenport , Iowa |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 30, 1973 |
| Place of death | Chicago , Illinois |