Detroit Lions Lookback: Bobby Layne, The 1952 season
This week’s Lookback remembers legendary Detroit Lions quarterback Bobby Layne and how he led the Lions to the 1952 NFL Championship.
Nowadays it seems almost as if most Detroit Lions fans are leery, sarcastic and pessimistic. In our defense though, it’s not like the organization has had any sustained success in establishing a franchise that we could be proud of as fans. Unfortunately, quite the opposite could be said for the former Portsmouth Spartans.
I don’t want to dredge up the past and laundry list the Lions’ entire snakebitten history but from decades of futility at the quarterback position to early retirements to the lowest of lows during the Matt Millen era, it is rare for Detroit to give their long suffering fans something to truly cheer for.
Overall, the team’s fan base is definitely championship starved and I can’t lie, if the Lions are able to revive some of their championship glory from the olden days in this modern era, it would be absolutely indescribable.
The 1950s were amazing for the Detroit Lions. That decade ushered in unprecedented levels of success for an organization that had been in existence since 1930 and hasn’t been seen since. 1952 was the tipping point.
Coached by Buddy Parker, the Lions finished the year with a 9-3 win-loss record and they won their division outright. Sweeping both games against their hated division rival Green Bay Packers by a total combined score of 100-41 was a feather in the cap for the team.
Their leader on offense that year was their 26 year old quarterback Bobby Layne who had made his Motor City debut two seasons prior in 1950. All nine of Detroit’s regular season wins that year came with Layne at the helm and he threw for 19 touchdowns and tacked on an additional rushing touchdown for good measure.
Bobby Layne’s numbers aren’t impressive by today’s standards by any measure but remember that we are talking about a bygone era of pro football from 1952 where stats were a far cry from what they’ve grown to be today.
While his numbers weren’t all that flashy, Layne’s one-of-kind temperament and on field leadership more than endured to himself to his teammates and city. Even though his off field exploits may have lead to an unceremonious departure from Detroit in subsequent years, his field generalship and ability to seemingly will his team towards wins was uncanny and allowed him to defeat some of his more heralded contemporaries.
The 1952 NFL Championship Game pitted Detroit against the Cleveland Browns coached from the sidelines by the legendary football mind of Paul Brown and led on the field by the great, Otto Graham. The Lions emerged as the victors with a 17-7 win.
Detroit’s championship win was their first of two consecutive titles and the first of three consecutive appearances in the NFL’s championship game.
Though the Lions are considered as one of the NFL’s lesser franchises, they have slowly and surely shed their label as also-rans since 2009.
With a young GM molding the organization and a new head coach with a championship pedigree and a new voice for the team, the Lions look to be on the cusp of fulfilling their roster’s ultimate potential.
Next: Detroit Lions all-time wide receivers in the ‘Tecmo Bowl’ era
Fans are hopeful for Detroit to experience a championship level breakthrough and for the first time in a long time, those aspirations are not totally far fetched.