Elmer Layden - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

After his playing days, Layden was head football coach at Columbia College (Dubuque, Iowa) in 1925-26, where he compiled an 8-5-2 record. From 1927 to 1933 he was head coach at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, going 48-16-6 and winning the 1933 season's Festival of Palms Bowl (a precursor to the Orange Bowl) on New Year's Day, 1934.

Also in 1934, he became head coach and athletic director at Notre Dame, a few years after his legendary mentor Knute Rockne was killed in a plane crash. Layden led the Irish for seven years and posted an overall 47-13-3 docket. His 1935 squad posted one of the greatest wins in school history by rallying to defeat Ohio State 18-13. His 1938 team finished 8-1, losing only to USC in the season finale. This loss cost them a possible consensus national championship, but the team was named national champion by the Dickinson System.

Like Rockne before him, Layden was a goodwill ambassador for Notre Dame. He was able to schedule a home-and-home series with Michigan after meeting with Fielding H. Yost, healing a rift between the two schools. The two teams had not met since 1909, when, after eight straight losses to the Wolverines, the Irish posted their first win. They were scheduled to meet again in 1910, but Michigan canceled the game and refused to play the Irish again. By the time they met again in 1942-43, Layden had left Notre Dame and Frank Leahy had taken his place. Unlike the easygoing Layden, Leahy was intense, and after the Irish had thrashed Michigan by a score of 35-12 in 1943, Wolverine coach and athletic director Fritz Crisler never scheduled the Irish again.

While Layden was a solid, competent coach, he was subjected to criticism during his later years at Notre Dame. Critics felt that his teams played too conservatively and lacked scoring punch. Consequently it was felt that they lost games they should have won.