Luc Laylin

Biography

Kliff Kingsbury was born in South Bay, Texas on June 5th, 1931 (age 24 years). He is of Irish origin; the family lived in East Texas for a number of years before moving west. Prior to his second year in high school he played football at East Texas State College before transferring to nearby Baylor University. His football abilities were obvious from a young age and he was recruited by a number of colleges to play football. He finished his collegiate career with 28 games and just one start and managed to play in two game-winning drives; one for the 3rd string offense and the other by himself in a close battle with the Baylor Bears. He eventually returned to play football for the Washington Redskins. After his stint with that team was over he attended graduate school for University of North Texas but could not keep up the studies. His reasons of being a football player became known as "the Texas Legend".

His time with North Texas was disappointing and he headed off to play football for Northern Iowa and ended up playing for the Dukes men's basketball team. Aided by his old teammate Bill Washington he had to win both of the basketball games he played to stay in the tournament and also had to stop a player, Joe La Rocco who attempted to steal a game. After that La Rocco was not allowed to play in the Dukes' team anymore. He finished his basketball career with the University of North Dakota, as a Dukes first round draftee in 1952. He returned to practice football for the Washington Redskins during the 1952 NFL season.

While coaching in his final year with the Washington Redskins (which also ended in the 1962 season) he was chosen coach of the Pro Football League. With the Pro football league (now called the American Football League) out of the way he later spent about 8 years as a coach with the Baltimore Colts in Cleveland. However his main love for football would not die with the NFL after his final year as a NFL player. In the last 3 years of his career, he coached collegiate baseball and managed Notre Dame alumnus Woody Hayes. He became manager of the same school's football team for the 1952-53 season but the team could not compete and only one first team All-American was offered and passed on that year.