astounding eight times and won four conference championships. In 1948, after earning his degree in physical education, Layne played a season of minor league ball for the Lubbock Hubbers baseball team of the Class C West Texas–New Mexico League. He went 6–5 with a 7.29 ERA, and had bids from the New York Giants, the Boston Red Sox, and the St. Louis Cardinals to join their staffs, but he preferred to go to the National Football League, where he could play immediately rather than grind out several years in the minor-league system. Records Southwest Conference & UT – Most conference victories, career, pitcher (28) Southwest Conference & UT – Highest conference winning percentage (min 10 decisions), career (1.000) (28–0) UT – Most runs scored, game (5), tied 11 times since UT – Most shutouts, season (4), tied Bus Gillet, surpassed by Burt Hooton in 1969 UT – Winning percentage, season (min 9 decisions) (1.00) (9–0), surpassed by Hooton in 1969 UT – Most bases on balls, career (187), surpassed by Richard Wortham in 1976 Southwest Conference & UT – Most strikeouts, season (134), surpassed by Hooton in 1969 UT – Most strikeouts, career (386), tied by Hooton in 1971, surpassed by Wortham in 1976 UT – Most strikeouts per nine innings pitched, career (10.78), surpassed by Hooton in 1971 UT – Most wins, career (35), surpassed by Hooton in 1971 UT – Highest winning percentage, career (0.921), surpassed by Terry Jackson in 1961 UT – Most innings pitched, career (322.1), surpassed by Wortham in 1976 Southwest Conference & UT – Most no-hitters, season (2), tied by Hooton Southwest Conference & UT – Most no-hitters, career (2), tied by James Street, Hooton and Greg Swindell Southwest Conference & UT – Most consecutive conference victories (28) Southwest Conference – Most strikeouts in conference play, season (84) Bold means "active" record; as the Southwest Conference became defunct in 1996, these records have essentially become permanent Professional football Drafted into the National Football League by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Layne was the third overall selection in the 1948 NFL draft and was the second overall selection in the 1948 AAFC Draft by the Baltimore Colts. Layne did not want to play for the Steelers, the last team in the NFL to use the single-wing formation, so his rights were quickly traded to the Chicago Bears. He was offered $77,000 to play for the Colts, but