Frank Layden: The king of one-liners

Frank Layden, former president of the Utah Jazz, is introduced during a 20-year reunion ceremony for the team that reached the 1997 NBA Finals, at halftime of the Jazz’s basketball game against the New York Knicks on March 22, 2017, in Salt Lake City. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool, File

He was the king of the one-liners — sorry Rodney Dangerfield, he was — and, sorry kids, look him up.

He was a basketball coach from Brooklyn – and an All-City basketball and baseball performer for Fort Hamilton High School, which earned him a scholarship to Niagara University.

He played both sports for the Purple Eagles, and coached both. In fact, he coached the Niagara freshman basketball team while he was still a student. He helped the Jazz move to their new home in Utah after their move from New Orleans to Salt Lake City,taking over as general manager in 1979 and later becoming head coach in 1981.

We’ll get to his coaching heroics shortly – calm down – for now, sit back and enjoy some of those one-liners courtesy of the Deseret News.

On his son Scott joining the staff of the NBA’s Utah Jazz: “I didn’t hire Scott because he’s my son. I hired him because I’m married to his mother.”

On his weight: “In India, they’d worship this body.”

On the media: “I’d like to welcome the Eastern writers here where they can finally breathe some air they can’t see.”

On player contracts: “I remember once negotiating with one of our top draft choices. After we had agreed on an $800,000 salary, he told me he wanted a gas card, a car, a job for his father and four paid trips home. I told him this was the NBA and we pay cash. No perks like in college.”

On the state of the world: “The decline of Western civilization started when the Dodgers and Giants moved to California.”

On dealing with players: “I told him, ‘Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy? He said, ‘Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care.’”

His reply to a fan asking him what time the game started: “What time can you be there?”
Frank Layden was a gem.

Layden met his wife, Barbara — also from Brooklyn — at McGuire’s saloon in Rockaway. They met in 1955 and were married a year later.

He graduated from Niagara with a degree in economics, but it was basketball that ruled his life. He taught history and coached basketball, football, and baseball at St. Agnes High School on Long Island. He moved to Seton Hall High and led the basketball team to a 21-5 record in 1964. Later that same year, he was hired as Dowling College’s first athletic director. Back then it was Suffolk University.

Layden always extolled the value of sports as education. “I always felt the gymnasium could be the most valuable classroom in the school if used properly,” he told the Deseret News. “What other class do you have to try out to get into?”

He returned to his alma mater – Niagara – as athletic director and basketball coach in 1968. He was only 36 at the time. In eight seasons Layden won 119 and lost 97 ballgames and in 1970 coached the Purple Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament berth – they were a runner-up finish in the 1972 National Invitational Tournament. His star player – consensus All American Calvin Murphy.

Francis Patrick Layden was born in 1932 – his mother, Nora, died giving him birth. Sports served as another parent. On Sundays, “First it was Mass, then Ebbets Field,” Frank told the Deseret News.

He entered the NBA in 1976, joining the coaching staff of the Atlanta Hawks with his Niagara teammate Hubie Brown. He was hired as general manager of the New Orleans Jazz in 1979 —and helped them with their move to Utah.

Layden was instrumental in the drafting of Darrell Griffith, John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Mark Eaton – and hiring Jerry Sloan, who succeeded Layden on the Jazz bench as head coach.

For eight years he served as head coach of the Jazz — through 1988-89. The Jazz won their first Midwest Division championship his third season as coach and made the playoffs for the first time. In 1984, Layden was named NBA Coach of the Year, NBA Executive of the Year and was awarded the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship award for “outstanding service and dedication to the community” – the only person in history to sweep all three major awards in a single season.

He retired as Jazz team president on December 29, 1999 – right before his 68th birthday. He went 277-294 as Jazz head coach in the regular season.

Frank Layden is enshrined in the New York City basketball Hall of Fame, Niagara University Hall of Fame, Dowling College Hall of Fame, and the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.

His lifelong friend, Hubie Brown said: “Frank was Saturday Night Live, seven-days-a-week.”

Layden passed at the age of 93, 13 days ago.

Rest easy coach – but keep ‘em laughing.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] X: @AndyFurmanFSR