1956 Detroit Lions Statistics
National Football League (NFL)
Team Record: 9-3
Finishing 2nd in the NFL's West Division
Coach: Buddy Parker (9-3)
Location: Detroit, Michigan
1956 Detroit Lions RosterTeam Record: 9-3
Finishing 2nd in the NFL's West Division
Coach: Buddy Parker (9-3)
Location: Detroit, Michigan
1956 Detroit Lions Results
The Detroit Lions of the National Football League ended the 1956 season with a record of 9 wins and 3 losses, finishing second in the NFL's West Division.
Detroit lit up the scoreboard for 300 points, while the defense conceded 188. Gene Gedman rushed for a team-leading 479 yards for the Lions, while Howard Cassady and Don McIlhenny also aided the ground game.
Bobby Layne threw for 1,909 yards. Dave Middleton topped the receiving corps, hauling in 39 balls for 606 yards. Dorne Dibble was targeted regularly, too.
The ball-hawking defense pounced on 40 turnovers. Jack Christiansen and Yale Lary each picked off 8 opponent throws.
Buddy Parker coached the team.
Click on column headings to sort.
Passing:
| Player | Att | Comp | Comp % | Yds | Yds/Att | TDs | TD % | Ints | Int % | Long | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bobby Layne | 244 | 129 | 52.9 | 1909 | 7.8 | 9 | 3.7 | 17 | 7.0 | 70 | 62.0 |
| Harry Gilmer | 46 | 27 | 58.7 | 303 | 6.6 | 4 | 8.7 | 3 | 6.5 | 41 | 80.3 |
| Jug Girard | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 19 | 19.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 19 | 118.8 |
| Jerry Reichow | 6 | 3 | 50.0 | 19 | 3.2 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 16.7 | 14 | 17.4 |
| Don McIlhenny | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 39.6 |
| Howard Cassady | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 50.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Bill Stits | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 100.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Totals | 301 | 160 | 53.2 | 2250 | 7.5 | 13 | 4.3 | 23 | 7.6 | 70 |
Rushing:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gene Gedman | 135 | 479 | 3.5 | 33 | 7 |
| Howard Cassady | 97 | 413 | 4.3 | 33 | 0 |
| Don McIlhenny | 87 | 372 | 4.3 | 30 | 3 |
| Leon Hart | 76 | 348 | 4.6 | 46 | 5 |
| Bobby Layne | 46 | 169 | 3.7 | 20 | 5 |
| Bill Bowman | 20 | 84 | 4.2 | 13 | 1 |
| Jug Girard | 17 | 67 | 3.9 | 11 | 0 |
| Tom Tracy | 12 | 32 | 2.7 | 9 | 0 |
| Harry Gilmer | 8 | 19 | 2.4 | 6 | 0 |
| Yale Lary | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Dave Middleton | 3 | 9 | 3.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Dorne Dibble | 1 | 8 | 8.0 | 8 | 0 |
| Jerry Reichow | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 |
| Bill Stits | 3 | 0 | 0.0 | 6 | 0 |
| Totals | 507 | 2011 | 4.0 | 46 | 21 |
Receiving:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Middleton | 39 | 606 | 15.5 | 56 | 5 |
| Dorne Dibble | 32 | 597 | 18.7 | 56 | 2 |
| Jim Doran | 25 | 448 | 17.9 | 31 | 0 |
| Gene Gedman | 15 | 142 | 9.5 | 43 | 1 |
| Leon Hart | 14 | 116 | 8.3 | 29 | 1 |
| Howard Cassady | 9 | 83 | 9.2 | 21 | 0 |
| Don McIlhenny | 8 | 70 | 8.8 | 21 | 2 |
| Bill Bowman | 5 | 34 | 6.8 | 18 | 1 |
| Jerry Reichow | 4 | 63 | 15.8 | 41 | 1 |
| Bill Stits | 3 | 52 | 17.3 | 27 | 0 |
| Jug Girard | 3 | 33 | 11.0 | 16 | 0 |
| Tom Tracy | 3 | 6 | 2.0 | 5 | 0 |
| Totals | 160 | 2250 | 14.1 | 56 | 13 |
Kicking:
| Player | X/CA | X/CM | X/CP % | FGA | FGM | FG % | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bobby Layne | 33 | 33 | 100.0 | 15 | 12 | 80.0 | 69 |
| Jim Martin | 3 | 3 | 100.0 | 10 | 4 | 40.0 | 15 |
| Totals | 36 | 36 | 100.0 | 25 | 16 | 64.0 | 84 |
Punting:
Punt Returns:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Howard Cassady | 13 | 83 | 6.4 | 34 | 0 |
| Jack Christiansen | 6 | 73 | 12.2 | 66 | 1 |
| Yale Lary | 22 | 70 | 3.2 | 38 | 0 |
| Jug Girard | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 5 | 0 |
| Totals | 43 | 233 | 5.4 | 66 | 1 |
Kick Returns:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Howard Cassady | 16 | 382 | 23.9 | 42 | 0 |
| Jack Christiansen | 6 | 116 | 19.3 | 22 | 0 |
| Yale Lary | 4 | 76 | 19.0 | 29 | 0 |
| Bill Stits | 3 | 48 | 16.0 | 19 | 0 |
| Bill Bowman | 1 | 24 | 24.0 | 24 | 0 |
| Charlie Ane | 1 | 19 | 19.0 | 19 | 0 |
| Jim Salsbury | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 13 | 0 |
| Jerry Reichow | 1 | 9 | 9.0 | 9 | 0 |
| Totals | 33 | 687 | 20.8 | 42 | 0 |
Interceptions:
| Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yale Lary | 8 | 182 | 22.8 | 73 | 1 |
| Jack Christiansen | 8 | 109 | 13.6 | 33 | 0 |
| Jim David | 7 | 4 | 0.6 | 3 | 0 |
| Bob Long | 2 | 47 | 23.5 | 40 | 0 |
| Bill Stits | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 11 | 0 |
| Joe Schmidt | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 7 | 0 |
| Carl Karilivacz | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 28 | 360 | 12.9 | 73 | 1 |
Defense and Fumbles:
| Player | Tackle | Brup | Fum | FRec | FYds | FTD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ray Krouse | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Bob Long | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Gene Gedman | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Carl Karilivacz | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sonny Gandee | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Yale Lary | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Bill Stits | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bob Miller | 0 | 1 | 23 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Gil Mains | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Howard Cassady | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Leon Hart | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Harry Gilmer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jim Doran | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Tom Tracy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Bobby Layne | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 14 | 15 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
Total Scoring:
| Touchdowns | Other | Total | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Rush | Rec | Punt | Kick | MFG | Int | Fum | Other | FG | X/C | Single | 2Pt | Saf | Points |
| Bobby Layne | 5 | 12 | 33 | 0 | 99 | |||||||||
| Gene Gedman | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 48 | ||||||||
| Leon Hart | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | ||||||||
| Don McIlhenny | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | ||||||||
| Dave Middleton | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | ||||||||
| Jim Martin | 4 | 3 | 0 | 15 | ||||||||||
| Dorne Dibble | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||||||||
| Bill Bowman | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |||||||
| Yale Lary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||||
| Jerry Reichow | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||
| Jack Christiansen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||
| Totals | 21 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 300 |
