INTERCOLLEGIATE FOOTBALL RESEARCHERS ASSOCIATION ™ ™ The College Football Historian ISSN: 1526-233x Vol. 2 No. 2 Established: Jan. 2008 Tex Noel, Editor ([email protected] ) http://www.secsportsfan.com/college-football-association.html Frontier Justice outposts of the South, the West, and Southwest. By Darrell Lester Texas Christian University (TCU) was among the first of the As everyone knows, the church schools to field a team in phenomenon of college football Texas, in 1897. had its humble beginnings in 1869 when Princeton and In 1897 TCU was known as Rutgers squared off November 6 AddRan College, named for its in New Brunswick, New Jersey. founders Addison & Randolph For many years, the domicile Clark. remained in the East in the firm grasp of the Ivy League, namely This is the story of how football Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etal. at TCU almost never began, and The movement of organized once it did begin, almost came to football began to spread across a bloody end a little more than the nation, first to the Midwest, one year later. then the Pacific coast, the South Let me introduce the cast. The and finally, Texas. storytellers include: Before the advent of college football in Texas (University of 1. James V. McClintic, Texas organized in 1893), football the first Congressman from was played by the town clubs, th the Y’s and other organizations. Oklahoma’s 7 District (1915- It was played mostly on sandlots, 1935) and later the Executive without the benefit of common Assistant to the Governor of rules, boundaries and goals. Oklahoma. How did it come to Texas, or for that matter anywhere? One 2. Colby D Hall, TCU explanation was the missionaries Dean of the University from 1913 from the eastern Seminary schools who brought their love to 1943, and a close confidant of for the game to the frontier the founders as a student, professor and dean. The College Football Historian-2- The Board of Trustees was adamantly opposed. Even In 1947, he wrote the book The though they fielded a team in History of Texas Christian 1897, the Board of Trustees still University, A college of the had reservations about continuing this rogue sport and cattle Frontier . forbade the activity to be played off of campus. 3. Kern Tips, the dean of Southwest Conference football Sometime between the 1897 Radio announcers, who wrote the season and the beginning of the book, Football-Texas Style in 1898 season, the trustees relented to having away games. 1965. Was it calm discussion that First let me explain how football caused the change or was it the nearly never happened at TCU. enthusiasm for the game. In the early years when TCU was located in Waco, Texas, the In one case enthusiasm won out. commitment to Christian McClintic, a trustee at the principles was the foremost school, was not a fan of the guiding light for the University. bloody game and adamantly Addison Clark was a product of opposed his son playing. the civil war. Ramrod straight, rock solid he felt strongly that a Nevertheless, in 1897, his son, man grew from hard work and James V. lined up in the RHB not from play. Football or other position for the Frogs. athletic endeavors were play. Clear the field not for play but for Dean Colby Hall (himself a crops. member of that team) writes in his book the following conversion Addison had a son known as of a member of the Board of little Addie who he loved very Trustees. “Each individual much. Returning to the frontier Trustee had his own views, but from college in Michigan, he one is particularly telling. quickly convinced his father that Trustee G. V. McClintic from the game was good and worthy of Groesbeck, who had all but Add Ran College. A wisp of a forbidden his son Jim, one of the man, he moved his father to view stars, to play the rough game. the game through his eyes, and The father came to a game down not the eyes of a frontier in the old Padgitt’s Park, against disciplinarian. College football the University of Texas. moved closer to Waco. He sat doggedly on the topmost While Addison was mellowing, seat in the grandstand, grimly there was still one more hurdle. The College Football Historian-3- vindication from the “double licking” from the Texas team of determined not to enjoy the many years ago. He went on to rough stuff. As the game tell the story of a teammates progressed, the father slipped dilemma at the “double licking” down a row or two, then another they took in 1898. and another, until long before the second half, he was on the front I quote from the letter. row yelling like a “Comanche Indian.” Wyatt Watts was cowboy from Limestone County, Texas. Before So we had football at AddRan the college was moved to Ft Worth College. So how did we almost it was located at Waco. The end it just over a year later? It is student body was small and it a story told by each of our story was a right squeeze to find a tellers—with each one telling a sufficient amount of talent to fill slightly different version. all the positions. We were in need of a guard when Watts In 1935 TCU and SMU were on matriculated in the Business the fast track to the Game of the School conducted by Prof Easley. Century . Both undefeated they He was large in frame, and had would meet November 30, 1935 never seen a football much less in a winner take all for the Rose had any experience. It was an Bowl. They had never seen easy matter to get a suit on him, anything like it in the Southwest. yet when this was accomplished On the way both teams we like to have lost him on the dispatched team after team. All first day of practice as a other teams laid in the wake of youngster by the name of G. A. two of the top teams in the Foote tackled him near the ankles country. giving Watts a terrible jolt. He came pretty near quitting right In this wake TCU on a cool there . November day manhandled the University of Texas team 28-0. Anyhow, he filled the gap and This prompted a letter from the made the team. When we went to aforementioned J. V. McClintic. Austin to play the State On official State of Oklahoma University, he and myself were Stationary (He was then serving assigned to the same room. As he as the Governor’s aide) he wrote began dressing for the game you to the captain of the TCU football can imagine my surprise when I team. saw him take a pistol out of his grip and stick the barrel between The captain happened to be my his belt and undershirt with the father, Darrell G. Lester. In his thought of putting his shirt on letter, he found great satisfaction next. I finally explained to him from the Texas victory. It was a that it was not our desire to kill The College Football Historian-4- with no mention of the aftermath tongue lashing. Kern Tips ended anybody and further that he his story by saying “Cowboy was couldn’t carry that pistol and keep heard to say after the game that it in place through the rough and he should have obeyed his first tumble of sqirmishes. He thought impulse.” he could and called attention to the many years it had been his Who was the antagonist? The constant companion. Anyhow I TCU lettermen’s Association lists talked him out of it, and then later W H Watts as a letterman for the when the team was pretty badly year 1898. There is no Ed Bull handled in a physical tussle, I on the list of TCU lettermen. remember that there were some Jim V. McClintic played pivotal three or four Texas players piled roles in both getting football up on him, and when we returned started and TCU and not letting to the hotel I am sure that no Wyatt Watts put people in harms person ever got such a balling out way. So this begs two questions: as myself. He stating that if it Was Jim V. McClintock the father hadn’t been for me that he would of TCU football? have had at least a half dozen of those and saved the team a Until the late 1900’s the TCU double licking. (I have left out the mascot was known as Addie the cuss words he used.) Frog. Was the mascot named after little Addie? Colby Hall and Kern Tips both include this story in their books. The original letter from Jim In both cases, the antagonist is a McClintic hangs today in my lad named Bull. To Colby Hall he son’s office in Lincoln, Nebraska. was Edwin Bull. To Kern Tips, It is well worth reading if you he was Ed (Cowboy) Bull. Colby ever have the opportunity. Hall ends his story with the gun less Bull heading to the game There have been 56 known players in GO FROGS! Division I-A (FBS) history who have played for their head-coaching fathers in * * * * college, including 22 quarterbacks and five active pairings, according to a Son Playing College survey of I-A sports information departments (most schools responded, Football for Head we checked others as best we could). Coach, Father The count includes CU head coach Dan Hawkins and his oldest son, Cody.