Preview: The 12 Days of Roo Football Christmas: 1988 Season

1988 was the Year of the Titan. The Westminster College (New Wilmington, PA) Titans went 14-0 and won the NAIA D2 national championship. To earn that title, Westminster had to get past the Kangaroos of Austin College in the playoffs. The game was played at Burry Stadium on the campus of Westminster.

The 1988 Kangaroos had won the TIAA Conference with a 9-1 record. They fell to the Titans at Westminster in the first round of the NAIA D2 playoffs on a bitterly cold and windy November Pennsylvania day. By December, it was a lot colder. Two playoff wins after the AC game, Westminster found itself in the title game against Wisconsin-La Crosse at Burry Stadium. The field was covered in snow, with more coming down.

Austin College earned an NAIA D2 national co-championship in 1981 on the back of a dramatic, crossbar hitting 57-yard field goal with 72 seconds left in the game. Last year, we (players, coaches, and fans like me) all had a lot of fun online re-living that incredible season. Amazingly, there were two other co-championships during the 1970-1996 era of NAIA D2 play. In 1995, Jon Kitna’s Central Washington squad missed a 40-yard field goal with seconds to go and tied Findlay. In 1987, Pacific Lutheran missed a 51-yard field goal with seconds to go and tied Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The 1988 title game in Pennsylvania appeared to be headed in the same co-championship direction.

After knotting up the score at 14-14, Westminster got the ball and began a late 4th quarter drive eerily similar to the 1981 Austin College drive that led to the famous field goal and co-championship. That Titan drive stalled at the 33-yard line with 13 seconds left. Facing a 4th-and-10, most assumed the Titans would try to secure a first down and then attempt a field goal to avoid a co-championship. Instead, according to Westminster running back Brad Tokar, the Titans rolled the dice and went for an “all-or-nothing” TD and an outright championship.

They got it.



Dave Foley reeled in Joe Micchia’s bomb for the score with 7 seconds remaining, and was immediately mobbed by Westminster students standing along the sidelines. If you tell Westminster that the 1981 Austin College-Concordia game was the most dramatic title game in NAIA D2 history, you would probably get some disagreement.

The Titans season was documented in a video: “1988: The Year of the Titan”. I’ve shared that video today. Has it been nearly 30 years since you last saw the 1988 Kangaroo football team in action? Hold on to your hats. You’re about to briefly see them again.
I highly recommend watching the video from start to finish. But if you prefer just the highlights, here is some help:

Westminster-Austin College (14:30-15:05)
Westminster-Austin College (17:03-17:17)
Westminster-Austin College (17:32-17:44)
Westminster Title Game: “The Catch” (30:10-32:40)
NAIA D2 Trophy. The 1981 Austin College team is engraved on that baby (34:20-34:27)

The 1981 championship team sits alone among the greatest Kangaroo football teams in history. But the 1988 team should be placed somewhere right behind. How good were the 1988 Roos? The 1981 Roos scored 358 points over 13 games. The 1988 Roos scored 374 points over only 11. There are currently 6 members of the 1988 team in the AC Hall of Honor; 5 members made NAIA All-American. The 34.0 ppg average of the 1988 team is the second highest in Austin College history. I was fortunate enough to watch it all; this team was my welcome to Sherman.

The 1988 Roos played 11 games that year. We are going to go through each one over the 11-day period from December 1st to December 11th. Over the past 3 months, I’ve been accumulating newspaper clippings from the Dallas Morning News and other papers from around the state, and have been writing commentary for each gameday. I’ve also been friending members of the 1988 team on Facebook, so that they can all be included. The players, coaches, and fans must be a part of this effort. While I can do an adequate play-by-play, only those on the field can provide good color commentary.

How am I able to tell the story of the 1988 season? Well, I happened to watch 7 of these games in person. I listened to most of the other 4 on the radio. And my freshman C/I leader at AC in 1988 was a member of the team. Some fellow by the name of Otis Amy. I hear he could play.

So this post is a heads-up and a call for contributions. If you were a player, coach, or even just a fan like me, please share your stories over the first 12 days of December. Also, do you have photos? You are encouraged to image and share. And the holy grail. Video. Do you or does your family have home video from the 1988 season? I’ll be happy to assist with the digitizing, if you can locate and send to me.

Ahh yes, video. Three months ago, I began a journey for video of the 1988 season. I am here to report both bad and good news.

My understanding is that Coach Tjeerdsma and AC football began to record VHS tapes of season highlights starting in 1990. While much effort has been made by AC to digitize 8mm game film before 1990, the year 1988 was not recoverable due to degradation over time. All of those Otis Amy catches, as well as Jeff Cordell’s 100-yard interception return against Tarleton at home, may be lost.

I reached out to the athletics department at Tarleton. After all, the highlight of the 1988 season was the conference clinching win in Stephenville. The Tarleton staff was sympathetic, but informed me that many years of Tarleton game film, including 1988, had also been lost due to decay. Otis Amy’s record breaking NAIA catch in Stephenville may be gone forever.

But then I finally hit a bit of pay dirt.

Brad Tokar narrates the “Year of the Titan” video shared today. He’s the Westminster running back who rushed for 167 yards against the Kangaroos at Burry Field nearly 30 years ago. Today, he’s the Director of Admissions for Westminster College.

I contacted Brad and the Westminster athletic department, mentioned last year’s 1981 reunion, and told them of my plan to re-live the 1988 Roos season and by extension their incredible national championship run. Brad loved it, and put me in touch with a retired Westminster coach by the name of Scott Renninger. Renninger was on the sidelines that day against AC in 1988.

Coach Renninger called me up, and told me a story. Back in the early 1970s, he had flown down to Texas for a coaching job interview at Austin College. Bob Mason picked him up at DFW and took him to Sherman. While he did not win the AC job, he had fond memories of both the trip and his time with Coach Mason. He was also a fan of telling the story of 1988.

Renninger told me that he knew a VHS of 1988 Westminster game film highlights had been made. He was determined to find it and send. After a few weeks, he called me again. He had found the tape, and it included a full 5 minutes of AC-Westminster highlights. He has since mailed it to me, and it’s being digitized as we speak. It will be posted on December 11th, the day devoted to the AC-Westminster game. Yes, the highlights are from an opponent in a losing effort. I too would rather see highlights from one of the wins. However, if you still enjoyed seeing the 1 minute of 1988 AC football today, get ready for another 4 minutes next month.

Coach Renninger was at Westminster in 1981 as well. The Titans had a strong season that year, and advanced to the NAIA D2 semifinals. There, Renninger and Westminster met Dwight Hintermeister's Concordia Cobbers at Burry Stadium. The Cobbers edged the Titans 23-17 in yet another Westminster game highlighted by bad weather. Soon, the Cobbers were on the way to Sherman to take on Larry Kramer’s Kangaroos. Had Westminster found a way to win, the Titans might have chosen to play the title game in New Wilmington. The 1988 Kangaroo season ended at Burry Stadium, and the 1981 Kangaroo season almost did as well.

Otis is back home in East Texas, where he is a minister and principal at Carthage ISD. I’ve been exchanging emails with him, and have invited him to participate. I plan on reaching out to all 1988 Roos who have yet to be tagged. Please help me out if you believe a player, coach, or fan not yet tagged would enjoy the ride. I also plan on inviting and including Westminster coaches and players in December. This is, after all, a celebration of their season as well. So far I’ve made it a point to mention the pride the 1988 Roos have in knowing that their tremendous season could only be ended by an eventual national champion.

On December 12th, we’ll rest. Why? Because December 12th is the AC football sabbath. It’s a holy day for reflection and meditation. It’s the anniversary of Austin College’s NAIA D2 championship in 1981. Appropriate words will be written and photos will be shared, I’m sure. Maybe our friend Dwight will finally find that cassette of the Cobber call of the 1981 AC-Concordia game in his attic, and will send to me to sync with game film. Maybe others will stumble upon some 1981 gems in their own attic. If you are a Roo, there’s always something to say or share on December 12th.

Let’s call it the “12 Days of Roo Football Christmas”. Hope you’ll join us. Have a great Thanksgiving week, and we’ll see you on December 1st.

Members of the 1988 Austin College Kangaroos (send me corrections):

Otis Amy, Jason Armstrong, Derrick Ballard, Matt Bass (Patti Bass), Steve Birdsall, Bryan Bragg, Rod Brock, Scott Brown, Chris Campbell, Wayne Coleman, Jeff-Janine Coleman, Jeff Cordell, David Curtis, Nader Dabboussi, Darren Davis, Kyle Deatherage, Bill Didlake, John Fedora, Walker Fenci, John Gallagher, Dean Gilbert Jr, Donico Godinez, David Goss, Bill Harrison, Jason Johnson, Robert Johnson, Brian Land, Carlos Longoria, Chuck Mattingly, Matt McCullough, Chris Medlin, Dwain Milam, Mark Murphy, Victor Myers, Rich Nieto, Steve Nivin, John Edward Nix, Chance Noble, Scooter Nolen, Doug Overstreet, Roy Perez, Damion Roberts, Patrick Russell, Brien Sanders, Kenneth V Sanders, Tommy Savage, Tony Schrader, Corey Scott, John Talley, Bart Tatum, Jim Tatum, Kenneth Tatum, Kirk Thor, Frank Tooley, Dale Trompler, Daryl Turner, David Ucherek, Bryant Vaughn, Lin Waters, Pat Wharry, Keith Willeford, Dan Wilson, Gary Don Wright, Coach Mel Tjeerdsma, Coach Vance Morris (Paula Young Morris) AD David Norman

Sherman-Denison: The Granddaddy Of Them All

Teddy Roosevelt was re-elected President of the United States on November 8, 1904. A week later, Denison finally got its first victory ever against the Sherman Bearcats on the football field. The Yellow Jackets held on for an 11-5 win, and the Dallas Morning News wrote about the game.

The official working the game was a Roo. There's always a Roo involved.

Dave Campbell's Texas Football calls the Sherman-Denison Battle of the Ax the "granddaddy of them all". The rivalry is the oldest continually played matchup in the state of Texas. That shouldn't be surprising for those familiar with Grayson County history.

There's debate about the origin of the series. Some peg the first game in 1901. Others claim the first game in 1900, with records lost in a fire. Still others trace the first unofficial match-ups to the 1890s. That's the way it goes for institutions with a lot of history. It gets murky.

But what we can definitively say is that Sherman and Denison have been playing a LONG time, and that a Roo is usually involved.

There are strong historical ties between AC and both towns. Roo coaches can be found throughout the decades on both squads, and numerous Bearcats and Yellow Jackets have made the jump to AC as players.

Verde Dickey, a standout under Pete Cawthon, took over the reins at Sherman and led the Bearcats to one of their best seasons ever in 1932. After defeating Denison 19-6 to win a district title, Dickey and his Sherman team advanced all the way to the state quarterfinals. At the brand new Amon Carter stadium in Fort Worth, they fell to the Masonic Home Orphans 20-0.

Never heard of the Mighty Mites of Masonic Home? Let Jim Dent fill you in.

Never heard of Verde Dickey? Maybe you should spend more time at the AC weight room.

Congratulations to Coach Charlie Means and the Denison Yellow Jackets, who got the best of Sherman last week in the 119th edition of the Battle of the Ax.

Coach Means is a Roo. See? There's always a Roo involved.

Twelve Mighty Orphans - Jim Dent

AC Verde Dickey Fitness Pavilion

119th Battle of the Ax

Sherman-Denison: The Granddaddy Of Them All

Vayan Canguros!

The 1927 TCU Horned Frogs played 5 teams in the month of October.

Texas @ DKR Memorial in Austin.
Texas Tech in Fort Worth.
Austin College in Fort Worth.
Texas A&M in Fort Worth.
Baylor @ The Cotton Palace in Waco.

TCU didn’t lose a single one.

Against AC, the Horned Frogs jumped out to a commanding 20-0 lead just before the half. But after that it was all Roos. With offensive lineman Virgil Ballard leading the way, Pete Cawthon’s bunch began to chip away at the Horned Frog lead. By the end of the game, Austin College was down only 20-13. Their final drive came up just short. TCU survived. Virgil Ballard was inducted into the AC Hall of Honor in 1965.

The 13 points by the Roos that day were impressive. The Longhorns, Red Raiders, Aggies, and Bears combined for only 6.

Ballard was a freshman on the 1924 Roo team that upset Baylor at the Cotton Palace in Waco. Baylor would defeat Texas A&M on the same field the following week, and roll to a SWC championship. By 1950, the Bears had outgrown the Cotton Palace and needed a new home. That year was the first for Floyd Casey stadium. The Aggies came calling again in 1950 in the first edition of the Battle of the Brazos at Floyd Casey. It was the largest crowd ever to see a Baylor game, and the Bears won 27-20. The referee for that contest was Virgil Ballard.

Virgil Ballard and I have two things in common. We are both Roos, and we both learned to speak Spanish in Sherman. Ballard was a Spanish major at AC, and after a career as a football coach and official in North Texas (including at Texas Tech with Cawthon), he moved his family south after WW2 to the Valley. There, with his language skills, public service, and love of sport, Ballard became an intimate part of the community on the Texas-Mexico border.

For the better part of two decades, Ballard refereed high school football in the Valley. One of those games was an October 1, 1954 contest between the Yellow Jackets of Edcouch-Elsa and the Rattlers of Rio Grande City. His days as an official and school administrator were put on hold after he was elected Mayor of Mission, TX in the 1960s. After his passing, Ballard Street in Weslaco, TX was named in his honor.

Carlos Longoria was raised in Hidalgo in the 1980s, just a few miles north of the Rio Grande. When it came time to choose a college, he settled on a Texas school 555 miles away just a few miles south of the Red. How far was that Texas drive? An additional 555 miles of driving would have put Carlos in Columbus, Nebraska…. the home town of Frank Tooley.

Carlos was a starter in the secondary of the 1988 TIAA Champion Kangaroos, where he toiled alongside fellow defensive redshirts such Tooley, Bill Didlake, and Chris Medlin. The 1988 squad went 9-1 in conference, and the defense limited the opposition to 2 or fewer TDs in all 9 wins. They won the TIAA Conference title with a dramatic win on the road against Tarleton State, and lost in the playoffs to eventual NAIA D2 national champion Westminster College (PA). 4 members of the 1988 Roo defense are in the AC Hall of Honor.

After graduation, Carlos became Coach Longoria. For over two decades, he has coached football in the Valley. “Los” got his start at Raymondville HS, where he led the Bearkats to a 10-2 record and regional appearance in the 2000 Texas HS playoffs. When that Raymondville season came to an end just after Thanksgiving day, they were the only team south of Corpus still playing. Longoria came in 2nd place in McAllen Monitor voting for Valley coach of the year.

A small group of Roos has headed down to the Valley every year since the 1990s to support Coach Longoria and to cheer his teams. In addition to Tooley, Didlake, and Medlin, folks frequently making the trip have included Wayne Whitmire, John Talley, Sridhar Yaratha, Kevin Pittman, and me. We were there on the sidelines for the Raymondville-Hidalgo game during the playoff season of 2000, and have continued to head south as Carlos has moved to other schools such as Pharr, Rio Grande City, La Joya, and Ballard’s home of Mission, TX.

We were there in 2013, when his playoff bound Rio Grande City Rattlers took on Edcouch-Elsa……the very same matchup refereed by Roo Virgil Ballard over 60 years ago. Coach Longoria’s son Christian was a kick returner, and took it all the way back for a score. He crossed the goal line right in front of the Roo contingent. I think ol’ Virgil would have smiled. See video in the comments.

This weekend a group of us head back again (thanks Dianne!) Carlos is now coaching at Pharr San Juan Alamo (PSJA), just a short drive from Virgil Ballard St. in Weslaco. They’ll be taking on Edinburg-North, and we’ll be on the sidelines as usual, a bunch of Kangaroos en El Valle apoyando nuestro amigo como siempre. Football in Texas knows no linguistic or cultural boundary. Just ask Coach Ballard and Coach Longoria. Vayan Canguros.

Austin College, Trinity, and December 7, 1941

The Great Depression took a toll on both Austin College & Trinity University. AC was barely able to scrape by thanks to some huge sacrifices and very creative financing. Trinity, located in struggling Waxahachie, fared much worse. To combat the crisis, the two Presbyterian Synods of Texas which governed Austin College & Trinity began to meet in 1941. Their proposed solution was a cost-saving merger of the two schools. While representatives of Trinity were enthusiastic about a merger, the idea created a huge amount of controversy and debate at AC. At the end of the year, the joint committee of the two Synods agreed to meet in order to move forward and make it official. They chose a date:

December 9, 1941

---

Immigration from Europe fueled America’s westward expansion, and Protestant denominations moved swiftly behind in order to win over new converts. The speed of the Presbyterian church, however, was more anemic than its Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist cousins. Reaching the masses meant tent revivals and little concern about credentials, and the Presbyterian church was just too traditionalist, hierarchical, and devoted to the education and status of church elders (Presbyterian means “elder”) to keep up.

In the 19th century, a frustrated and more zealous group of Presbyterians broke with the church to form a splinter denomination, the “Cumberland” Presbyterians. The divisions between the Traditionalists and the Cumberlands were so strong that the latter felt the need to establish a Cumberland institution of higher education to combat the traditionalist school of Austin College in Huntsville. In 1869, Trinity was born in Tehuacana TX, near present day Mexia.

By the turn of the century, the frontier was settled and passions had cooled considerably. Trinity moved to the more vibrant Waxahachie in 1902, and played its first baseball game in Sherman against AC in 1903. The first football game came the following year, in 1904. By 1941, the Presbyterian rivalry was well established.

Trinity traveled to Sherman in 1941 for the annual season-ending Thanksgiving clash against the Kangaroos on the gridiron. 1941 was the inaugural year of Sherman Bearkat stadium, and AC came away with a 20-13 win against the Tigers. A photo of the game shows the Sherman Municipal building in the background, which still stands.

The November 28, 1941 edition of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported the game on page six, and mentioned that the contest might be the last meeting between the schools due to a potential merger. Page one was reserved for other news. The empire of Japan was moving into Thailand, and diplomatic efforts between Tokyo and Washington were breaking down.

The growing city of San Antonio had neither a public university nor a private protestant college within its limits, and was eager to facilitate a merged AC/Trinity college in the Alamo City. Trinity was deadset on moving to San Antonio, ideally as part of one merged institution but alternatively via simple relocation if necessary.

Austin College was not so sure. Rationalism dictated that a merged Presbyterian school in a growing urban area was wise, and the idea found support among some. But because AC was already nearing 100 years old and had already called Sherman home for nearly 7 decades, many were unwilling to move for emotional reasons. Some on the Board of Trustees were willing to consider a merger, “but only if it resulted in Trinity being absorbed into the older and stronger Austin College, not vice versa.”

A large contingent of AC alumni also expressed reluctance, and well-known professor George Landolt made his opposition known by noting his unwillingness to toss “all it [AC] has striven for in the past 92 years.” According to historian Donald Everett, those who resisted the merger “evidently had no alternative suggestions for relief of Austin College’s financial difficulties, rather they seemed to depend upon God to work out the practical side of their institution’s salvation.”

In spite of the heated debate, a preliminary vote was taken in the fall of 1941 by the two Synods. The merger was approved. A joint committee agreed to meet in San Antonio on Friday, December 9, 1941 to sign the merger in ink and to officially designate San Antonio as the site of the new Presbyterian school. It was all over but the shouting.

2,400 Americans perished on Wednesday, December 7, 1941 after the Empire of Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor. Nearly half of the 2,400 died when the USS Arizona exploded and sank within minutes. 78 Texans gave up their lives that day; all 78 were aboard the USS Arizona. The global conflict which had begun in the previous decade was now truly global.

For AC, the war changed everything. The December 9th meeting went ahead as planned, but the views of Austin College representatives had transformed overnight. There was concern that “war would negate the possibility of meeting financial requirements of the merger.” The supporters of an Austin College in Sherman, who had seemed to depend emotionally upon a higher power for some sort of salvation, believed that deliverance had arrived. The merger was shelved.

Trinity nevertheless accepted an offer from San Antonio for relocation. After a final commencement in 1942, the entire campus was loaded onto 30 railroad cars and shipped from Waxahachie to Bexar County. The school has since called San Antonio home for 75 years. Back in Sherman, the war did begin to assist AC’s financial health by way of a new relationship with nearby Perrin Air Force base.

The move to San Antonio ended a remarkable era of rivalry during the first half of the twentieth century, when the schools were separated by only 90 miles. After World War 2, Trinity dropped football for three decades. That move, plus the 360 miles separating the schools and a reluctance to compete in the similar conferences, put the rivalry on the back burner for much of the second half of the century. In fact, your humble author was not even aware of the significance of the Trinity rivalry during his Sherman days in the early 1990s.

But history reveals. From AC’s first win over Trinity in 1908 (another tale for another day) until the near merger in 1941, the Roos & the Tigers meet 33 times on the football field. The series record? 14-14-5. AC travels to San Antonio this Saturday to face Trinity in SAA Conference action. I plan to be there with my daughter. Hope to see you there.

Like AC-Trinity, the UT-A&M clash on Thanksgiving day is no more. Some of us hope it returns one day. One of the many reasons for the decline of the rivalry is the aftermath of the 1999 bonfire tragedy, and the University of Texas’s amazingly positive reaction to it. The UT student body poured out sympathy, the student body president praised A&M as a “family” in a way UT was not, and the Longhorn band’s performance of Amazing Grace & Taps at Kyle Field moved Aggies to tears.

The Roos & the Tigers are rivals. But it feels a lot like a sibling rivalry. At the end of the day, both institutions are Texan, both are Presbyterian-affiliated, both want the other D3 school to have its well-deserved place in the Texas sun. And if it were not for some decision made in Tokyo long ago, we might all be fellow alumni. If tragedy were to ever hit Trinity, you can bet that the Roos would honor the Tigers much like the Horns did in Aggieland back in 1999.

Still, it would be nice to see a win and hear the boys sing on the field. 😉 Go Roos! Beat Trinity.

H/T, as usual, to Dr. Light Cummins.

Jerry Bishop, Dick Hill, and JFK

Nobody could stop Jerry Bishop and Dick Hill on a clear November day back in 1963. The Kangaroos met East Central Oklahoma at Louis Calder Stadium for the last game of the season. The All-American QB Bishop and his WR Hill went to the air early and often all game long. No matter the route, the football refused to hit the ground.

Hill “caught them behind him, diving, off his shoetops, over his head, one handed twice (left and right), and accidentally.” And none of these catches were the highlight. Late in the game, Bishop threw to another receiver, but the ball was tipped. “Hill had just made his cut, and was not watching for the pass, when the ball, falling short of Robertson, hit Hill and wedged in the crook of his elbow. ‘I didn’t know the ball was coming. I didn’t know I had caught it, and the folks in the stands thought it was just a great one-handed catch,’ Hill laughed years later.

By game’s end, Bishop had thrown for 495 yards. Hill’s 17 catches accounted for 266 of those 495 yards. Both were NAIA single game yardage records (since surpassed) for a quarterback and receiver. Both were AC football records as of 1996, and likely remain records today.

1963 was a year when NAIA records were falling left and right, and newspapers across the country reported the record breaking pace later in the month. Bishop and Hill were included on the wire service piece. The Ogden (UT) Standard-Examiner decided to run with the article on Page 14 of a special, November 22, 1963 late edition. I doubt it was read, as few probably made it past Page 1.

Wayne Whitmire reminded me that intelligence files on the JFK assassination were being released this week, and whether I might dig into the files to find some secret Roo Tale lying within. Ironically, the files are being released today because of legislation provoked by Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK”, which was released when we both were at AC. Has it been 25 years already?

Maybe Abraham Zapruder’s movie camera was purchased in Denison. Maybe Lee Harvey Oswald played Kangaroo badminton in 1959. Maybe the grassy knoll was seeded with Anderson Clayton mayonnaise fertilizer. Or something equally exciting perhaps. :)

But that’s not really me. When it comes to the events after that sad day, I struggle with interest. This is due to two irreconcilable facts:

(1) I’m not going to go digging into the files.
(2) I find the credibility of both those who create the files and those who dig into the files suspect.

There’s no good way to square that circle. So we’ll just have to leave it at that. Besides, I have a bias against conspiracy theories. On this topic I am by default with Costner’s speech to Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham. Y’all will have to read the files and make your case. Even though all of your credibility is suspect. ;)

But I won’t pass up the opportunity to link that day in history to some mini Roo Tale. For this y'all can credit (or blame) Wayne.

Now if the files reveal that Trinity is involved in some nefarious way, I am totaling buying that. See y’all at Barbaro’s and the game on Saturday 11/4, if you are headed that way. I've got a little something written for the occasion.

Letter to Jerry Rice

Hello Mr. Rice:

My name is Marc Parrish. I’m a member of the Austin College Athletics “A” Board. I wrote earlier about Austin College’s (Sherman, TX) online celebration of Otis Amy and the 1988 Austin College Kangaroo football team. The team won a conference championship, and lost to the NAIA national champions in the playoffs. Otis ended the season with 280 career receptions, successfully owning the NAIA career record but coming up short in his attempt to match your 301 at Mississippi Valley State. It was an exciting year for all of us in 1988.

We are calling it the “12 Days of Roo Football Christmas”. We are going through the 11 game season over the first 11 days, followed by a final Day on December 12th………….the anniversary of Austin College’s NAIA championship in 1981.

I’ve sent you links below for the “Pregame” and first two days. I’ll continue to send you links as we move through the season.

Pregame: http://bit.ly/2jzUuEd
Day #1: http://bit.ly/2BBceXX
Day #2: http://bit.ly/2Al8RWJ
Day #3: http://bit.ly/2AQtXxq
Day #4: http://bit.ly/2AoYSzK
Day #5: http://bit.ly/2AQcTaz
Day #6: http://bit.ly/2BEepcD

Otis has already begun to write me, as have Austin College coaches and players and players from the national champion opposition. I’ve also mentioned my attempts to ask Jerry Rice, the greatest receiver in football history, to offer a few words. It would mean the world to Otis Amy personally, and Austin College fans in particular, if you were to acknowledge his tremendous career. It is absolutely true that after the 1988 season, you were the #1 collegiate receptions leader and Otis was #2. Day #1 above includes a newspaper article that mentions Amy’s chase for Jerry Rice’s collegiate record of 301 catches.

Otis’s story reminds me a bit of yours. He was from a small town in the south, and played for a small college. He participated in the NFL Combine and Draft day, but was frequently undervalued because of biases, especially the bias against small colleges. In spite of an impressive NFL Combine performance and comments from Cowboys VPs & GMs that he might be drafted in later rounds, in the end he went undrafted. Free agency was unsuccessful as well.

Otis is today a public educator and minister. We all celebrate his years at AC, and we’ll be celebrating him and the team over these 12 days. And if you were to join us with your thoughts, however brief, well, all of us (Otis included) would be ecstatic.

As we move through the 1988 season over the “12 Days”, I’m including Jerry Rice highlights of the 1988 San Francisco season. Day #1 included your 77-yard game winning TD against the Giants. Other days will include other Rice highlights. Day #12 will conclude with the 1989 Super Bowl victory over Cincinnati and “the drive” where you hauled in three pivotal catches.

I’ll be sending more “Days” to you as they are written. Thank you for considering this request to write, and I hope you enjoy the read.

Sincerely,

Marc
marc_parrish@hotmail.com

Roos, Astros, and a Texas World Series Title

Texas baseball was born in Houston, but it was raised in Sherman.

The first recorded baseball game in the state of Texas took place April 21, 1867. On the 31st anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, a local Houston club defeated a visiting Galveston team on the actual battlefield just east of Houston. Former Austin College trustee Sam Houston, an opponent of the Civil War, had passed away just four years earlier. Sam Houston wasn’t the only Texan in opposition to the war. Grayson county had voted against secession as well.

Baseball was a Yankee game, born around New York in the 1840s. Southern soldiers were first introduced to the game during the war, and brought the sport back home after 1865. Hostile, pro-secession areas of the south did so only reluctantly. Places like Grayson county, filled with more ambivalent Midwesterners, embraced this new sport with passion.

Veteran and Sherman resident Charles Batsell returned home from the war, made his fortune, and established a baseball park for the community. Batsell’s park was a permanent fixture in Sherman, and was eventually used for Austin College’s first football game against Texas A&M in 1896. But before that year, Batsell’s park was a home for the growing sport of baseball.

Professional baseball in Houston was born in 1888 with the establishment of the Houston Buffaloes franchise within the first Texas League. The first league was initially comprised of just the largest cities in the state (Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio), struggled, and folded in 1892. The problem was “the jump”, the high costs associated with long travel. By 1895, Texas baseball proponents had a cost-cutting solution: a new Texas League divided between North and South.

The Texas League southern division included Houston, Galveston, Austin & San Antonio. The northern division? Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, and……….. Sherman, TX. Such was the popularity of Grayson County baseball that league officials considered Sherman worthy of games against the larger cities in the state. Officials in Grayson county successfully argued for Texas League inclusion by pointing to Batsell’s park, high school teams, numerous club teams, and an unofficial team at Austin College.

The Sherman Orphans opened up the 1895 season with wins against Dallas and Fort Worth, and later in the season departed for Houston to take on the Buffaloes. The 1895 Dallas team was owned by Sherman enthusiast Ted Sullivan, who had “discovered” Charles Comiskey and later coined the term “fan” to describe sports enthusiasts. The 1895 Houston Buffaloes squad included sluggers such as Ollie Pickering, whose propensity to turn bloopers into hits eventually led to his teammates referring to them as “Texas Leaguers”. The success of minor league baseball in Sherman helped other teams in Northeast Texas establish their own franchises years later.

The star pitcher of the 1895 Sherman Orphans was a local kid named Cy Mulkey. He was a Texas League journeyman who by 1899 was pitching for the Houston Buffaloes. By 1902, Mulkey was a manager in Corsicana, and became a part of baseball history. When the Corsicana owner demanded Mulkey allow his entitled and inexperienced son to pitch over Mulkey’s objections, the Shermanite started the son and refused to pull him. As Texarkana cruised to a 51-3 victory, Mulkey famously shouted to the team: "His daddy said he's going to pitch, and he's sure pitching, ain't he?" The 48-run loss is still today the worst loss in professional baseball history.

By 1907, Mulkey was done with the Texas League. He headed back home, to manage the Austin College baseball team. At AC, Mulkey presided over a Roo Renaissance on the diamond. His arrival coincided with Austin College’s entry into the TIAA along with the top schools in the state. AC recruited some of the top players in Texas during this era. One of those players was a pitcher named Alex Malloy. In 1908, Malloy and the Roos faced Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants in Sherman during Giants spring training. Roo opponents that year included TCU, A&M, and UT. In 1909, Malloy led AC down to Austin and defeated the Longhorns 5-1. The Kangaroos would defeat UT in subsequent years without Malloy; by then he was already headed for greener pastures.

In the summer of 1909, Malloy was signed by the Houston Buffaloes. His performance in Houston was so strong that year that he began to attract the focus of Big League scouts. The St. Louis Browns were particularly interested, and called up Malloy during the summer of 1910 for the remainder of the season. The highlight of Malloy’s one year in the major leagues came at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on September 25, 1910.

Malloy got that call that day on the mound against the Washington Senators. His opponent just happened to be the best pitcher in the history of baseball, Walter Johnson. Johnson was untouchable. He struck out 11 Browns in a 1-hit complete game shutout. His 11 strikeouts got him to within 4 Ks of the all-time single season strikeout record, and he’d surpass that record on his next start. Washington won, 3-0.

But the Roo was up to the task. Malloy also went the distance, striking out 7 and allowing only 6 hits. According to the Washington Herald:

“Malloy, who opposed Johnson, pitched very fair ball, and had he distributed the half dozen hits gathered by Washington a little more effectively, there is a possibility that the teams might have fought on indefinitely without a decision. Malloy forced seven Nationals to strike out – not a bad record for a recruit.”

Today, Walter Johnson is 4th all-time in career complete games (531), second in wins (417), and first in shutouts (110). He was the all-time career strikeout leader with 3,508, until he was passed much later by a Texas native playing for Houston.

Malloy would return to the minors for another 4 years after 1910, and finished his career with the Houston Buffaloes. He was on the roster in 1914, when the Buffaloes met the New York Yankees during spring training at West End Park in Houston. The Park was located in downtown Houston, not far from Minute Maid field. The 1914 Yankee – Buffalo game is known for a famous photo of a home plate slide.

The Houston Buffaloes became the first official farm club of a major league franchise in the 1920s, when the team established a relationship with the St. Louis Cardinals. They were playing good baseball at West End Park that decade, and they were playing good baseball not too far away either. Rice baseball was led by a star SWC pitcher named Eddie Dyer, and was managed by Austin College legend Pete Cawthon. After graduation, Dyer was signed by the Houston Buffaloes, and was later called up to the Majors by the Cardinals. Dyer spent the year 1926 assisting Austin College athletics with Coach Cawthon, and helping St. Louis win the World Series. The town of Sherman threw a parade in his honor that year, and declared the day “Eddie Dyer Day.”

A managerial career within the Cardinals farm system followed Dyer’s playing days, and he skippered the Houston Buffaloes to three first place finishes and one Texas League championship in 1940. This success earned him the manager job of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946, and Dyer promptly led St. Louis to another World Series title exactly 20 years after his title as a player. The 1946 Series against the Boston Red Sox went 7 games. Enos Slaughter’s “mad dash” gave St. Louis a lead in the eighth, but Boston threatened to tie in the ninth. Down one run with two outs and two on, up to the plate walked Austin College Kangaroo Tom McBride. Former Austin College coach Eddie Dyer walked up to the mound to have a conversation with his relief pitcher, who successfully got a McBride ground out to end the Series. The Red Sox curse would continue for another 58 years after this disappointing loss on the same field where Alex Malloy and Walter Johnson had gone head-to-head.

The city of Houston petitioned for a Major League team for most of the post WW2 years, and the big break finally came in 1962. A group of Houston entrepreneurs received permission for a franchise, if and only if an agreement could be reached with the Houston Buffaloes. Eventually a deal was made, assets, staff, and coaches were transferred to the new Houston team, and the era of big league baseball by the Buffalo Bayou was born.

There have been many highlights since. The eighth wonder of the world was built in 1965. Texas native Nolan Ryan passed Walter Johnson’s career strikeout record as an Astro, and threw a major league record 5th no-hitter in the Astrodome. Mike Scott clinched a division title with a no-hitter. Bagwell, Biggio, & Berkman were one long highlight film. Roos my age are familiar with the thrill and ultimate frustration of 1980 and 1986. Younger Roos can recall the excitement of 2004 and 2005, and the exasperation of that first World Series loss to the White Sox.

We’ve seen losing streaks miraculously end in over the past 13 years. The Red Sox, the White Sox, and the Cubs have all snapped their skids and have brought home championships. In some ways, the longest losing streak in Major League baseball today is……the state of Texas. The Rangers and the Astros have played 113 seasons with zero titles to show for it. That will end one day.

The Yankees that squared off against the Houston Buffaloes in 1914 are now up 3-2 against Houston as the ALCS returns to Texas. But I still believe. Just two wins, and Houston finds itself in the World Series for a second time. It’s been a long and winding road since that day on the San Jacinto battlefield and through the efforts of Mulkey, Malloy, & Dyer, as well as Ryan, Biggio and Verlander. In fact, it’s been exactly 150 years. And maybe a celebration of the sesquicentennial of Texas baseball is just what is needed to finally bring a World Series title to the state of Texas.

150 years is a long time. Heck, it’s almost as old as Austin College itself. Almost.

Go Astros! Beat the Yankees and bring home a title. Let’s do this Houston and Texas.