The 1923 football season was about to kickoff at SMU, and the Mustangs had a brand new stadium on campus: the Ownby Oval. The new field was inaugurated during the first game of the year against Austin College.
SMU was a member of the Southwest Conference, with lofty goals. But the Mustangs were struggling against the Kangaroos. AC had won three straight against SMU, and it looked like Austin College might avoid defeat a fourth time with the scored tied 3-3 late in the game. A blocked punt and recovery, however, allowed SMU to escape with a 10-3 victory over Pete Cawthon’s Kangaroos. Ray Morrison’s Mustangs were on their way to their first SWC championship. Morrison ended his coaching career in 1952 at Austin College.
Funny thing about that 1923 SMU championship season. Not only did the Mustangs go undefeated, they also shut out A&M, TCU, Oklahoma State, & Baylor. In fact, only one other team besides Austin College (Arkansas) was able to put up points against SMU.
Cawthon coached a good number of Kangaroos who became future coaches in Texas; three of them headed to Sulphur Springs, TX after graduation. Beginning in 1926, the Sulphur Springs Wildcat football team was led by Roos J.B. Head, then Virgil Ballard, and finally Barnes Milam. Milam moved on in 1933, the same year that Sulphur Springs native son Forrest Gregg was born.
Gregg was a star offensive lineman for the Wildcats, and his services were requested back at SMU. There, he blocked for his SMU Quarterback Duane Nutt (h/t Kelly Nutt and Davis Nutt) as Nutt would look for an open Wide Receiver Raymond Berry. Berry, a native son of nearby Paris, TX, went on to playing and coaching days in the NFL alongside Gregg. Nutt made his way to Sherman, coaching AC football for over a decade.
Gregg is most famous for being a part of the Green Bay Packer dynasty of Vince Lombardi in the 1960s. At Lambeau Field, Gregg helped the Packers to five NFL championships and two Super Bowl victories. Lombardi called him “the finest player I ever coached.” Gregg was a rookie in 1956 at Green Bay; so was his Packer teammate Billy Bookout, Austin College Kangaroo Class of 1955.
Lombardi, Gregg and the Packers met the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field on November 13, 1960. Austin College Kangaroo Gene Babb’s rushing effort was no match for Gregg and the Packers, who scored at will. Green Bay won 41-7, and dominated the decade in the NFL. The Cowboys would finally get that Super Bowl championship in 1972, thanks in part to a trade that brought Forrest Gregg to the Dallas offensive line. After helping the Cowboys win their first championship, Gregg retired and went into NFL coaching. He finished his career in 1987 with the Packers, the team that had given him his start in 1956.
Southern Methodist University, a young institution established over 60 years after Austin College, initially struggled on the athletic field against the more established school in Sherman in the early 20th century. But the city of Dallas was determined to have a winner. After 1923 came a 1935 national championship, the son-of-a-Roo Heisman winner Doak Walker, the Cotton Bowl, Texas Stadium, and the Pony Express. With success came excess. NCAA violations resulted in the draconian Death Penalty for SMU football in 1987. A retired Gregg suddenly felt a new calling; restoring the dignity and fortunes of his alma mater upon football’s return to SMU in 1989.
Gregg didn’t have much to work with. The scholarship players had all transferred, and the 1989 squad was full of freshmen and walk on heroes. The team struggled that season, but they had a moment. A big moment. A “Marshall” moment.
Marshall University tragically lost its entire team in a plane crash in 1970, but the school committed to rebuild the program with a young, inexperienced team the next year. That season only produced only two wins by the novice squad. One of those wins, however, was secured on a touchdown pass on the last play of the game. The movie “We Are Marshall” starring Matthew McConaughey tells the tale.
SMU’s win over UConn in 1989 was straight out of “We Are Marshall.” Down late, the Mustangs won the game on a touchdown pass on the final play of the game. Known as the “Miracle on Mockingbird,” the win meant that SMU football would not go quietly into the night after all. It occurred at the Ownby Oval (now Gerald Ford Stadium), the same field inaugurated in 1923 when the Mustangs hosted the Roos.
The 1989 SMU team had brought the game back to Ownby. Interestingly, a Roo was a member of that 1989 team.
Like Gregg, Brien Sanders was an offensive lineman. Sanders had helped the 1988 AC Kangaroos to an NAIA D2 playoff appearance in 1988. But the possibility of revitalizing the SMU program was too enticing; Sanders transferred and became a redshirt member of the 1989 SMU Mustangs.
In spite of the Miracle on Mockingbird, the 1989 move proved to not be quite the fit Sanders was looking for. Brien went into Coach Forrest Gregg’s office before the 1990 season to have a chat with the legendary coach and make it official. He was transferring back to Austin College. In 1990, Sanders helped the Roos get back to the NAIA D2 playoffs.
Forest Gregg passed away recently at the age of 85 due to complications from Parkinson’s, thought to have been caused at least in part by his playing days. It’s just not fair. The neurological afflictions that plague football affect most those whose contributions far exceed the fame they should receive but never do: offensive linemen.
Gregg was a native Texan and former SMU Mustang with a great sports story. That story touched nearly every level of play and every location in the country. Not surprisingly, that tale also included more than a few ties with ol’ Austin College.
