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
According to the Houston Post, the Roos “put up a plucky fight” in their football contest against TCU in late October 1909. But the Horned Frogs eventually prevailed by a score of 18-3. Austin College boarded the train to head back to Sherman. Soon, Waco was disappearing in the distance. Wait, what? Waco? Yes, Waco.
Hey, check out that photo! The photo comes from a Texas A&M yearbook. It’s found on the first of many pages dedicated to Aggie football that season. It has a caption: Initial Kick-Off. What does “Initial” refer to? The beginning of a particular game? Maybe. Or perhaps it refers to the initial kickoff of the
It’s a dramatic scene in a great football movie. In “Remember The Titans”, Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) leads his recently integrated T.C. Williams High School football team out of the Gettysburg College dorms, through the woods, and into a Gettysburg graveyard. There, he urges his diverse team to come together and avoid the fate
Spirits were high as the Hendrix Warriors traveled north to Fayetteville in October 1920. Their goal was a daunting one: defeat Southwest Conference member Arkansas on their home field. The Razorbacks dominated the game statistically, as they moved the ball at will. But each time Arkansas approached the goal line, the Hendrix defense stiffened. Fumbles,
In his book “Football Texas Style”, legendary SWC broadcaster Kern Tips described the birth of college football at the end of the 19th century in the Lone Star state. Among the rise of programs in Austin & College Station were “denominational little giants as Austin College” and others. Tips continues: “This latter group of schools
It’s a rainy, windy evening in Austin, TX. Harvey continues to meander northward towards Travis County. But we still have power. Sounds like a good opportunity for a mini-Roo Tale (a Joey Tale!) before the lights go out. “We come to practice. We play the game. We win. We lose. We go home.” – Gregg
The Cowboys open up the 2017 football season today, taking on the Cardinals at the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. Canton is the home of the NFL Hall of Fame in part to honor the Canton Bulldogs, one of the first professional football dynasties. Behind the running of tailback Jim Thorpe (Carlisle Indian
Dennis Ralston knows. Trinity tennis is something special. I recently wrote about Dennis. He’s the assistant pro at Grey Rock tennis club in Austin, and drills us old timers in the Texas heat on Thursday nights. Coach Ralston is being honored at Wimbledon this month for his contributions to the tournament and the game. You
Chapter 1: Sherman David Mitchell Currie took his family west from North Carolina in the 1870s, and found a plot of land to call home in Falls County, TX, just south of Waco. Like many Presbyterians, this family of farmers believed in the value of an education. So when basic schooling was finished for son