Built roughly a century after the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, it was
only natural that San Antonio would name their fancy new football
stadium “Alamo Stadium.” At long last, the city had a venue that
rivaled Dallas’s Cotton Bowl, Fort Worth’s Farrington Field, and
Austin’s Memorial Stadium.
Alamo Stadium construction began in
the late 1930s, thanks to the public works projects of Roosevelt’s New
Deal. By 1940, it was done. The first game played at Alamo Stadium was
a college football contest between Texas A&M and Tulsa. The Aggies
were defending national champions; the Golden Hurricane were
struggling. A&M won easily 41-6, and Tulsa’s head coach resigned at
season’s end. The Oklahoma school went looking for a coach who could
turn the program around; they found one in Austin College Kangaroo Henry
Frnka. In 1941, Frnka led Tulsa to 8 wins and a Sun Bowl victory over
the Texas Tech Red Raiders coached by Austin College Kangaroo Dell
Morgan.
Morgan had built upon Kangaroo Pete Cawthon’s success in
Lubbock during the 1940s by steadily moving Tech towards Southwest
Conference membership. Crucial to that success was the establishment of
rivalries against SWC schools. Morgan organized a series against Texas
A&M from 1943 to 1950 that took place each year at Alamo Stadium.
There, Morgan secured Tech’s first program win over the Aggies in 1946.
He repeated the feat in 1948. Tech was well on its way to conference
membership by 1950.
In 1950, Bud Wilkinson’s Oklahoma Sooners
were national champions; future Heisman winner Billy Vessels hoped to
lead his squad to a repeat in 1951. That dream vanished when OU was
upset by Texas A&M at Kyle Field. The Aggies celebrated their
triumph, and then immediately began to prepare for their next game at
Alamo Stadium in San Antonio. There, they’d face a small college
opponent:
The Trinity Tigers.
Texas A&M was led by
first year head coach Raymond George. George had landed the job in
Aggieland by defeating a handful of finalists; one of those finalists
was Austin College Kangaroo Henry Frnka. In hindsight, scheduling the
Aggies was probably a bit overzealous on the part of Trinity. Fresh off
their upset of one of the best teams in the nation, the Aggies easily
defeated the Tigers 53-14. Trinity had no time to lick their wounds
after the defeat; they had another home game in Alamo Stadium one week
later. There, they’d face a small college opponent:
The Austin College Kangaroos.
Austin College Head Coach Ray Morrison brought his Kangaroo passing
attack to Alamo Stadium, but could not find any answers to the Trinity
running game. The Tigers prevailed 20-12. Photos of the game were
published in the San Antonio Express News. See the comments.
Roo Henry Frnka was probably there. The Kangaroo had coached with
Morrison at Vanderbilt and Temple before World War 2. By the late
1940s, both had tired of big-time collegiate athletics. They both made
their way to Austin College in 1949, Morrison as AC Head Coach and Frnka
within AC Athletics Development.
The 1951 game was the first
meeting between AC & Trinity in San Antonio since the latter’s move
from Waxahachie 10 years earlier. It remains the only game AC football
has ever played at Alamo Stadium. The AC-Trinity football rivalry went
on hiatus after 1951, but resumed in the early 1970s. By then,
Trinity’s days of competition in Alamo Stadium were over; Tiger football
had a new home on campus. Between 1979 and 1992, the Roos sported a
perfect 6-0 record in games played at Trinity. Larry Shillings, a Kangaroo version of Pete Gardere in this rivalry, led AC to three of them.
Most of us old timers are familiar with Alamo Stadium as the home of
the USFL’s San Antonio Gunslingers in the 1980s. In 1984, the
Gunslingers were led by Head Coach Gil Steinke. Steinke, a native
Texan, had coached at Trinity in the late 1940s and Texas A&M in the
early 1950s. He was there on the Aggie sideline when Texas A&M
defeated the Tigers at Alamo Stadium, and now he was back.
Today, sporting events at Alamo Stadium are mostly confined to High
School football and track & field in San Antonio. The heady days of
collegiate and professional events are a thing of a past. The stadium,
however, is historic. Located adjacent to Trinity’s campus, Alamo
Stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
Austin College faces the Trinity Tigers this Saturday; they’ll meet on
campus, where Tiger football has played for nearly a half century. Kick
off is at 1 p.m. Both schools have two wins, and both are coming off
identical 20-13 victories over Centre College. Sounds like we may have a
good one. It’s alumni weekend at Trinity, and the school will be
officially celebrating 150 years. Happy Anniversary Tigers.
Before the game, Roo Nation will meet for a “Huddle Up” at 10 a.m. at
Barbaro’s. Located on McCullough near Trinity, Barbaro’s is owned and
operated by Chad Carey & Kate Currie Carey.
Chad is a Roo football veteran who went toe-to-toe with the Tigers in
San Antonio. Kate is a member of the Currie family with deep Kangaroo
roots going back many generations. Thanks for hosting Careys.
I unfortunately can’t make it this year, though hopefully you can. David Norman, JR Ohr, and other Roos who will be there? Count me in for next time, have fun, and most important………….beat Trinity.
