AC vs. Trinity has been around for so long, it’s downright spooky.
I like to call Austin College vs. Trinity a D3 UT-A&M. The two Presbyterian schools combine for nearly 320 years of higher education, however; that’s over four decades more than those schools in Austin & College Station. So, maybe we should refer to the Horns & Aggies as a D1 AC-Trinity?
Trinity athletics has had the upper hand of the gridiron rivalry in the 21st century. It’s been lopsided. But lopsided has been par for the historical course. From 1973-1993, the Roos got the better of the Tigers, winning 79% of the matchups. Energized by the move to Waxahachie in 1902, the Tigers owned the rivalry until 1918, winning nearly four out of five over that span. That type of domination would frighten even the strongest haunted spirit.
The UT-A&M rivalry is also characterized by imbalance. UT dominated the rivalry from 1940 to 1973, as the University of Texas grew substantially in the post WW2 period while A&M remained all-male and small. Over that period, the Horns cast a spell on the Aggies and won 91% of the Thanksgiving Day games.
The best moments of a rivalry are when there is true competition. That was the case for AC-Trinity between 1919-1940, when the matchups were an even .500; that interwar period produced a golden age for both schools. Ditto for UT & A&M from 1974-2011, when the Horns and Aggies also went .500 as both schools maintained national prominence. Rivalries at their height are no trick and all treat.
The worst moments of a rivalry though, occur when…………there is no rivalry. Trinity’s move to San Antonio and the decision to join the Southland Conference (SLC) meant no Roo-Tiger games at all between 1951-1973. Likewise, there has not been a single UT-A&M matchup since 2011. Let’s hope that disappearing apparition does not last 22 years either.
My favorite aspect of both rivalries are the historic dates of the games. Thanksgiving. The modern game was born in Manhattan on Thanksgiving Day, 1893, when Princeton & Yale battled in front of 40,000 at the Polo Grounds. That same day, both AC & UT played the first college games in the state of Texas. It was the birth of a game that that returns every fall like a zombie.
The first Thanksgiving matchup between the Horns and Aggies occurred in 1901 in Austin; the second in 1902 was also the first Aggie win over the Horns. The third UT-A&M game on Thanksgiving Day was in 1904. It was also the same day as the first ever matchup between AC & Trinity. The Tigers made the 90 mile trip to Sherman, met the Roos at Luckett Field just north of campus, and began to work their magic:
From the Sherman Daily Democrat:
“The crowd which witnessed the game was probably the largest ever seen on a local field. Trinity came prepared to do up the day in style, sacrificing turkey for college spirit. The special train which arrived yesterday morning, carried besides the team and subs over 200 students from Trinity. They were in evidence at every stage of the game and the maroon and white was the prevailing color on the field.”
“One very pleasing feature of the game was the gentlemanly behavior and perfect good will as exhibited between the two teams. Trinity and Austin College have always sustained toward each other the friendliest of relations and will undoubtedly prove of mutual benefit to each other.”
From the Waxahachie Daily Light:
“The trip to Sherman yesterday by the Trinity University football team, university students, and others was made under the most favorable circumstances. About two hundred and fifty people went from Waxahachie…probably one of the most enthusiastic aggregations of rooters that ever accompanied a football team to a distant town to witness a game of this always fascinating sport. The students kept the other excursionists well entertained with college songs and college yells.”
“The train reached Sherman at 12:25 p.m. After dinner the visitors spent two or three hours seeing the many places of interest in the city of schools. The football team and students were given a hearty reception by the Austin College boys.”
“The game was called at 3:30 on the gridiron at the athletic park of Austin College and was played in the presence of perhaps the largest crowd ever assembled in the grandstand. Maroon and white, Trinity’s colors, and [red] and orange, the colors of Austin College, were very much in evidence.”
In front of a crowd estimated at 1,000 just weeks after the election of Teddy Roosevelt, Trinity won going away by a gory 38-0 score. AC would finally get its bloodcurdling revenge over Trinity four years later in 1908, the last year of Roosevelt’s term. Only three games were played in the state of Texas that Thanksgiving Day of 1904: The Revivalry of TCU @ Baylor, the big boys of A&M @ UT, and little Trinity @ little Austin College.
Trinity makes the trip to Sherman this weekend, 114 years after that initial train ride from Waxahachie. 114 years is quite some time. Go back 114 years before that first Roo-Tiger game, and you are witnessing the aftermath of the bloody American Revolution and the frightful storming of the Bastille in Paris.
The UT-A&M rivalry is just a shadow of its old self now, and the Roo-Tiger matchups on Thanksgiving Day are long gone. But those two D3 schools are still going at it. And nothing says AC and Trinity more than going at it. Like vampires with no mortality, we’ve both been around forever. We’re always suiting up and heading for the field; Saturday will be just more of the same. Let’s hope the rivalry stays that way, and never meets its Grim Reaper.
Am I wishing you all a Happy Halloween? I’m afraid so.
