College football has arrived, and the sport is celebrating a number of anniversaries this year.
2019 marks the official 150th birthday of the sport, although an old
Roo Tale preview makes it clear that the Princeton-Rutgers game of 1869
was probably soccer. The true birth of college football can be found at
Tufts, on of my non-Roo alma maters.
2019 marks the 50th
anniversary of the University of Texas national championship and the
Longhorn-Razorback “Game of the Century.” An iconic photo of UT QB
James Street and his Hall of Fame coach Darryl Royal also graces a
preview of a Roo Tale.
The year 2019 also marks the 100th anniversary of Texas A&M’s national championship in football.
Well, sorta.
In 2012, two new national championships quietly appeared at Kyle Field.
Alongside the undisputed 1939 title, Texas A&M added national
titles for 1927 and 1919. The addition of 1919 came as a surprise to
Harvard and Illinois, both of whom had claimed the national championship
100 years ago.
Texas A&M’s move was prompted by actions of
the National Championship Foundation, which had recently met to choose
retroactive championships going back all the way to 1869. The
Foundation declared a three-way tie in 1919 between Harvard, Notre Dame,
and Texas A&M. I guess we are supposed to assume sports writers
and coaches who picked Illinois 100 years ago didn’t know what they were
talking about.
If the National Championship Foundation can
second guess its predecessors and provide additional championships to
more schools, then what’s to stop Roo Tales from doing the same? I
mean, what do they got that we don’t got? Maybe, with a little review,
we can add a fourth national championship to the year 1919. And maybe,
that fourth school is Austin College in Sherman, TX.
Let’s take a look……………….
Austin College and Texas A&M did not face each other on the
gridiron in 1919, so head-to-head competition is not an available tool.
We can, however, review common opponents. AC & A&M had many
that year.
#1: The Trinity Tigers
Trinity traveled to
College Station on October 24th, and received a 42-0 shellacking at Kyle
Field by the Aggies. Their fortunes did not improve much the next
month; the Tigers traveled to Sherman on Thanksgiving Day 1919 and fell
to the Austin College Kangaroos by a score of 46-0.
Advantage: Austin College
#2: The TCU Horned Frogs
TCU made its way to Kyle Field on November 15th, and were shutout by
the Aggies on the ROAD. The Horned Frogs faced the Kangaroos one week
later on November 22nd, and were shutout a second time. At HOME.
Advantage: Austin College
#3: The Baylor Bears
Texas A&M traveled to Waco on November 8th and put up 10 points
against Baylor at old Carroll Field. Austin College had made the same
trip to Waco on October 17th, and scored 12 points against the Bears.
Advantage: Austin College
Well, sorta.
According to the Waco Tribune, Austin College dominated the game
statistically against Baylor. By late in the game, the Roos had already
scored two touchdowns. A third had been controversially denied when an
AC running back was marked just short of the goal line on fourth down.
In spite of howls of Austin College protest, the referee marked the
ball at the one-inch line.
Nevertheless, AC still held a 12-10
lead and had the game well in hand in the fourth quarter. The Roos were
driving into Baylor territory and were looking to put the game away.
Then disaster struck.
Miscommunication and an errant pass led to a 60-yard pick six by
Baylor. AC never recovered, and fell 17-12. From the Waco
News-Tribune:
“Interception of a forward pass and a 60-yard run
by “Yank” Wilson Friday afternoon on Carroll field yanked the Baylor
Bears out of what seemed certain defeat and carried them to victory over
the Austin College Kangaroos by a score of 17 to 12.”
“Time and
again with forward passes the Kangaroos with forward passes and a simple
fake end run waltzed the ball down to Baylor’s goal, keeping it in
dangerous territory more than their share. Twice they crossed Baylor’s
goal and missed a third on the last down by the fraction of a small red
hair. The ball was left resting almost against the goal line.”
“It was a Baylor victory more by the grace of providence than by any
malice aforethought on the part of the Bears, for the visitors put up
one of the most surprisingly aggressive games that has been witnessed on
the local gridiron in many moons.”
Should Austin College be
retroactively awarded the 1919 National Championship? No. In spite of
the success against Trinity & TCU, a loss is still a loss even with
the intervention of divine providence. Still, it’s not difficult to
imagine the 1919 Kangaroos giving the Aggies a blemish they never
received had the Roos been on the Aggie schedule.
One of the
many victims of that 1919 Texas A&M championship team was Howard
Payne, who fell to the Aggies at Kyle Field. The 2019 Austin College
Kangaroos kick off their season tomorrow, September 7th at home against
Howard Payne. You can watch the game online and listen to Kirk Hughes,
“Voice of the Roos,” at the link below. Or, if you are in the Sherman
area, grab some BBQ and a beverage in the Larry Kramer outback with William Keith Bo Brown, Claude Webb Jr., Danny Buck, grillmaster Billy Core, and others.
