Saturday, March 17, 2007
Baylor History, Part 23
The 1920's at Baylor included some of the most memorable football games in the history of the institution. This would, of course, include the Baylor-Temple game of 1927, which, due to a foul up in the athletic department, led to Baylor defeating the eleven unsuspecting congregants at a Bahia Temple in Philadelphia by a score of 112-0. At the time, of course, the Temple University team was known as the Melon Balls, and were still in the company of their famous mascot, Ballsy. Ballsy was relieved of his duties at the Texas A & M-Temple game of 1932, having been sliced in half by a member of the corps of cadets when he began performing his usual madcap antics on the field. As many of you Temple U. fans know, their current mascot is a very sad-looking Owl with one testicle, in memory of their original mascot.
Tailpipe Laker was privileged to play with one of the best quarterbacks Baylor ever had, old Fuzzy (“Richard”) Murphy, who was the quarterback for Baylor the last half of the season of ‘30. He was about 5’1”—relatively close to being one of the “little people” as they call them now. Despite his size, he was supremely talented. That year, the last game of the season was against A & M (which was then still known as Childress Music Academy and Agriculture Station). The game started at 7 in late November in old Garf Stadium on LaSalle Avenue, where the extremely dangerous Swanburg- oriented convenience store is now. It was unclear why they had a 7 pm start—might have been a radio broadcast issue—but it was dark as black beans by the second quarter. Old Richard set out torches around the huddle to diagram plays, and had everyone run to one side of the end zone. He’d make a throwing noise, and secretly had a Western Union boy run the ball into the end zone. This unusual tactic worked six times in a row, and Baylor won 44-12. As payback, Western Union is to this day the official telegraph operator for Baylor University.
Tailpipe Laker was privileged to play with one of the best quarterbacks Baylor ever had, old Fuzzy (“Richard”) Murphy, who was the quarterback for Baylor the last half of the season of ‘30. He was about 5’1”—relatively close to being one of the “little people” as they call them now. Despite his size, he was supremely talented. That year, the last game of the season was against A & M (which was then still known as Childress Music Academy and Agriculture Station). The game started at 7 in late November in old Garf Stadium on LaSalle Avenue, where the extremely dangerous Swanburg- oriented convenience store is now. It was unclear why they had a 7 pm start—might have been a radio broadcast issue—but it was dark as black beans by the second quarter. Old Richard set out torches around the huddle to diagram plays, and had everyone run to one side of the end zone. He’d make a throwing noise, and secretly had a Western Union boy run the ball into the end zone. This unusual tactic worked six times in a row, and Baylor won 44-12. As payback, Western Union is to this day the official telegraph operator for Baylor University.
Labels: Baylor History
