Osler's Razor

One of the true athletic success stories at Baylor has been the Equestrian squad. The team came close to winning a national championship in 1929. Back then, equestrian was the only “mixed” intercollegiate sport (and remains so in Olympic competition), in which men and women competed directly against one another. The competitions were in the form of a three-day event; the first day was devoted to jumping, the second day to dressage, and the third day to open team competition, in which teams were given wide leeway in exhibiting their skills. Baylor’s team in the 1920's consisted of four Polish veterans of the Cavalry in World War I. To fend off accusations of foreign recruitment, each of the four took on an Americanized name while here. In order of accomplishment, the four were Tomasz Wboroda (“Tommy Whip”), Jacszlk Szkorski (“Jack Smith”), Szyzlyk Nowasciski (“Sam Novak”) and Wyslszic Chrzystski (“Wally Christian”).

Thus renamed, they were undefeated through the entire season until the national championship, largely due to their unusual style: They loafed through the jumping and dressage competitions, but would focus on the open team event on the third day. For this part of the competition, they relied on their wartime skills and made a full cavalry charge on their opposition, causing their opponents to flee and their horses to run away. They then commenced to slaughtering the supporters of the other team with their sabres, removing any valuables from the remains of their opponents before leaving the field. This was quite a departure from the unison trotting and prancing that was the norm in this event, to say the least. In the final, however, BU faced the most powerful equestrian school in the nation, Sweet Briar of Virginia, a school so supportive of the sport that each girl at the college was guaranteed stable space for her horse upon enrollment.

Sweet Briar, hearing of the BU tactics, pre-emptively mounted an artillary barrage on the brave men of Baylor during the dressage competition, killing all of their horses. Baylor’s protests fell on deaf ears due to their own prior tactics, and Sweet Briar was awarded the blue ribbons upon the Baylor forfeit. Embarrassed, three members of the Baylor team (save “Wally Christian,” who took a faculty position at Baylor), returned to Poland, where sadly each perished in 1939 when Germany’s Panzer Division invaded their homeland and the once-proud cavalry saw its last use in modern warfare. In honor of his fallen camrades, Prof. Christian founded Cavalry Baptist Church in Waco, which I believe still exists.