Conference Family Portraits

I wrote the feature story over on Uni Watch today.  Back in January I had scanned in all the Conference Family Portraits for the same website - a favorite of mine - focuses on the aesthetics of athletic unis and the minutia associated with the obsession.

Dad had purchased these postcards in 1969 and I had grown up with them - staring at them for hours.  Over the years I have found the playing cards too (they have the SWC family portrait and Up for Grabs on the two decks).  After chatting with Phil at Uni Watch I realized the originals were paintings signed by Don Collins.  I decided to see if I could find anything about the artist.  I found a bunch of neat info on him which lead to this story.

Well now that I knew where he was, I wanted more!  I put in a call to him on a Friday and he called me back Monday once he got back to his studio.  We had a fantastic conversation on the phone, me asking tons of questions about how and why the posters were made - all the while wishing I could call Dad and tell him the history.

No, it didn't take me ten months to write the story, just ten months to sit down to write it.  Enjoy the history of these little gems of days gone by!

Battle for the Iron Skillet

To avoid mutilation of school property, the SMU student Council proposed a trophy along the lines of the Little Brown Jug. That was October of 1946. After about seven weeks, an aluminum skillet (seems an iron one would have been way easier to find) was purchased. As reported in the Nov 30th Dallas Morning News, the Battle for the Iron Skillet was born.

The inscription on that skillet read “Presented in token of southwestern friendship to the winner of annual TCU-SMU football game. Student tradition sponsored jointly by student governments of the universities.” Decades went by and interest in the skillet began to wane until it just went missing.

A new Lodge cast iron skillet was purchased in 1993. The new inscription reads:

“The Battle for the Iron Skillet
SMU vs. TCU
A Tradition since 1915” 1915?

Not the skillet, but the rivalry! And if you look at this photo, it clearly now says "THE SKILLET". So maybe a third skillet (or at least new plaque). Looks like I need to go dig through some yearbooks...

But why a skillet? No one knows for sure. It is rumored in the 50s some SMU students were cooking frog legs before a game and a TCU student took offense and suggested whoever wins gets the skillet. Seems a little weak to me... plus the timeline doesn't fit.

Source Articles:
TCU Magazine
SMU News Archives

An older photo in this Skiff article

Helmet Bevo turns 50!

Fifty years ago this week, Darrell Royal put the infamous Longhorn silhouette logo on the football helmets! He asked a local sporting goods merchant to draw something up. Upon Rooster's reveal of his design (rendered in crayon), Darrell put it on the helmet for the Cal game. That was September 23, 1961! The article tracks the earliest emergence of the longhorn around the university - main contributor being booster H.J Lutcher Stark who first added a steer to sideline player blankets (and a host of other influences detailed in the story).

They got one thing wrong, though. First appearance of those little iconic cartoon Bevos I can attribute to 1956 - which is earlier than the 1960 media guide sporting the familiar pair of characters.  I have them in a 1956 Texas football program (and not in 1955 programs). Would love to know who drew him up!  Note that this pair from the 50s is very similar to the one above in my blog banner from the 70s.  The super angry one in the right of my blog banner adorns a SWC/National Champions windbreaker I have from 1969. Just to give you a dating of the different versions... which were all used at various times throughout those decades (and certainly on cool throwback SWC tees).

Also love how Royal did not want to "candy up" the unis by adding stripes.  The ONLY uni to this day I accept emphatically WITHOUT striped pants (because, as I have stated time and time again - football pants need stripes)!

Full article can be found here - and the link has also been added to my SWC football site the left column under traditions.

Earl Campbell Carries Rice Player into Endzone Revisited

Doing a completely unrelated search today, I found this neat article on ESPN's Page 2 about the 1977 video of Earl Campbell carrying Rice's Strong Safety Michael Downs into the Endzone. I was amused that the author located the involved players to discuss their thoughts on the memorable play.

To the right of the article was a little sidebar about how hard it was to figure out who was in the video. I was thinking, oh shoot - my dad would have known instantly! Wait..... this is sounding a little familiar. Then I see MY NAME as a critical resource and remember we had this discussion on Uni Watch quite some time ago. How cool is that?

Turns out the author asked for Uni Watch's assistance and (with the help of dad) we concluded who got the free ride! Although we had concluded it was Michael Downs by the end of the thread, the author had to give some credit to the UT historian that confirmed it! ;)

Check out "The Story Behind the Story" on the right side of the article!

The research started by dad's "all knowing of all things SWC", lots of legwork by me, and finished by dad and his SWC Record Books... which are now mine! Check out comments 101, 155, 186, 193, 195, 197, 212, 216, 226, 238, 242, 243, 245, 247, 248 at Uni Watch for the full process!

Classic SWC Matchup Today

I can only imagine the cartoon DIrk West would have come up with for today's game regarding last year's upset.

Love all the replays on College Game Day of last year's upset! No surprise with Corso's donning of the Bevo Mascot head. Actually I prefer, as a Red Raider, to be the underdog. Bad things happen when we are favored! Thought the signs were rather weak though... even the best one about not freestyling Texas Fight failed by omitting "big boy." Weeeeeeak...

We don't freestyle Texas Fight, big boy!



More Cartoons from Dirk West - each one with a very cool set up for the week. The LAJ has moved them to the Lubbock Centennial page - which is a very cool page, by the way.

The Power and The GloryHarold V. Ratliff

What is it with this book that it is so expensive? Published in 1957 by the Texas Tech Press, Harold Ratliff was a veteran Texas sports writer. But, I have never seen a copy with its dust jacket for less than $100. A signed copy I saw once at the Half Price Books in Dallas was either $150 or $300 - I was so stunned, I just purged it from mind. The next time I went, it was gone!

And how in the world can this book be so wonderful when my dad did not have it...? He had every book written about the SWC! Guess it might have been a tad early for him - even though he did travel to his first UT game by train from Houston alone with his best friend at the age of eight (1949).

Reported to have one at the Houston Public Library, I may go try to find it before I put down half a Franklin for a non-dust jacketed copy. Published in 1957 I need to make sure I want it. My interest of the SWC is more 60s and 70s.

Oregon of the Big 12

Baylor's unis WERE perfect...

Old school - up the middle, up the middle to the left, up the middle to the right... Okay, so their offense style has changed a bit - but it's not like Tech who have an entirely modern game and completely fill those Under Armour shoes. While those "Old Baylor Line" stripes are gone from the pants, at least Nike did not remove them from the helmet. Not to be outdone though - in the wake of those awful green helmets in 2005-2007 which were actually called "Oregon Green" we now have white helmets... Wait, what???

Let's be clear... Baylor wears gold in case you didn't know! They even f*cked up the mascot... :/ Thank you Nike, you suck!