With today's look into the 1963 season, the qualifying seasons for this year's edition of This Day in UTA Football History is complete. It is also one of the harder seasons for me personally to cover. I have one media guide prior to 1967 (and they were bare bones guides back in that time frame) and the media coverage from that era was really sparse compared to later years.
What I can relay is just how different the attitudes surrounding the Arlington State Rebels football program were compared to later years. There was a greater pride, participation and anticipation with ASC football than there would be just a decade later. I've documented the almost overnight decline in campus pride from 1969 to 1970 before and will spare any discussion today.
But, believe it or not, the Rebs were a national powerhouse in the 1950's as a junior college. At 4-6, 1962 was the first losing season in Arlington since 1951's 3-4-1 record. From 1952 to 1961, a span of ten seasons, the worst record was 1959's 4-3 mark, the year ASC first played University schools. They were a combined 79-18-2. For those non-mathematicians, that's a winning percentage of .808. There were two Junior Rose Bowl victories in that mix, which was the mythical JuCo national title.
In 1960, they were in the mix for a Tangerine Bowl berth with their 9-2 record. The bowl ended up going with The Citadel as the at-large participant, who beat Tennessee Tech 27-0. Not bad for the program's second year as a four-year University. In 1959, there were no seniors on the team, causing Coach Claude "Cheena" Gilstrap to claim the three-year national title.
So two JuCo Natty's and just shy of a bowl appearance in ten years...., it's easy to see why there was a swagger in the program.
But, as all things usually do, there was a valley. After a 9-2 record in 1960, '61 dipped to 7-3, then 4-6 in '62. Not to read the end of the book first, but '63 would end up being the worst in the program since an 0-6-2 mark in 1950 as far as wins go and the 1-9 mark in 1949 when looking at win percentage. The ASC faithful were a spoiled bunch to say the least.
As far as stars from this season, the list is harder to compile. Kinda makes sense considering this would be a down era, with losing seasons from '62 to '64. They didn't belong to a conference either, further complicating the ability to find superlatives.
The big name from this time was Quarterback Doug Wilson. He was a key contributor every year since he joined the program as a freshman. He was the total yards and passing yards leader in 1960, '62 and '63 and was the rushing leader in '62. My record may be incomplete, but he is fourth all-time in total plays, despite averaging only ten games a season. His 14 passing touchdowns is tied for fourth, though his interception total is third. The fact that no season of his cracks to the top five single season is a testament to his staying power and consistency. He also owns the fifth longest run in program history at 76 yards against Stephen F. Austin in 1962. The second longest is 78 and two are tied for third at 77. That is a record that could hold a while or be broken pretty quickly if there is ever a football resurrection at UTA.
My rosters are also a bit incomplete from this time, but I can tell you at 274 yards, fullback Al Smith would lead the team in rushing this year. At 5.5 yards a carry, I gotta wonder why he didn't get it more.
Ken Vaugn would lead the team in receptions with 21 and likely did in receiving yards at 335. Not very often the receptions leader had more yards than the rushing leader. That was the first time in program history and out of 27 seasons, that happened only six times.
I have little defensive stats from this time period, with the exception of Vaugn and Gary page leading the team with two interceptions.
The Rebels started the '63 campaign against West Texas State, now WT A&M. In a close game against a higher division foe, the Rebels fell 22-17.
Today's opponent is one of my favorites to talk about on this blog. In many ways, terminating the series is an example of what is destroying college athletics today.
Arlington State College and East Texas State University were peers in many, many ways. ASC was a recent addition to the four-year ranks, was more inline with a regional university than the nationally ranked one of today and shared a geographic rivalry. ETSU is roughly an hour to 1.5 from campus today. It is a little closer than Tarleton State. It's hard to figure out what it was like now for the pre-Interstate Highway era, but only North Texas and the two private Southwest Conference schools were closer. Those three were clearly not in UTA's division yet.
There was such a convenience of location, players knew other players. With the novelty of bowl games aside, you can't replicate that with the multi-time zone conferences now.
These teams first played each other most every year from 1962, starting when Memorial Stadium, the on-campus football venue, expanded to 10,000 capacity until 1969.
In 1970, UTA was head on in the push to move to the University Division. After a brief home and home, the teams did not play in 1964, put played every year from '65-69.
I don't have the numbers for the 1962 game, but the other two games against ETSU are in the top four crowds at Memorial Stadium, which saw 53 University games. One is tied for first and the other sits only 500 spectators behind. And other than the geographic convenience, these games carried no other meaning. There was no conference title or perfect season on the line. They were games played in the second or third game of the season. And they were capacity crowds.
Memorial Stadium in Commerce also saw capacity crowds in the return games. It was a two-way road that worked for both schools.
In today's era of college football, chasing the money has led to some unthinkable conference lineups just a decade ago. The series ended and was never renewed when UTA worked to get to the University Division. Back then, half the schedule had to be played against other University Division schools to get to that level. Since UTA was the first Southland Conference school to go to the University Division, the non-conference schedule had to get them their quota. ETSU didn't qualify.
I wonder if when the rest of the SLC reached the University, then later Division I, if Coach Harold "Bud" Elliott or Chuck Curtis contacted ETSU. I wonder what would have happened if 1985 had opened against the Lions rather than Angelo State. The crowd likely would have been higher if nothing else. But its just a pipe dream regardless.
On this day in UTA football history, the Arlington State College travels to Commerce to take on the East Texas State Lions.
We drove to Commerce in my mom's new '67 Mustang. It was the game when Skipper Butler kicked a 60 yard FG, pretty amazing for a straight on kicker.
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