Checking in with the 1959 Arlington State College Rebels as we enter October on This Day in UTA Football History. In 2015, I covered the first game the team played as a four-year university, a 28-0 win over Southeastern Oklahoma University.
ASC was 1-0 and undefeated as a four-year university. They were still riding high from their 1950's run of success at the Junior College level and it looked like it would continue. 63-20-6 was the combined record of the 1950's JuCo Rebels. Included in that tally is an 0-6-2 record in 1950 and 3-4-1 mark the year following. That is a heck of a run of success.
Head Coach Claude “Cheena” Gilstrap was the architect of that run. He came on a short time after those losing seasons and immediately became a winner. In addition, he was a very humorous speaker capturing the attention of local media. Later he was an instrumental part of the formation of the Southland Conference. He deservedly is in the Hall of Honor for both organizations.
ASC was going to pit itself against a much longer tenured university for its second game. Sam Houston State University played as a four-year school since their first game played in 1912. Joining the Lone Star Conference in 1934, the Bearkats would call it home until 1983. They, along other future Southland Conference rivals Southwest Texas State and Stephen F. Austin, left the LSC and formed the Gulf Star Conference. Future Louisiana and SLC schools Nicholls State, Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana completed that six-team league.
At this time, Sam Houston was a formidable opponent. In their time in the LSC, Sam Houston won four total conference titles. The first came in 1955, the second the following season. 1961 and 1964 saw the final two. That really was their heyday. And here in the middle of that stretch sits a first-year program in the ASC Rebels on the schedule.
In some ways. Sam is a reflection of what UTA was and maybe could have been. Both have struggling attendance, attributed largely to an apathetic student body and alumni base with large entertainment options in the two largest metros in Texas. Somehow the Bearkats make it work and were one of the more successful Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA, teams until they moved to Conference USA a handful of years ago. Having been to both, I'd put Maverick Stadium as is today over Bowers Stadium as is. There is a lot of potential, really at both places, but both places finding the will and the capital are challenging.
Sam's success is largely a measure of finding the right coach as their budget around the time of the Football Bowl Subdivision was only eight million more than UT Arlington's, despite have a football program at the highest level, plus women's bowling, beach volleyball and soccer. UTA does have a men's tennis program that SHSU does not.
There are a small number of coaches that have really carried the success for them through the years got them where they are now. Paul Pierce (94-52-7, four conference titles), Ron Randleman (131-125-3, four conference titles), Willie Fritz (40-15, two conference titles, two I-AA championship game appearances) and K.C. Keeler (97-39, four conference titles, FCS national championship) are why Sam is where it is today. I can't help but think UTA's final coach Chuck Curtis was headed in that direction.
For a brief period, UTA surpassed Sam in national stature, playing in the NCAA's Division I by 1971 while Sam was NAIA. The LSC became an NCAA Division II conference in 1982. Sam departed and joined UTA's subdivision by 1984. In two years, Sam would surpass UTA when the Maverick program was disbanded.
But all that was a distant future in 1959. Last week was the anniversary of the first game, a win. As the title gives it away, on this day in UTA football history, the Arlington State Rebels lose for the first time as a four-year program.
Taken from the Dallas Morning News, October 4, 1959.
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