1948 Texas Longhorns football | |
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Orange Bowl champion | |
Orange Bowl, W 41–28 vs. Georgia | |
Conference | Southwest Conference |
Record | 7–3–1 (4–1–1 SWC) |
Head coach |
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Home stadium | Memorial Stadium |
Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No. 10 SMU $ | 5 | – | 0 | – | 1 | 9 | – | 1 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Texas | 4 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 7 | – | 3 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Baylor | 3 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rice | 3 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 5 | – | 4 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arkansas | 2 | – | 4 | – | 0 | 5 | – | 5 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TCU | 1 | – | 4 | – | 1 | 4 | – | 5 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Texas A&M | 0 | – | 5 | – | 1 | 0 | – | 9 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1948 Texas Longhorns football team was an American football team that represented the University of Texas (now known as the University of Texas at Austin) as a member of the Southwest Conference (SWC) during the 1948 college football season. In their second year under head coach Blair Cherry, the Longhorns compiled an overall record of 7–3–1, with a mark of 4–1–1 in conference play, and finished second in the SWC. Texas concluded their season with a victory over Georgia in the Orange Bowl.[1]
After the season, Tom Landry signed with the New York Yanks of the All-America Football Conference.[2] Texas was ranked at No. 20 in the final Litkenhous Difference by Score System ratings for 1948.[3]
YouTube Encyclopedic
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First African American to play in the Cotton Bowl
Transcription
For In Motion, I'm Curt Parker. While the 2005 Nittany Lions may have been 2 seconds from perfection, they are part of a long list of Penn State football teams that have been noteworthy. One such group was the 1947 team, both for their accomplishment on and off the gridiron. Now this was one of the great teams in Penn State's history, they set records back then that still haven't been broken, defensive records. And the problem is, that a lot of great, the problem why Penn State's '47 team doesn't get more national recognition is because Notre Dame had a great team, Michigan had a great team, they were all loaded with, these weren't kids, these were 25, 26 year old men, they'd been through the ropes. The team went unbeaten. They set defensive records that still haven't been broken. They're the number four team in the country. They can't go to the Rose Bowl, which wasn't segregated, they can't go to the Sugar Bowl, they can't go to Miami, they're still basically segregated. Ordinance there that they couldn't play, black players could not play with white players. There was a hitch to that, that if the other team agreed to play, that you could bring the black players to play. The school let it out early that our, we're on record, as we all go, or none. And so that's what we put out. And it was up to the southwestern conference to, among themselves, determine what they're gonna do. And what happened was Matty Bell, the coach of the SMU team, agreed to play Penn State, and play against the black players. But that didn't end there. Dallas was still a segregated city. And as a segregated city, white players and black players could not eat or room together. Officials from SMU came up with a rather unique solution for the time. So there was an airbase nearby. And so, the school arranged with the government that we would stay at the airbase. And we had practice facilities and rooming facilities. With all the surrounding issues put at bay, the focus now turned toward the game: The Cotton Bowl. Higgins really wanted to win this game, and he probably over trained the kids, and they went down there and he really worked them hard, and they got really ticked off. And there are a lot of stories about what happened down there, but they did some things that, they jumped fence, let's call it, and took off, and went into town, and they partied a little bit, 'cause they were just being, they were living under a military barracks, and some of these guys had been in the military, thought they gave it up a few years ago, so they got irritated. Some say that it was the discriminatory element, and/or the heightened level of practice exerted by coach Higgins, that lead to a lackluster performance given by the Nittany Lions that resulted in a 13-13 tie. But it was obvious that something greater happened. Nobody really congratulates, says you know, it wasn't us that broke the color line in the Cotton Bowl, it was SMU, that's really the truth when you look down to it. As for Wally, he graduated, got married, and went on the the NFL, where he played several seasons for the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Cardinals. In fact, he was a record holder for most kick returns yards, and highest average per return in a game. But after all the triumphs of his life, he still remembers what it means to be Penn State. You always feel as being a part of them, being connected with them, because you went through Penn State. I'm very proud to say I'm a Penn Stater. And it gets people's attention. For In Motion, I'm Curt Parker.
Schedule
Date | Time | Opponent | Rank | Site | Result | Attendance | Source |
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September 18 | 2:00 p.m. | LSU* | W 33–0 | 47,500 | [4] | ||
September 25 | 2:30 p.m. | at North Carolina* | L 7–34 | 43,500 | [5] | ||
October 2 | 2:00 p.m. | New Mexico* |
| W 47–0 | 31,000 | [6] | |
October 9 | vs. Oklahoma* | No. 16 | L 14–20 | 67,435 | [7] | ||
October 16 | 2:00 p.m. | Arkansas |
| W 14–6 | 46,000 | [8] | |
October 23 | 2:30 p.m. | at Rice | W 20–7 | 30,000 | [9] | ||
October 30 | 2:00 p.m. | No. 11 SMU | No. 20 |
| L 6–21 | 68,750 | [10] |
November 6 | 2:30 p.m. | at Baylor | W 13–10 | 20,000 | [11] | ||
November 13 | 2:00 p.m. | at TCU | W 14–7 | 32,000 | [12] | ||
November 25 | 2:00 p.m. | Texas A&M |
| T 14–14 | 68,000 | [13] | |
January 1, 1949 | vs. No. 8 Georgia* | W 41–28 | 60,523 | [14] | |||
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Rankings
Week | |||||||||
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Poll | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Final |
AP | 16 | — | — | 20т | — | — | — | — | — |
References
- ^ "1948 Texas Longhorns Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
- ^ Giants Among Men, Jack Cavanaugh, p.27, 2008, Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6717-6
- ^ "Michigan, Irish Finish 1-2 in Litkenhous Ratings". Wilmington Morning News. December 15, 1948. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Longhorns display fine ground game to crush LSU Bengals, 33–0". The Shreveport Times. September 19, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Carolina thrashes Texas, 34–7, in upset before 43,500 fans". Winston-Salem Journal. September 26, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Texas Longhorns overpower New Mexico Lobos, 47 to 0". Arizona Daily Star. October 3, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Record crowd sees Oklahoma defeat Longhorns, 20–14". Sunday Courier-Times-Telegraph. October 10, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Texas ties up Scott; Whips Arkansas, 14–6". The Brownsville Herald. October 17, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Steers win, 20–7". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. October 24, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "68,750 see Walker leead SMU to victory over Texas, 21–6". The Corpus Christi Caller-Times. October 31, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Texas Longhorns ramble by Baylor". The Odessa American. November 7, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Texas fights back, whips TCU, 17 to 7". Clinton Daily News. November 14, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Never-say-die Aggies battle Longhorns to 14–14 tie". Lubbock Morning Avalanche. November 26, 1948. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Longhorns batter Bulldogs, 41 to 28". Pensacola News Journal. January 2, 1949. Retrieved April 29, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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