He Was A Good Cowman

He was a good cowman.
One sentence statement that was on the bulletin for Sam Baugh’s funeral.

Before 1990 and the return of football to the Hardin-Simmons campus, there were three names always mentioned with Cowboy football. Clyde “Bulldog” Turner who played at HSU and later had a Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears. Ed Sprinkle who also played at HSU and for the Chicago Bears, and was known as ‘the meanest man in professional football”. The third was Sam Baugh who passed away last week at the age of 94. Baugh played his collegiate football at Texas Christian University and was the head football coach at HSU from 1954-1959. After he retired from pro football and a phenomenal career with the Washington Redskins, he brought national attention to HSU when he became the head coach.

About 10 of his former players from HSU attended his funeral on Monday in the community of Rotan. Several of them mentioned how he always said that the HSU job was the best job he ever had. Baugh ran his practices as if he was back home in Rotan at his ranch tending to his cattle. Most days he was on the practice field in blue jeans, western shirt and a well-worn Cowboy hat, which was similar to his attire that he would wear on game day. Baugh coached the Cowboys when they were a member of the Border Conference and in 1958 he led the Cowboys in a brutal non-conference schedule for a small Division I school. The Cowboys played Baylor, Ole Miss, Arkansas and defending national champion LSU all on the road and all for guarantees, which probably helped keep the athletic department in budget for the year. One year during practices a group of high school coaches from the area came to watch Baugh and the Cowboys work out. One of the coaches was current Cowboy football coach Jimmie Keeling.

Many of the speakers at the funeral talked about Baugh and his colorful language. Which he would use at any time and any place. Whether it was the ranch, church, golf course, banquet, Baugh was going to talk like the rancher he was. He was always the same, regardless of the circumstance. I remember a local television reporter asking Sam if he could watch his language during an interview. Sam smiled and said if he had to watch what he was going to say, then there would be no need to interview him. The interview went on with the reporter having to edit the conversation before it went on air.

Sam also had a great sense of humor. When he left HSU to take the job as the first head coach of the New York Titans in the American Football League, the team struggled. They were not very competitive and Baugh quit after two seasons of what everyone would agree was bad football. Toward the end of the second year, a reporter asked Coach Baugh if he was concerned with how the fans might act at the games because of the performance of the team. With perfect timing, Coach Baugh said he was okay with dealing with the fans. After all there were probably more players and coaches on the Titans staff, than there would be fans at the game.

While there might have been a limited number of Titans fans that day in New York, there will always been a huge number of Sam Baugh fans. And the fact that he had numerous fans that never saw him play, speaks to what kind of person he was away from the football field.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

As we mark off the final days of 2008, there is plenty to look forward to for the upcoming year. One thing that the women’s basketball can look forward to this year is their trip to the Bahamas which will begin on Wednesday. The Cowgirls will play two games on this trip, which they spent the last several years raising money for. This will be the first time the Cowgirls have made a trip like this and I know it will provide them plenty of good memories.

In 2009, we will continue work on several projects on the Grape Street Athletic Complex. The work has started on a new parking lot, which we anticipate will have over 150 parking spaces and an area for buses to park. This will help allow us to have ample parking for our athletic events and will improve the overall look of the facility. If everything goes according to plan, we should have the parking lot completed by late February, which will certainly help us during softball season. We are also working on irrigating and adding sod to the infield of the track, which we hope to have done by early January. Across the street from the track we will be building the area for the hammer throw which should be completed sometime in the spring. When we have finished all of these projects we will be the only school in the American Southwest Conference who will be able to host a conference meet with all events at one facility.

The Spring will also bring the chance for the coaches of our fall sports to hit the road as they being the recruiting process. All of our fall teams had strong seasons which should help them as they visit with potential student-athletes. I know that our football program is encouraged by the improvement that was evident this year. Now that several of our coaches have been on campus for awhile, I know that they will work hard to bring in the type of student-athletes that will continue to help us improve.

And while it was a tough way to finish the football season, we do have to tip our hats to our league rivals, Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Crusaders certainly helped the reputation of the American Southwest Conference as they had no problems with two of their playoff opponents after their close win against the Cowboys. And yes, the matchup of the Crusaders and the Cowboys in 2009 is something I am already looking forward to.