Fine Line Play Leads Texas to 14-7 Victory
Field's 60-Yard Dash Beats Tech In Cotton Bowl
1/2/1943
Inspired University of Texas football stalwarts, behind a pile-driving line which performed almost perfectly over the route, rode over Georgia Tech's Yellow Jackets Friday afternoon at Cotton Bowl Stadium to win by a 14-to-7 count the seventh game of the annual New Year's Day grid classic.
It was one of the sweetest triumphs an Orange-clad team has ever turned in for Skipper D.X. Bible, whose happy smile after the game stretched clear across his face and far back on the bald spot of his head. Sharing in the fruits of a well-earned Longhorn victory was a strictly partisan crowd of 36,000 deliriously joyful fans, an excellent turnout under present-day conditions.
All-time Cotton Bowl Classic results
The Games
• 1930s | 1940s | 1950s
• 1960s | 1970s | 1980s
• 1990s | 2000s
Pretty near perfect it was – for Texas fans.
The weather was ideal, the best in the bowl's history. The crowd was tops, too. And in the football department Bible's lads roundly outplayed the conquerors of Notre Dame, Alabama and Duke most of the way to bring a finish which found sound satisfaction for every Texan present.
The story of the game was pretty simple. The big, fast, bruising Longhorn line Friday was a superb thing to watch. It cleared the way ahead for the Texas backs to plunge and gallop and on defense, until Tech's final period outburst, kept the Ramblin' Wreck attack so well shackled the southerners were almost helpless.
Behind the magnificent performance of the white-shirted forwards the Longhorn backs drove hard and fast. Time after time it was third down and five, and in this crucial spot the Steer ball luggers not only got the five but often made it seven and eight.
Sheer beauty it was, if you'll pardon our rapture, to watch the Texas forwards operate. It was about as close to perfection in the way of line play as will ever be seen.
It was a colorful ball game, with thrills aplenty, and despite the fact the Wrecks were badly outplayed for three periods, they staged a last-period windup which netted one quick touchdown and had the tying marker in sight before the Longhorns dug in to hold on their four-yard stripe.
Rather apparent from the first was the game's outcome when the opening plays showed this Texas team was primed to the gills and the line was outhandling the Tech forwards.
Texas started rolling midway of the opening period after Joe Schwarting nabbed Bill McHugh's fumble on the Longhorn 48. It took twelve plays to eat up the yardage remaining from there to pay dirt. Roy McKay started it off with a pass to Wally Scott to the Tech 42 and the same combination clicked again to advance the leather to the 29. Jackie Field picked up five more at right end, added four through the middle and McKay followed with a smash which carried to the Engineers' 14. Three line plays by McKay, Field and Max Minor netted but eight yards. That made it fourth down and two to go on the Jacket 6. Field cracked right tackle for the yardage and the Longhorns had four downs from the 4 to make it.
McKay got a yard of it in a drive over left guard. Then came the payoff. McKay faded back and shot a pass into the end zone. Clint Castleberry, Tech's brilliant freshman All-American back, slapped at the ball but merely deflected it into the waiting arms of Minor who nabbed the hoghide just inches from the out-of-bounds line. He fell out of bounds after completing the catch, but the sixpointer went up on the board as the play actually was made within the end zone.
From placement Jackie Field added the seventh point.
The Longhorns kept Tech well bottled up through the second period, but were unable to launch a sustained drive themselves and the half found Texas in front, 7 to 0.
Jackie Field, the lad with the twinkling heels, sacked up the victory for Texas in the third period with the game's longest run – a beautiful sixty-yard sprint through the entire Jacket eleven.
It came after Tech had bogged down a Longhorn drive on the Engineers' ten-yard line. J.A. Helms, Tech wingman, stepped back to the goal line and lifted a beauty of a punt which the Steer sprinter nabbed on his own 40. He got a perfect block by Jack Freeman to get him started, and he did the rest. Running hard and fast, he brushed off Tech tacklers and then broke into the clear. His stride wasn't broken all the way. This time McKay booted the extra point.
To the credit of the Georgians, they didn't fold. Quite to the contrary, in fact, as many a Longhorn fan got the shakes during a spirited comeback the visitors staged in the closing period.
Early in the final chapter Castleberry lugged a Texas punt back to the Georgians' 33 and from there the Engineers rolled all the way.
Striking mainly through the air, they went 67 yards for the touchdown through a Longhorn team which at that time was made up mainly of third-stringers.
Castleberry slipped through the line for nine and R.W. Sheldon made it first down on the Tech 44. Then came a honey of a pass, Sheldon to J.A. Marshall, good for thirty-two yards and a first down on the Steer 24. In three line thrusts Castleberry netted but a couple of yards, but the Engineers kept the drive alive with a last-down toss. It read Castleberry to Helms and was good for fifteen yards and a first and tenner on the Longhorn 6.
The Orange forwards were pretty tough about it for three plays, limiting Dodd and Prokop to two yards in three tries, but on the final down the Georgians caught the Steers napping with one of the oldest chestnuts in the book – the Statue of Liberty play. They had tried it a couple of times before without success, but here in the clutch David Eldridge plucked the cherry from Castleberry's hands and slanted off left end for the touchdown. Jordan's place kick was partially blocked but had enough momentum to wobble between the uprights for the extra point.
Well, Longhorn fans figured that was just a flash and settled back in their seats. But they got jumpy in a hurry when the Engineers barged right back to knock at the door again.
The stage for the second drive was set when McKay's poor punt sailed out of bounds on the Tech 46. Prokop started it off with a strike to Sheldon which the latter caught on the Texas 42. After a line play added yardage, Prokop went back to pitching and this time connected with Marshall for twenty-eight yards and a first down on the Texas 9. The Jackets drew a five-yard tax here, but Jordan got that back and four yards more on a triple reverse which carried to the 5.
The Texas crowd was sweating right here, brother, and not from the heat. But the Steers dug in, nailed Prokop after a yard gain and Sheldon's pass across the line was wild, probably because he had a swarm of Texas forwards on his neck. That left it last down and 4 to go for the score which could tie the game. Tech's in-the-pinch effort was feeble. Sheldon faded back to pass, but the ball somehow rolled off his hand as he aimed to fire. The play fizzled and Texas took over.
The Longhorns took no further chances. Back again they went to the business of banging through the Georgia Tech line and the gun found them still driving after racking up two first downs.
As it turned out, Field's fleet dash in the third period was the clincher. But the modest Jackie, who has learned long ago that backs don't romp unless the boys up front are moving 'em out of the way, would be the first to give the game's accolade to the boys who earned it – that magnificent, bristling Texas line.
How completely the Orange forwards outplayed their vaunted rivals is shown by the cold figures, which didn't lie a bit in this instance. Tech, noted for a hard-driving, running game, picked up but 57 yards in this manner as compared to 201 for the victors. Holding Tech to 57 yards on the ground is something that just wasn't done by any team during this regular season – not even Georgia, which handled the Jackets in their lone setback of the 1942 campaign.
Tech coaches after the game ruefully admitted they had been shown. To a man they stamped the fine Texas line as the best they had met all season – Georgia, Notre Dame, Duke and Alabama and the rest.
Quite a compliment this to the Bible brand of football, especially in view of the fact that the tough Southeastern circuit long has looked upon Southwest Conference football as a lot of silly forward passing razzle-dazzle.
As has been remarked, it was a sweet triumph for the Texas coach. It was Texas' first venture in bowl play and the result was not only extremely pleasing to the legion of Longhorn exes, but generally helpful to the Southwest Conference as a whole. It was a prestige ball game – Georgia Tech really rates in national football – and the Longhorns won it, not with the fabled Southwest pass and pray system but with honest to gosh sound old fundamental football. The writer doubts if there is a team in the country which could have stopped the Texas power Friday.
So close was the Texas defense it made the flashy Castleberry, Tech's ace back, look bad at times. But nevertheless, the kid showed he had the stuff even in the face of adverse conditions. He just could go because his line couldn't budge those tough babies with Orange on 'em. And the fact Texas covered him with four men didn't help either.
Frank Guess, the Longhorn freshman kicking star, had a few minutes of glory in the second period. Operating with veterans around him, the kid looked good. He'll be scampering this fall.
Cotton Bowl officials were tickled pink at the turnout. There were few vacant spots in the big bowl and the last minute press for tickets was so great they were still passing them out well along in the second period.
All told a colorful, brilliant spectacle and one of the best games the seven-year-old classic has produced. It will be a long train ride back for Atlanta for Coach W.A. (Bill) Alexander's boys. This, incidentally, was their first defeat in three bowl starts.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]