Texas Wins Great Cotton Bowl Thriller, 40-27
46,000 Spectators See Missouri Lose In Football Game
1/2/1946
That final score offers only a hint of the action witnessed by 46,000 fans in a perfect setting Tuesday for the tenth annual Cotton Bowl classic.
Out of it emerged the old Highland Park sniper, Bobby Layne, as the difference and the top hero. He threw two touchdown passes to Joe Billy Baumgardner; he caught one from Ralph Ellsworth, and he rammed through the line for two more scores and made another by taking a lateral from Ellsworth at the precise moment in which the latter was about to be tackled short of his objective.
This most slam-bang offensive brawl in the history of Texas’ premier sports show broke by seventeen the previous high point total for a game. The old record of fifty was set four years ago by Alabama’s 29-to-21 triumph over the Texas Aggies.
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In preserving their record of never losing a bowl game, the Longhorns were never behind. The Tigers were never out of the running: never more than two touchdowns behind. It was toe-to-toe, give and take all the way. There has never been a game quite like it.
Although Missouri and the Big Six still have their first bowl victory to celebrate, the Southwest Conference champions were never made to look so badly on defense. Their barricades were ripped to shreds by the fightingest forward line they’ve run against in years. And most of the damage was done by the busiest big guys ever seen in the Cotton Bowl. Jim Kekeris, 287-pound tackle, took ‘em on singly or in gangs and pawed them around almost at will.
A quick summary of the scoring, which came so fast and furiously that the feminine spectators couldn’t take time out to powder their noses without risk of missing a play that would change the numbers on the scoreboard reflects in some measure of adequacy how swift was the action in a game that was all offense.
First Quarter:
The first time the Steers got the ball they drove seventy-five yards off seven plays, a Layne-to-Baumgardner pass good for forty-eight yards producing the score.
Taking the ensuing kickoff, Missouri covered eighty yards in four plays, a pass from William Dellastatious to End Roland Oakes and the latter’s forty-yard run putting the ball over the double stripe.
After the next kickoff, Texas drove sixty yards in ten plays, Layne going over from the 1. Score: Texas 14, Missouri 7.
Second Quarter:
Missouri drove sixty-two yards on eight plays, Dellastatious plowing the last three to score.
Texas needed only seven plays to cover sixty-nine yards the next time it had possession of the pigskin. Layne hitting the middle for the last yard and a score that left the count 21 to 14 at the half.
Third Quarter:
Texas passed twice to cover twenty yards after recovering a fumble, Baumgardner taking a fifteen-yard toss from Layne over the goal line. Score: Texas 27, Missouri 14.
Fourth Quarter:
On a drive carried over from the third, the Tigers went ninety-three yards in eleven plays. Halfback Howard Bonnett slashing the last twenty-one.
A fifty-yard pass play, Ellsworth to Lane, climaxed an eighty-yard Texas drive that consumed only six plays for another score.
Taking the kickoff after this one, the Bengals ripped the Longhorn line to shreds on thirteen plays for eighty yards. Robert Hopkins going over from the 1.
Topping off the scoring, the Steers received and drove sixty yards on eight plays with Layne taking a lateral from Ellsworth to score from two yards out.
Layne converted from placement after the first three and the sixth Texas touchdown. He missed after the fourth and Billy Andrews overshot Layne with a pass trying for the point after the fifth marker.
Jim Kekeris, man mountain tackle, place-kicked extra points after each Missouri touchdown except the last one, when David Green blocked his boot.
There was no letup as the battle waged on at a terrific tempo right down to the final gun and Missouri had hammered forty-four yards more before losing the ball on downs less than a minute before the finish.
The Steers scored every time they got possession of the leather except when they lost it on a fumble in the second quarter and when they kicked twice in the third period. The Tigers gave up the hoghide on downs only twice, lost it once on a fumble, once on a pass interception, twice by punting and once by trying for a field goal in the second stanza.
While Layne was the gem that balanced the scales for the Orange and White, particularly in completing eleven out of twelve passes he threw for 158 yards net gain and catching another for a touchdown play that covered half the length of the field, the youngster whose name was on everybody’s lips at the finish was a Missourian.
He was 20-year-old, 139-pound, 5-foot-8 Leonard Brown from North Kansas City. The wiry little all-Big Six quarterback of the Tigers shouldered more than his share of the ball-lugging burden for the Old Gold and Black, carrying eighteen times for a net gain of 121 yards and in addition did a heady job running his team, threw a good percentage of its passes, time and again tackled Longhorns when he was the last obstacle between them and touchdowns, and when the occasion arose he slammed vicious blocks into the biggest whiteshirts who came his way to help make his own running attack click. several times he whisked past and around Steers for twice the yardage needed for first downs. Other times he started wide on sweeps, lateraled to mates and cut downfield to help clear the path of defenders. He was the toughest little piece of rawhide seen on this field in all of the Cotton Bowl classics played to date. His teammate, Robert Hopkins, was the top individual ground gainer of the day, however, with 125 yards net on sixteen attempts carrying the leather. It was evident from the opening kickoff by big Harlan Wetz over the Missouri goal line for a touchdown that this was to be a rip-roaring offensive duel, for the Tigers manhandled the Steers for two quick first downs and crossed the midfield striped before they were forced to kick. It was the only punt of the first half, Layne running it back twenty to his 25.
Then, for a few moments, the anticipated runaway by Texas seemed to be in the making. Ellsworth, Baumgardner and Layne alternated running with the ball to reach the Missouri 48. The Steers were rolling with astonishing ease, but suddenly switched to an overhead game and Layne hit Baumgardner downfield on the Tiger 13, behind everybody, and he jogged on across for the touchdown.
Missouri wasn’t going to take this lying down. Back came the Bengals, charging and clawing. Bill Dellastatious entered the game after another Wertz kickoff over the goal to give them the ball on their 20. They were concentrating on a weak spot at right tackle in the Texas line and two drives by Dellastatious and one by ailing Loyd Brinkman moved the oval out to the Missouri 35. Then Dellastatious stepped back and threw a long, high, wobbly pass that should not click against a high school team. While Layne and Ellsworth gazed in amazement, End Roland Oakes gathered the leather to his bosom on the Texas 40, and having a running start, outlegged the stunned defenders for a touchdown.
Jack Halfpenny fumbled the next kickoff and Wetz recovered on the Texas 40. Baumgardner picked up twenty-three, Ellsworth seven and Layne sixteen after a couple of short plunges. Finally Ellsworth went wide toward left end and cut back to reach the 3, where he was bumped out of bounds. On two tries through the middle Layne carried over.
Missouri ripped fifty-five yards after the next kickoff and reached the Texas 25 in the second quarter before bogging down. Kekeris then tried a field goal, which was wide, and the Steers, using a running game exclusively now, ounded out to the Missouri 38, where a fumble by Byron Gillory after he had taken a pass from Layne, was recovered by Sub Halfback Bob Clodfelter. This paved the way for a tying touchdown by Missouri. A break helped on this march for Layne had a Dellastatious pass intercepted when he batted the ball into Brown’s hands, giving Missouri a first down on the Texas 43. A nineteen-yard end run by Brown behind good blocking kept up the momentum and Brinkman lateraled after a gain through the middle and the ball went out of bounds to give Missouri another first-and-ten on the Texas 3. Big Jim Kekeris moved the right side of the Steer line out of the way and Dellastatious roared through for the touch.
Now it was the Longhorns’ turn again to play with the ball. A sixty-nine-yard drive from their 31 featured a fifty-six-yard gain on a single pass, Layne lateraling to Jackson, who threw forward to End Hubert Bechtol. The latter caught the ball on the Mizzou 29 and finally was hauled down on the 13 by Dellastatious. A short pass, Layne to Bechtol, was mixed with ground gains by Ellsworth to net a first down on the 1 and Layne hit the middle for the score after a try by Ellsworth had failed.
Texas got a break early in the third when Hopkins fumbled and Guard David Green recovered on the Missouri 20. One pass, Layne to Bechtol, got five yards and the next one, Bobby to Baumgardner over the goal line, put the scoreboard operator to work.
Shortly after this, a Missouri offensive was interrupted by Dick Harris’ interception of a short pass over the line by Brown off a fake punt formation but the Steers suffered a holding penalty a moment later and Captain Jim Plyler entered the game for the first time to punt dead to the Missouri 7. From there the Tigers launched a drive that carried over into the last period for their third score. A thirty-one-yard run by Hopkins around All-American End Hubert Bechtol on a lateral from Brown and Howard Bonnett’s twenty-one-yard spring right down Main Street for the touchdown stood out in this drive.
Texas came right back to go eighty yards for a matching score, Layne’s passes to Bechtol and Ellsworth earning two first downs to midfield and then, reversing the combination, Ellswort passed to Layne for the rest of the distance. Bobby ran fifteen yards after receiving the ball.
A forty-two-yard run wide around the Texas left end was the high spot in an eighty-yard drive that gave Missouri its final marker after this Texas score. He had three blockers out front and little Brown did one of the most effective jobs of mine-sweeping of the lot to make the run possible. Short but consistent gains carried the rest of the way with the Missouri line pushing the Longhorn forwards around like tenpins. Hopkins followed Kekerts over for the score.
The next time Texas had the ball it went sixty yards for its last touchdown, passes from Layne to Bechtol being good for ten and twenty-one yards, respectively, as the standout plays. With a first down on the 4, Ellsworth picked up two at left tackle, then tried a sweep, was about to be tackled and lateraled to Layne, who went wide of end for the final touchdown.
When it was over, the Missouri crowd was asking what Southwest Conference team had made four touchdowns against Texas during the 1945 campaign. The answer was that Baylor was the only opponent the Steers had met that made as many as two. The Longhorns’ six conference opponents combined showed a net gain of 421 yards. Missouri Tuesday alone hammered the Steers all over the premises for a net gain of 408 yards rushing, plus 106 yards passing.
They gave the Steers a first-class lesson in offensive line play.
Kekeris and Guard Robert Eigelberger were outstanding in a line that badly outplayed the Orange and White, while Ralph Stewart did a good job of line-backing. The Mizzou tackles smothered the Texas speed merchants a good part of the day before they had a chance to make good use of their admitted advantage in this department. On the ground, power dominated over speed, but Texas had Bobby Layne and his trusty rifle.
He went Tiger-hunting with a cartridge belt full of ammunition.
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