Kenneth_2003 said:

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91AggieLawyer said:

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Seven Costanza said:

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At what point in time did college football go from "a bunch of guys from our school are going to meet up and play a bunch of guys from your school, and people are going to come watch it" to something with paid coaching staffs with players that were specifically invited to attend the school to play football?

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That question depends on the school, but probably in the 1920s. By the mid-30s, it was a lot like it is now, in terms of what you're speaking of. Once money got involved, state schools and private schools like Notre Dame and USC started funding the programs to compete. The Academies and the Ivys kept up somewhat as long as they could but by the '60s, started to wane. The '70s brought scholarship limitations, the split of the Divisions, and a system pretty much like it is now.

What is left unexplained is why A&M had very little success between our championship year and these reforms. The war(s) didn't help. But I'm at a loss to further explain it. t.u. overrecruiting doesn't explain everything.

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No ladies and compulsory Corps membership meant you were coming to A&M for reasons other than athletic prowess I believe.

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OK, I forgot about the Corps, but frankly during that time, I don't think people saw it the same way we see it today. In other words, I don't think it was until the '60s that young men saw being in the Corps as something they'd really rather not do. Many joined National Guard units while in college.

Those that had no interest in any of that weren't going to play football anyway. But I guess you're right about women.

My dad is class of 1958 and said A&M of that era was called Sing Sing on the Brazos and the school colors should have been khaki, green, and brown

ABATTBQ87 said:

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My dad is class of 1958 and said A&M of that era was called Sing Sing on the Brazos and the school colors should have been khaki, green, and brown

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When I worked for Congressman Ralph Hall he called it the same thing. We were one of the few schools he hadn't attending in his multi college career, but it was all in fun.

OilManAg91 said:

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What was the problem with how Charlie Moran ran the athletics program in 1915 and why did we agree to fire him in order to join the SWC? Was it simply that he was too successful, in which case we should have told t.u.to stick it up their ***. Or was there something else going on?

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Interesting tidbit: after Moran left A&M, he ended up as the head coach at Centre College. He was their HC from 1917 - 1923, which means he would have been their coach when we played them in the Dixie Classic and E. King Gill was called down from the stands.

Was on the first row of the bleachers one game. Standing on the turf

On another note none of these photos show the wooden bleachers in the south end zone that existed in the 50's and 60's. I used to sit in the so called " Knothole " with my brother as kids for $0.50 a game. At half time my folks would come pick us up and take us to empty seats in the west stands. My Dad was as cheap as they come

Charlie Moran said:

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On another note none of these photos show the wooden bleachers in the south end zone that existed in the 50's and 60's. I used to sit in the so called " Knothole " with my brother as kids for $0.50 a game. At half time my folks would come pick us up and take us to empty seats in the west stands. My Dad was as cheap as they come

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For some reason, there is a real dearth of photos at Kyle Field from the 50s and 60s. No idea why. However, here are links to a couple of videos from family movies taken in the 50s that do briefly show those south endzone bleachers.

https://texasarchive.org/2017_03076

https://texasarchive.org/2015_01693

Thank you, OP!

So, while waiting for our game to begin, though I might show you what kind of facilities the competition had back in the 30s when the old horseshoe was new.

Baylor:



Rice:



TCU:



SMU:



t.u.:



LSU;



Bama:

As Professor Esten would say, "The Home of the Fightin' Texas Aggies."

Thanks for these photos. I saw my first game in 1955 and these photos bring back many memories.

Late '60's and early '70's knot hole tickets were still around. Growing up in Bryan went to many a game with my grandparents and sat in the north end zone. Mom and Dad had season tickets. Also remember going to a game vs the sips in the old baseball field configuration when the southwest corner of Kyle Field was the outfield.

I forgot Rev was allowed to run freely during the FTAB halftime show.
I am trying to remember when the Former Students started sawing the horns off during the singing of the War Hymn. I know when I was a kid in the 60's just the students did it. I know by the 80's everyone was doing it. I can't remember the time of the transition and why it occurred. Anyone got those details ?

Found this a while back while looking for something else in the Batt archives. There were lots of plans to memorialize the Ags lost in The Great War, including the oak trees and this idea for a Memorial Stadium:



Trying to provide link for the full article, but I keep getting a Bad Gateway on the TAMU site or slow loads today:
https://newspaper.library.tamu.edu/lccn/sn86088544/1920-04-01/ed-1/

Great thread.

I didn't realize until today that Kyle Field is the third oldest (behind Penn and Harvard) stadium in Division 1. So it comes in at #1 in FBS. Amazing stadium with a great history. How fortunate we are!

SinKiller said:

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I saw games before 2nd deck, was there for the second deck, there for the 3rd deck, there for the last game of the horseshoe (pouring rain the entire game), at reduced Kyle for the Nebraska win (top 5 loudest game, despite reduced seating), sitting in the Zone for 1st game, and sitting in the South EZ (after having my tickets taken from me in the Zone) for the 1st game in "new" Kyle...

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I saw games there before the west side deck was added in '54. It was a bare bone stadium!

ABATTBQ87 said:

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1955 Aggieland (1954 halftime)

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Under the direction of Col. E.V. Adams.

85AustinAg said:

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Late '60's and early '70's knot hole tickets were still around. Growing up in Bryan went to many a game with my grandparents and sat in the north end zone. Mom and Dad had season tickets. Also remember going to a game vs the sips in the old baseball field configuration when the southwest corner of Kyle Field was the outfield.

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Do you remember when the stands were completely covered in the late 50's.?

aeon-ag said:

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85AustinAg said:

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Late '60's and early '70's knot hole tickets were still around. Growing up in Bryan went to many a game with my grandparents and sat in the north end zone. Mom and Dad had season tickets. Also remember going to a game vs the sips in the old baseball field configuration when the southwest corner of Kyle Field was the outfield.

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Do you remember when the stands were completely covered in the late 50's.?

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alamoaggie64 said:

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As Professor Esten would say, "The Home of the Fightin' Texas Aggies."

Thanks for these photos. I saw my first game in 1955 and these photos bring back many memories.

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Would have looked like this:

Cool picture, never seen that one before. It's just hard to imagine A&M and College Station like that.

1939 said:

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Cool picture, never seen that one before. It's just hard to imagine A&M and College Station like that.

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The scary thing is that nothing of that version of Kyle Field remains. That photo was taken during the 1965 t.u. game.

When I would visit family in the 1950s, I would stand at the top of the first deck and watch a track meet on my left and a baseball game on my right.

No, was born in '63...

I remember my parents jumping the curb to park on Welborn near the train tracks.