6 man History

[Knowmystuff]

Ok...I went to my files and found some articles:

There were at least 4 demonstration game lined up in the Summer of 1938 by Rodny Kidd and Roy Benichek. It appears to me that they made the announcment of these around June 19-20th.

Here are the sites and some notes from the articles I have made:

Nacogdoches - at Stephen F Austin College, conference slated for the following Thursday, article printed on June 21st. This was the 2nd six-man "conference" hosted a SFA, the first taking place "during the spring training season"

San Marcos - Souhtwest Texas State Teachers' College, article from June 22, 1938 telling that "Six-Man Football is being taught in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College this summer"

Commerce - East Texas State Teachers' College, article printed June 30, 1938 and was held the previous Wednesday, 200 coaches attended as did Rodny Kidd and Roy Bedichek. A six-weeks course was made at the college so the game could be explained and demonstrated. Aug. 4th article about the clinic, 4,000 attended the game (held the previous Wednesday) at Etex Stadium. Played by college/former college players, Blue v Gold, Blue won 25-13.

Denton - North Texas State Teachers College - July 12-15 clinic with a demonstration game was played on the last night. Teams were made up of former college players. Played at Eagle Stadium July 15th at 7pm: White v Red, White won 14-6. 1500 people attended.

-I have several articles about the Denton game from the Denton Newspaper and the Dallas Morning News.

 

[Knowmystuff]

So the hypothesis I have formulated that is perfect for my next research paper is that all these demonstartion games where partly organized by Kidd and Bedichek and featured a demonstartion game at the conclusion of each one. I have a lot of info about the Denton clinic, and some about the Commerce one, the other two I have not looked into as much due to location and time. But my theory is that maybe the San Marcos clinic's game was played by Paririe Lea and Martindale, and if not then it must have been a game played for Kidd and Bedicheck BEFORE they decided to organize these demonstartion games, which would place the game being played in the Spring of 1938...along the same time the schools out in West Texas (Westbrook, Forsan...) were playing six-man spring game, which OBK has uncovered.

 

[CT6MFL]

Sep 18 1936 sixman football was slated to make its debut in West Tx, Sylverster vs Dowell, pending rain. Another article said the debut game was rained out again in the 4th quater. I Ran out of views for today. haha


Wellington Leader July 14, 1938 article says R.J. Kidd organized demonstartions to be held in the summer at North Texas State Teachers College (Denton), Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (Nacogdoches), Texas Technological College (Lubbock) and at The University of Texas (Austin). Supposidley all the schools that were interested could come and watch.

Somethings I have notcied in 1938

May-Jun Spring: R.J. Kidd the TIL director set up demonstrations for the summer at colleges, envites all schools to come out and watch.

PSAA six man league Playing in November
independents Teams Playing in November

November 13 1938 the big spring hearald stated the PSAA had finally decided it wanted an Eastern Campaign (TIL) within its boarders. Same article: However, the TIL would have hell with other areas like the Masonic Home "12 Might Orphans" and IOOF of Corsicana and that special provisions would have to be made to keep them in AA.

If yall want these articles, email me at [email protected]

 

[Knowmystuff]

You should try to find the West Texas Historical Association's Yearbook my paper was published in and check it out...I can send you one of the last rough drafts (not final so some typos still in it) if you would like.

I have all those 1936 articles...the first six-man game was rained out twice! They tried to play it both times in Dowell: First time it was rained out and rescheduled, second time they played the 1st quarter before deciding to reschedule due to rain. The game was finally played at Rotan...making it the first six-man game played in Texas between 2 high schools.

This was all put into my research paper published by the West Texas Historical Association in their scholarly journal, the 2010 edition I think.

I interviewed Melvin Clements (Dowell class of 1937 grad and Dowell star player) several times about it and he remembered the 2nd rain out, saying the water was up to their knees...remember this was a hand made field at Dowell out of an old baseball field and cotton field...with hand made wooden goal posts.

 

[CT6MFL]

Sweet, i didnt find anything on the other 2 demonstrations, only Denton and Commerce. Also, only the one mention of Ireland.

 

[Knowmystuff]

It is something that gets forgotten when talking about this but...the 1930s Texas was in a draught mostly (side bar...that rain that came through Texas in 1936 was very odd and flooded a lot of West Texas)...dust bowl in some parts.. so grass on a football field was a big deal! Most of these schools that played six-man, small rural schools, probably didn't have grass on their field at all!

In one of Prairie Lea's yearbooks they included a photo of the filed with a caption saying that it was their first grass grown on the field

Everyone who reads this should go out and have a sit down talk, and record it, with some of the older people in their town...they won't be around forever! I interviewed several people who couldn't give me any information about six-man football in the 30s but stil had amazing stories to tell!

 

[CT6MFL]

Isn't there a documentary on TV right now entitled "The Dust Bowl"?

 

[Old Bearkat]

New York had teams playing into the late 50s, I have several team photos and action play photos of some

Massachussetts had six man until the 60's also. Carl Yazstremski played six man ball in high school.

 

[Old Bearkat]

The Coaches Association's 12th annual coaching school was in 1957...so 1946 was the first Coaches Association's clinic.

There were clinics before that and a LOT in 1938, OBK posted a few articles mentioning those...I have articles covering a huge six-man clinic in Denton, TX in 1938, Dallas Morning news ran photo spreads. Most of these demonstration clinics and games involved college players, the Denton game had someone from Roscoe in it!

It is my theory that the long held belief that Prairie Lea and Martindale played the first six-man high school game in Texas came from one of these demenstration games probably the one held in San Marcos which Rodny Kidd and Roy Bedichek attended and helped organize.

Actually, Dowell and Sylvester played the first 6 man game in 1936. I'll see if I can find the article in the Abilene paper.

 

[Old Bearkat]

It is something that gets forgotten when talking about this but...the 1930s Texas was in a draught mostly (side bar...that rain that came through Texas in 1936 was very odd and flooded a lot of West Texas)...dust bowl in some parts.. so grass on a football field was a big deal! Most of these schools that played six-man, small rural schools, probably didn't have grass on their field at all!

In one of Prairie Lea's yearbooks they included a photo of the filed with a caption saying that it was their first grass grown on the field

Everyone who reads this should go out and have a sit down talk, and record it, with some of the older people in their town...they won't be around forever! I interviewed several people who couldn't give me any information about six-man football in the 30s but stil had amazing stories to tell!

I have a DVD showing several games Garden City played in 1955. In the regional game with Hobbs, it was pretty obvious they were playing on a dirt field.

 

[Old Bearkat]

The Coaches Association's 12th annual coaching school was in 1957...so 1946 was the first Coaches Association's clinic.

There were clinics before that and a LOT in 1938, OBK posted a few articles mentioning those...I have articles covering a huge six-man clinic in Denton, TX in 1938, Dallas Morning news ran photo spreads. Most of these demonstration clinics and games involved college players, the Denton game had someone from Roscoe in it!

It is my theory that the long held belief that Prairie Lea and Martindale played the first six-man high school game in Texas came from one of these demenstration games probably the one held in San Marcos which Rodny Kidd and Roy Bedichek attended and helped organize.

Actually, Dowell and Sylvester played the first 6 man game in 1936. I'll see if I can find the article in the Abilene paper.

Looks like you already dug it up. I'd forgotten about you finiding Mr. Clements. BTW... is he still alive?

 

[CT6MFL]

So now the question is; how did the Idea of six-man football hit Fisher County in 1936???????

The Texas papers (from what I can see) don't talk about the six-man craze until 1937.

 

[CT6MFL]

Interesting

 

[Knowmystuff]

Nice 1937 article...I wonder if it worked out or folded before play began????

I know Texline played a New Mexico team in 1937 and the Texline coach tried to get a league started in Texas but it didn't happen.

Why and how did six-man find its way to Fisher county is a good questions and one that's true answer and story is lost to time...obviously it was the idea of one of the 4 coaches in the league from Dowell, Hobbs, Sylverster, McCauelly...in the first article written about the league in the Dallas Morning News only 2 of the eventual 4 teams are listed..Hobbs and Dowell...so logically a coach at one of those 2 schools started the league. I did track down and talk with the McCauelly coach from 1936 and he said it wasn't his idea and couldnt remember whos idea it was. In an article in the Sweetwater Reporter News about a game between Hobbs and Dowell, they all but straight out say it was the idea of the Hobbs coach to form the league...so my conclusion is that Hobbs coach J C Conradt brought the game to Texas saying "he has been instrumental in promoting the six-man football league in Fisher County". How he got the idea is unknown...maybe he read about six-man football in a magazine...

I talked with the McCauelly coach at the time and the family of the Sylverster coach and found zero relatives of the Dowell coach and JC Conradt's next living relative is a famous UT woman's basketball coach...Jody Conradt...believe it or not! How do you like that Granger!

 

[Knowmystuff]

I know Emory Bellard played six-man football while living on the island at Port Aransas before he decided to transfer to Aransas Pass and took a boat every day to go to school...

I called into a radio show a few years ago when he was being interviewed and asked him point blank if his playing days of six-man football influenced him in creating the Wish Bone...sadly he said no.

 

[CT6MFL]

Coincidence?

 

[CT6MFL]

Nice 1937 article...I wonder if it worked out or folded before play began????

I know Texline played a New Mexico team in 1937 and the Texline coach tried to get a league started in Texas but it didn't happen.

Why and how did six-man find its way to Fisher county is a good questions and one that's true answer and story is lost to time...obviously it was the idea of one of the 4 coaches in the league from Dowell, Hobbs, Sylverster, McCauelly...in the first article written about the league in the Dallas Morning News only 2 of the eventual 4 teams are listed..Hobbs and Dowell...so logically a coach at one of those 2 schools started the league. I did track down and talk with the McCauelly coach from 1936 and he said it wasn't his idea and couldnt remember whos idea it was. In an article in the Sweetwater Reporter News about a game between Hobbs and Dowell, they all but straight out say it was the idea of the Hobbs coach to form the league...so my conclusion is that Hobbs coach J C Conradt brought the game to Texas saying "he has been instrumental in promoting the six-man football league in Fisher County". How he got the idea is unknown...maybe he read about six-man football in a magazine...

I talked with the McCauelly coach at the time and the family of the Sylverster coach and found zero relatives of the Dowell coach and JC Conradt's next living relative is a famous UT woman's basketball coach...Jody Conradt...believe it or not! How do you like that Granger!

Opps I just realized thats Hobbs NM. That would mean six-man football made it into Texas via New Mexico in 1936?

 

[Old Bearkat]

Nice 1937 article...I wonder if it worked out or folded before play began????

I know Texline played a New Mexico team in 1937 and the Texline coach tried to get a league started in Texas but it didn't happen.

Why and how did six-man find its way to Fisher county is a good questions and one that's true answer and story is lost to time...obviously it was the idea of one of the 4 coaches in the league from Dowell, Hobbs, Sylverster, McCauelly...in the first article written about the league in the Dallas Morning News only 2 of the eventual 4 teams are listed..Hobbs and Dowell...so logically a coach at one of those 2 schools started the league. I did track down and talk with the McCauelly coach from 1936 and he said it wasn't his idea and couldnt remember whos idea it was. In an article in the Sweetwater Reporter News about a game between Hobbs and Dowell, they all but straight out say it was the idea of the Hobbs coach to form the league...so my conclusion is that Hobbs coach J C Conradt brought the game to Texas saying "he has been instrumental in promoting the six-man football league in Fisher County". How he got the idea is unknown...maybe he read about six-man football in a magazine...

I talked with the McCauelly coach at the time and the family of the Sylverster coach and found zero relatives of the Dowell coach and JC Conradt's next living relative is a famous UT woman's basketball coach...Jody Conradt...believe it or not! How do you like that Granger!

Opps I just realized thats Hobbs NM. That would mean six-man football made it into Texas via New Mexico in 1936?

Nope, Hobbs TX. Near Rotan. Look it up.

 

[CT6MFL]

woooops, I stand corrected. Hobbs Tx.....

Which makes 2 (Hobbs and Dowell) of the 4 original Fisher County loop that no longer exist.

Scratch that six-man via New Mexico.. haha

Ill go back to looking for Ireland

 

[CT6MFL]

Do yall have all the News articles on the PSAA from the first meeting through Dec 38?