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Monday, December 15, 1997

Texas Writers Showcase Baugh, Royal, Crow, Walker

"In a game that sizzled and crackled with all the fierce fire of roaring Southwest football, the militant Mustangs of Southern Methodist University defeated a gallant Texas Christian University team, 20-14, here at newly expanded TCU Stadium as the second-greatest crowd that ever saw a football game in Texas (38,000) gasped at the bold, daring and audacious play of the two magnificent gridiron brigades." - A sports writer's account of the 1935 SMU-TCU game.

--- By MIKE COCHRAN Associated Press Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - The once majestic Southwest Conference may be little more a fleeting memory, but for football fans, the names are magic: Baugh, Royal, Walker, Crow.

All-America, All-Pro, Heisman Trophy, national championships.

Dead now for two years, the SWC lives again in a series of new books about four aging superstars who gave the sports world many of its finest moments and memories.

And it's just the beginning.

Called "Texas College Football Legends," the book project stems from an idea by the delightfully diabolic Fort Worth author Dan Jenkins, a TCU grad and longtime sports writer.

The four "legends" need little introduction:

- Sammy Baugh, Texas Christian's All-American and Washington Redskins' All-Pro quarterback, who led TCU to the national championship in 1935 and to Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl victories.

- Doak Walker, Southern Methodist's All-American halfback and All-Pro with the Detroit Lions, who led SMU to a pair of SWC championships, winning the Maxwell Trophy in 1947 and the Heisman in 1948.

- John David Crow, Texas A&M's All-American running back and All-Pro during a career with Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco, who led the Aggies' to a 1956 SWC championship and won the Heisman in 1957.

- Darrell Royal, an All-American quarterback at Oklahoma, who spent 20 years as head coach at Texas, where his Longhorns won or shared 11 SWC titles and two national championships.

Jenkins, the project editor, contributed introductions to the four books, but the authors are veteran Texas sports writers Whit Canning and Mike Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas freelancer Steve Pate.

Pate has worked for both the Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News.

Canning wrote the Baugh and Walker books, "Best There Ever Was" and "More than a Hero." Jones wrote the Royal biography, "Dance With Who Brung Ya," and Pate authored the Crow saga, "Heart of a Champion."

Walker, Crow and Royal autographed books in a November tour that had sports enthusiasts standing in long lines at Dallas, Fort Worth, College Station, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.

Baugh's absence was best explained by a comment the 83-year-old West Texas rancher once made to Canning:

"Nowadays, I don't like to be anywhere where I can't get home by dark."

Published by Masters Press of Indianapolis, in association with the Star-Telegram, the biographies sell for $29.95 apiece. A limited number of leather-bound, autographed sets are available for $99.95.

The coffee table-sized books are loaded with photographs and follow the same format, but it's a good one. A foreword by Kevin Dale, managing editor of the Star-Telegram, introduces Jenkins and the various "legends."

Each ends with a chapter on memorable games entitled "Ten to Remember."

For Royal, that includes actual game stories on the Longhorns' 15-14 victory over Arkansas in 1969 to determine the national champion, and the 21-17 Texas triumph over Notre Dame in the 1970 Cotton Bowl that secured another national title.

In "Best There Ever Was," the top 10 include TCU's 20-14 loss to SMU in 1935 that cost Baugh and his gang a trip to the Rose Bowl, and the Horned Frogs' 3-2 Sugar Bowl squeaker against Louisiana State in 1936.

If readers think sports writers are a bit florid today, consider this Star-Telegram account of TCU's 9-0 shutout of unbeaten Santa Clara in 1936:

"Those TCU Horned Frogs, God bless 'em, are the fightenist, guttiest, most magnificent gang of football players that ever came down the pike."

Among Walker's top 10 is the 28-27 victory over Missouri in 1949 in which the Doaker scored three touchdowns and kicked the decisive four extra points.

And the Star-Telegram account of SMU's 1949 thrashing of Arkansas:

"A purposeful Southern Methodist football team - with Doak Walker riding the high road to All-America eminence - gorged itself on some particularly succulent pork here this chill blustery afternoon before 42,000 onlookers in the Cotton Bowl. With Walker the master chef, wielding a knife that cut Arkansas Razorbacks to shreds in the opening quarter, the defending Southwest Conference champions rolled to a ridiculously easy 34-6 triumph."

Crow's top 10 includes unbeaten, top-ranked Texas A&M's 7-6 victory over Arkansas in 1957 in which Crow intercepted a pass with a minute to play, then scored on a 12-yard run.

Bear Bryant, the Aggie coach that year, called Crow "the most complete football player I've ever seen" and declared:

"If they don't give the Heisman to John David, they ought to quit giving it."

Crow got it.

One of the best things about the current biographies is that they are only the beginning.

"The series," says Dale, "will include profiles of a dozen players and coaches who have shaped college football in a state that has been producing Saturday afternoon thrills for decades."

Contenders include Rice's Dick Maegle, TCU's Davey O'Brian and Texas' Earl Campbell and Bobby Layne. Texas Tech's Donny Anderson should also be a shoo-in.

And how about coaches such as Jess Neely of Rice, Matty Bell of SMU, Grant Teaff of Baylor and Dutch Meyer and Abe Martin of TCU?

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