The `B' Line . . . August 29, 2002
8/29/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 29, 2002
This is another "B" Line column, a periodic collection of news items of particular interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association. Contribute news about you or your teammates via e-mail to Dutch Schroeder (Dutch_Schroeder@baylor.edu), Reba Cooper (Reba_Cooper@baylor.edu), Kyle Penney,(Kyle_Penney@baylor.edu) or Jack Loftis (Jack.Loftis@chron.com). The mailing address is Baylor "B" Association, P. O. Box 8120, Waco, TX 76714
CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON - It might be the omen that we all have been searching for. But more than likely the discovery of a box containing 1974 Baylor football souvenirs in a seldom-opened closet probably will prove to be no more than meager compensation for being a packrat greatly influenced by the Great Depression ("To thrust aside only invites later sorrow." - Anonymous). Regardless, the "B" Line has come across a mint-condition copy of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine published immediately after the Baylor Bears won the 1974 Southwest Conference Championship. You probably recall the cover: a young, jubilant Grant Teaff being carried off the field on the shoulders of his players. However, while most would believe the classic photo was taken after the Bears' 24-3 victory over Rice to secure Baylor its first Southwest Conference championship in 50 years, it actually was snapped a week earlier following a 31-14 win over SMU at the Cotton Bowl . . . Campbell, whose 2002 edition of Texas Football hit the newsstands earlier this month, now writes and edits the Insider Report for the Baylor Bear Foundation. He said recently that the decision to publish the '74 souvenir yearbook (he priced it at $2, a bargain even then) came a day or so after the Rice victory and the Bears' acceptance of an invitation to meet Penn State in the 1975 Cotton Bowl Classic. Would he do the same thing this season if Baylor were to win the Big 12 football championship? "Yeah," he said while being as diplomatic as possible, "but I wouldn't hold my breath." . . .
PROOF POSITIVE - Campbell considers the publishing venture a success, even though he did wind up with a few thousand copies left over. "We gave the unsold issues to Baylor and I don't know what happened to them," he said. The magazine contains rosters, game summaries and statistical information that proved to all Baylor finally would be going to the Cotton Bowl. The book also features individual pictures of the '74 Bears, all dressed in coats and ties and sporting '70s hairstyles - cuts that made them look like crewmen aboard the "Yellow Submarine." The familiar names jump out at you: Steve Beaird, Derrel Luce, Neal Jeffrey, Aubrey Schultz, Phillip Kent, Ron Burns, Tom Turnipseed, et al, as do the key games of the 8-3 regular season. But probably no Baylor victory until then - and certainly not since - was sweeter than the Bears' come-from-behind victory over Texas that year. Appropriately, the pivotal game gets much attention in the yearbook, and the post-midnight photo of the illuminated scoreboard will still make a Baylor fan tingle, as will the lead of Campbell's Waco Tribune-Herald game story: "Mr. Webster, back to the old drawing board. Your dictionary is woefully incomplete. It does not yet contain a word to properly describe what the fantastic, intrepid, absolutely mind-boggling Baylor Bears did on a cold, gray, delicious, delightful Saturday afternoon here Nov. 9, 1974. What the Baylor Bears did was defeat Texas 34-24. Say it fast and it sounds routine. So say it slow, slow, slow. Because there was nothing routine about it." . . .
CINDERELLA BEARS - And what a pleasure it was to again read some of the headlines from various Texas newspapers the day after Baylor beat Rice and claimed the '74 title: "Bears Undisputed in SWC" (Waco Tribune Herald), "Golden Crown for Cinderella Bears" (The Dallas Morning News) and "Bears End 50-Year Nap, 24-3" (The Dallas Times Herald) . . . Bringing events of '74 into the current spotlight, one should note that the magazine also features a photo of a beaming Diane Dillard, who as Baylor's Homecoming Queen, represented the Bears in the Cotton Bowl Parade on a cold January morning in Dallas. Diane remained at Baylor to get her law degree and has had her own firm in Houston for a number of years. But this month she and her husband Andrew Hanen have packed their bags for Brownsville, where he will serve as a federal judge for the Southern District of Texas . . . And a pat on the back for all who caught our Cardinal sin in last week's "B" Line. Relax. The Bears will be playing Samford on Sept. 7, not Stanford, as foolishly reported . . .
JACK LOFTIS
CO-CHAIRMAN
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
