Jan. 15, 2001
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Dave Campbell appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.
The time was early 1959 and Baylor was looking for a new football coach. His Bears having finished in the Southwest Conference cellar for two straight seasons, Sam Boyd was relieved of his coaching duties and Baylor faculty rep Abner McCall was asked to head up a committee to select Boyd's successor.
So a group of us stood around in a hallway in the Baylor Law Building that evening while McCall's committee held its deliberations behind closed doors. They were trying to choose a man who not only could win at Baylor but also someone all Baylor fans could rally around. "We've got to heal this division in our ranks. It's tearing us apart," I remember McCall telling us.
While we waited for any news they might give us, someone mentioned an idea that has just started to surface. It seemed Baylor was pondering the idea of honoring its greatest athletic heroes, maybe start a Baylor Sports Hall of Fame. Who would be the first honorees?
Someone said Ted Lyons would have to be chosen, and there was unanimous agreement about that. Lyons had jumped directly from the Baylor campus in the mid-1920s to the pitching staff of the Chicago White Sox, and there he carved out a career that led to his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was All-SWC in baseball and basketball at Baylor and the first SWC product to win a place at Cooperstown.
The selection of Ted Lyons for the Baylor Hall of Fame was a must. And those ultimately doing the selecting decided that Floyd (Uncle Jim) Crow, Baylor's beloved keeper of the flame through the good times and the bad, as coach, scout, administrator and father-confessor, qualified as a must selection, too.
SO WHEN THE BAYLOR Hall of Fame officially got off the ground in 1960, Lyons and Crow were the first two honorees.
The next year two more of Baylor's immortals were chosen: Wesley Bradshaw and Botchey Koch.
And then a parade of names began in 1962: Theron Fouts, Ralph Wolf, Jack Sisco, Lloyd Russell and Sam Boyd. And the following year saw Abe Kelley, Mule Frazier, Bennie Strickland, Bullet Bill Patterson and Jackie Robinson take their place in the spotlight.
What a roll call of heroes we've seen chosen and honored over the years since then, a spilling over of talent and accomplishment that truly has flung the Baylor green and gold afar. Before this past Jan. 6 that roll call had grown to 123 names -- players, coaches, a team physician (Dr. Bud Trippet) and a sportscaster (Frank Fallon).
And then, on that January evening that climaxed a Saturday that was etched in pure gold for Baylor partisans young and old alike, that list grew to 127 names.
The latest Hall of Fame members are Dutch Schroeder, Cody Carlson, the late George Berry Graves, and that non pareil among the world's finest 200-meter and 400-meter runners, Michael Johnson.
Schroeder, Carlson, and George Berry Graves Jr., who was representing his father, were on hand for a special presentation at halftime of the Baylor-Colorado basketball game which unfolded before a full house at the Ferrell Center. They were present again at the Hall of Fame banquet that night.
A prior commitment kept Michael Johnson away (he will be honored this spring on a date yet to be announced). Too bad. Michael missed one of the most memorable of all the 41 banquets that have now been held.
THIS LATEST BANQUET was memorable for several reasons. As Baylor director of athletics Tom Stanton pointed out to the banquet audience that night, "This is truly one of the significant days in the history of Baylor athletics. This morning we (the lettermen) were able to spend time together talking about our visions, dreams and goals for Baylor athletics. Then we were able to listen (via radio) to one of the most interesting transformations in all of women's basketball nationally (the Lady Bears' victory over Kansas, in Kansas). And then to see what Dave Bliss is doing in men's basketball, to have our team on TV, playing before a great crowd (more than 10,000), beating Colorado. . ."
Not only that, he noted, they now were winding up the day with this great banquet. All that made it a memorable day, he suggested, and I had to agree with him.
Another reason why the banquet was special: the turnout was the largest I can remember, certainly the largest in years.
And while there can be no questioning the Hall of Fame credentials of quarterback Cody Carlson and the late Mr. Graves, I have an idea that many of those were there to say a special thank-you to Dutch Schroeder.
AH, YES, the indefatigable Dutch.
If Uncle Jim Crow qualifies as the keeper of the flame for the first four or five decades of Baylor athletics, Dutch is the best nominee I know as the keeper of the flame for Baylor lettermen and the Baylor "B" Association.
The banquet was held in the Lettermen's Room at Floyd Casey Stadium. That's the room George Berry Graves insisted Baylor lettermen had to have and it was Graves' refusal to give up on the idea that finally got the project off the ground. And certainly Walter (Bunk) Bradley provided yeoman service over the years, too.
But it was Dutch who probably did the most to turn it all into reality. How many times did he make the rounds of the state, hat in hand, unpaid, representing the "B" Association, calling on Baylor lettermen, urging them to contribute to the construction of a nice meeting place they could call their own at Baylor Stadium? However many times he did so, it all paid off in the end.
As "B" Association president Jerry Marcontell (All-SWC end and Sugar Bowl star in 1956) so aptly put it as he looked around the banquet room that Saturday night, "I call this Dutch's second living room."
TO BAYLOR'S NON-LETTERMEN, Dutch surely is better known as a Bruin baseball player and coach. He played for the Bears in 1948 and '49 and led the team in hitting the latter season. He began his long coaching stint in high school, then joined the Baylor staff as freshman baseball coach in 1958 and served in that capacity before beginning his 11-year tenure as coach of the varsity Bears.
His teams won 190 games and lost 169. His 1966 Bears tied for the SWC championship.
After the "B" Room had been built and opened, Dutch served for years as official Room Host, and since 1990 he has served as the executive director of the Lettermen's Association.
"I am humbled," he told the audience that had gathered to honor the newest members of the Hall of Fame. "I've been able to work with the greatest people in the world. It really is the Baylor lettermen who ought to be honored, especially all you letter winners who cared enough to help."
He got emotional at times, his voice was saturated with sincerity, it was obvious he spoke from the heart. When he had completed his comments, the audience gave its eloquent response -- a standing ovation.
Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Dave Campbell appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.
