With Texas Tech set to play Notre Dame Sunday in a West regional second round game in San Diego, we thought we might take a trip down memory lane in Texas Tech history. More than a few folks may not know the deep ties Texas Tech football had to Notre Dame in its infancy during the first few years of existence in the 1930s. It started with Pete Cawthon, the newly hired head coach of the Matadors and the already famous Fighting Irish head coach Knute Rockne.
While the coach at Austin College in the late 20s, a young Cawthon would end up at one of Rockne’s famous ”coaching schools” in South Bend. The two became fast friends, with Rockne having Cawthon over to his house for supper, demonstrating the Box Set and blocking schemes using dining room chairs as ”players”. They’d get so involved going over plays, Cawthon would end up bruised from the contact with Rockne and furniture.
Their friendship and coaching relationship would continue when Cawthon took over at Texas Tech in 1930. In the Spring of 1931, Cawthon was in the process of organizing his own ”coaching school” in Lubbock, hoping to extend the image of Texas Tech across the country in college football circles. He of course went to South Bend to visit with his friend Rockne and ask if he’d be a speaker. Rockne was supportive and willing to help.
While at Rockne’s house, Rockne invited Cawthon out to Los Angeles where the RKO Studios were looking at making a movie featuring Rockne. Cawthon wanted to go, but he told Rockne he’d promised his wife he wouldn’t fly, as Rockne was going to fly from South Bend to Hollywood. After a few moments, Cawthon told Rockne . …
“Tell you what,” Cawthon said, ” you fly, and I’ll take the train and meet you there.”
The next day Cawthon boarded a train for California. Rockne took a train to Chicago to visit his mother and then fly on to L.A.
Rockne never made it to California, as his plane with two pilots and five others crashed in rural Kansas after running into heavy cloud cover. As detailed in numerous articles, Kansas farmer Edward Baker outside of Bazaar, Kansas heard a low flying playing and stopped to watch it pass. Suddenly the plane exploded into a ball of flames and plunged to the ground.
Meanwhile Pete Cawthon’s train was going through Oklahoma. It stopped in Vinita. Cawthon got off to stretch a bit and heard the frenzy of conversation amongst folks at the depot. It was then he learned Rockne had been killed. Cawthon called an old friend and asked for him to meet him in Dallas. It was there at the Jefferson Hotel where Cawthon grieved for his old friend and confidant. ”Bud” Price, from Tyler, Texas met Cawthon and stayed with him as he spent the night sobbing and trying to sort through his emotions. It lasted through the night.
The next morning, Price said they met for breakfast and Cawthon never mentioned a word of his anguish, the death of Rockne and that he never mentioned Rockne’s death again to him.
As Etta Lynch wrote in her fine book on Cawthon, ”Tender Tyrant”:
“Pete accepted the loss of a dear friend as he accepted losing a ball game – devastated by the fact, unleashing his emotions with an almost childlike lack of restraint, then putting it behind him to ready himself for the task at hand”
Fast-forward to 1932 and Cawthon would invite Notre Dame to Texas to play the Matadors in Lubbock. Except, there would be a twist. Texas Tech would host the Notre Dame ”B” team, still a huge event for Texas Tech. It would be the first time since 1913 that a Notre Dame team had played in Texas.
Cawthon told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that, ”This affair is just another ball game for Notre Dame, and they are expecting to take it just like they take all the rest. If we can be in the right mental state, keyed up and primed high, it’s our only chance to beat ’em for we know and they know that Notre Dame, B-team or no B-team is stronger physically than our team.” Cawthon said Tech had to ”catch ’em when they’re not looking.”
According to ”The Red Raiders” a fine book on Texas Tech Football history by Ralph Sellmeyer and James E. Davidson, ”Cawthon must have put his club in the right mental state” According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, ”When Speedy Moffit, who played one of the best games of his career last night, crossed the payoff stripes after toting an intercepted pass for a 54-yard ride, the score read Notre Dame 0, Texas Tech 39, and that was final.
Sports Editor Collier Parish, the man who coined the name ”Red Raiders” wrote; ”To sum it all up, the Matadors not only made monkeys out of the ”Fightin’ Irish last night, but threw a barrage of monkey-wrenches into the whole football works by trouncing a team to which the were supposed to fall down and beg for mercy.”
So, that’s how the relationship between Texas Tech and Notre Dame began nearly a hundred years ago. A young coach, a legend and a shocking win for an emerging power on The Plains. Will It be Notre Dame begging for mercy from Mark Adams defense Sunday? Guess we will know soon enough. History. It’s pretty cool!
Hyatt
Thank you to Ralph Sellmeyer and James E. Davidson for their awesome book ”The Red Raiders” I use it often for Texas Tech history and liberally quoted and borrowed text here again today. My Dad got this book for Christmas in 1978 or so and it’s a standard on my bookcase. The same goes for Etta Lynch and here book, ”Tender Tyrant – The Legend of Pete Cawthon”. If you’re a Texas Tech fan, you need to own these books. Thanks again for letting me ”borrow” passages to retell the great stories of years past. -Ryan
