Seven weeks to historic Piney Woods Battle
9/10/2014 8:39:00 AM | Football
With seven weeks to go before the 89th “Battle of the Piney Woods” in NRG Stadium November 1, GoBearkats.com takes a look back at Sam Houston's success in the past against SFA in the long rivalry that now ranks as Texas' third oldest current college annual series.
There's nothing new about a conference championship being on the line when Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin meet in the annual “Battle of the Piney Woods.”
The tradition goes back more than 80 years to both team's first conference affiliations in the 1930s.
At the end of November in 1930, all that stood between head coach J. W. Jones' Sam Houston team and the Bearkats' first ever conference championship was the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks.
Led by Gaston Beard, Doyle Coe, Belva Jackson, Pete Shields and Welton Love, the Bearkats were sweeping through the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA).
The team's only loss of the year was by one point to Rice 13-12 in Houston.
Stephen F. Austin under coach Gene White had won only one game and tied another in its first six games of the season. The Lumberjacks were coming off a 64-0 whipping at the hands of West Texas A&M the previous week.
But Coach Jones warned the Bearkats the Lumberjacks would put up a strong effort against their arch rival and he was proven correct.
The Sam Houston Alcalde reported "The men from our sister college put up a desperate fight. But their cause was lost. Driving with determination that could not be denied, the Bearkats steam-rolled the Lumberjacks and won their first conference championship."
Dave James, Jackson and Coe each scored touchdowns.
"It was a marvelous game that the Kats played and a fitting climax to a wonderful season," the Alcade summed up.
Sam Houston would remain a member of the TIAA for one more season. In 1932, the Bearkats began play in the new Lone Star Conference. Sam Houston, East Texas, North Texas, Southwest Texas and Stephen F. Austin all were charter members of the new league.
In the late 1930s the "Battle of the Piney Woods" had become a Thanksgiving Day event. When the Lumberjacks visited Huntsville for the 1938 Turkey Day festivities, Sam Houston was seeking to post its highest single season victory total since the 1930 championship season.
With a victory over the Jacks on Thanksgiving Day 1938 Sam Houston would assure itself of an 8-2 season and a runner-up finish in the league. A large crowd again filled the bleachers around the gridiron and Turkey-Day spirit was manifest.
"The Lumberjack band marched out on the field (at halftime) and formed a neat outline of the Pilgrim ship 'Mayflower'," the Alcalde reported. "The ship formation was broken with 'Anchors Away' and the Bearkat Band next exhibited a series of complex marching formations that brought a big hand from the crowd."
The football game was a thriller.
"The weather alone wasn't responsible for the frequent fits of shivering that possessed the big holiday throng," the Alcalde said. "A part of this was due to the persistent and dangerous thrusts at the Bearkat goal by the jolting Jacks."
The Ramsey brothers, Bud and Donence "saved the day for the locals on numerous occasions by eeling through the opposing wall to spear the Lumberjack backs for damaging losses."
Lavon Gifford scored to give Sam Houston a 6-0 lead after a long drive in the second quarter.
Stephen F. Austin's lone touchdown came on a 40-yard interception return. D. T. Bailey picked off the errant pass, then "lateraled to Bob McGraw who sidestepped several Kats and reached pay dirt on the play." The Jacks failed to convert the extra point.
Jimmy Hair passed to J. C. Wells for the winning touchdown in the third quarter and the Bearkat defense held SFA scoreless the rest of the contest.
Hair, who threw the winning touchdown pass, was inducted into the Sam Houston Athletic Hall of Honor in 2009. A bomber pilot in World War II, Hair was killed in action over Sicily in the war.
The next chapter in the “Battle of the Piney Woods” football rivalry kicks off at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1.
Each of the past four years, crowds of more than 25,000 have packed the lower bowl at NRG Stadium in Houston to see great offensive shoot-outs.
The Bearkats have won each of the last three meetings in Houston including a 56-49 win in 2013 before a record crowd of 26,213 fans.
Sam Houston owns a 50-35-2 edge over the Jacks since the series began in 1923. Only Baylor and Texas (100 meetings) and SMU and TCU (91 meetings) are the only continuous college football series in the state older than the “Battle of the Piney Woods.”
BUY "BATTLE OF THE PINEY WOODS" TICKETS NOW
