Lamar Football History From its birth as South Park Junior College in 1923, to its days as Lamar College, the ones as Lamar State College of Technology (Lamar Tech) and, finally, as Lamar University, the Cardinals have had an up-and-down – yet richand-proud football tradition. Actually, when South Park JC’s football players took the field for the first time only 12 days after the opening of the institution on Sept. 17, 1923, the team didn’t have a nickname. The players, who defeated South Park High School 25-0 at Beaumont’s old Magnolia Park that afternoon were identified as “the collegians” by sports writer Spike Cooper in the next day’s Beaumont Enterprise. Playing center for South Park JC in that first game was John Gray, later to serve the school as football coach from 1932 to 1939 and during two tenures as university president. Star running back for “the collegians” that day was Paul (Hog) Kinnear, and the team captain was fullback Ernest (Gus) Laminack. During its seven-game inaugural season, South Park JC played two high schools, three senior colleges and two senior college freshman teams and compiled a 2-4-1 record. The other win was a 10-0 decision over Stephen F. Austin College and the tie was 0-0 against Port Arthur High School. After the team’s midseason loss of 19-16 to Southwestern Louisiana, The Enterprise’s Cooper wrote, “From end to end and fullback to center, the collegians are the fightingest little football team we’ve ever seen.” Dunlap (Bull) Johnson became South Park JC’s football coach in 1924, and the 25player team responded with a splendid 7-3 season. The team rolled up a combined 122 points in E.A. “Beans” LaBauve was a t h r o w i n g 1979 inductee to the Cardinal four-succesHall of Honor. sive shutouts to open the season, and the student body selected Brahmas the nickname for the school’s athletic teams. In a 23-0 victory over Rusk Junior College to complete the shutout streak, star quarterback
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F.S. (Spud) Braden completed 13 of 18 passes for 190 yards, statistics uncommon to football in those days of run, run and run some more. The University of Texas freshman team handed the Brahmas their first loss 9-7, and their other defeats came against Southwestern Louisiana 20-8 and the Rice University freshmen 7-6. The Brahmas wore red jerseys for the first time that season, shedding the green and white colors of South Park High School. The 1925 season saw the Brahmas under the tutelage of yet another coach – Lilburn Dimmitt, and they slumped to a 1-5-2 record with the lone win being 6-0 over Beaumont High. The ties were 2-2 with the Rice freshmen and 0-0 with Stephen F. Austin College. Gray completed his three-year South Park JC playing career that season and at the unbelievably young age of 19 became head coach at South Park High School in 1926. As in the previous three seasons, the 1926 Brahmas had a new head football coach as Joe J. Vincent took over and guided them to a 2-4 record. The wins were 25-0 over Victoria Junior College and 9-0 over Sam Houston State. The 1930s With the home crowds dwindling below the 300 level for most of the 1926 season, the football program was discontinued for five years, but it returned in 1932 when the school name was changed to Lamar College in honor of Mirabeau Lamar, known as the founder of Texas education. Former South Park JC basketball star Otho Plummer, later to serve the university for many years as a member of the board of regents, picked Cardinals as the new school mascot. After compiling a 35-20-5 record in six seasons at South Park High School, Gray became Lamar College’s first football coach and guided the Cardinals to a 40-30-4 record over eight seasons, beginning with a fine 8-1 mark in 1932. The wins included a 39-0 blitzing of Blinn College, and the lone loss was 6-0 to the SMU freshmen in the mud and rain in Greenie Stadium on Thanksgiving Day. A blocked punt at the 3-yard line led to the game’s only touchdown. Season tickets for seven home games in 1932 were $1.50 each, a far cry from the $60 to $400 price range for season tickets for this year’s second season of Lamar football after its return from a 21-year hiatus. Another indication of how much football has changed over the years is that the average weight for the 1932 Cardinals was 158 pounds per man. Quarterback Jake Verde, who later played
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his senior college football at Texas, led the 1932 Cardinals by running for four touchdowns and passing for six more, and he also served as the team’s kicker. The gem of the Cardinals’ John Gray became head 1932 season coach in 1932 and compiled was their 6-0 a 40-30-4 record over eight victory over seasons. heavily-favored Southwester n Louisiana, sparked by a 35-yard Verde-toErnest Byerly touchdown pass and two fourthquarter interceptions by Ovey Babin. By 1933, there were enough junior colleges playing football in Texas for the state to divide into sections and originate a plan to determine a state champion. Although the Cardinals weren’t as strong as they had been the previous year, they advanced to the state championship game but lost it to Amarillo Junior College 2714 in Beaumont’s Purple Stadium in mid-December. The Cardinals logged a 5-3-2 record during the regular season in 1933 and defeated Schreiner Institute 20-14 in the first round of the state playoffs. Defense was the trademark of that team as the Cardinals held nine opponents to seven or fewer points, although two of those games were scoreless ties. Actually, the tone for the season was set in the Cardinals’ opener when they piled up a whopping 24-4 advantage over East Texas Baptist in first downs and a 408-101 lead in total yards but lost on the scoreboard 7-6. Just past the mid-point of that season, nine different players scored 10 touchdowns as the Cardinals rang up a 71-0 blanking of Blinn College. Two weeks later, Verde exploded for touchdown runs of 83 and 67 yards, and he returned an interception 50 yards for another score in a 40-7 romp over Victoria Junior College. A near-perfect 7-0-1 regular season catapulted the 1934 Cardinals into the state playoffs again, and they edged Schreiner Institute 7-6 in their semifinal matchup. The Cards had to travel to the Panhandle, however, for their rematch with Amarillo Junior College in the championship game which they lost 34-7 despite being in a 7-7 tie at halftime.