1940 Bearcats in front of City Hall

Top Row: (L-R)  Harry Harris, tackle; Gayle Rippetoe, tackle; Bill Ash, end; Fred Rutledge, tackle; Billy Roy Smith, end; Reuben Holmes, guard. 

Middle Row: Billy C. Pittman, back and center, Bobby Littlejohn, back, Eldon Terrill, guard and team captain; Raymond Carter, back; Derwin Nabors, end; Frank Nowlin, center.

Front Row:  Jack Sparks, center; Bob Golden, guard; Willie Carruth, back; Collis Macon guard; W.T. Calhoun, back; Joe Underhill, back.

Other team members not pictured:  Lee Harris, Curley Nabors, Bob Miller, Coy Riley, Red Park, Clifton Phillips, Bob Grimshaw, and Sloan Ellis,   Managers: Willie Wilshire, Clyde Clark.


Original photo appeared in the September 27, 1940 issue of the Free Press.  Collis Macon was killed in World War II.

1940 Season

DHS    Dist. 12-A    OPP

  0    @Stpehnville     78

  0    @ Cross Plains   7

  0    Dublin               20

  6    @Eastland         10

  0    Hamilton           12

12   @HIco                 20

  6   Rising Star           6

  0   @Gorman             0

  0   @Weatherford    66

  0   Comanche            7


Weatherford won the district.

    A new district alignment put De Leon in District 12-A along with Rising Star, Hamilton, Eastland, Gorman, Hico, Dublin and Weatherford.  With Comanche out of the district the Chief did not usually give the De Leon scores and the Free Press issues for that year are missing.  As a result little has been found on the season.  However, this is one of those seasons of which not much needs to be said.

     The U.I.L. restricted spring practice to 30 days in 1940, and in the spring the De Leon Athletic Association was organized to support football and other sports.  Another De Leonian, J.D. Pilcher, superintendent of Mirano’s school was elected to chair District 36-B near Kingsville.

      STEPHENVILLE

    The Stephenville Empire Tribune of September 27, 1940 gave the details of a 78-0 defeat of the Bearcats by the 9-AA Yellowjackets.

     About 2,000 people including a good crowd from De Leon gathered at Tarleton Stadium to see Barney Welch score seven touchdowns and account for 306 of the 335 rushing yards gained by Stephenville.   Thanks primarily to this game, Welch led the U.I.L. in scoring with 126 points and 21 touchdowns for the season.

     In the the first quarter there were four touchdowns.  Welch scored the first on a 46 yard run.  Whitacre the QB, picked up the second from the four.  The third came on a 6 yard Welch run and the fourth on a 45 yard pass to Welch from Autrey.   Additionally, Whitacre drop kicked a field goal.

    In the second quarter Welch picked up two more touchdowns, one on a 46 yard run and the second on a 37 yard pass interception.  Whitacre added the point after on the latter with a drop kick.

    In the third quarter Stephenville scored first on a 55 yard lateral from Whitacre to Rushing.  Then Welch intercepted another pass and retuned it 40 for another touchdown.  If Welch hadn’t done enough, he completed a pass to Autrey that covered 16 yards for a touchdown.

     The Yellowjacket scoring continued as R.M. Tate intercepted a Bearcat pass at the 27 and retuned it all the way for touchdown.  Then Whitacre threw to Hicks for the point after (1 point). Welch took it in again from the 46 and concluded his scoring binge with a 90 yard touchdown run.  Autrey place kicked the final extra point.

   Believe it or not Stephenville only got 12 first downs while De leon had 5.  De Leon had a total of minus six yards rushing and 42 passing.  Welch separated his shoulder in the game and missed the next game.

     We can’t even blame the referees.  De Leon’s Honk Irvin was one of the crew along with George Franz of the U.S. Army and Hugh Wolf who lettered in ’34, ’36 and ’37 at the University of Texas.

    The Dublin Progress reported that De Leon was beaten 7-0 in Cross Plains.  No other information has been found.

    The Hico News Review of November 1, 1940 reported that on the previous Friday, De Leon played at Hico and outweighed (sic) the Tiger 7 pounds to the man.  While no score is given, a separate article states that the Tigers won.  A third article implies that the score was 20-12 in favor of Hico but does not say so directly.

    According to Eldon Terrill, the Bearcats were so battered at the Hico game that the team did not have enough players.  At the half, Lee Harris changed from his band uniform into his football pads.  But unlike the 12th man at Texas A&M who came out of the stands only to stand around on the side line, De Leon’s twelfth man played in the second half probably at tackle.

   The Eastland Telegram reported that the entire first quarter of the game was played in De Leon’s territory.  In the second quarter Underhill caught an 18 yard touchdown pass to give the Bearcats a 6-0 lead. But, Eastland quickly answered with a 20 yard touchdown pass and then drop kicked the point after to take a 7-6 lead.  Late in the fourth quarter, the Mavericks drop kicked a field goal to win 10-6.

        No detail have been found on the 0-20 loss to Dublin or the 0-12 loss to Hamilton.

     The Rising Star game ended with a 6-0 De Leon victory.  It was the only win for the Bearcats in 1940 while Rising Star lost all their district games.

   The Gorman game ended in a tie.  I believe the score to be 0-0 although I have not found a report that confirms that score.

    Weatherford won the district with an 8-0 record.  In one issue of the Free Press, it was noted that from the expression on the Bearcats’ faces “our boys had not been completely immunized from that something which most people call fear.  Fear of meeting a highly touted aggregation like Weatherford.”  The Bearcats lost 21 yards rushing but the passing attack picked up 73 with all four first downs coming through the air. 

    Weatherford’s first score came on a 55 yard run by Waldop but the extra point kick was blocked.

    Carter was caught in the end zone for a safety and on Terrill’s ensuing kickoff Waldrop took it at the 44 and retuned it for a touchdown.  The kick was good and the score was 15-0.

     A Waldrop to Cox pass and point after upped the lead to 22-0 to end the scoring in the first quarter.

     Early in the second quarter Wren scored and kicked goal to give Weatherford a 29-0 lead and on the next series the Kangaroos take it 30 yards for a 35-0 lead.

  Weatherford blocked a Carter quick kick at the De Leon 20 and quickly drove for another touchdown and a 41-0 lead.

     The highlight of the game for De Leon came on the next series when Raymond Carter threw a pass to Eldon Terrill which he caught on the fifty and carried to the ten, stiff arming a would-be tackler.  But after an incomplete pass, the half ended and the Bearcats failed to score.

     In the third quarter Wren intercepted a Bearcat pass at the 17 and returned it for a touchdown to up the score to 47-0.  The paper then had a gap in their report but takes it  up again when Weatherford’s first string returns to the field.  They quickly scored again to go up 59-0.  Wren then caught another touchdown pass and kicked the point after to seal a 66-0 win. 

    De Leon had not beaten Comanche since 1935 and had only managed one touchdown since then.  The Bearcats desperately wanted to get revenge for those four long years and especially for the 54-0 whipping the year before.  And, they almost pulled it off.  The game was played on Thanksgiving.

    Defense dominated the first quarter.  In the second, Comanche blocked a De Leon punt and recovered it in the end zone but was ruled offside on the play.

   The see-saw defensive battle continued with no score until the clock ticked down to 30 seconds.  Quarterback Eldon Terrill looked to the sidelines for the play and thought a punt was called.  So, in the huddle he called a punt and Raymond Cater punted.

    Comanche’s end, Bernard Edwards, playing with a broken left hand retuned the punt for a touchdown and the extra point was good.  The call had been incorrectly read.  Comanche kicked off and De Leon ran two plays before time ran out.   

      Three more season would pass before De Leon would beat Comanche.

   Stephenville’s Barney Welch intercepting a pass while playing for the Aggies in 1947.  During that season he played against future Bearcat Coach Tom Bishop who Co-Captained T.C.U.; a S.M.U. player named John Basham who would later pastor De Leon’s First Methodist Church and his teammates Kyle Rote and Doak Walker; a trio of Texas players named Tom Landry, Bobby Lane and a future employer of mine, All American Dick Harris.  What a year in the old SWC!