Dana Xenophon Bible and the Twelfth Man. (original) (raw)

College Station and Austin are not located in East Texas, but enough Aggies and Longhorns live here to make a story about the life and contributions to Texas football by Dana Xenophon Bible appropriate here.

Bible was born in Jefferson City, Tennessee, in 1891. He attended Carson-Newman College in Tennessee and coached football at Brandon Prep School in Shelbyville and then at Mississippi College before moving to Texas A&M as an assistant coach. Bible became head coach at A&M in 1917.

Bible is most remembered for an incident in 1922 when his Aggies played the Praying Colonels of Center College in the Dixie Classic, the season finale before the founding of the Cotton Bowl. The Aggies established a lead in the game but lost three players to injuries doing so, reducing their roster to only fifteen players.

Fearing additional injuries, Bible asked A&M student E. King Gill, a reserve halfback who was working in the press box, to put on a uniform and be ready to play if needed. Gill never got into the game, but the Tradition of the Twelfth Man was born. For over eight decades, A&M students stand throughout games, ready to go on the field if needed to defend the honor of their school.

Bible left A&M in 1929 to coach the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, but in 1936 returned to Texas but not to Texas A&M. Instead he coached the Aggie�s principal rivals, the University of Texas Longhorns. His teams won Southwest Conference championships in 1944 and 1945.

Bible�s methods revolutionized the college football game. He introduced modern methods of recruitment, including the use of alumni, and tuition and other financial aid for athletes. He retired from coaching in 1946 but continued as athletic director at the University of Texas for another decade.

Bible died in 1980, but his contributions to collegiate athletics lives on, especially in the Twelfth Man tradition at Texas A&M. Now we need to learn the identity of the Lothario who established the practice of Aggie�s kissing wives and girl friends each time their team scores a touchdown.