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The Holy Grail Does Exist…

Posted by EyesOfTX on January 10th, 2009 under Football

 …and I found it out on Abe Books dot com late last week. 

I’ve spent the last dozen years now building a collection of what I hope now is every book ever written about Texas Longhorn football. As of Thursday, I’m pretty sure the collection is complete.

About four years ago, right as I thought I had completed my goal, I became aware of an obscure book – more of a pamphlet, really – that had been published in 1951. I found it referenced at various sources as being titled “Under Texas Skies”, “The Story of Texas Football From 1893 to 1951″, and even “Texas Touchdown Teams”. The author was listed as either A. Garland Adair, Wilbur Evans, or a combination of the two. Given that Evans was at the time the UT Sports News Director, and I knew had authored several other publications related to UT sports in subsequent years, I focused my searches more on him than on Adair. Regardless of the actual author, I am pretty sure it is the first book ever written about the history of the UT football program.

On three different occasions since I discovered its existence, I found the book up for auction on Ebay, but always without pictures or even a good description of the book’s condition. Each time, the bidding price ran up over $200, once even climbing up to $350 before the auction ended. Twice I thought I had placed the high bid only to be outbid in the final couple of seconds. This thing was a real problem to find, and I wasn’t the only one after it, obviously.

I put in search cards at all the used book stores I frequent in Houston, Austin and elsewhere – several of the dealers nodded their heads and said they had seen the book, but none ever gave me a call with good news about having found it. It began to seem as if I’d never get my hands on the book.

But finally, late last Thursday evening, as I was getting ready to call it a night, I decided to check out Abe Books, which I hadn’t done in a couple of months. Lo and behold, there the book was, allegedly in excellent, near mint condition, offered at the bargain price of $95. No photo, of course. Still, it seemed too good to be true, and after we had just spent too much on Christmas, I didn’t really want to spend the money. But Abe Books offers a refund opportunity if the book is not as advertised, so I decided to go for it, especially since if this was the real thing, I might never get another chance at it.

It arrived on Thursday, as advertised. The thing looks as if it has seldom been handled during its 56 years of life, which is good, since it is printed in paperback pamplet form, and the paper is beginning to get a little brittle. Only 76 pages long, it is something a good writer and bibliographer could cobble together in a week or less with modern technology, but which Evans likely spent months researching, typing and manually formatting back in the day.

I quickly found the source of confusion regarding the title and author. The full title of the pamphlet is “Under Texas Skies: The Story of Football at The University of Texas with Pictures of the Longhorns From 1893 to 1951 and Other Gridiron Features”. Whew. Take a deep breath. For those who are not aware, “Under Texas Skies” was a monthly publication by the Texas Heritage Foundation that I’m pretty sure went into print in 1950 and lasted well into the ’60s. This pamphlet is Vol. II, no. 5, which confirms the 1950 advent date. The goal of the publication was to increase awareness of the state’s heritage by addressing all manner of topics related to the state’s history.

Thus, as early as 1952, UT football was judged by the board of the Texas Heritage Foundation to be of adequate importance to the state’s history that it deserved to be one of the 12 topics addressed that year. Note that no similar publication exists related to the football program of any other Texas university.   Sorry, Aggies.

Regarding the author(s), both A. Garland Adair and Wilbur Evans contributed to the publication, although I’m sure Evans did the heavy lifting, given his position at The University.  Adair is listed as the 1913-14 President of the Student’s Association, and co-owned the copyright to the book with someone named Grogan Howell. He is also listed as one of two editors of the book, along wit Brig. General Paul L. Wakefield. Adair’s contribution to the book is a brief, two-page writeup at the beginning.

Evans offers a more detailed, 6 page snapshot history of the program’s highlights to that point in time towards the end of the book.

The pages in between are filled with half-page synopses of every Longhorn season, complete with team photo and record, for the seasons of 1893 through 1924. Beginning in 1925, each season is given a full page, with the team roster and a single paragraph summation added. At the bottom of each of these pages is a single paragraph discussing a Longhorn tradition, from the Orange Jackets to the Texas Cowboys to the band, Alcalde, Silver Spurs, and on and on.

The book ends with a brief preview of the upcoming 1951 season, along with bios of new Coach Ed Price and each player, as well as a brief listing of UT football records to that point.

The selling price at the time: 50 cents.  Purchase price in 2008:   $95, plus shipping.  Value to my at-long-last complete collection: Priceless.

Hook ‘em!!!

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12 Responses

  1. 98 said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    nice. it would be nice if some one put up a list of the best books on Longhorn Football. it might not be too late to start collecting some.

  2. Woody Bombay said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am

    That is pretty sweet. Congrats!

  3. Parlin Hall said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Eyes–what’s almost as good as finding this book (in my opinion) is recapturing the nearly ecstatic feeling that, though quite rare, used to happen more often than today.

    Here’s the paradox:

    Before the Internet, one often spent decades looking for certain books, usually to fill out a series or a collection; when one stumbled across the “last” volume in some random, out-of-the-way bookstore in Wales, or Berkeley, or Northampton, the feeling was one of great pleasure. I had a friend who looked for decades, for instance, for John G. Bourke’s “Scatalogical Rites of All Nations,” and–though he kept hearing whispers about people who had heard of people who had once seen it–never found it. It wouldn’t have been special if it hadn’t been elusive.

    These days, people rarely have to go anywhere to find something, and it’s hard to think of a title that’s not immediately available for the right price on the Internet. So you had a very, very rare experience indeed–something *not* being available for purchase right away. Congrats on finding your Grail.

  4. EyesOfTX said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:37 am

    98 – it’s far from too late. If anything, the old books are more findable today than they were 10 years ago. Here are a few of the best ones, IMO:

    Darrell Royal Talks Football, by Blackie Sherrod

    Here Come the Texas Longhorns, by Lou Maysel (There are two copies of this excellent book at HPB on North Lamar right now, as well as one copy of the sequel that was published in 1979)

    When Football Becomes War, by Robert Heard (this is the best history of the Texas/OU rivalry, published in the early 1980s – HPB also had a copy of this available last time I was there. There is also a copy of it at a used bookstore on 12th near Lamar, near the ACC bookstore)

    The Darrell Royal Story – by Jimmy Banks (published in 1964, the first bio of DKR, and still the best)

    The best recent publication is the University of Texas Football Vault, by Steve Richardson. This was published last year, and is the most comprehensive collection of Longhorn history and memorabilia ever put together. Sam’s club has tons of them on sale right now for $29.95, which is half the original price.

  5. Ag_in_TX said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:38 am

    I can see TaylorTRoom’s green glow from here….

  6. EyesOfTX said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:40 am

    Parlin Hall – yes, I always derive more satisfaction out of coming across a rare book in a store than over the internet. I’ve obtained more than 90% of my collection by regularly prowling a variety of used book stores across the state. But I was thrilled to find this particular book in any location.

    I also have managed to complete my collection of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football in recent years, and that would not have been possible with out Ebay. You just don’t see those for sale in used book stores anymore.

  7. Huckleberry said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    What’s your criterion for being a “book written about Texas Longhorn football”?

    I ask only because I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to make money by publishing two copies of multiple short books about Texas Longhorn football, keeping one, and then offering to sell you the other copy for $100.

    Sort of like Scipio splitting his Fiesta Bowl recap into 4 blog entries.

  8. Big Satan said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    Wait a second. So if I’m reading this correctly, it means that you’ve also purchased Ketchum’s book?

    Dude.

    Your street cred just went back to zero.

  9. EyesOfTX said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Actually, Huck, Scipio’s four posts on the Fiesta Bowl probably contain more text than this pamphlet does.

    And, if it can’t be bought at a used book store or Barnes & Noble, I’m not interested in it. :)

  10. ponderos said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    I ask only because I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to make money by publishing two copies of multiple short books about Texas Longhorn football, keeping one, and then offering to sell you the other copy for $100.

    Guns n Roses tried that same route with “Use Your Illusions I and II”.

  11. Black Scholes said:

    January 10th, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    Eyes – do you have sons? Daughters? Favored nephews?

    I only ask because I’m trying to get a sense of what exactly I would need to do to insert myself into your will in order to inherit this fine collection.

    I could offer you your own shelf – at eye level of course – in my library, and I think a brass plaque engraved with “From the collection of …” could be arranged.

    Eagerly awaiting your reply.

  12. EyesOfTX said:

    January 11th, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Scholes – Yes, I have one son and one daughter. Sorry about that. :)

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