Cotton Bowl

Happy New Year!

January 1 is not only the first day of the New Year, but in the culture of the United States is synonymous with football.  When not on a Sunday, this day hosts a number of college football bowl games. When on a Sunday, the day is turned over to professional football. There is something interesting about the Cotton Bowl game on Monday, January 2, 2017.  It is that a football team from the state of Wisconsin will be playing for the second time in the Cotton Bowl in Texas.  The University of Wisconsin Badgers will meet the Western Michigan Broncos at the stadium built by Jerry Jones, AT&T Stadium, near Dallas, TX.  The Badgers hail from one of the power five conferences, the Big Ten, while the Broncos, who come from the Mid-America Conference, will look for recognition and respect for a lesser regarded conference.  The first team from Wisconsin to play in the Cotton Bowl was not the Badgers, rather it the Marquette University football team.  Marquette is a private Jesuit school located in Milwaukee better known for its basketball teams, particularly in the 1970’s, than in its football program which played its last intercollegiate season in 1960. 

1936 Marquette Football Team
Played in First Cotton Bowl, January 1,1937
Source: family archives from Marquette U
Roy Hovel is front row, fourth one in from the left

Back in the 1936 season Marquette was a good football team.  It would achieve some national recognition when it was selected to meet Texas Christian University, TCU, in the inaugural Cotton Bowl.  The Marquette Golden Avalanche had been rated as high as the fourth best team in the nation during the season.  The Hovel family has a connection to that 1936 Marquette team and the first Cotton Bowl game.  My father was a sophomore guard for the Golden Avalanche.  He was probably one of the youngest, if not the youngest, member of the team, being only 18 years of age when he set foot on the State Fair of Texas football field, under what the game summary termed “threatening skies”.  A smaller than anticipated crowd of 22,000 persons attended the first Cotton Bowl game.  While there are so many bowl games today, such that teams like the Minnesota Gophers (hey, at least they won) and the Indiana Hoosiers made bowl play this year.  The 1930’s saw the first expansion of bowls, with the decade having added the Sugar, Sun, Orange, and in 1937 the Cotton Bowl.  A Texas oilman, not related to J.R. Ewing, but sharing the same first initial, put up his own money to start and finance the bowl game.  J. Curtis Sanford came up with the idea, as noted in a recent “Milwaukee Journal” article, to “’dream of a Texas Sports spectacle’ to rival California’s Rose Bowl.”  Marquette agreed to play on December 9, 1936 when it was guaranteed either 40% of the gate receipts or $6,000 or $10,000 (depending upon the source), whichever was greater. 

Part of 1936 Marquette Team

 However, according to a Dec 10, 1936 "Milwaukee Journal" article, money was only one of a few other reasons reported by Marquette for going to this first bowl game—first, they looked upon it as a reward to the players for a well-played season in which they ended regular season play 7 and 1, the loss being in the last game of the regular season.  Second, it was to introduce Marquette football to the south, and third make contacts in the south for teams in the future. 

Roy Hovel in his offensive line stance

The Marquette team, coached by Frank Murray in what would be his last year as head coach of the team, would lose to TCU 16 to 6 on a dirt field interspersed with pockets of mud where the tarp leaked from prior day rains.    The defensive front of TCU was too much for the Marquette line.  In standard boastful practice still evident today, particularly in the SEC, the “Dallas Morning News” frequently noted the superiority of TCU.  “Marquette was no match to this first string purple contingent” and that “at least four Southwest Conference teams could have taken the Golden Avalanche.”  The biggest cut of all was their statement that “Marquetters hail from a section that is supposed to specialize in fundamentals as blocking and tackling-powerhouse, head butting football, and while reputed to be a dazzling aggregation with the overhead game, too, they’d be no aerial circus in the Southwest.”  All of the scoring came in the first half, and even though Marquette was well outgained 189 to 318 yards, (and outscored by only 10 points) the key was likely the ability of TCU to run the ball.  Marquette had 32 rushes for only 55 yards, while TCU had 34 for 169.  Net passing yards for the two teams were similar with 134 for Marquette and 149 for TCU.  The teams both came in with vaunted passing attacks, in hindsight it seems to be the rushing attack of the TCU that was the difference, regardless of how the sportswriters built up Sammy (the Sniper) Baugh of TCU.  Baugh finished 5 of 13 with two interceptions, and Ray Buivid of Marquette was 9 of 18 with three interceptions. 

1934 Campion Academy High school team, of which Roy Hovel was a member
Roy Hovel is in second row, fifth person from left
Source:  Joe  R Sweeney

Baugh finished fourth in the Heisman ballot in 1936, while the Marquette quarterback, Ray Buivid of Sheboygan finished third.  Buivid would give up playing in the East-West Shrine game in order to play in the Cotton Bowl. Buivid would be drafted third in the 1937 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, and would go into the history books as the first quarterback to pass for five touchdowns in an NFL game.  This shows that historically the Bears did not always suck.  He played only two years of ball in the NFL.  Baugh, would be picked 6^th in the draft and would play his whole NFL career with the Redskins, 1937-1952. Baugh would go on to set 13 NFL records in three different positions: QB, punter and defensive back.

Starting offensive front seven for 1936 Marquette team
Source:  Cotton Bowl from J Curtis Sanford Papers
Via Cotton Bowl  representative  Charlie Fiss (2014)

 Perhaps TCU’s greatest strength was it essentially being a home game.  They were provided privileges and facilities superior to what Marquette was provided.  My Dad had commented that the practice field Marquette was provided was a cow pasture.  The long trip by train, was also draining, as many of the team members, he noted came down with the flu.  Marquette saw what many teams from the north see yet today, an advantage to the team that does not have as far to travel, and is not from the region where the game is played.  If you don’t think this is the case just ask Michigan, who played Florida State in the Orange Bowl.  If it is a problem today, it was much more so back in 1936 with a team enduring a long train ride, over a plane flight. 

1937 Cotton Bowl Program Cover
Source:  Cotton Bowl, Charlie Fiss

 The Wisconsin and Western Michigan game will see both teams travel a similar distance, so their game on January 2 does not see any one team location to sport a home favorite.  Back in 1936 Marquette played its first game of the season in Madison against the University of Wisconsin, in front of 32,000 fans.  Marquette won that October 3 contest 12 to 6.  The day following the game the “Wisconsin State Journal” would note the brutality of play (see news article inset below) on the line, quite different than the Marquette line described by the Dallas writer.  Over the years, Marquette faced Wisconsin 28 times, and Marquette won only four games.  Setting a pattern still evident today for the UW, all of the games were played in Madison, never once in Milwaukee. Talk about home field advantage. 

Oct 4 1936 Wisconsin State Jounral
Snippet of article on UW Marquette game

As a young 18 year old underclassman, my Dad mainly watched the game from the sidelines.  He was part of the Marquette team to visit the Cotton Bowl for its 50^th anniversary event from which he received a throw blanket, and a commemorative football.  The 1936 Marquette team as a whole was inducted in the Marquette Hall of Fame on August 20, 2011.  It was a posthumous induction, although family members were invited to attend, and many did.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend.  Two of my Dad’s 1936 team members, Buivid and Ward Cuff were individual inductees in 1974 and 1988, respectively.

Front Cover of Invitation to 2011 Marquette Hall of Fame Induction
1936 football team if pictured in upper left

Inside of front cover
Source:  T Hovel

My Dad loved football.  The oldest sibling in the family would go on to play college ball at Stevens Point, enjoy a semi-pro career, and coach for many years at the high school level.  Steve began as a line coach and moved to head coach.  He noted that many of the techniques, so derided by the Dallas newspaper, are techniques still successful to lineman today.  My Dad loved football so much that in 1964 when my mother was in the early stages of labor with our youngest sibling, Dad went to my brother Steve’s football game at Ashley Field in Sun Prairie, although he did come home at halftime to check on her, and eventually make their way to the hospital.  While I am sure he was disappointed that Marquette did not win that day, I am confident that I speak for all my siblings when I say he was a winner in life, when measured by that which is most important.