St Edwards University - Tower Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Depression and World War II took their toll on student enrollment at St. Edward’s, and for a time toward the end of the war men in uniform, trainees at a flying academy at St. Ed’s, outnumbered students. The 35-7 rout of Tulsa was regarded as something of a monumental upset. The local press reported on Oct. 28: “Into the celebrated oil capital of the world, came the football machine representing St. Edward’s College of the capital of Texas, and when the very grey and dark afternoon had faded the boys from Texas walked out the victors.” During the 23 season, a Statesman sports writer was moved to castigate University of Texas athletic officials for refusing Meagher’s requests that the two Austin college teams meet on the gridiron. UT refused on the grounds that the Saints were not members of a conference. Independent status in those days often suggested outlaw tactics. But the writer, unperturbed, took up the Saints’ cause and advised “There is no question that St. Edward’s would have given the Longhorns a much better game than did the South- western Pirates (in a 44-0 loss)...” The Meagherites, as they were sometimes called on campus, still couldn’t schedule Texas the next year, but they did find Southwest Conference competition. They rolled through their first six games undefeated with Melvin Steussy the captain, left halfback and standout triple- threater. Then they came afoul of Baylor, destined to win the SWC championship. The Bears won, 30-7, and left the Saints so rattled they were spilled the next week, 3-2, by Sam Houston Normal of Huntsville. Whether or not the Saints would have played a representative game against Texas in 1923, they couldn’t in their 1928 opener, the Longhorns prevailing 32-0. In 1929 the Rice Owls hired Meagher away and Al Serafiny, a former St. Ed’s center, took over as coach, until the depression ended football at St. Edward’s. After an enrollment low of 16 students following two world wars and depression, the Holy Cross set out to night the failing school. St. Edward’s purchased war surplus classrooms to supplement its permanent structures, secured additional lay personnel, initiated a building program, and began the 1946 school year offering courses in business administration, arts and letters, engineering, and science. A progression of energenic presidents, Br. Edmond Hunt, Br. Elmo Bransby, and Br. Raymond Fleck trans- formed the hilltop over the next 20 years, tripling enrollment, faculty, and material assets, and bringing women to the hilltop at long last in 1966. That isn’t Knute Rockne standing with one of St. Edwards’ earliest football teams (this is the team of 1907), but 14 years later Rockne’s hand-picked protege, Jack Meagher, would come to stand with eight St. Edward’s teams, including the unbeaten °23 club and the ’28 club that actually played the University 0 of Texas (and lost, 32-0!). il