September 21,1996 Vol. 1 No. 3
Aggie for the Ages -- John Kimbrough | Aggie Flashback: Edd Hargett

Aggie for the Ages
By Rusty Burson

HASKELL, Texas — If money grew on the thorny limbs of mesquite trees, or gold was panned in vast cotton fields, Haskell might be the most popular destination in Texas. Instead, this sleepy, rural town of 3,362 residents provides little more than a momentary change in scenery for drivers crossing the flat plains of West Texas along Highway 277 or 380.

Located about halfway between Abilene and the Red River, Haskell consists of mostly modest homes, several gas stations, a few churches, an alarming number of closed store fronts and one traffic light. A gas station attendant and longtime native says the joke about Haskell is that it is so small the street map of the town says "actual size."

Ironically, though, within this tiny town lives perhaps the biggest name in the long and storied history of Texas A&M football: John Kimbrough. Hero of A&M's 1939 national championship team, former movie star and once the recipient of the richest contract in professional football, Kimbrough is worthy of having his name in the bright lights of the big city.

Instead, the West Texas sun has completely faded his name from a dusty metal mailbox in front of the tidy home Kimbrough and his wife, Barbara, built shortly after World War II.

Kimbrough, 78, says he likes it this way, secluded from the masses. Company at his home is almost always welcome, but privacy is an extremely important element of his life now. He's no longer attracted by big crowds or publicity, and he reserves his public appearances nowadays for Sunday church services, which explains why Kimbrough, although still a vigorous follower of Aggie football, hasn't been to an A&M game in years.

The natural aging process, three heart attacks and a comfortable chair in front of the television is motivation enough to stay close to home. Kimbrough says he only enjoys traveling as far as Knox City, where he occasionally meets former A&M teammate Dick Todd and former TCU great Sammy Baugh for a spirited lunch and "lie session."

"You should hear all the damn lies told during those get-togethers," said Kimbrough, whose blue eyes sparkle with excitement when talking about football glory days. "We get better every year as our memories get worse."

Memories and newspaper clippings have certainly faded over the last half century, but as long as Texas A&M remains a school proud of its past, John Kimbrough will maintain his standing as one of the giants of the school’s football history.

"As far as I'm concerned, John Kimbrough is the legend of Texas A&M football," said John David Crow, Texas A&M’s 1957 Heisman Trophy winner. "He’s legendary not only because of what he did individually, but also because he was the leader of the ’39 team that accomplished something no other team at Texas A&M has ever done. Some sportswriters used to compare me to him when we were ranked No. 1 in 1957, but to me, there's no comparison. John Kimbrough is the A&M football legend."

Indeed, E. King Gill's story may be more talked about, Crow received a more prestigious award and Darren Lewis rushed for many more yards. But perhaps no other Texas A&M football player has ever accomplished as much and captivated such a large portion of the country as Jarrin’ John Kimbrough.

He was Texas A&M's original marquee player. If Nike would have existed during Kimbrough's playing days, he would have surely been a spokesman. If ESPN would have existed, Kimbrough would have likely been featured on "Up Close" and awarded an Espy. And if Sports Illustrated had been around, Kimbrough would have almost certainly been a coverboy.

Those who watched him play say he was that good.

"John was one of the greatest players in Southwest Conference history, not just Texas A&M," said Baugh, Kimbrough's longtime companion and a consensus All-American quarterback at TCU in 1936. "He's a fine man, a good friend, and he was one damn fine football player in his day."

J. Howard Shelton, a reserve player on the Aggies' 1939 team, says he still wakes up thinking about the rugged running style Kimbrough displayed nearly 60 years ago.

"Since I was a scout team guy, my claim to fame was that I tackled John Kimbrough more than anyone else in the country," Shelton said. "But there was a price for that. Whenever I wake up with a sore neck or back now, it reminds me of how I felt with John running me over. He was something special, a one-of-a-kind football player."

TWISTS OF FATE

That Kimbrough is even associated with Texas A&M football involves some rather remarkable twists of fate. He had a different school and a different career in mind. In fact, Kimbrough says the Lord must have wanted him to play football at Texas A&M, because nobody else did.

"I sure as hell didn't grow up wanting to play football at A&M," Kimbrough said. "Not even close."

Kimbrough's father, William Augustus Kimbrough, arrived in Haskell from Alabama in 1907 as the town’s first doctor. Among other things, the elder Kimbrough had two passions: A love for medicine and a disdain for football. That hatred for the sport grew stronger when a boy was kicked in the head while playing for Texas Tech.

The kid died, and William Kimbrough, who was the doctor of the dead boy's family, vowed to keep his sons away from the sport. He made one of his boys quit playing in high school, and he told John he would help him become a doctor.

"As a young boy, I figured I was going to be a doctor," John said. "But my father died when I was in the seventh grade, and there wasn't $500 cash from Fort Worth to El Paso in this part of the country. So that was the end of (my hopes to become a doctor).

"I played football because I wanted to go to college, and that was a way I could get to college. But had my father lived, there was no way I would have been a football player."

Nevertheless, it appeared as if Kimbrough had been born to be a football player. In high school, Kimbrough was a powerful and prolific running back, who eventually earned a scholarship to Tulane. But once in New Orleans, the Tulane coaching staff decided to turn the 6-2, 210-pound Kimbrough into a tackle.

It proved to be a disastrous move for Kimbrough, who was cut from the team almost immediately. As a result, his scholarship was taken away, and Kimbrough began searching for a school and a football team that would take him.

He ended up at A&M, despite the fact the Aggies had already brought in 100 freshmen in 1937. And so the future Aggie legend actually began his football career at A&M as a 10th team afterthought.

It was only because Kimbrough was so far down on the depth chart that he ever got his opportunity at A&M. In the opening SWC game of the 1938 season, No. 1-ranked TCU was so thoroughly dominating A&M that Aggies head coach Homer Norton elected to pull his starters and put in the scrubs near the end of the third quarter. Norton didn't want to see any of his key substitutes suffer any injuries, so he went to the extreme end of the bench to find Kimbrough, a sophomore at the time, and others of similar positioning on the depth chart.

"TCU was whipping us like tied up hounds," Kimbrough said. "A coach grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘You're a running back. Get out there.’ When I got in the huddle it sounded like a Chinese fire drill. The linemen were saying, ‘Don't come my way. That guy is whipping me.’ The backs were saying, ‘Don't give me the ball. I've had enough.’ So I said, ‘Give me the damn ball.’

"They snapped the ball to me, and I took a step toward the hole, where it looked like there were 40,000 (TCU players) waiting for me. They were hollering ‘new blood.’ Well, my mother didn't raise any idiot. Instead of hitting the hole, I went to the outside and picked up some yards. But before I went down, I decided I was going to take one of their boys with me. After the play, everyone got up but the guy who had tackled me. He stayed on the ground."

When Kimbrough returned to the A&M huddle, his teammates were more depressed than impressed with his running ability. A combination of angry scowls and scared looks focused on Kimbrough. As if things weren't already bad enough, his teammates said, Kimbrough had gone off and made TCU mad.

Nevertheless, Kimbrough again was given the ball on the next play. Like he had done before, he stopped short of the hole, cut to the outside and picked up enough yards for a first down. And most notably, the TCU player who tackled him once again remained on the ground.

"When I was getting up, I felt someone pulling me on the arm," Kimbrough said. "I looked around, and it was this short man with a coat and tie on. It was (TCU coach) Dutch Meyer. His face was red, and he was calling me every name you could think of and some I had never even heard.

"I just picked him up by his coat and tie and got him eye level with me. I said , ‘Coach, you're too small to talk to me like that.’ Then he just got off the field."

On that day, a legend had been born. Kimbrough immediately went from 10th team to first team, and he started every game during the rest of his Texas A&M career.

A CHAMPIONSHIP RUN

Kimbrough and his former A&M teammates laugh at the notion that the Aggies were shooting for a national championship in 1939. In fact, the surviving members of that team say that after going 4-4-1 in 1938, the Aggies were simply trying to avoid shooting themselves in the foot too many times.

Most of the attention nationally and across the state was directed toward TCU, the 1938 national champions. A&M, on the other hand, was considered far more mediocre than magnificent.

So truly, the '39 Aggies went from nowhere to No. 1.

"We didn't even know there was such a thing as playing for No. 1," said Tommie Vaughn, the center of the '39 team and owner of a Ford dealership in Houston. "When you look back at what we did, it's very impressive. But it wasn't even a big deal back then.

"We had almost no expectations of doing anything special in 1939. We just had a lot of boys who liked to play football and a very special running back in John Kimbrough. That's about it."

That, however, is about all the Aggies needed. Texas A&M's defense was incredible, and Kimbrough was equally impressive on offense.

The 1939 team still holds the all-time NCAA record for total team defense, allowing an amazingly low 76.3 yards per game. A&M also finished first in the country in rushing defense (41.5 yards per game) and scoring defense (1.8 points allowed per game) as the Aggies recorded six shutouts and allowed only one team (Tulane in the Sugar Bowl) to score in double figures.

Meanwhile, Kimbrough was piling up yards and pouring on points offensively. Thanks to Kimbrough's running and the domination of the A&M defense, the Aggies won eight of their 10 regular season games by at least 14 points.

"We didn't really know it before the season, but we became a pretty damn good football team," Kimbrough said. "We won every game, and we only played a couple of close ones."

The closest one came in the Sugar Bowl against Tulane, the team that had cut Kimbrough just two years earlier. Kimbrough's 2-yard touchdown run in the first quarter gave A&M a 7-0 lead, but the Green Wave scored the next two touchdowns to take a 13-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.

A&M then began a 70-yard scoring drive led by ( who else?) Kimbrough. His second short scoring run and the ensuing extra point gave A&M a 14-13 victory over Tulane and a perfect 11-0 record. Overall, Kimbrough finished the day with 159 yards rushing.

Not a bad effort for a guy who couldn't even make it past Tulane's first cut.

"John just ran right through their guys," Vaughn said. "He didn't ever dance around or try to fake you. He'd just run right over you. He'd get those knees going real high, and you couldn't stop him."

FAME, FORTUNE AND A WIFE

Kimbrough had already made a name for himself before the 1940 Sugar Bowl, finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting and earning various All-America honors. But the national spotlight officially took direct aim on Kimbrough following his performance against Tulane.

And by the summer of 1940, Kimbrough had become a national fan favorite and a media darling of mammoth proportions. He was regularly featured in magazines and on the front page of sports sections.

He was so recognizable, in fact, that a strikingly attractive 17-year-old girl noticed him on the elevator of a Houston hotel and asked him if he was indeed John Kimbrough. It was a chance meeting that has resulted in a 55-year marriage.

"I was trying to tell him that I knew his brother, Earnest, who was an intern at Herman Hospital," Barbara Kimbrough said. "I was on my way to a luncheon at the top of the Rice Hotel, and he asked me to call him in his room when I was finished with lunch. Well, girls didn't call boys back then. It was really taboo.

"But the girlfriends I was with told me that I was crazy if I didn't call him. So I called, and he asked to see me that night. I then called the guy I was supposed to have a date with that night and told him that I couldn't go because I had a date with John Kimbrough. He said, ‘Great, I'll get another date, and we'll double.’ So that's what we did."

The 1940 season only increased Kimbrough's popularity. It didn't end in a national championship for the Aggies as Texas snapped A&M's 20-game winning streak in the last regular-season game of the year. But the '40 season, which resulted in a Cotton Bowl appearance for A&M, was an even more impressive year individually for Kimbrough.

He finished second to Michigan's Tom Harmon in the Heisman Trophy balloting after rushing for 611 yards, and he was named to 31 All-America teams. Additionally, Kimbrough was voted the outstanding athlete of the year in 1940 by an association of Philadelphia sportswriters.

But the football field wasn't the only place where Kimbrough was in the spotlight. Seeking to capitalize on Kimbrough's All-America athletic accomplishments and his rugged, Hollywood heartthrob looks, the Liggett Meyer Tobacco Company paid him $15,000 to use his picture on the Chesterfield Cigarette advertisements. The ads were placed in magazines, newspapers and billboards across the country.

"I was a rich man with that money," said Kimbrough, who finished his career at A&M with 1,357 yards and 21 touchdowns. "I was also probably the most popular guy in College Station, because every week the Liggett Meyer Tobacco Company would send me a full case of cigarettes. I didn't smoke, so I'd give them to all the guys that smoked at A&M. The only problem with me not smoking is that they had to paint a cigarette in my mouth (for the ad). If you don't smoke, you don't know how to hold a cigarette."

Kimbrough may not have known how to smoke, but his professional career ( and financial status ) was certainly getting off to a smoking start.

In addition to the $15,000 he received for the cigarette ad, Kimbrough became the No. 1 draft pick of the NFL's Chicago Cardinals in 1941. The worst team in the NFL, the Cardinals offered Kimbrough $1,000 a game. It was a significant offer, but not as much as the offer from the American Football League's New York Yankees.

The Yankees offered Kimbrough $1,500 per game — or the equivalent of $37,500 per year. That was enough to make Kimbrough the highest paid player in pro football, and he signed with the Yankees.

And if that wasn't enough, Kimbrough also signed a contract with 20th Century Fox to star in two Western movies, Lone Star Ranger and Sundown Jim. With his contracts in hand, Kimbrough had enough money to buy land in Haskell and to put enough away for his future purchase of his own oil company agency. He also figured he had enough money to do something he had been thinking about for quite some time.

"After I signed with 20th Century Fox, the first person I called was Barbara," Kimbrough said. "I told her that I was ready (financially) to get married if she was. She said yes. I had actually told her on our first date that if she would wait for the right time, we'd get married. I was just a poor country boy in college then, but after I signed those contracts, I knew it was the right time."

Unfortunately, it wasn't the right time for world peace. Kimbrough would have almost enjoyed a much longer football and movie career and ended up a much wealthier man if he had not been called to serve in the United States Army in 1942.

But duty beckoned as World War II reached its height, and Kimbrough answered the call. Of course, the Army's first command was for Kimbrough and numerous other outstanding athletes in the Army to play several exhibition football games against NFL teams.

"That was the damn finest looking football team I had ever seen," said Baugh, whose Washington Redskins played the Army team. "That has stuck with me all these years. Those guys looked so sharp, and, of course, John was the leader of the bunch."After the series of exhibition games, Kimbrough and his comrades served in the Pacific as the Allied Forces put an end to World War II. And then in 1946, Kimbrough returned to play professionally with the Yankees until 1949 when as a 30-year-old, he suffered his first heart attack.

ENOUGH HEART TO SURVIVE

Doctors estimated that Kimbrough had three to five years to live after his first heart attack. That was 47 years ago. Obviously, they underestimated the toughness of a man who once played a full game with two broken ribs.

"They've been trying to kick dirt on me ever since that first coronary," said Kimbrough, who has two children (John, 51, and Barbara, 47) and two grandchildren. "Then I really (baffled them) when I had other heart attacks in 1959 and '69 and still lived.

"After the first one, it felt like you were in the Army with a hand grenade in each hip pocket, and you had already pulled the plug, just waiting for them to go off. Then I got used to it, and I'm still here. I just thank God every morning when the sun comes up and I'm around to see it. I know I'm living on borrowed time."

Age and the heart attacks have managed to do what few defenders ever could: Slow John Kimbrough. After his first heart attack, Kimbrough completely overhauled his lifestyle, running his oil agency from a desk or the front seat of his truck and lifting nothing heavier than a fishing pole.

Today, Kimbrough spends plenty of time watching sports on television, reading the newspaper, taking an occasional nap and enjoying each day. His most tiring and difficult chore is keeping up with Lady, his lovable but rambunctious Labrador Retriever. Kimbrough jokes that the dog actually runs the house; That he and Barbara are mere visitors.

"Lady pretty much runs the show around here," Kimbrough says with a charismatic smile. "She's definitely the center of attention. She's a great dog, but watch out for her if she gets too close. When she gets excited, she can knock you down and run right over you."

Kimbrough pauses, but he doesn't even seem to realize the irony of his statement. His description of Lady the Lab is almost a perfect match to describe the late 1930s Top Dog of Texas A&M: John Kimbrough.

Center of attention. Great. Watch out or you'll get knocked down and run over.

Those things all applied to Kimbrough, Texas A&M's living legend, Tulane's biggest mistake and definitely Haskell's most famous resident.

Aggie Flashback Scramble of a Lifetime When Edd Hagett dashed for the end zone against Tech in '67, he changed his life and A&M football forever
By Rusty Burson

With two boys currently enrolled at Texas A&M and a daughter working for the school’s athletic department, former A&M quarterback Edd Hargett seemed like the perfect person to turn to for advice regarding the extremely important subject of making sure your child stays on the right path. The path to Texas A&M, of course.

After all, Hargett's record for rearing Aggies (three-for-three) is as impressive as the numerous passing records he established at A&M from 1966-68. So being a relatively new and perhaps overly enthusiastic/worried father, I sought Hargett’s advice to make sure I was doing everything correctly.

It should be noted that my son, Payton, is just nine weeks old, but friends and family members are already warning me about the potential dangers of overkill. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact I'm diligently trying to make sure his first words are "Gig ’em." Or that I wanted to protect the soft spot on his head with a miniature A&M helmet.

Regardless of the source of this overkill matter, Hargett was understanding and more than willing to help, happily sharing his A&M-based child-raising philosophies and experiences.

"Well, we just took the kids to games and to the campus, but we never pushed them at all," said Hargett, now the manager of the Houston County Electric Co-op in Crockett. "It’s very important for them to make their own decisions. Of course, I always wanted my kids to go to A&M, too. But I guess I could have been tolerant of them going anywhere, even though I honestly would have been pretty disappointed if they had gone anywhere else."

That "expose the kids to A&M, but don't push it on them" advice seemed pretty solid. But then Shirley Hargett, Edd’s wife, said it was also pretty different from what she remembered.

"Edd said he would have accepted it if the kids had not gone to A&M?" mused Shirley, holding back her laughter. "Well, one (ploy) he used was to tell the kids they could go anywhere, but he was only paying for A&M. And then I’ll never forget the time during his rebellious stage as a senior in high school when our oldest son (Tedd) announced at the dinner table that he was going to Texas. Let’s just say that didn’t sit too well with Edd. He holed up and didn't talk for a week. He was pretty upset."

Leave it to your wife and Paul Harvey to tell "the rest of the story."

But so what if Hargett's methods involved some rare moments of madness and some occasional pouting. Just check out the bottom line: His kids are happy, healthy and they're all in College Station. Could an Aggie parent ask for anything more?

"I’m thrilled that all my kids know what it means to be associated with Texas A&M," said Hargett, whose youngest son, Thadd, frequently directs the A&M scout team as a sophomore walk-on quarterback. "Being an Aggie is a special feeling, and it’s one I’m glad to share with them. I have a lot of good memories, and Texas A&M was very good for me."

Likewise, Edd Hargett was extremely good for Texas A&M. And he remains an extremely special member of the A&M football family.

Sure, there have been other Aggie quarterbacks who threw prettier passes and accounted for many more wins during their career. But Hargett, who went on to play four seasons with the New Orleans Saints after his A&M career, definitely ranks among the greatest signal-callers in school history in both the record books and in the hearts of Aggie fans.

He ranks third among all-time A&M quarterbacks in career passing yards (5,379 in just 30 games), and he still holds the all-time record for most total yards in one game (418 against SMU in 1968). But he may be remembered most fondly for directing the Aggies to one of the most improbable Southwest Conference championships in A&M history.

Following the departure of Bear Bryant after the 1957 season, the Aggies began one of the most forgettable stretches in school history. With the exception of 1967, A&M did not win more than four games in a season from 1958-70. Included in that stretch were two seasons that produced just one win each.

So the ’67 championship sticks out like a beacon in a sea of bleak seasons. Of course, it didn’t start out that way. It began like just another forgettable year, with the Aggies opening the season 0-4. And A&M appeared destined for an 0-5 start when Texas Tech scored a late touchdown to take a 24-21 lead with just 53 seconds left in the game at Lubbock.

At that point, however, A&M began one of the more memorable drives in school history, and Hargett’s status quickly evolved from relative obscurity to legendary.

Facing fourth-and-15 from the Tech 45 with only 11 seconds left, Hargett passed deep over the middle into a crowd of players, where Bob Long outleaped four Red Raiders to make an incredible catch at the Texas Tech 15. After a timeout, Hargett rolled to his left on the final play of the game only to find all his receivers covered. So he tucked the ball and raced into the right corner of the end zone for the winning touchdown with no time left on the clock.

"I was at home by myself sewing and listening to the Tech game on the radio," Shirley said. "It seemed kind of hopeless for a minute, but I remember jumping up and down on the bed as I listened to the last play on the radio."

The Aggies would not lose again the rest of the season. The seven-game winning streak to end the year included a thrilling 10-7 victory over Texas to win the SWC title and a 20-16 victory over the Bear Bryant-led Alabama Crimson Tide in the Cotton Bowl.

"Obviously, it was a great way to finish the season," said Hargett, the All-SWC quarterback in 1967 and ’68. "That entire year was the highlight of my career. There were a lot of special moments like the wins over Texas, Texas Tech and Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. Our record wasn’t that great (7-4), but to turn it all around after starting 0-4 was a great accomplishment.

"That’s one of those memories you carry with you forever, because it probably has some lessons you can apply to any aspect of your life. We went through some tough times (during my career at A&M), but we knew if we kept working hard that things would eventually work out for us. And sure enough, things did work out for the best."

Life has continued to work out for the best for Hargett and his family through the years. Even the minor problem of Hargett’s wife being the only immediate family member not to attend Texas A&M is working itself out. Shirley and Edd were married while he was in college, and she later went back to school to get her bachelor’s degree from what was formerly known as East Texas State Texarkana.

Now, however, East Texas State is officially a part of the A&M system, and Shirley recently ordered a new diploma that has Texas A&M on it. So while she has always considered herself an Aggie, it’s official now.

"Texas A&M is certainly a big part of our family," Edd said. "It’s in our blood."

Send your flashback comments or suggestions to Rusty Burson’s e-mail address at: rusty@12thManFoundation.com

Send questions or comments about the magazine to the editor, Homer Jacobs

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