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1939: A year of Aggie champions
National champs
use team unity
to stay unbeaten
By Jan Higginbotham
The Batiai.ion
This group of Aggies came to Texas
A&M to do the one thing they all loved to
do - play football. In 1939, no one could
play the game better than them.
Forty-seven men came together that
year to do what no other A&M football
team has accomplished before or since;
win a national championship.
“There was a fighting, fellowship spir
it,” Joe Boyd, an All-American tackle for
the 1939 team, said. “It was just a team
filled with love. All the boys in our ball
club thought in terms of winning the
game, and not in terms of being heroes.”
Jim Thomason, a blocking back and
defensive linebacker for the championship
team, said everything just fell into place
for the Aggies in 1939.
“The atmosphere on campus was just
perfect,” Thomason said. “People bent
over backwards to make things right for
us.”
The team members came together to
form a family, Thomason said.
“They were a good class of boys,”
Thomason said. “They all had ambition.
They were clean, decent boys who went to
school to get an education, not just to play
football.”
But football was what that group of
men did best. The team ended the season
undefeated and untied, having accumu
lated 212 points to their opponents’ 31.
The Aggies were named national
champions even before they met the fifth-
ranked Green Wave of Tulane in the Sug
ar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1940. The Aggies
played in front of their largest audience of
the season that day as 72,000 fans packed
into Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, La.
“They were stacked on the track, al
most down to the field,” Thomason said.
John Kimbrough, A&M’s running back,
proved to be a key in the Aggies’ 14-13
win over the Green Wave, but that could
have been because he felt he had some
thing to prove to the Tulane coaches.
“They offered me a scholarship at Tu
lane, but they ran me off,” Kimbrough
said. “I never even played a down for
them. A&M was about the only thing I
had left after that. They had about 100
freshmen come in when I did.
“They were real straight about it.
They told me, ‘If we like you, we’ll keep
you.’”
Kimbrough stuck around and became
a starter for the Aggies in 1938. He went
on to win All-American honors in 1939
and 1940. The star running back finished
fifth in the voting for the coveted Heis-
man Trophy in 1939 and second in the
voting in 1940.
Boyd said Kimbrough was the spark
The Battalion
DAVID WINDER, Sports Editor
NICK GEORGANDIS, Assistant Sports Editor
MARK SMITH, Page Designer
CONTRIBUTING WRITER:
Jan Higginbotham
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
The Texas A&M 12th Man Foundation,
The Texas A&M Lettermen's Association,
The Texas A&M Athletic Department,
The Texas A&M University Archives,
David Bonnen
and all the Aggie players and coaches who have
given Texas A&M 100 years of great football.
plug the Aggies needed for a successful
season in 1939.
“John Kimbrough was the greatest
fullback,” Boyd said. “He was an inspira
tion to the team.”
Boyd also garnered All-American hon
ors as a senior for the Aggies in 1939, but
he gives much of the credit to his team
mates.
“If I was All-American, all those boys
were,” Boyd said.
Tommie Vaughn, A&M center and line
backer, said the team was successful be
cause the players worked together.
“There were no great stars,” Vaughn
said. “The team was a star. Everyone
played together and not for themselves.
They all had high respect for one another.
This team has always been tight as feath
ers with each other.”
Thomason said the closeness of the
team members led them to success on the
football field.
“We were just like brothers,” Thoma
son said. “There was no trouble between
any of the players. If one got in trouble,
everybody came out to help.
“Everybody knew how to play everyone
else’s positions. We did a lot of maneuver
ing out there, tricking the other teams.
That’s what made it so fun!”
The fun lasted throughout the 1939
season for the Aggies, as they traveled
across the country meeting movie stars
and seeing the United States by train.
“We learned a lot just by traveling to
different places,” Thomason said. »We
had to take our books with us and study
on the train, though. We would work out
on the lawn of the train stations where we
stopped.”
Several of the players said Aggie head
coach Homer Norton’s coaching style was
a key to their success.
“He was really ahead of his time,” Kim
brough said.
Boyd said the extraordinary abilities of
See National Champs/Page 4
A&M in the record books
The following are NCAA records. Bowl Records
Most yards gained by a freshman in the first
game of his career:
212-Greg Hill vs. LSU<1991)
Most touchdowns scored on kickoff returns:
2 - Iceland McElroy vs. Rice 1993 (tied with 7
others)
Most touchdown returns in a season:
3 - Leeland McElroy (tied with 6 others)
Most field goals made in a game, 60 yards or
more:
2 - Tony Franklin vs. Baylor (1976)
Most field goals made in a game, 40 yards or
more:
5 - Alan Smith vs Arkansas St. (1983)
Highest percentage of field goals made, under 40
yards:
16 of 16 - Scott Slater (1986)
Longest field goal made by a freshman: 59 yards
- Tony Franklin vs. Rice (1975)
Most yards on punt returns:
319 - A&M vs. North Texas (1946)
Most kick returns per game:
6.9(1943)
Lowest average yards allowed per play:
1.7(1939)
Lowest pass efficiency defensive rating:
74.99(1993)
Most rushing yards by a quarterback:
180 - Mark Mosley vs. USC (1977 Bluebonnet Bowl)
Most extra points:
9 - Lane Talbot vs. BYU (1990 Holiday Bowl)
Kick off returns average:
60.5 yards - Bob Smith vs. Georgia (1950
Presidential Cup)
Most all purpose yards by an individual:
303 - Bob Smith vs. Georgia (1950 Presidential Cup)
Most yards gained by both teams:
1,143 - A&M vs. USC (1977 Bluebonnet Bowl)
Most total net rushing yards:
486 - A&M vs. USC (1977 Bluebonnet Bowl)
Most total net rushing yards by both teams:
864 - A&M vs. USC (1977 Bluebonnet Bowl)
Most touchdowns in a game:
9 - A&M vs. BYU (1990 Holiday Bowl)
Most points by the winning team:
65 - A&M vs. BYU (1990 Holiday Bowl)
Fewest first downs allowed:
1 - A&M vs. Alabama (1942 Cotton Bowl)
Most fumbles lost:
6 - A&M vs. Florida SL (1992 Cotton Bowl)
Longest field goal:
62 yards - A&M vs. Florida (1977 Sun Bowl)