"We Have Lost A Great Mustang"

[smuheritagehall]

From SMU Heritage Hall --

Former SMU tackle John Hamberger has passed away. John was a great lineman for the Mustangs on the 1947 and 1948 SWC Champions. John played high school football here in Dallas at Sunset High School in the early 1940’s. He then went to the University of Texas and played on the freshman team. WW II started and he enlisted in the Navy and served for four years. When he got out of the Navy he decided to enroll at SMU to be closer to his family. His first year back was the 1947 season where he joined the great Doak Walker. There were a lot of guys on that team who had just gotten out of the service who had also been playing some football while in the service. The Mustangs suddenly became a veteran team and the Mustangs soon caught the fancy of the nation. Don't forget these were the days when the guys played both ways, The Mustangs went undefeated and met Penn State in the January 1st, 1948 Cotton Bowl game . Things were a little different in those days and after the game was over both teams showered and headed to the SMU Campus and shared dinner together in the old Student Center. Penn State had an All-American guard by the name of Steve Suhey and SMU countered with All-American tailback Doak Walker. Doak finished 3rd. in the Heisman voting that year as a sophomore. John Hamberger made all SWC at tackle and helped clear the way for many of Doak’s great runs.
John was a true gentleman and family man and loved SMU. Please pray for his family. He is a true Mustang.

Gerry York
SMU Heritage Hall

[BUS]

God's peace be with the family.

[Chesterton]

Thank you for sharing. Will be praying for his friends and family.

[Water Pony]

Thank you for sharing. He is part of a wonderful tradition he and his teammates helped create.

Pony Up has additional meaning!

[Nacho]

A Great Man.

[peruna81]

Praying for peace and comfort for his family...Godspeed, John.

[mustang addict]

He's a Great Mustang. I always look forward to seeing him and his son Steve at SMU games. Praying for this great SMU Family.

[mr. pony]

Still With Us
SMU’s John Hamberger, A Rare Survivor Of 40s Mustang Glory
By Rick Atkinson, cusa-fans.com (2011)

UNIVERSITY PARK - In college, he blocked for Doak Walker and Tom Landry. He was an All-Southwest Conference tackle back when tackles blocked and tackled the whole game. He was an SMU Mustang during one of the school’s greatest sports eras: two seasons, two titles, no league losses and back-to-back Cotton Bowl games for the only time in school history.

We’re talking 1947-48 and it was grand.

On Monday, in front of Cisco’s Grill in Snider Plaza, near SMU’s campus, John Hamberger relived much of it – with humor and appreciation.

“I was just fortunate,” he said. “Played with Doak. Played with Tommy. What more can you ask?”

Hamberger and the Mustangs played against Texas’ Bobby Layne, Baylor’s Adrian Burk and UCLA’s Tom Fears. “They had good teams,” he said, “but we were able to beat them.”

And at 86, Hamberger is still able to back the Mustangs.

He traveled to Hawaii in 2009 with son Steve to watch SMU play its first bowl game in 25 years. He’s also a regular at home basketball games, perched in Moody Coliseum’s northwest corner.

Last Friday, Hamberger attended SMU’s gala 100th anniversary celebration in front of Dallas Hall. He called the event “very positive” and marveled at the school’s progress since 1911.

Hamberger should know. He has ties to SMU dating back to 1924, when his grandfather was professor on The Hilltop.

Today Hamberger lives in Irving with his wife of 62 years, Sarah, whom he met at SMU.

Street-Car Recruit

An all-state lineman for Dallas Sunset High in 1941, Hamberger attracted plenty of recruiting attention, though nothing like the hub-bub of today. When SMU coach Matty Bell called, Hamberger simply grabbed three cents and rode a street car out to the school.

Though Bell and SMU had won a national championship in ’35 and tied for the SWC title in ’40, Hamberger wasn’t overly smitten with his visit.

When Texas came calling, he listened. Impressed with UT’s new dormitory and other big school accoutrements, including loads of all-state players, Hamberger chose the Longhorns.

On that ’42 freshmen Shorthorn team was running back Tom Landry.

But World War II would interrupt Hamberger’s Texas career, eventually forever. Called into service in ‘43, he served with a Navy amphibious unit communication team based out of Hawaii. His unit participated in D-Day-plus-1 action on Saipan and Okinawa.

When his tour ended in February ’46, Hamberger decided to stay closer to home and enrolled at SMU. He played for the Mustangs that fall.

“It turned out to be a pretty good deal,” Hamberger said.

Indeed. A year later, Doak Walker - back from his second military tour – returned to SMU a sophomore.

“They were just kind of waiting on that,” said Gerry York of SMU’s Heritage Hall, “because ’46 had been kind of a so-so year. All of sudden, things just gelled early in ’47.”

Coach Bell had also hired offensive guru Rusty Russell from Highland Park High in ’45 to install the single-wing. By ’47, it was ready for takeoff.

“It had so many variations,” York said. “Guys were spinning around and handing off and taking direct snaps. It really kind of caught everybody’s imagination.”

‘Give it to him.’

“Doak was just regular fella,” Hamberger recalled.

“We had an idea that when he called the play, something would happen. … His practice may not have been the best in the world, but it was there when the game came on.”

What was a favorite play for Walker? “Just give it to him,” Hamberger chuckled. “It didn’t make any difference.”

Walker led the team in seven statistical categories in ’47.

The Mustangs finished 9-0-2, tying TCU, 19-19, in the regular-season finale and Penn State, 13-all, in the Cotton Bowl.

Walker and Gil Johnson alternated at quarterback. Johnson’s specialty was passing.

“[SMU] went to the spread whenever Gil Johnson went in,” York said. “That was just another innovation of Rusty’s.”

The usual starting backfield was Walker, Paul Page and [deleted] McKissack.

Defensively, the Mustangs kept it simple. Said Hamberger, “Goal-line defense, five-man front, six-man front - that was it.”

More Cotton

In ‘48, SMU lost only at Missouri, 20-14, and tied TCU again to end the regular season, this time, 7-7.

The Mustangs topped Oregon, 21-13, in ’49 Cotton Bowl.

Said York, “I think that ’47 and ’48 team really came together because, A) the guys had come back from the military, they were more mature - but that was true of a lot of Southwest Conference schools - and B) [Bell] hired Rusty to come in and plan his offense. I think that’s what put them over the top.”

“And evidently,” he said, “from all the guys that I’ve ever talked to, they all highly respected Matty. They said Matty was not easy, but they
respected him and were willing to play their hearts out for him.”

Hamberger noted that many of his teammates had come from winning programs: Walker from Highland Park, McKissack and Kyle Rote from San Antonio Jefferson. Hamberger’s Sunset Bisons were also winners.

“It carries over,” he said.

What about those two ties with TCU?

“[TCU coach] Dutch Meyer was a good motivator,” Hamberger said.

Plus, he added, TCU’s double-wing offense posed problems.

“We used to be taught if you’re a defensive lineman and your guard vacates his spot, turn to the inside because the ball’s gonna come after him.”

“[But] TCU, with the double-wing, they didn’t come from the inside. They’ve got that blocking back coming from the outside - the ‘wrong’ side. It’s entirely different.”

“After the games, we’d say, ‘Hey, coach…’”

Rail Good Times

Hamberger said having alternating opposite-coast road trips to open the season was Bell’s idea. The team would board a train in Highland Park, with an attached special car for boosters, and head east or west.

And they didn’t rush back.

After the ’46 game at Temple, the team spent a day visiting New York City. After Santa Clara in ‘47, the Mustangs toured Los Angeles and stopped in El Paso before getting home. The return from Pittsburgh in ’48 was just as laid-back.

Said York, “Matty just kind of liked the guys to relax. They were always having team parties. At the end of the year, they always had a huge party out at Culwell Ranch.”

Hamberger knows of only a handful of teammates still living. Zohn Milam, he said, who caught a tying-touchdown pass against TCU, is his most recent teammate to pass away.

Drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in ’49, Hamberger was traded to Pittsburgh but cut before the season began.

Returning to Dallas, Doak Walker’s father, Dr. Ewell Walker, gave Hamberger his first post-NFL job: PE coach at the same Dallas elementary school Hamberger had attended.

Hamberger later followed Coach Russell to Shreiner College in Kerrville, Tex., where he served as Russell’s line coach.

(Prior to Schreiner, Russell succeeded Bell at SMU in 1950. He was fired after three years with a 13-15-1 mark.)

When Russell left Schreiner, Hamberger became head coach and AD, coaching future NFL Pro-Bowl quarterback Charley Johnson along the way.

Later Hamberger coached at Grand Prairie and Irving High Schools before finishing his career in public education administration.

Trash Talk?

Some differences in today’s game, besides no leather helmets or one-platooning?

“We didn’t have a lot of jawing going on,” Hamberger said. “We didn’t have any flips or double-flips or diving into the end zone.”

“[And] we used to block with our shoulder pads. Today … you stand up a grab.”

What was it like to block and tackle throughout a game?

“That’s the way you were trained,” Hamberger said. “[At practice,] we’d line up in front of the sand pit and we’d have live-tackling. You’d live-tackle, hit the sand and get the sand in your pads. Then you’d have a two-hour workout.”

Offensively, he said, they scrimmaged little, but ran the plays over and over.

In ’48, the Cotton Bowl awarded participants wristwatches and commemorative blankets; the next year, pocket watches and blankets.

After the ’49 bowl, SMU gave its players diamond rings with cotton boll images on each side, marking each SWC title. Players also got some pocket-watch chain bling – a three-quarter-inch gold football adorned with diamonds.

In early ’49, to make up for no post-season travel, SMU sent the team on a three-day Mexican vacation. They packed onto a DC-6 and flew to Mexico City, stayed one night, then bussed to Puerto Vallarta. The next day it was back to Mexico City and home.

Each player got $25 in expense money.

“You think it wasn’t good times?” Hamberger laughed. “It was good times.”

That March, Hamberger married Sarah at Highland Park Methodist Church on the SMU campus. School president Umphrey Lee presided.

Hamberger has a wedding photo of himself, Walker, Rote, McKissack, Johnson and Joe Ethridge. All six would sign NFL contracts.

Looking back on SMU days, Hamberger sums it up briefly.

“Just a good time”, he said. “A good time.”

“It’s been a very good trip.”

Notes:
*Doak Walker won the Heisman Trophy in 1948 and is SMU’s only player to win it.
*1947 was the last full season played at SMU’s Ownby Stadium until the post-death penalty return in ‘89. The last game played at Ownby in ’48 before moving to the Cotton Bowl was a 41-6 win over Texas Tech, in the second game of the season.
*SMU won back-to-back SWC titles in 1981-82 but was not allowed to play in the Cotton Bowl after ’81 due to NCAA probation.
*Mustang great Raymond Berry played at Schreiner College in 1950, before transferring to SMU.
*Future SMU head coach Hayden Fry quarterbacked at Baylor from 1947-50.