The Great Harry Shuford

[50's PONY]

Former SMU star Shuford remembers the one that got away
Loss in '36 Rose Bowl all that separated SMU from perfect season


01:37 AM CDT on Thursday, September 2, 2004

By KEITH WHITMIRE / The Dallas Morning News


Harry Shuford may just be a number to some, but what a number it is.

Shuford was a star of SMU's 1936 Rose Bowl team when he wore No. 37 for the Mustangs.

A youngster who lived near SMU so idolized Shuford that he asked to wear No. 37 when he played for the Mustangs. That youngster was Doak Walker, who went on to win the 1948 Heisman Trophy.

"I was complimented," said Shuford, 89, who now lives in a retirement community in Dallas. "The first time I saw Doak, he was 4 years old. We were at a camp where his parents were counselors, and I saw a little boy playing out in some very cold water. That was Doak."

Shuford and teammate Maco Stewart will be honored this weekend during the festivities for SMU's season opener against Texas Tech. The pair will be recognized at the Letterman's dinner Friday night and during a presentation at the end of the first quarter Saturday.


Tom Fox / DMN
Harry Shuford wore 37 when he played for SMU. Several years later, Doak Walker asked for the number because he had admired Shuford. Shuford and Stewart are two of three known surviving members of the 1935 national championship team. The third, Maurice Orr, lives near Austin but is unable to attend the weekend celebration.

SMU went 12-1 in 1935, with the only loss a 7-0 defeat to Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The Mustangs had already been declared national champions by one of the ratings services at the time, thanks to their thrilling 20-14 win at TCU.

Shuford missed the TCU game with a knee injury but was back for the Rose Bowl. As the fullback in a single-wing formation, Shuford was essentially a quarterback, calling plays and throwing passes.

"Harry was a very good player," Stewart said. "Very smart. Harry didn't have a lot of speed, but he was a good runner and a good ballplayer."

There are two plays in the Rose Bowl that Shuford would like to have back. One was a fumble near the goal line, when a Stanford player crashed through the line and hit Shuford as he attempted a handoff.

Later in the game, Shuford was on defense when he smelled a pass coming.

"Ordinarily I'd line up to the left, but I moved over to the right to try to entice them," Shuford said. "Bobby Wilson was hollering at me, 'Get over!' I waved back to him to shut up."

Shuford instinctively ran to the where the ball was thrown and had nothing but green grass in front of him. But he dropped the ball.

"I ran just a little too fast, a little too far, and the ball hit me behind the arm," Shuford said.

"I was really down. Felix McKnight and his wife were good friends of mine," he said of the longtime Dallas newspaperman. "Coming back on the train, nobody would speak to me except Mrs. McKnight. She held my head all the way back to town."

Shuford was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but turned down their offer of $100 a game to attend law school at SMU.

The dean of SMU's law school, Shuford said, discouraged him from attending because football players hadn't done well. Shuford graduated first in his class.

Shuford's first job was given to him by another former SMU back, Gerald Mann, who was the attorney general for Texas. After several years in law, Shuford went into banking. He retired in 1981.

For all his successes, Shuford still has regrets about the Rose Bowl.

"The big mistake was when we got out there," Shuford said. "We had too much fun."

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THE $85,000 PASS
SMU was at the top of the college football world in 1935, but financially the school was at the bottom.

The Great Depression put the school's finances in critical shape. Ownby Stadium was built in 1926, when times were good, but in 1935 an $85,000 mortgage payment was due.

SMU met TCU in Fort Worth that season for one of the biggest games of the century. The game was broadcast coast-to-coast on radio and attracted journalists from all over, including New York sports writer Grantland Rice.

More important, the winner would almost assuredly be invited to play in the Rose Bowl.

Harry Shuford was sidelined for the game with a knee injury, but he sat with former SMU coach Ray Morrison, who started the football program in 1915. Morrison had left for Vanderbilt the year before but returned to watch former assistant Matty Bell coach the Mustangs.

The score was tied in the fourth quarter when the Mustangs faced fourth down at the TCU 39. SMU's Bob Finley, who would later become the school's baseball coach, dropped back, and Shuford remembers Morrison shouting, "He's not going to pass!"

But he did pass, and the ball landed in the arms of Bobby Wilson who fell into the end zone. SMU went on to win, 20-14.

SMU's Rose Bowl profits were enough to pay off the Ownby Stadium mortgage and keep the school out of dire financial straits.

The Rose Bowl berth had another long-range effect. Dallas booster J. Curtis Sanford made the trip to California with the Mustangs and got the idea for a similar sports spectacle in Dallas.

One year later, the first Cotton Bowl was played between TCU and Marquette.

Keith Whitmire


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[Hoop Fan]

I hope these guys get a huge ovation on Saturday. I wonder if the 1935 national championship was awarded for the season starting in Fall 1934. If thats the case, this is the 70th anniversary of that team. Pretty remarkable.