Texas History and Texans

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A place for Texas History and people from Texas.

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Dana X. Bible’s 1917 and 1919 football seasons (he was an Aviator in the Great War) were both undefeated AND unscored upon; 270-0 and 275-0. He was also the basketball and baseball coach at that time. His program at A&M is the only football team to hold opponents scoreless in two separate seasons.

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And the year in between those two, 1918 we only had 7 points scored on us, in our only loss.

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"A few years ago the great Joe Ely recorded this song that I wrote, then more recently The Highwaymen. Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings Kris Kristofferson. They recorded it and put it on their record, and I was so happy because man it was a nice thing. But I always felt that Willie Nelson might help me out sometime because I went to his second picnic, the Willie Nelson Fourth of July picnic. I went to his second one.
I was living in Houston and I had a date. It was my first date, ever. I was about 27 years old and we got in my old car and we drove up to the Texas World Speedway, just south of College Station. And it was back in the days of free love and wonderful, happy, shiny people. Everything was fun and nothing was scary or dangerous and we went there and had a wonderful time in the Willie way.
And I had so much fun that in the afternoon I had to take a nap. And I woke up from my nap and there was a man speaking over the P.A. system and he said 'We've had a fire in the parking lot and about 40 cars have burned up.' And everybody in the land of free love --- in that time, in that wonderful time of free love --- when they heard that they went 'aw.' 10,000 people simultaneously said 'aw.' And then he said 'we have the license plate numbers of the cars and the first winner is RHP-997.'
You might wonder why I remember that so well. And I woke up out of my haze and I said 'that's my car, man.' And in the time of free love and happiness everyone said 'wow, way to go.' And they started clapping for me. And I ran out there and there was not enough of my car left to carbon-14 date. And I sat down on the burnt, black grass --- and I can admit this now --- I wept. I cried big ol' giant tears. And my date was laughing and I said 'what are you laughing about? We don't have a ride.' And she said,'I do.' And it was then that she introduced me to Tarzan and Adonis, who were terminally tan and wearing loincloths. And they said 'we'll take care of her, man.' And because it was that time, that wonderful time, I said 'thanks, dudes.' And they skipped gleefully away.
And a man from the festival came up to me while I was still crying and said, 'well, the least we can do is let you meet Willie.' So they took me backstage to Willie's bus and they opened the door and low and behold Willie came out, pigtails and all. And he shook my hand and said he was sorry he would like to stay and visit with me but he had to go jam with Leon Russell. And now, some 20 years later, the road goes on forever ..."
----- Robert Earl Keen describes how his car caught on fire 50 years ago at the Willie Nelson 4th of July picnic in College Station. I transcribed this from Robert's wonderful "No 2. Live Dinner" LP, which came out in 1996 and which every Texan should own. I imagine it was a crushing blow to Robert Earl at the time but thankfully he seems to have done okay in the aftermath. 
Here's a photo of the fire, courtesy the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.

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I was in college with Robert Earl Keen

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Town of Gene Autry
When the Town of Gene Autry was named after the very popular movie singing cowboy of those days. The Town was in Carter County, Oklahoma on the date of Nov. 16th, 1941. The town was sparsely populated but sufficient to vote to change its name from Berwyn.
The town was renamed "Gene Autry" to honor the singer and motion picture star. Though Autry was born in Tioga, Texas, his family moved to Oklahoma while he was an infant. He was raised in the southern Oklahoma towns of Achille and Ravia. Autry had also worked as a telegraph operator near Berwyn. In 1939 he bought the 1,200-acre Flying A Ranch on the west edge of Berwyn, and the town decided to honor him by changing its name. Approximately 35,000 people attended the ceremonies broadcast live from the site on Autry's Melody Ranch radio show. Expectations that Autry would make his permanent home on the ranch were heightened when Autry’s house in California burned down just 8 days before the name change ceremony but were dashed 21 days after the ceremony with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Autry joined the military in 1942. He sold the ranch after the war. The ranch is now all but gone.
The Town of Gene Autry is now a part of the Ardmore, Oklahoma Micropolitan Statistical Area and the original area is home to the Gene Autry Historical Society which maintains the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum. After a temporary closure, the museum was re-opened on September 26, 2015. The Museum is open Thursday-Saturday from 10AM to 4PM, and Sunday 12PM to 4PM. Closed during the winter. The museum relates not only to the cowboy singer himself, but also other western-themed entertainers and to local history.

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Charles David Tandy was born on May 15, 1918, in Brownsville, Texas, and would become a transformative figure in business and philanthropy, deeply shaping the commercial landscape of both Fort Worth and Texas at large . After graduating from Texas Christian University in 1940, Tandy joined the US Navy during World War II, where he demonstrated early business insight by creating popular leathercraft activities for recovering servicemen . Following the war, he innovated within his family's leather supply business, gradually expanding its scope and vision.
Tandy’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to form Tandy Corporation, which became a model of diversification. In 1963, he acquired the struggling Radio Shack—a move that would catapult the company to new heights, turning it into a household name with thousands of outlets and pioneering a do-it-yourself electronics culture long before the digital age . Under his leadership, the company thrived through both leather goods and electronics, and he further diversified by acquiring Pier I Imports, Dillard’s, and other enterprises, solidifying Tandy Corporation’s presence as a business powerhouse .
Beyond business, Charles Tandy was a civic leader and philanthropist dedicated to Fort Worth’s revitalization, exemplified by his development of the Tandy Center and support for local initiatives . At the time of his death in 1978, Tandy Corporation was a billion-dollar company employing 20,000 people with 7,000 Radio Shack stores worldwide. His legacy continues through the Tandy Foundation and the lasting impact he made on Texas business culture .

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Texas Ranger’s badge is carved from Mexican silver
Pictured is a modern Texas Ranger’s badge. Beside it is a 1948 Cinco Pesos coin identical to the one from which the badge was made. This combination of materials and craftsmanship represents every badge awarded to a Texas Ranger since 1962, but the tradition dates to nearly a century earlier.

Beginning in the mid 1870’s, western lawman’s badges began to come into fashion. Each of these badges was unique in its own way, but they almost invariably consisted of a five-point star cut from a Mexican 8 Reals or newer 1 Peso coin. This was done either directly a lawman or by a commissioned jeweler. Mexican silver coins were an obvious choice to make high quality badges from; they were abundant yet expensive, their foreignness meant that they were legal to alter, and their convenient size and shape meant that a badge could be fashioned from one with minimal effort. The earliest known western badge to survive today belonged to Ranger Ira Aten and was made around 1880 from an 8 Reales coin.

This tradition of individualized badges made from silver coins persisted decades into the 20th century until eventually the Texas Rangers Dvision began to mandate badges. There were multiple iterations over the years and each new variation seemed to break further from tradition, much to the chagrin of the Rangers themselves. Finally, in 1962, Ranger Hardy L. Purvis and his mother donated 62 Five Pesos silver coins from 1947 and 1948; this was enough to make one badge for each commissioned officer at the time. Today there are less than 200 Rangers serving the state of Texas and the Cinco Peso Badge remains one of the most highly respected symbols in the west.

In the 1870’s, a Mexican coin was treated as a conveniently-shaped piece of silver. Today, each coin is treated treated as a work of art even before it is transformed. The reeded edge of the coin is preserved as the edge of the badge, and the coin’s reverse is kept intact proudly displaying the text “Estados Unidos Mexicanos.” This enduring tradition glorifies Texas as much as Mexico, and indeed neither place could exist without its counterpart.

Without the Mexican Peso, the Texas Ranger’s badge wouldn’t be nearly as special. Likewise, without the care of a skilled Texan craftsman each work of art would be no more than a coin.

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Tin Hall

"TEXAS DANCE HALLS" SERIES (ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD OR OLDER)
This is the EIGHTH post in an encore series titled "TEXAS DANCE HALLS", featuring historic dance halls that are "ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD OR OLDER" located in Texas towns and cities. The last paragraph in this post is a nice synopsis about historic Texas dance halls composed by Texas Dance Hall Preservation, an organization dedicated to preserving historic dance halls and the authentic Texas heritage, music, and culture found in them.
The EIGHTH dance hall in this series is Tin Hall Dance Hall previously located twenty miles northwest of Houston in Cypress. NOTE: See addendum for update on Tin Hall.
The dance halls presented in this series have been selected randomly. Previous posts are listed at the end of the narrative.
Tin Hall was Harris County’s oldest dance hall. Except for a brief period between 1986 and 1990 during which time the hall underwent a temporary change of ownership, the facility had been hosting public events since 1889. Fred Stockton, a great-grandson of one of the area’s founding families, owned the establishment into 2014. The dance hall sadly closed in 2015.
The original building was constructed in 1878 in the town of Cypress. Soon after being completed, it was destroyed by a fire that was thought to have resulted from an unattended pot-bellied stove. A new building was constructed in 1890 out of corrugated tin with the financial support of the Cypress Gun and Rifle Club. In the 1890s the hall also was used as a gathering place for local dairy farmers. A second story and 4,400-square-foot dance floor were added in the 1920s, and by 2007 the total size was 24,000-square feet with a capacity of 1,200 people. Not only did the Hall house a still during Prohibition in the 1920s but it also withstood the great hurricane of 1900, and in fact still served as a designated hurricane shelter for Harris County in the early twenty-first century. At that time the Gun and Rifle Club still owned the building and leased it out as a dance hall.
After the dance hall closed in 2015, the building and the 40 acres it sat on were believed to have been sold to a home builder/developer. The original owners never applied for the dance hall to be designated as an historical building, therefore could not be saved at its original location.
Throughout its history the hall has featured a number of musicians, including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Hank Thompson, Gene Watson, Don Williams, Earl Thomas Conley, Johnny Rodriquez, Hank Williams III, Pat Green, the Bellamy Brothers, Johnny Lee, David Allan Coe, B. J. Thomas, Ronnie Milsap, Percy Sledge, Roy Clark, Doug Kershaw, and Bobby Bare and many more. Source: various
Photos are related to the original Tin Hall Dance Hall narrative above.
ADDENDUM: Although the current plans for a new Tin Hall Dance Hall are fuzzy, it has been publicized boots may scoot again, as the legendary Houston dance hall will move to the new site of the Harris County Fair and Rodeo. Tin Hall could have a new home on a 165-acre parcel in the Cypress-Tomball area. The announcement comes eight years after the venue closed, as traditional honky tonks struggled to stay open in sprawling Houston. The owner, Fred Stockton, wants to maintain elements from the original 1,500-square-foot structure and incorporate a revamped version into a larger building to host events, parties and eventually weddings.
“It will be a brand-new building but with the old flooring and the old walls. The old building was built in the 1880s originally, and it was in really bad shape,” Stockton said. Source: TheRealDeal
Steve's comment: "If anyone knows the current situation with Tin Hall that provides additional and updated status of the venue, please add what you know in the comment section. Thanks".
"Texas dance halls are about family, history, romance, and a way of life. Dance halls are where generations of Texans have played and listened to some of the best music made in America. At a dance hall, you can fall in love, and then teach your children and grandchildren to dance … catch up with friends and neighbors, welcome newcomers, and create the social ties that bind our towns and our state together. Come on out and see for yourself what makes a historic dance hall one of the most Texas things there is." Source: Texas Dance Hall Preservation

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