Hardin-Simmons made bowl season history in '48 Three bowl games in a month for '48 Hardin-Simmons team

The postseason was rather busy for the 1948 Hardin-Simmons Cowboys

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After Thursday’s Christmas break, the college bowl season resumes in earnest with one game today, four more over the weekend, and an onslaught of 23 more bowls culminating in the BCS Championship Game on Jan. 8.

None of the 68 participating bowl teams of 2008, however, will have a busier December (or January) to remember than the 1948 Hardin-Simmons Cowboys, who 60 years ago, between Dec. 4 and Dec. 30, 1948, played in three bowl games.

Packed into a converted World War II Army transport plane, the 1948 Cowboys flew from the Hardin-Simmons campus in Abilene to the Grape Bowl in Lodi, Calif., on Dec. 4; the Shrine Bowl in Little Rock, Ark., on Dec. 18; and the Camellia Bowl in Lafayette, La., on Dec. 30. They came back with two wins and a tie.

It never had been done before, and it never will be done again. A year after the Cowboys’ trifecta, the NCAA passed a rule limiting college teams to one bowl appearance per year.

“It’s probably a good rule,” said Paul Petty, 80, a wingback and defensive back on the 1948 Cowboys and now a retired high school football coach living in Florida.

Hardin-Simmons’ grand tour of 1948 stands in tribute to one of Texas’ forgotten Hall of Famers — coach Warren B. Woodson, a former Bible student at Baylor University who won more than 200 games while coaching at five colleges, most notably Arizona and New Mexico State.

Woodson learned the lessons of the T-formation from Knute Rockne, and he retained his lessons well. He had a flair for offense — nine times his players won the NCAA rushing title — and produced his share of NFL players, most notably quarterback Charley Johnson, a member of the Denver Broncos’ ring of honor, and running backs Pervis Atkins and Bob Gaiters.

Woodson’s 1948 team, which was 4-2-2 during the regular season, was a reflection of post-World War II America. Petty says the Cowboys featured six sets of brothers, including himself and older brother Ed, as military veterans returned to college after the war.

For a group of vets, then, Woodson’s ambitious postseason scheduling was no problem.

“He was very receptive to the bowls, and so was the team,” Petty said. “Actually, we would have liked to have played in another one, I think.”

The Cowboys’ mode of transportation was appropriate. Woodson arranged for the team to fly to the games aboard a military troop transport that had been converted — barely — to passenger service.

“There was a row of seats on each side of the plane, with nothing in the middle,” Petty said. “It wasn’t too comfortable.”

Woodson’s first post-war team went 11-0, including a win over Texas Tech, and a 20-0 victory over Denver in the first incarnation of the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. After finishing 8-2 with a 42-0 win over Arizona State, the 1947 Cowboys began 1948 in San Diego, where they crushed San Diego State 53-0 in the Harbor Bowl.

After the 1948 regular season, the Cowboys opened their bowl tour with a 35-35 tie against College of the Pacific at the Grape Bowl in Lodi, Calif. Hardin-Simmons led 21-0 but had to rally after losing the lead to Pacific, which was led by future Dallas Cowboys quarterback Eddie LeBaron.

Two weeks later, the Cowboys beat Ouachita 40-12 in the Shrine Bowl at Little Rock, Ark., and they beat Wichita 49-12 in the Camelia Bowl at Lafayette, La., on Dec. 30. Petty played all 60 minutes in both of those games and had an interception return for a score against Ouachita.

A few of the Cowboys continued in football after leaving Hardin-Simmons. Bob McChesney, who was among the team’s band of brothers and had 200 receiving yards in the Camelia Bowl, played three years with the New York Giants. Woodson recommended Petty for a high school coaching job in Arizona and later hired him as an assistant coach at New Mexico State. He is a member of high school coaching halls of fame in Florida and Arizona.

Woodson coached into his 70s at Trinity University in San Antonio. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989 and died in 1998, two days short of his 95th birthday. Petty is one of a dozen or so members of the 1948 team who survive into their late 70s and early 80s.

“It was a close-knit team,” he said. “We loved the game, and we thought a lot of our coach. You couldn’t help but respect him. His word was his bond.”

david.barron@chron.com