1940s Football

1940: Red Malay, a quarterback from Dallas Woodrow Wilson, was the star of the North’s 15-6 victory. Malay hit Joe Smith of Electra with a long pass to set up a touchdown run by the quarterback. Malay also put points on the board with a field goal from the 14-yard line. Quanah’s Clark Wells threw a 15-yard TD pass to Fred Brown of Burkburnett for the North’s other score. Gabby Hamil of Breckenridge scored the West’s only TD on an 8-yard run.

1941: Playing a game on Labor Day evening, Coach Jess Neely’s North team pulled out a 20-6 win over the West. Vic Bates of Childress, Edgar Cain of Breckenridge and Stanley Green of Burkburnett found the end zone for the North. Otto Payne, one of five players off the 1940 state championship team from Amarillo on the West roster, ran for his team’s only touchdown.

1942: Buryl Baty of Paris threw for one touchdown and ran for one to lead the North to a 20-7 win. Baty connected with Troy Stewart of Wichita Falls for a 25-yard touchdown in the second quarter and ran 34 yards for a score in the fourth. The most exciting play of the game came when Gordy Brown of Masonic Home intercepted a pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown. Stewart was one of five players off the Wichita Falls state championship team of 1941 to play in the game. The others were Bill Bolling, George Grininger, Joe Meisner and Stanley Williamson.

1943: Tom Pirtle of Lubbock returned a blocked punt 22 yards for a touchdown and Don Deere of Breckenridge scored on a 44-yard run to lead the West to a 13-6 over the North. A 12-yard pass from Vernon’s Maxie Bell to Houston’s Marion Settagast produced the only TD for the North.

1944: There was no Oil Bowl this year. Instead, Wichita Falls played host to the Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual coaching school and with it, the North-South All-Star Game. But the Maskat Shrine Temple still records this game as an Oil Bowl. Blair Cherry was an assistant coach for the North and got to look at one of his future University of Texas stars, quarterback Bobby Layne of Highland Park. But a couple of guys from Goose Creek High stole the spotlight. George Walmsley threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to high school teammate Bill Taylor. Walmsley threw another TD pass, and Taylor set up another touchdown with a catch to help the South win 19-7.

1945: In the first Oil Bowl matching Texas vs. Oklahoma, August Pelz of Wichita Falls was the passing star in a 13-0 win for the Texans. Pelz set up Texas’ first touchdown with a pair of 16 and 15-yard passes, first to Art Sweet of San Antonio Brackenridge and then to Sammie Pierce of Vernon. Pierce got the TD on a 9-yard run. The final TD was set up by a 50-yard pass from Pelz to Harold Clark of Highland Park. Bill Engle of Greenville scored from a yard out. Oklahoma only crossed midfield one time in the game.

1946: Lindy Berry of Wichita Falls threw two long touchdown passes and was on the receiving end of another one as Texas easily won 37-0. Berry threw TD passes of 45 and 41 yards to Dick Lipscomb of Fort Worth. The Wichitan also caught a 60-yard TD pass from Billy Weatherford of Highland Park. Weatherford ran for two touchdowns of 22 and 5 yards. Van Ballard of Electra returned a punt 65 yards for a score.

1947: Texas’ 14-0 win made it three straight shutouts over Oklahoma, but no defense has ever dominated a game like the Texans did in this one. Oklahoma had just 2 yards in total offense and only one first down. The Sooners were minus-7 yards on the ground and were 1-of-11 for 9 yards passing. Texas’ offense, however, only had four first downs in the game. Corpus Christi quarterback Vernon Glass ran 12 yards on a touchdown and threw 12 yards to Kenneth Martin of Wichita Falls for another TD. The second TD came on a flea flicker when Glass took a lateral from Hayden Fry of Odessa before tossing the scoring pass. Fry also had a 9-yard run and threw a 16-yard pass in the first scoring drive.

1948: Byron Townsend of Odessa threw touchdown passes of 14 yards to Johnny Allred of Wichita Falls and 25 yards to Billy Howton of Plainview in a 20-0 Texas win. Oklahoma managed only 27 yards of offensive in the game and crossed midfield only once. Texas also picked off seven passes, including a 23-yard interception return by Danny Perkins of San Antonio.

1949: Gahlen Dinkle of Marshall set up one touchdown with a 40-yard punt return and scored another on a 5-yard run to lead Texas to a 39-7 rout. However, history was made when Oklahoma scored for the first time in the series on a touchdown pass from Eddie Crowder of Muskogee to Mac Odell of Watonga in the second quarter. Dinkle was named the outstanding back of the game. Bill Georges, a tackle from Fort Worth, was named the top lineman.

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