All of the stories, quotes, and other anecdotes are from articles published in the Austin American Statesman between November 15, 1964 and January 2, 1965.
As 1964 bowed away and 1965 danced in, a crew of yeggs pulled off the largest cash heist in Austin history. The crime was dutifully reported by the Statesman but, shockingly, the city’s attention was more focused on the finale of the college football season and the exploits of their beloved mascot. It was the type of hair-brained scheme you’d expect to come from the pen of Agatha Christie. The target wasn’t even a bank, it was a university bookstore that was holding an exceptional amount of cash at the time, but this was clearly not the work of criminal masterminds. Professional, yes; mastermind, absolutely not. The persistent thieves bypassed the alarm system, fought their way through a mustard bomb, peeled back the layers of the vault, and left with all the loot. Their crime went undiscovered until the following morning.
Thanksgiving Game vs Aggies
The Longhorn football team was captivating the city with a dominant season. They boasted an 8-1 record, good enough to be ranked fifth nationally. The only loss was by a single point to rival Arkansas, who were undefeated on the season. The last chore remaining for the Horns before an Orange Bowl matchup with Alabama was dispatching the unfortunate Aggies in the Thanksgiving Day game. The Aggies had only won a single game, but were convinced a Turkey Day win would erase the season’s misery. It’s unlikely. The Aggies had never defeated a Darryl Royal coached team.
NCAA Football Landscape
Despite the looming rivalry game, Longhorn nation was preoccupied with the New Year’s matchup against Alabama. The undefeated Crimson Tide rode their star quarterback, Joe Namath, to an unblemished record and were hunting a national title. At the time, championships were determined by poll position at the conclusion of the regular season, before any bowl games were played. Alabama, Arkansas, and Notre Dame were all undefeated entering the final week, but the Fighting Irish were clinging to the top ranking. Alabama coach Bear Bryant was eager to pontificate that nobody in the country plays the strength of schedule that Alabama does. “If you’ll check the schedule of the other teams in the top ten you’ll find we played the toughest schedule of any team that is nationally ranked,” he pointed out to an AP sportswriter who was well aware of the college football schedules.
Dueling Bonfires
The night before the game, the Longhorn students hosted a giant bonfire on the banks of Town Lake. There was a furious sprint over the preceding few days to gather materials for the annual pep rally. The city of Austin looked forward to the event, both as a festive occasion and as an opportunity to clear out junk. There was a hotline setup so that anyone with brush, or other wood, to burn could call Mrs. Freeda Robinson in the Dean of Men’s office and she’d dispatch a cadre of young men to collect it. The boys assembled a platoon that included at least thirty U-Haul trailers, eight flatbed trucks, a moving van, and an assortment of personal vehicles. They were running a twenty four operation to gather and stack materials at the fire site.
There were escalating tensions between the student bodies at the rival Texas universities, and the regents from both schools issued a joint statement declaring that they would suspend any student “who goes to the others campus with the intent to paint or otherwise deface statues, buildings, or other property, or to commit any other violation.” The Longhorn students were not taking any chances, they had sentries posted twenty four hours per day guarding their precious pile of flammables. There was a persistent fear the Aggies were plotting to sneak in and light the fire prematurely. It was a concern fueled by the escapades of fellow Longhorns in recent years. On at least two occasions, Longhorn students used airplanes to drop fire bombs on the Aggie bonfire in failed attempts to light the blaze early and foil the celebration.
A couple of hours down the road in College Station the Aggies were furiously constructing a competing stack of wood. The previous year’s bonfire was canceled due to the assassination of JFK and there was heightened anticipation for the return of the traditional event. Students had been bragging they would light the “world’s largest bonfire.” The tower was ninety feet tall, which didn’t match the school record of over one hundred feet, but it was enough to make the students crow. Regardless, it was an impressive stack of logs, especially considering that the bonfire was entirely constructed during a three day blitz.
The Safecrackers
Against this backdrop, a crew of safecrackers were plotting the greatest heist in city history. The university co-op bookstore had been the epicenter of activity for the enthusiastic fans and they had been selling burnt orange gear and game tickets all week. Due to the holiday, the banks were closed and the entire haul was stuffed into the store’s vault before the shop was closed and attention shifted to the drama at Memorial Stadium. Most of the city’s police force was focused around the stadium where they were managing traffic and crowd control, leaving few resources available to deter burglars.
The crew accessed the bookstore by busting through a back door in the alley and avoided tripping the security alarm. While drilling the lock on the safe they triggered a mustard bomb installed as a safeguard against forced entry. Vomit found at the scene indicates the thieves were unable to escape the fumes, but they did not allow the obstacle to derail them. Instead, they liberated a fan from the display window and used that to ventilate the area surrounding the safe before returning to work.
It was not a sophisticated job, but it was quick and effective, the obvious work of a professional crew. Using specialized tools they cut through the safe and peeled it back, layer by layer, until they exposed the loot inside and then left undetected with a hefty haul. The crime was not discovered until the next morning when the workers arrived to open the store and found it in shambles. It was not immediately clear how much the thieves got away with and it took several days for the accountants to add up the receipts and quantify the extent of the loss.
Sorry, Aggies
Meanwhile, the Thanksgiving Day game concluded with a predictable conclusion. The Aggies were steadfast in the fist half, before crumbling after halftime. The turning point was a botched punt in the third quarter. The high snap soared over the head of the punter and into the end zone. He fell on the ball, sacrificing a safety to save a Longhorn touchdown, but the two points ended up being meaningless. The Longhorn offense ignited after that and easily cruised to a 26-7 victory over their hapless rival.
It turned out that Bryant didn’t need to lobby so hard for the AP votes, or maybe it was his persistence that won the title. Notre Dame had a surprising stumble against Southern California in the final game of the season leaving the number one spot up for grabs between the remaining two undefeated teams – Alabama and Arkansas. The voters went with Alabama, and they were crowned national champions prior to the Orange Bowl matchup with the Longhorns on New Year’s Day.
The Mighty Bevo
The Statesman editorial staff were concerned with the logistics of taking the show to Miami. “Take Bevo alone.” Austin American Statesman editor Anita Brewer mused. “How do you get a huge longhorn steer from here to Miami 1,399 miles away, and back again? Round trip that’s 2,798 miles to transport the UT mascot.” She goes on to the bemoan the challenges presented in transporting Big Bertha, the band, and all of the band’s instruments, but the school was steadfast in its resolve.
“The band went to Miami in 1949,” Dean Jack Holland said, referring to the last time the Longhorns played in the Orange Bowl. “I see no reason it won’t be there again in 1965.”
The Space Race
While Austin was preoccupied with the logistics of transporting a steer across the country, NASA was launching a rocket for a one hundred thirty-four million mile journey to Mars, as the crow flies, but crows can’t fly to Mars, so the rocket needed to take a circuitous route that would double that mileage before intercepting the planet in July and snapping a few pictures. Despite a headline proclaiming “Mariner-4 Seeks Life on Mars,” the paper diligently reported that the probe is “not expected to uncover any clues to the existence of Martian life” but will be “vital to the U.S. plans to land life seeking robots on the planet in 1969.” The rocket was successfully launched on November 28th and embarked on the long journey to the red planet.
Scientists of the time were optimistic. Dr. Jacob Gershon-Cohen generated a number of headlines with his confident assertion that we would control cancer “quicker than we’ll get to the moon.” Meanwhile, a bunch of admirals were looking at a map and realized that in the event of a war with the Soviet Union it would be impossible to maneuver a submarine fleet into the Black Sea. A novel idea was hatched of a flying vessel that could transport itself to landlocked waters and then submerge for typical submarine operation. The Navy admitted it would be “both complex and laborious,” but they enthusiastically dedicated $36,000 to studying the feasibility.
Headed to the Sunshine State?
The bookstore heist took a backseat to the drama of getting Bevo to Miami. Airlift was the only option, the veterinarian decreed on December 16th, setting off a mad scramble for the Silver Spurs to raise the $3,000 needed to secure a charter plane for the mascot. It was a task the students embraced enthusiastically and there was no doubt among the community that they would be successful. They raised the funds easily but, unfortunately, none of the students had the foresight to charter the plane in advance. The first signs of trouble appeared in the December 30th paper. Bevo would need to leave the next day and the transportation was still not secured, but the Spurs were confident they get Bevo to the game and the front page headline declared he was “Buffed Up” for primetime.
The next day the paper reported the disappointing news that the trip was off. The silver spurs were returning the uncashed checks they collected, but kept the cash. The Statesman missed an opportunity to point out it was the second heist of the holidays.
Speaking of heist, hidden beneath the fold in the bottom corner of the front page was a short snippet announcing that two Austinites had been arrested in connection with a bank robbery in Kyle, a small town in the adjacent county. The crime was committed nearly two months ago, but they police were just arresting the suspects. No connection is referenced to the Thanksgiving burglary (the paper was not even ready to reveal the suspect’s name yet) but the modus operandi is eerily similar. The burglars came through a back door at night, avoided triggering the alarm system, and cracked the vault using brute force. They had a head start on the police since the break-in occurred on the weekend and was not discovered until Monday morning.
While Austin was fretting about Bevo’s vacation plans in Tuscaloosa all eyes were on their star quarterback who injured his knee during routine training. There was consternation among the fanbase that he would not be able to play in the game, and these fears were confirmed when Coach Bryant announced his starting lineup. However, coach was clear that Namath was available if his services were needed. “He moves like a human now,” Bryant said, “before he moved like a cat.”
Namath was needed before the first quarter ended. Star Texas running back Ernie Koy broke a 79 yard touchdown run in the opening minutes. This was followed a few plays later by a 69 yard touchdown pass, putting the Horns up by two scores. Bear Bryant had seen enough and put his star in the game, and he responded with a valiant performance that won MVP honors.
Pass by pass, Namath brought the Tide to the verge of victory, but the crucial play occurred with a few minutes remaining and Alabama trailing by four. It was fourth down and Alabama was one yard away from taking the lead with a touchdown. Namath called his own number on a sneak, but was met at the goal line by Texas linebacker Tommy Nobis who stuffed him inches short of the goal line. In later years, members of the team would flash the trademark horns up and tease that he missed the end zone by this much, indicating the distance between the two extended fingers.
Texas won the game, but Alabama still had the championship. If there were any hard feelings on the Longhorn side they masked them well. “They were voted number one by the polls,” Tommy Nobis said, “and I’ll go along with it.”
They weren’t feeling as generous in Arkansas. After all the bowls were played, they were the only remaining undefeated team. To further strengthen their case they had the victory over Texas to point to. It is the only football championship claimed by Arkansas to this day. Alabama claims it too. This controversial end to the season was a catalyst for a major change in college football and on the heels of this fiasco polls were extended beyond the bowl games.
