Kyle Rote takes over for D. Walker

The vote for the Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the best college football player in the land, was announced on Dec. 5, 1950, and Kyle Rote of SMU did himself proud by coming in second.

The Southern Methodist Mustangs made the long trip from Dallas to Pittsburgh for their season opener in September 1948. A young fan recognized a famous face in a hotel lobby and asked Doak Walker for his autograph. The gridiron icon graciously obliged and introduced the boy to his companion. “This is Kyle Rote. Don’t you want his autograph?”

“Is he an All-American?” the skeptical collector inquired. “No,” replied Doak, “but he will be next year.”

SMU hardly broke a sweat in beating the Pitt Panthers 33-14 and had an even easier time the following Saturday with Texas Tech, still a decade away from membership in the Southwest Conference. In their last appearance on campus prior to moving to the enlarged Cotton Bowl, the Mustangs routed the Red Raiders 41-6.

Southern Methodist’s undefeated streak of 15 games ended a week later at Missouri. Bouncing back from the six-point disappointment, the Ponies began the defense of their SWC title by pounding Rice in Houston 33-7.

Fifty thousand came out to the Cotton Bowl to watch the hometown team steamroll Santa Clara 33-0 in the last non-conference tune-up. Coach Bell gave Rote more playing time, and he responded with two touchdowns. Doak set the tone for the showdown with always tough Texas by sprinting 67 yards to pay dirt on the third play from scrimmage. Rote accounted for one of three SMU scores in the 21-6 triumph on a 14-yard sprint with a lateral from a pass receiver.

After putting away the never-say-die Texas Aggies 20-14, the SMU offense spun its wheels for 56 minutes in the Ozarks. But Rote broke loose for 35 yards to the Arkansas eight and bulled his way across the goal line to cut the Hogs’ lead to five points.

It took one of the Mustangs miraculous comebacks to save the day. Gil Johnson, the bald headed passer with the bum knee, flipped the ball to Paul Page at the Hogs’ two yard line and he squirmed his way into the end zone as the gun sounded. Returning to the Cotton Bowl for a scrap with the Baylor Bears, SMU trailed 6-0 in the third quarter when Rote took charge. He gained 118 yards on sheer brute strength, giving tacklers a piggyback ride on practically every carry, and scored both TD’s in the 13-6 victory. A Baylor assistant coach marveled, “Rote is the first old-time, foot-in-your-mouth, ramming fullback I’ve seen in years!”

Three weeks after Doak Walker became the first junior to win the Heisman Trophy, tenth-ranked SMU hosted ninth-ranked Oregon on New Year’s Day. The Southwest Conference champs prevailed 21-13 thanks in large part to their very special sophomore, who rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns and boomed an 84-yard quick kick, the longest punt in Cotton Bowl history.

Everybody and his brother considered the Mustangs a shoo-in for their third consecutive SWC crown in 1949. Doak Walker was back for his senior year, Kyle Rote had a season under his belt and Matty Bell had even found a talented replacement, Fred Benners, for Gil Johnson, who had turned pro.

But it was not to be. Rice handed SMU its first conference loss in two years humbling the mistake-prone Mustangs 41-27 on their home turf. Worse than the defeat was the injury Doak suffered on an outof- bounds hit that knocked him into a wheelchair. With Walker spending more time on the sidelines than on the field, SMU struggled through the rest of the schedule. The Mustangs beat Texas and Arkansas but lost to Baylor and TCU and played the Aggies to a draw finishing fifth in the seven-team league.

Again denied the talents of Doak, the Mustangs were 28-point underdogs against Notre Dame. But a star was born on that day in Big D, as Kyle Rote almost singlehandedly vanquished the Irish. The Ponies came up seven points short but not before Rote ran for 115 yards, passed for 146, averaged 48 yards a punt and tallied all three SMU touchdowns. There were more downs than ups for the 1950 Mustangs, who looked like world beaters for five games and inexplicably lost four of the next five. Rote, the Heisman runner-up, was the bright spot with 762 rushing yards on 152 attempts, a dozen touchdowns and 35 yards per punt. The first pick in the National Football League draft of 1951, Rote spent 11 years with the New York Giants. After tearing up a knee in his rookie season, he switched to wide receiver and caught 48 touchdown passes, still a record for the Giants.

Kyle Rote died in August 2002, four years after Doak Walker. Son Kyle, Jr. put his father’s passing in perspective: “To me the most remarkable thing about him from a football standpoint was that he had 14 teammates who named sons after him.”

Quite a tribute to a great football player who was an even better human being.

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