1934 Jim Tolbert hits a referee and has his varsity letter withheld

On November 17, 1934, Texas and TCU played a hard-fought and turnover-marred contest in Fort Worth, which Texas won 20-19. After the game was over, backup Longhorn tackle named Jim Tolbert ran onto the field and took a swing at the game’s umpire, Jack Mahan, for what Jim felt were bad calls against Texas. UT’s student newspaper, the Daily Texan, would later say Tolbert “forcefully shoved” Mahan, but most accounts described it as a punch or a “swing”.

The UT Athletic Council chose not to suspend Tolbert, but instead withheld is letter for the year. using the novel reasoning that to do so would punish the whole team for his actions rather than just him, and instead, his punishment for punching Mahan was to have his varsity letter for the 1934 season withheld.

On December 12, 1934, during the team banquet, one of the captains, on behalf of the team, presented to Tolbert a silver football mounted on a stand. It appears that the team did not condemn him for his actions, and the football was conciliatory and, more importantly, a moment that the team bonded around Tolbert.