This is a key research book for Longhorn Baseball history

Billy Disch and Bibb Falk did not have to hit the road to seduce recruits. The players came to them if they had any professional aspirations.

1911-1939 – Coach Billy Disch

Coach Disch is hired from St. Edwards as the trainer for the football team and baseball coach for the baseball team. His salary was $1500.00 for 9 months.

He believes that baserunning is the key to winning at baseball. 

Dr. Frank C. Gregg baseball lettermen told a 1929 Austin Kiwanis Club, “Mr. Disch is the most useful man in the University … he converts the brawn and sinew of youth into able-bodied men and weaves the heartstrings of the boys under him into lives of usefulness.” Coach Disch taught fundamentals, technique, and strategy.

Disch says the key to success in baseball “spirit.” He said that he recruits players with an athletic conscience who are confident and live and play cleanly.

Pro teams considered the Longhorns worthy competition in spring training. Pro’s said Disch’ UT teams had uncanny headwork and a fighting spirit /

Coach Disch- Before a heart attack sidelined him in 1939.

• Compiles UT career coaching record of 513-180 (.740) over 30 seasons

• Assist in  organizing UT Alumni Band, the nation’s largest with more than 1,000 members

• He won 15 of the first 16 SWC baseball titles, and he won 465 of 580 games in the SWC.

• Disch is one of the first 4 inducted into the Hall of Honor.

• Disch is one of the first 7 to be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

• He is an inductee of the Helms Athletic Foundations Hall of fame.

• In 1965 Disch was inducted into the College Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

• There are no NCAA tournaments during Coach Disch’s years at Texas, but he coached several teams that could have competed for the National Championship, including 1914, 1919, 1927, 1930, 1934, and 1939 teams.

• Disch was offered the position of Athletic Director but declined the promotion.

SWC started in 1922, and Billy Disch had, on average, 5 players make the All SWC team every year for 18 years.

Billy Disch was known as the “Grand Old Man of Texas Baseball.” He was fair, frank, and courteous earning the reputation of developing some of the best players in the major leagues such as Bill Killifer, Jack Klinow, Mike Massey, and Jack Warhop

1911- 13-10-1 Coach Billy disch to the rescue

Longhorn Baseball sets sail on the Ship called the Billy O’ Tea.

Texas was a member of the TIAA (Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Cactus states the pitching is decimated by “academic deficiency.”

The baseball program was on the verge of being eliminated as an intercollegiate sport, but the hiring of Disch changed all the dynamics of the Texas baseball program.

TCU moves from Waco to Fort Worth photo bottom row Moore, Jones, Stacy (Captain) , Long, Baldwin, second row- Platter, Russell, Neolett, Massingill, Coach Disch, – top row Moore, Holcomb, Fulton, Brown

T.H. Stacy is Captain. Robert Jones and  Massingill pitch no hitters.

Massingill is a three-sport start and is memorialized with a UT golf trophy named after him.

1912- 17-10-1 Coach Billy disch

Dean Taylor was considered the “Grand Old Man” and did not think that two men from the same university should have the same name so he designated Disch as “Uncle Billy.”

This is the first team to implement Coach Disch’s base running style of playing to win.

Texas A & M is not on the schedule because UT severed all relationships after A & M played a predatory game against the football team in 1911. Play resumed between the two Universities in 1915;

1913- 26-4-2 Coach Billy disch Winner of the TIAA championship

 This year set a new record for the number of games the Horns played at 32.

Clark Brown is the leading hitter at .398.

Longhorn Cartwright fails to touch first base after his hit against Baylor and was called out, which negated Texas’s two runs. Baylor won the game.

TIAA Champion (Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association)

The first game against Oklahoma State. Herbert Moore is the captain.

1914- 30- 5 Billy disch Winner of the TIAA championship

 One of the better teams in the early years of Longhorn baseball. With 11 lettermen returning and Dick Hooper, the one-armed outfielder joining the team the Longhorns had tons of talent.

One publication states this team was “perhaps the most phenomenal and successful “ team in college baseball.

After 4 years as coach, Billy Disch record was 86-31-5.

Massey leads the team in batting and Daniel in pitching with a 9-1 record.

Tilden Anderson is the captain.

He tried to squash the overconfidence of the fans this year by saying

 These horns set the world college football record of winning 23 games in a row that remained a Longhorn record until the 1977 team won 34 in a row.

Coach Disch says the two best athletes in the south are Clark Brown and Pete Edmond. 

The editor of the Spalding record book in 1914 states that Mike Massey is the best infielder in college baseball. 

Texas wins 23 games in a row which was one publication acclaimed as a College World record.

For the first time, the Horns play a baseball team from China traveling the country and won

1915- 28-4 Coach Billy disch wins the first SWC Championship and the State of Texas championship.

Disch is instrumental in forming the SWC, but the title for winning the championship for the state of Texas is still more important to the media.

Wilson, Cone, and Bailey lead the team.

Captain Gambrell led the team in batting (.298), and Winston was undefeated as the pitcher.

Tom Gambrell is a member of the Longhorn Hall of Honor. He was a home run hitter on the 1915 baseball team and their captain. He hit a home run right-handed and another left-handed the next consecutive time at bat. That feat was not duplicated until a professional player did it in 1952, but it has not happened since.

1916- 16-6 Coach Billy disch -SWC Champion

Dick Hooper the one-handed Longhorn outfielder is elected Captain but is ruled ineligible by the SWC.

Beauford Jester is the sportswriter for the Daily Texas. He was Governor of Texas in later years and Jester Center was named after him.

English is the leading batter .387 and Milton Thomas is the leading pitcher 6-2.

1917- 12-3 Coach Billy disch SWC champs, but WWI begins. Compulsory military service starts April 16, 1917

April 6, America enters WWI.

The Daily Texan headline on April 17, 2017, reads:

university prepares for war

Institution to Become Military Training Center

University students mobilize

For the year, participation in baseball and track and field are canceled.

The season is cut short. Southwestern leaves the SWC, and Rice takes a year off from baseball, which only left Baylor, Texas A & M, and Texas in the SWC.

As Texas fan support dwindles, Coach Disch pleads with fans to attend the games.

Cannon is the captain.

1918- 17-4 Coach Billy Disch Horns win the SWC and the 7th state title.

 Only Red English, Lamar Hart and Milton Thomas return. All other lettermen from 1917 join the service so Disch used “yannigans” ( a condescending work for substitutes) to form the 1918 team. One yannigan is Bibb Augustus Falk. Red English is the captain.

Horns lose to the White Soxs 14-1 with Falk scoring the only run.

SWC Champion

Military service took all but three lettermen, so Coach Disch looked for replacement players.  One was Bibb Falk.

1919- 22-3 COACH BILLY DISCH HORNS WIN THE SWC

SWC adds Oklahoma and Oklahoma A & M. Horns played the strong service teams this year and were competitive.

Bobby Cannon returns to Texas from the service.

LF: Bibb Falk (1918-1920) Bibb Falk left his mark on Texas both as a player and its longtime coach. Falk played both football and baseball at Texas and lost only seven collegiate games in his three years playing under Billy Disch. He helped Texas to three straight Southwestern Conference Championships as left fielder and pitcher for the Longhorns, and his .400 batting average was the best on the team in 1920.

Falk’s legend as Texas coach is well established, especially considering the field the Longhorns play on, “Disch-Falk field”, is partially named after him. In his 25-year career as Texas’ coach, he coached 20 teams to Southwestern Conference Titles, and also won two national championships. He retired in 1967 with a .727 career win percentage. He is a member of the College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1919 Bibb Falk leads the team in hitting .461 and pitching.

This is the only Longhorn team to ever go undefeated in conference play.

 George McCullough is the captain of the team.

Cannon hit .355, and Jimmy Greer did make an error at 3rd base the whole year.  

1920- 17-5 Coach Billy disch 6th straight SWC championship

This team had a tendency to lose against poor teams and win against great teams.

The Cactus still does not acknowledge the SWC as a legitimate conference and only publishes information on the “state championship.”

Dudley English says that Captain Bobby Cannon “has the speed to turn bunts into base hits.” During this era, scholarships were not free to the athletes. In the book Bibb Falk by William Cook, Bobby Cannon says, “When I came to the University old Uncle Billy Disch met me at the train station and said that I’ve got a job for you washing dishes and waiting tables for your room and board.”

McCullough is one of the best batters ever at a hit and run, and English had an arm that could accurately throw to home plate from any outfield position.

SWC Champion, but the State Championship is still more important than winning the SWC championship.

Players were returning from military service.

Bibb Falk finishes his Texas career undefeated as a pitcher, batting .400, and being an All-SWC offensive tackle for the football team.

1921- 15-5-1 Coach Billy disch swc champs

Dudley English is the team captain.

Horns play the Chicago White Sox’s but lose.

1922- 16-5-1 Coach Billy disch swc champs

The 1922 Cactus was dedicated to Billy Disch.

Ty Cobb was a student manager and sportswriter for the Austin American.

Horns are competitive in games against Chicago White Sox’s and Philadelphia Athletics.

Arkansas competes in SWC for the first time. 

The students give  Disch a rating of 96 plus for personality, ability, and popularity while only giving  38 points to the UT President.

Ponsford leads the pitchers with a 10-3 record, and Nowlin the leading batter at .413.

For the first time, an all-SWC team was selected, with Manny Ponsford, George Johnson, Rube Leissner, Jim Nowlin, and Heine Odom.

1923- 20-8 Coach Billy Disch Texas’s 8-year streak as SWC champs IS OVER. The Horns finished third in the conference.

Santa Rita starts flowing oil.

Texas loses twice to A&M for the first time in Longhorn baseball history.

Carson led the hitters with a .386 and

1924- 29-1 Coach Billy disch

In 1923-1924, the football and basketball teams led by Doc Stewart were undefeated, so the baseball team was embarrassed by its performance. In 1924, however, they turned the program around and made an incredible 29-1 run.

SWC Champion with the highest number of victories in the history of the SWC.

Captain Odoms leads the batting with a .463, Ponsford was 10-0 in pitching.

1925- 18-7-1 Coach Billy disch SWC Champs 10th time in 11 years.

Athletic Director L. Theo Bellmont accuses Coach Disch of accepting a $500 bribe from the Boston Red Sox to persuade one of the Longhorns to choose Boston instead of another team. Disch is fired, and SMU offers him $7500 a year as the head baseball coach. In a letter written by Longhorn Robert L. Holliday, he states that Ty Cobb and his son-in-law visited the SMU leadership and paid SMU a sum of money to release Coach Dish from his contract with SMU.

It was finally established that the $500 that Disch received from Boston was a salary for performing scouting duties. Robert Holliday convinced Coach Disch to stay at Texas and work for less money than offered by SMU.

TCU joins the SWC.

Texas beats Southwestern 44-4.

Heinie Odom, a three-time all-SWC shortstop, has been declared ineligible for accepting a bonus to sign a contract with the New York Yankees.

Clyde Pratt and his teammates raised enough money to send Disch to the World Series between the Washington Senators and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Williamson is leading hitter .475, and Cox leads the pitchers 6-1-1.

Top of the Charts 1926

1926- 13-2 Coach Billy disch SWC champions

Bibb Falks’s younger brother, Chester Falk, also played for Billy Disch. Chester Falk was a left-handed pitcher who played professionally for a short period.

The season included only 16 games, which is 10 games fewer than in 1925.

Billy Disch had a no-fraternization policy that stated that

“When on the field, we were to consider the opposition our enemy. We were to have nothing to do with them, not even exchange greetings.” Heine Baumgarten broke this rule and was punished.

Williamson, who served as the Ranger magazine editor, leads the Longhorns in batting with .394. Baker, Williamson, Thompson, Allen, and Olle make the All-SWC team

1927- 16-6-1 Coach Billy Disch Texas is SWC champion for the 11th time in 12 years.

The new Clark Field II is completed, and the Detroit Tigers beat Texas 12-8 in the first game in the new stadium.

Rice is Texas’s first victory in the new stadium. 

Many fans and Austin American-Statesman sports editor Duby BuBose want to name the new field after Billy Disch. However, the UT administration decided to keep the “Clark Field” name.

Baumgarten is the leading hitter at .362, and Baker was the leading pitcher at 11-1.

The captain of the team is Ed Olle.

1928- 17-6 Coach Billy Disch- New Clark Field and Billy Goat Hill.

“Constancy of purpose- 8 of the 16 conference games are won in the 9th inning, and 6th are won in extra innings. 

The new Clark Field and 3,500 fans watch the Detroit Tigers beat the Horns 12-8. The last game played at this stadium was on May 17, 1974. In 47 years, ClarkFfield produced 37 of 46 SWC championships

Hughes is the leading hitter at .359, and Railton leads all pitchers with a 9-5 record.

1929- 18-4-1 Coach Billy disch SWC Champs

In the photo below, second row second on the right is Frank “Pinky” Higgins, who played football and a lot of 3rd base for the Horns but did not receive celebrity status until his years as a professional baseball player participating in 2000 major league games.

Longhorns almost beat the New York Yanks at Clark Field, but Lou Gehrig hits a home run off of Mike De La Fuente in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and a 3-2 count to win the game. Horns also play the Chicago White Sox, losing 5-1, and New York Giants losing 4 – 1.

Baylor sports editor says Longhorn pitcher Peeples is like an ordinary high school pitcher. Disch sees an opportunity and hands the ball to Peeples, saying, “Well, it looks like you are being elected. See if you can get them out.” Peeples struck out 8, winning the game 4-1.

Ernie Koy Sr. signs with A&M to play baseball, but a hazing incident changes his mind, and one year later, he is a Longhorn.

With the conference championship against Texas A&M on the line, the team won both games to win the championship.

Hughes led in hitting .441, and Railton led all pitchers with a 9-1 record.

1930-20-4 Coach Billy Disch Swc champions

In front of 6,500 Longhorn fans, Babe Ruth, with the New York Yankees, hits a 3-run double in the 9th inning to beat the Longhorns 4-2.

Bob Oglesby, the team manager, gets Ruth and Gehrig to autograph 12 baseballs but forgets to get one for himself. Oscar Peeples gets the call to pitch against the Yankees, but he is late to practice because he is directing traffic at a Parking Lot.

Pinky Higgins says about Disch, “Playing three years for him……was better than playing three years in the low minors. The fundamentals he taught me helped me advance as quickly as I did to the majors.”

Lewis leads the team in hitting .388, and Railton leads in pitching 6-2.

 Nona Rees is selected by the students as the outstanding senior athlete.

1931- 12-6 Coach Billy Disch The Impact of the Great Depression

1931 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned women from professional baseball in America. He felt that he needed to after a seventeen-year-old pitcher, Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell, struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Something the Horns could not do.

After a hazing incident, Ernie Koy left A&M and played one year with Blinn College before signing with Texas.

The economics of the depression limits the number of games played.

Ernie Koy has three hits against the Chicago White Sox, but Texas still loses. 

The conference passed a rule that the head coach has to sit in the grandstand instead of the dugout.

Texas A&M ends a 7-year SWC winning streak for the Longhorns.

Mike De La Fuente overcame discrimination to become the first Hispanic to receive a scholarship to play baseball at Texas.

On September 7, 1927, Mike De La Fuente was turned down for room and board because of his nationality. De La Fuente moved in with the janitor, and when he reported to baseball practice on the freshman team, the coach assumed he was a batboy and not a pitcher. Mike worked his way through school, earning $1 each time he prepared the infield for practice and games. On the days he pitched, Disch would do Mike’s work for him.

Mike De La Fuente lost the game against the Aggies, whose taunts about his nationality hurt his pitching performance, and Disch finally had to pull him from the game.

Koy leads the team in hitting .324, and De La Fuente leads in pitching 7-1.

 Van Lamm and Minton White are Co-Captains.

1932- 12-8

The Longhorns play the Chicago White Sox and lose.  Texas’s record playing against professional teams falls to 0-22. 

1933- 13-3 Coach Billy disch pending more information

Rice leaves the SWC because of the depression. There were only five teams in the SWC- Texas, Baylor, A&M, TCU, and SMU

Texas starts the 6th year against a major league team, losing to Detroit 11-6.

Gannon led the SWC in batting .419 , and Winton was the leading pitcher at 4-0

1934- 13-8 Coach Billy Disch

 SMU dropped out of the SWC because of the depression.

Texas had to play semi-pro teams to complete a full baseball schedule because so many collegiate teams dropped baseball during the Depression.

Due to the depression, only 4 schools are remaining in the SWC. (A&M, Texas, TCU, and Baylor)

McDowell, Bohn Hilliard, Pat Ankenman, and Van Viebig make the All-SWC team. Pitcher Vernon Taylor is lost to arm trouble and is the major reason Texas did not win the SWC this year.

Ankenman is SWC batting champ .409, and Bennett leads the pitchers with a 3-1 record.

Billy Disch selects an All-time team that includes John Douglas, Sam Leslie, Bibb Falk, Pinky Higgins, Pat Ankenman, Ernie Koy, and Oscar Eckhardt. All but Douglas and Leslie played for Disch.

History shows that in 22-year intervals, Texas lost the SWC in consecutive years only in 1934, 1955, and 1977. A very bizarre stat.

1935- 19-5 Coach Billy disch SWC Champs

The team returned as SWC champions after losing to A&M in 1933 and TCU in 1934. It is Disch 20th title.  Norman Branch and Dick Midkiff are the primary reasons for the success.   J.C. Munro was lost to the team due to an appendicitis operation.

Buster Baebel is the team captain.

Oklahoma is back on the baseball schedule, but only 4 teams are in the SWC.

Vaughn leads all hitters .438, and Midkiff leads the pitchers with an undefeated season.

1936- 18-4 Coach Billy Disch SWC Champ Centennial year.

This team’s SWC play record is 12-1, and has the second-highest winning percentage in Longhorn baseball history.

Rice and SMU return to the SWC but play poorly.

Aubrey Graham leads the team as a great hitting All-SWC infielder.

Texas wins the SWC by 4 games.

Pitchers Dick Midkiff and Norman Branch help Disch win his 21st SWC

Sammy Baugh pitches for TCU. Texas wins 14-4

Winborn leads the team in batting .438, and Midkiff was undefeated with a 7-0 record

1937- 13-11 Coach Billy disch Aggies win the SWC 

Cecil “Tex” Hughson, The 6’3, 198 Lb. Hurler is An All-SWC Pitcher In 1937 For The Texas Longhorns. Hughson was Inducted Into The Texas Sports Hall Of Fame In 1987.

 Lloyd Rigby is the team captain.

The team lacks a strong pitching staff. The Longhorns played the St. Louis Browns of the major leagues and lost 11 to 6, and they played the Philadelphia Athletics and lost 11 – 3. This was an average team at best!

The attendance at the Texas A&M game sets a Clark Field record. (4,500).  Horns win 7-2.

1937-1938- 13-10 Coach Billy disch SWC champions

 The Horns win 11 conference games in a row.

Melvin Deutsch, the team’s premier pitcher, is ruled ineligible. Beefus Bryan helps out pitching, but when track starts, the great pole vaulter leaves the team.

John Garnett develops into a great player by mid-season, just like Hughson.

Sophomores Ed Price, Bobby Moers, Bob Evans, and Clarence Pfeil are key members of the SWC championship this year.

Evans is the leading hitter .381, and Garnett is the leading pitcher 6-0.

Hill, Conway, Moers, Westerman, Rawe, and Garnett make the All-SWC team.

Leroy Westerman is the team captain.

1939- 16-2 Coach Billy disch

Mel Deutsch has a no-hit and no-run performance against Rice.

Wally Lawson is named the outstanding Longhorn athlete.

Haas is the leading batter at .460, and Deutsch is the leading pitcher at 8-0.

Deutsch, Hill, Moers, Conway, Pfeil, and Haas make the coaches All- SWC team.

Texas beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4 to 1 in 1939.

SWC Champion

Texas finally beats a major league team. Deutsch is the Longhorn pitcher.

Texas 4 – Philadelphia Athletics 1

1940- Coach Billy disch/Bibb Falk 20-4

April 4th 1940 was the first of several “Disch Days” honoring the Coach. He was presented with a pennant of his service to the game and a bound volume of letters from former players .

While helping a student push his car out of the mud, Disch strained his heart and contended with a serious heart ailment for the rest of his life. The University wanted him to retire, but Coach Falk knew that Coach Disch had little money and still had a house payment. Falk asked the U.T. Administration to list and pay Billy Disch as the active head coach and Falk as the advisory coach with a commensurate meager salary. The U.T. administration agreed, and Billy Disch retained his title as head coach while Bibb Falk’s title was “Field coach” until he died in 1953. Disch’s letter about his health and endorsement of Falk over Ed Price as his replacement is below

Under Billy Disch’s leadership, the Longhorns were perennial Southwest conference champions except for 1921 and 1922. As the team’s coach, Bibb was intensely demanding and often bombastic but curing. Bibb brought a different coaching style to the University of Texas. While Billy Dish was considered refined, Coach Falk was considered outspoken, more like a big leaguer.

Bob Rochs was the team manager and recalls that the coaching style change was palpable with Disch “strait lace,” and Falk was not. In the book. In the book Texas Longhorn Baseball by Wilbur Evans and Bill Little, the comment is made: “Part of the Falk legend is of a crusty old fellow who could curse for an hour without repeating himself.” Billy Disch did not curse. Billy Disch, after a team victory, says, “The Good Lord was on our side today.” Falk responded, “Yeah, but old Falk took over in the 9th.

Falk was hired at a paltry salary of 333.33 a month.

This year was only the second time in Longhorn baseball history that the season started on the road.

Haas is the leading hitter with a .420, and Deutsch led the pitchers with a 9-0 record. Deutsch, Everett, Haas, Hill, Moore, Captain Pfeil, and Stone made the All-SWC team.

1941- Coach Billy disch

In 1941, the Austin City Council voted to name a baseball park in honor of Billy Disch, but the war effort pushed the project to 1947.

Reflections

Coach Disch’s formula was “play like the professionals.” He was a stickler for detail and training. He required players to practice the bunt and squeeze until they approached perfection. Along with his professional formula, he also stressed spirit, team play, baseball sense, righteous living, fair play, and honesty. One of Coach Disch wrote the following notes about his coach.

Disch’s greatest team played in 1914, 1919, 1924, 1927, 1930, and 1939 when there were no playoffs for a national title.

Coach Disch died on February 3, 1953. That day, a resolution was entered in the House of Representative Journal as a loving dedication to his memory.

Coach Disch impacted the lives of many young players. Dr. Frank Gregg on the 1897 team told a Kiwanis club that  Coach Disch “converts………… able-bodied men…………into lives of usefulness.”  Coach Disch agreed with Coach Alonzo Stagg about a successful life being more than just a sports championship.

In the book Texas Longhorn Baseball Kings of the Diamond, The authors Wilbur Evans and Bill Little say Coach Disch was a builder of men and a coach who taught fundamentals, technique, and strategy.

Billy Disch’s contributions to Longhorn traditions represent a portal to the past that reminds Longhorn fans that heritage shapes the present and empowers the future.