Coach Bible “football builds character”

Bible’s coaching style mirrored Knute Rockne. He built up his players until they thought anything was possible. In 1922 all of Aggie coach Bible were needed to beat the Longhorns in Austin, and after his half-time speech victory was a given. The 4-4 A & M team won the game, and the Texas coach was fired.

“ Coach Bible says, “ the coach must always remember that his program is only one phase of the school’s program, and a subsidiary phase at that. The classroom still outranks the stadium.”

In the book “Championship Football” by D.X. Bible he says that the sport of football builds character in young men.

“It is our well-considered if prejudiced opinion after nearly 40 years in football as player and coach that the game is worth playing.”

“On some sides, the game has indeed been permitted to escape from its correct position in the college or high school program. On occasions, its importance to the school has been exaggerated. At times the general public takes the game too seriously. These excesses for which many of us are to blame or even now in the correction process are inevitable. They are neither permanent nor basic in football in any event. They’re not faults of football as a game. “

“In its rightful place, football is the most wholesome and the most valuable sport in schools and colleges today. As no other sport or pastime, it teaches a boy in his formative years to control and command his own powers, to focus them upon a single end and immobilized them quickly and completely. “

“Football teaches him to think fast and realistically to disregard pain and risk in pursuit of the desired end to slow or donate his interest to those of the group. It teaches him to call up and expand in an emergency his last reserves of strength and courage and to pour out all his energy in furious effort. “

“At the same time, he learns to observe the rules of the game regarding others’ rights and stay within limits dictated by decency and sportsmanship. “

“Football not only teaches a boy the will to win and the way to win but something else it teaches him how to meet defeat. When he is defeated, what is his attitude? Does he curl up and quit? Does he whine? Does he attack the sportsmanship and ability of his opponent, or does he keep his chest out and his head up and face the world with clear eyes and self-respect? “

“In football, he will learn to consider defeat merely as a temporary setback, and in his heart, he will echo the words of a brave old Scotsman wounded in a battle:

Fight on my men Sir Andrew said 

 a little I'm hurt but yet not slain; 

 I'll just lie down and bleed a while,  

and then I'll rise and fight again. 

“This is training; it seems to us it turns a young man toward good and useful citizenship. We reiterate that football is a game worth playing, that it is worth playing well, and that it cannot be played well unless it is played hard.” D.X. Bible