Max Bumgardner
sports- a pulse on American life, but not the heartbeat.
It was destiny that turned a successful Aggie Coach into a successful Longhorn Coach and a Longhorn football player’s grandson into a Texas Aggie. Read on to witness a rare moment in Longhorn and A & M history when these two proud Universities shared the same Heart ❤ Beat.
Max Bumgardner first lettered for Texas in 1942 as a 183-pound end for a Southwest Conference champion team that finished 9-2 after beating Georgia Tech in the Cotton Bowl. Like most players on that 1942 team, Bumgardner left for military service to support our nation in WWII. “Coach Bible told those scholarship athletes who left to serve our country they could return to the team after the war was over. Max Bumgardner was one of the many who returned to help Coach Bible build a program that defined the future of Longhorn football.
The 1947 team Bumgardner captained with fullback Raymond Jones finished 10-1 after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Bumgardner was selected All-Southwest Conference that year and led the Longhorns catching 15 of Bobby Layne’s passes. He was on the first plane ever to carry Longhorns to a game. The Horns played Norm Van Brocklin’s Oregon team, and Bumgardner caught a 48-yard touchdown pass in a win over Oregon.
1946 Max Bumgardner vs. Colorado
But Max’s life gets even richer after his football-playing years are over. Max Coached at Angelo State for many years turning boys into men and helping many players fulfill dreams. One young player who traveled 100 miles to try out for Bumgardner’s San Angelo team was rewarded with a partial scholarship and a part-time job. Grant Teaff learned his lessons well under Bumgardner, eventually joining the Baylor Bears as head coach and changing the losing SWC Baylor program into a winner. After Angelo State, Bumgardner joined Aggie Coach Emory Bellard’s wishbone offense.
The TLSN website, https://texaslsn.org, has many stories of great Longhorn players and coaches who produced children and grandchildren who also created College sports history.
In 1999, the collapse of the Aggie bonfire crushed the lives of many A&M students. It was a dark moment in the history of college sports. But, in a rare moment in Aggie and Longhorn sports history, both universities swallowed their pride and understood that the joy of winning and the agony of losing are transitory and ultimately inconsequential.
Still, the game was important, and both teams played their best football. Then, into this emotional vacuum, a story unfolds that merges the burnt orange and Maroon blood into one heartbeat for a split second. Max Bumgardner’s grandson, Matt Bumgardner, caught the winning touchdown that beat the Horns.
It was an epiphany moment. It was the only day in my 75 years that I was “okay” with Texas A&M winning. It took the Longhorn band playing “Amazing Grace” to remind me that my life priorities were wrong.
For me beating Texas A & M was at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of physiological needs- beat A & M , eat, sleep, and drink water. However, beating or losing to A & M is no longer a life-altering moment. With a new sense of maturity, id, and ego, I swallowed my pride after the Aggies won, smiled with a sense of deep reflection, and honored those who lost their lives.
IT WAS ONE HEARTBEAT MOMENT FOR BOTH UNIVERSITIES.
Go to the 2:30 mark to remember what is essential in our life journey.
Phil George – former Longhorn who played with “Coach BUM”.
01/06/2024- Billy Dale-Great story! Coach Bum hired Phil George who was playing basketball at UT when the war broke out. Phil enlisted & became a pilot flying predominately transport planes in the pacific & Indi-China. After the war he also returned to UT to finish his basketball career. After graduating from UT Coach Bum hired him at San Angelo JC where they coached together for many years. Coach George is still alive and is 99 years old. Randy Matthews
Thanks Billy. I played for Bum at Angelo. Have some great stories. He was a great coach with a lot of compassion. I lived in the dorm next to coach George. That’s another story.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF article about Max Bumgardner
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Max Bumgardner, “was a leader, one of those solid individuals you wanted to be your captain. He would fight a buzz saw,” said former teammate R.E. “Peppy” Blount of Longview. “He was one of those guys I was always glad was on my side.”
In 1947, Bumgardner and Blount were ends for Texas, catching passes from quarterback Bobby Layne. All three later were drafted by the Chicago Bears, with Bumgardner going as the 10th pick in the first round of the 1948 draft.
Bumgardner first lettered for Texas in 1942 as a 183-pound end for a Southwest Conference champion team that finished 9-2 after beating Georgia Tech in the Cotton Bowl. Like most players on that 1942 team, Bumgardner left for military service. He rejoined the team in 1946, starting at one end opposite of All-American Hub Bechtol in Coach D.X. Bible’s final year.
Bumgardner caught a 48-yard touchdown pass in a win over Oregon and quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, the first time the Longhorns flew to a game.
The 1947 team Bumgardner captained with fullback Raymond Jones finished 10-1 after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. In the locker room after the game, George Halas of the Chicago Bears chatted with Texas Coach Blair Cherry, a tipoff of what would happen in the next draft. Bumgardner was selected All-Southwest Conference that year and led the Longhorns with 15 catches.
Bumgardner played 11 games for the Detroit Lions in 1948. He was the head coach at San Angelo College — now Angelo State University — from 1950-1968, with a record of 74-74-2. He took the team to three bowl games.
One young player who traveled 100 miles to try out for Bumgardner’s San Angelo team was Grant Teaff, who was rewarded with a partial scholarship and a part-time job. Teaff, a former Baylor coach, is now executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.
“He was a very good motivator. He knew how to touch your hot button,” Teaff said. “He had us going pretty good most of the time. He did things differently. I bet we didn’t practice in pads maybe 10 times when I was there. He didn’t believe in beating his players up. He wouldn’t let you hit anybody during the week and when he turned us loose on Saturday, we were ready to hit.”
When Emory Bellard, a UT assistant and inventor of the wishbone offense, became head football coach at Texas A&M, Bumgardner joined Bellard’s staff as an academic counselor and stayed there until 1978. The A&M connection continued with grandson Matt Bumgardner, a receiver who caught the game-winning 14-yard touchdown pass from Randy McCown in the 1999 Texas-Texas A&M game played in the wake of the Bonfire tragedy.
Sport is a pulse of American life, but it is not the heartbeat.
Sport is a Pulse of American life but not the heartbeat.
This is a story of fate, destiny, maroon blood, and burnt orange genes, that started in 1947 and ended in 1999.
In 1947, Captain Max Bumgardner led former Aggie Coach Bible’s Longhorn team to a 10-1 record beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Max was Bobby Layne’s favored receiver. Max’s story is told in more detail at
The TLSN website at https://texaslsn.org has many stories of great Longhorn players and coaches producing children and grandchildren who also create College sports history.
Fast forward from 1947 to 1999 and the collapse of the Aggie bonfire that crushed the life out of many A & M students. It was a dark moment in the history of college sports.
Into this void, Max’s grandson, Matt Bumgardner, made the winning touchdown to beat Texas.
For as long as I can remember, beating Texas A & M bordered on a personal physiological need. As important as eating, sleeping, and drinking water.
But this game was different. It was a game where spiritual overtones and epiphany moments were discernible. Transcending the pride, ego, and id of both Universities. For the first time in my 73 years, I swallowed my pride, smiled in deep reflection, and honored the Aggie nation.
I still want to beat the Aggies but losing to A & M no longer represents a life-altering moment for me. Amazing Grace not football is now my anchor.
Go to the 2:30 mark to remember what is essential in our life journey.
https://youtu.be/4rLj3vw5fwI
Horns and Thumbs up!
