A Throwback Look at Hardin-Simmons Football By: Kaine Rodriguez

Before the packed Saturdays at Shelton Stadium, before the modern scoreboard and the familiar sight of Hardin-Simmons Cowboys charging onto the field, there was a football program already building its identity in West Texas. 

Hardin-Simmons University (HSU) first took over the field in 1987, making it one of Texas’ earliest college football programs. Over the decades that followed, the Cowboys experienced nearly every chapter a football program could write: championship seasons, bowl trips, legendary coaches, national recognition, a 26-year disappearance and, eventually, one of the most remarkable comebacks in small college football.  

The story of HSU football is not simply about wins and losses. It is a story about a program that disappeared and found its way back. 

The Cowboys Take Flight 

Some of the most memorable years in the early history of Hardin-Simmons came under head coach Warren B. Woodson. 

Woodson led the Cowboys to a 58-23-6 record, three Border Conference championships and six bowl appearances. During his tenure, Hardin-Simmons established itself as a program capable of competing beyond the boundaries of Abilene. 

Then came 1948, a season that remains one of the most unusual chapters in the program’s history. The Cowboys finished the regular season with a 6-2-3 record, but their season was far from over. In the span of one month, Hardin-Simmons played in three postseason bowl games. 

First came the Grape Bowl against Pacific, where the Cowboys battled to a 35-35 tie. They then defeated Ouachita Baptist 40-12 in the Shrine Bowl before finishing their postseason run with a 49-12 victory over Wichita in the Camellia Bowl. 

Three bowl games in one month. For modern college football fans, the schedule sounds almost impossible. But this was football in another era, when postseason football operated under a very different set of rules and traditions.  

The Cowboys were not simply showing up for those games, either. They were scoring, traveling and building a reputation for Hardin-Simmons football far beyond Abilene. 

From Quarterback Legend to Head Coach 

Another name familiar to football fans eventually found his way to the Hardin-Simmons sideline. 

Sammy Baugh, one of the legendary quarterbacks in the history of TCU and professional football, became the Cowboys' head coach in 1955. Baugh's tenure produced one of the program's most memorable accomplishments in 1958, when the Cowboys won the Border Conference championship and earned a trip to the Sun Bowl. 

For a program that had already established itself as a force in its region, Baugh's arrival added another connection between Hardin-Simmons and the larger story of Texas football. 

But not long afterward, the lights went out. 26 Years Without Cowboys Football. After the 1963 season, Hardin-Simmons discontinued football. For more than two decades, the arrival of fall meant something was missing in Abilene. There were no Cowboys taking the field. No Saturday football tradition to pass from one generation to the next. 

Then, in 1990, the program returned. The University hired Texas coaching veteran Jimmie Keeling to lead the revival. Unlike most coaches taking over an established program, Keeling was not simply inheriting a roster and trying to improve it. He was helping rebuild a football program that had been gone for 26 years. The first revived Cowboys team finished 3-6. That record, however, would soon become a footnote. 

Over the next 21 seasons, Keeling turned the program into a national contender. He finished with a 172-53 record, led Hardin-Simmons to 11 NCAA Division III playoff appearances, and won three Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships and seven American Southwest Conference championships. 

The Cowboys were back. But they were not simply interested in just being back. 

From Comeback to Contender 

The transformation became especially clear at the end of the 1990s. In 1999, Hardin-Simmons finished 12-1 and advanced to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals. The following season, the Cowboys went even further, reaching the national semifinals. 

The program that had once disappeared from the football landscape was now playing among the best teams in Division III. What began in 1990 as a rebuilding project had become something much larger. Hardin-Simmons football had reclaimed its place. 

More Than an Old Photo  

A throwback look at Hardin-Simmons football reveals two eras separated by more than two decades but connected by the same identity. 

There were the early Cowboys, traveling across the country for bowl games and competing against established college programs. There were the teams of Warren Woodson and Sammy Baugh, carrying Hardin-Simmons into different chapters of Texas football history. Then there was the silence. And finally, there was the comeback. The uniforms changed. The opponents changed. The postseason changed. College football itself changed. But the Cowboys returned to the field. That may be what makes the history of Hardin-Simmons football worth remembering. The story is not simply about championships or famous names. It is about a program that disappeared, rebuilt itself and created a new tradition without forgetting the one that came before it. 

Old photographs can only show so much. They capture the uniforms, the faces and the fields. They cannot capture the sound of a crowd in Abilene. They cannot capture the anticipation before kickoff. And they cannot capture what it meant for the Cowboys to take the field again after 26 years away.  

But the photographs can remind us of one thing: Hardin-Simmons football has been here before. And its story is still being written