The 1943 North Texas Aggies football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

team that represented North Texas Agricultural College (now known as the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of ...

) as an independent during the 1943 college football season. In their ninth year under head coach Klepto Holmes, the Aggies compiled a 3–4–1 record and were ranked at No. 69 among the nation's college and military service teams in the final 1943 Litkenhous Ratings. Prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the North Texas Aggies were a junior college team that did not compete at the highest level in football. During the war, the school became a military training center, and the football team was rebuilt with

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

trainees. Texas columnist Flem R. Hall in September 1943 described the Aggies as a Cinderella team that went "from rags to riches" when the Marine Corps waved a magic wand that sent players from major Texas universities "tumbling onto" the Aggies' Arlington campus. Hall continued: "The unknown kitchen maid became the queen of the ball and won the prince." The Aggies gained 11 players who were transferred from TCU, including tailback J. P. "Pete" Stout, center James Woodfin, Sam Weatherford, and Don Hughes. Other notable transferees included fullback Howard "Red" Maley, tackle Burnie Smith, blocking back "Peck" McMinn and center Jim Sid Wright (all from SMU); lineman Harold Crossen, Doyle Caraway, James Reid, lineman P. A. Wynn and Joe Beavers (all from

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

Schedule

References

{{Texas–Arlington Mavericks football navbox Arlington State Texas–Arlington Mavericks football seasons North Texas Aggies football