Johnson Blair Cherry (August 7, 1901 – September 10, 1966) 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 with ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

from 1947 to 1950, compiling a record of 32–10–1. His 1950 Texas Longhorns football team won the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

(SWC) championship and appeared in the

1951 Cotton Bowl Classic The 1951 Cotton Bowl Classic was the 15th annual game, and it featured the 1950 Tennessee Volunteers football team, Tennessee Volunteers and the 1950 Texas Longhorns football team, Texas Longhorns. Background Cherry led the Longhorns to a perfect ...

, losing to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. Cherry was also the head baseball coach at Texas from 1943 to 1945, tallying a mark of 30–23 and winning SWC titles in 1943 and 1945. He attended

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

(TCU), where he starred football as an

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

and was captain of the 1923 TCU Horned Frogs football team. He also played baseball at TCU, as a

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

. Cherry began his coaching career at the high school level in Texas, making stops at Ranger High School, North Side High School in Forth Worth, and Amarillo High School.

Early life

Cherry was born in Kerens, Texas on August 7, 1901. He played his high school ball at Weatherford High School and later attended

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

in the early 1920s and was a three-sport star. Upon graduation in 1924, he had a brief professional baseball career but soon entered the coaching profession. In 1936, he married Florence Snodgrass of

Amarillo Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat, seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County. It is the List of cities in Texas by population, 14th-most populous city in Texas and th ...

, with whom he had two children.

Coaching career

High school

Cherry's first coaching position was at Ranger High School in

Ranger, Texas Ranger is a city in Eastland County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,468 at the 2010 census. Ranger College, a community college, is the second-largest employer in the community. During the 1920s, Ranger, like nearby Cisco, Eastland, ...

, where he spent three seasons, from 1926 to 1928. In 1929, Cherry coached for one season at North Side High School in Fort Worth. In 1930, Cherry was named head football coach at Amarillo High School. He compiled a record of 84–5 losses, with 45 of those wins by

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

. The average score in these games was 30–5. Amarillo High became the second school in Texas to win three straight state championships, in 1934, 1935, and 1936 (first was the

Paul Tyson Paul Leighton Tyson (October 25, 1886 – September 9, 1950) was an American football coach. He was one of the most successful high school football coaches of all time, winning four Texas state championships and one national championship in the 1 ...

-coached Waco High in 1925, 1926, and 1927), allowing the opponent teams only a combined 13 points in these three championship games.

University of Texas

Football

Cherry was considered as a candidate for the head coach position at the

in 1937, but was passed over for the better-known Dana X. Bible. Bible offered Cherry a position as an assistant coach on his staff. Bible groomed Cherry to be his successor, and upon Bible's retirement in 1946, Cherry was appointed as head coach. As head coach, Cherry switched the Longhorns' offense from a

single-wing In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback and a ha ...

formation to the now-popular

T formation In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a Formation (American football), formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about ...

, and found instant success. With

Bobby Layne Robert Lawrence Layne (December 19, 1926 – December 1, 1986) was an American football quarterback who played for 15 seasons in the National Football League. He played for the Chicago Bears in 1948, the New York Bulldogs in 1949, the Detroit ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

, Texas earned a 10–1 record in his first year, a final ranking of fifth, and a defeat of sixth-ranked

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

in the

1948 Sugar Bowl The 1948 Sugar Bowl featured the fifth ranked Texas Longhorns and the sixth ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. In the first quarter, Texas scored on a 99-yard touchdown pass form Bobby Layne to Blount, as Texas opened a 7-0 lead. In the second quarter, ...

. In the 1948 season, his team compiled a 7–3–1 record and defeated eighth-ranked

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

. Following this season, Cherry was offered head coaching jobs by the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

and

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL), but turned down these offers to remain the head coach at Texas. In 1949, Cherry's Longhorns compiled a 6–4 record. In 1950, the Longhorns won the

title with a 6–0 conference record, and earned a berth in the

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

, as well as a #3 final national ranking. Mid-season, Cherry announced that he would be retiring from coaching, and his last game was a 20–14 defeat at the hands of

in the 1951 Cotton Bowl Classic. Cherry was suffering from

ulcers An ulcer is a discontinuity or break in a bodily membrane that impedes normal function of the affected organ. According to Robbins's pathology, "ulcer is the breach of the continuity of skin, epithelium or mucous membrane caused by sloughing o ...

and

insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...

at the time of his retirement, and later hinted in the article "Why I Quit Coaching" that harsh criticism from fans and media, despite his 32–10–1 record and two top-five finishes, led to his decision to retire.

Baseball

Cherry also served as baseball coach from 1943 to 1945 during Bibb Falk's absence. His teams compiled a 30–23 overall record, but won two conference titles with a 22–4 conference mark in three seasons. No SWC title was awarded in 1944.

Later life, death, and honors

After retiring from coaching, Cherry moved to

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...

to enter the oil business, partnering with his brother, A. W. Cherry. He died on September 10, 1966 from a coronary occultation, three weeks after undergoing a kidney operation and then returning to the hospital with chest pains. Blair was buried at Llano Cemetery in Amarillo. Cherry was inducted into the

Texas Sports Hall of Fame The Texas Sports Hall of Fame recognizes athletes, coaches, and administrators who have made "lasting fame and honor to Texas sports". It was established in 1951 by the Texas Sports Writers Association. Once it made its first induction (baseball ...

shortly before his death in 1966 and posthumously inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1968.

Head coaching record

College football

College baseball

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherry, Blair 1901 births 1966 deaths American football ends Baseball outfielders TCU Horned Frogs football players Texas Longhorns baseball coaches Texas Longhorns football coaches High school football coaches in Texas People from Navarro County, Texas People from Weatherford, Texas Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from Texas Baseball coaches from Texas Baseball players from Texas