John Burton Rix (March 24, 1882 – August 8, 1964) 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 ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest college or university in Texas. Southwestern o ...

(1914–1916),

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

(1917–1921), the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

(1929), compiling a career college football coaching record of 39–34–11. Rix was also the head basketball 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, 11,07 ...

(1911–1912) and at Southern Methodist (1917–1921), tallying a career

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

mark of 29–37.

Early life

Rix was born on March 24, 1882 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

. He attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, where he played on the football team as a halfback in 1905,''Alcalde, Volume 2''
p. 65, Ex-Students' Association of the University of Texas, 1913. and served as the

basketball team Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

captain for the 1903–04 and 1904–05 seasons. Rix graduated from Dartmouth with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in 1906. He was a member of the Pi Chapter of the

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fiftee ...

fraternity and the Casque and Gauntlet.''Catalogue of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity''
p. 649, Delta Kappa Epsilon Council, 1910. In 1910, he was teaching as an English instructor at

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, replacing W. E. Metzenthin, who had moved into the position of

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

. Rix served in that capacity for one season and without pay. According to the student yearbook, the ''Cactus'', he "took hold of the squad when it found itself without a leader and quickly demonstrated his ability to transform it into a quintet that was as good as any in the state."''Longhorn Hoops: The History of Texas Basketball''
p. 8, University of Texas Press, 1998, . At Texas, he also served as an assistant football coach under

Dave Allerdice David Way Allerdice (March 26, 1887 – January 10, 1941) was an American football player and coach. He played college football as the University of Michigan as a halfback from 1907 to 1909. Allerdice served as the head football coach at Butler U ...

from 1911 through 1913. After a 30–7 loss to Notre Dame in 1913, Rix wrote in ''

The Alcalde ''The Alcalde'' (; ) has been the alumni magazine of The University of Texas at Austin since 1913, and is published by the university's alumni association, the Texas Exes.

'':

"I was asked to criticise the playing of our team in this game. Had we won I should perhaps have been willing to do so. As it is, there is no necessity for it, for our men themselves, you may be assured, are criticising themselves with a self-analysis, and sincerity and effectiveness that will do more for the development of football in Texas than a whole season of ordinary games."

From 1914 to 1916, he coached the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

and served as the

Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest college or university in Texas. Southwestern o ...

.SOUTHWESTERN GETS RIX
''The Christian Science Monitor'', February 24, 1917. In February 1917, he accepted the position as athletic director at

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. At SMU, he served as the head basketball and football coach from 1917 to 1921. In 1921 he resigned as football coach after two games and was replaced by

Bill Cunningham Bill Cunningham may refer to: People *Bill Cunningham (rugby union) (1874–1927), New Zealand rugby union player * Bill Cunningham (footballer), Irish international footballer active in the 1890s *Bill Cunningham (infielder) (1886–1946), profe ...

, also of Dartmouth, during a 1–6–1 campaign in 1921. In 1929, Rix became the second head football coach at the

, after a group of local businessmen financially backed the school. However, Rix left after one season as the

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...

caused an end to the off-campus financing. He committed

suicide by hanging Suicide by hanging is the intentional killing of oneself (suicide) via suspension from an anchor-point such as an overhead beam or hook, by a rope or cord or by jumping from a height with a noose around the neck. Hanging is often considered ...

in 1964.View Images — FamilySearch.org
/ref>

Head coaching record

Football

Basketball

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rix, J. Burton 1882 births 1964 deaths American football halfbacks American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Austin College faculty Austin Kangaroos football coaches Basketball coaches from Ohio College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Dartmouth Big Green football players Dartmouth Big Green men's basketball players Players of American football from Cincinnati SMU Mustangs athletic directors SMU Mustangs football coaches SMU Mustangs men's basketball coaches Southwestern Pirates athletic directors Southwestern Pirates football coaches Southwestern Pirates men's basketball coaches Texas Longhorns football coaches Texas Longhorns men's basketball coaches Suicides by hanging in Texas