[Husker] The Little Colonel

[DUXANDLOXY at aol.com]

The great football coaches of America come to 
expect an avalanche of offers for new jobs each year
along  about all-star selection time. Some are
serious efforts by universities and  colleges honestly 
striving to improve their football programs; others
are  frivolous, irresponsible approaches- mainly by
alumni and disgruntled  followers. 
The conscientious football teacher soon learns to distinguish 
between the two.

Representatives of the University of  Nebraska
contacted Knute Rockne of Notre Dame at the 
conclusion of the 1928 season, after Elmer Ernest Bearg
had  come to the end of his string, with the suggestion
that the coach of the  Fighting Irish transfer his
loyalties to the Cornhusker State. He declined  graciously.
 But, knowing this was a sound and sincere
offer, he  suggested the name of one of his closest
friends in coaching.
This man was  much like Knute Rockne; he had,
in fact, an amazing physical resemblance to  the
crafty Notre Dame coach.
Rockne suggested the name of D. X. Bible,  a
scholarly, balding, round-faced little man who for the
past 12 years had  been turning out winning teams at
Texas A. & M. Who? asked the  Nebraskans. Dana
Xenophon Bible, replied Rockne, himself scholarly
enough  not only to pronounce that odd middle name,
but to know it was from Greek  mythology.

The Nebraska group was skeptical but they arranged 
to meet Bible in Kansas City. John K. Selleck,
Clarence Swanson and  George Holmes talked to
Bible, came away impressed, and in January of  1929
the full Athletic Board interviewed him. D. X. was
hired on the  spot.

"Be kind to Bible, he's one of the best." That's
what Amos Alonzo  Stagg, passing through Lincoln on
the train, told Star Sports Editor Cy  Sherman.
D. X. requested that his first spring practice be
delayed. "I  returned to Texas to be with my wife,
who was expecting a baby, and the child  wasn't born
until March 25. I had asked that I not be required
to move to  Lincoln until after the event."

So recalled D. x. Bible at his comfortable home
some eight miles  outside Austin, Tex., a country place
located on five acres of woodland in  the Colorado
River Valley; a place he named the D. x. Ranch.
Nebraska  football fans soon found out that D. x. Bible 
"was worth waiting for." Thus began a relationship that
 was to last for eight seasons during which
Nebraska, although  never unbeaten and untied as in
the Bummy Booth and Jumbo Stiehm reigns, 
nonetheless gained a measure of national renown never
achieved  before.
Here was a gentleman of the old school, a man
of real manners,  deep integrity and keen insight into
the ways of young football players. He  took to
Nebraskans as they took to him. He was called "the
Little Colonel," not  for any autocratic ways but for
his courtly  manner.




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