Today I spent a few hours in the Temple Public Library looking through microfilm of old newspapers looking for stories of Temple football. It took me back to my first college days of looking through old microfilm in the Temple Junior College library.
Anyway, I was only there for a few hours mainly because I wanted to get home and watch the Cowboys game. In the 2+ hours I was there, I was able to find a few interesting tidbits.
I started with the files from 1905. I am still not sure if the team started in 1905 or 1907. I have seen both online. I didn’t find anything from September 1905, that was all the library had. So I moved on to 1907 where I was able to find a few small articles.
One tidbit I was not aware of was the newspapers themselves. The Temple Daily Telegram, which we know still today, did not start until 1907. Prior to the Telegram, which was the first daily newspaper in Temple, was the Temple Times. This was a weekly newspaper which would eventually morph into the Telegram. So, I was looking at articles from the Times and the Telegram.
What I mostly found from 1907, so far, has been notices of upcoming games. I found one for both a game against Waco and then one against Belton. The one against Belton was interesting for 2 reasons. First, it says that it will be “the first between Temple and Belton elevens for some time past.” I have read online that they played twice in 1907 with Temple winning both. The article does say that the first game was a win for Temple, but it does not say how long prior that game was. This game took place on December 14, 1907.
Secondly, the best part of the article was that it says that it was a match between the second eleven of Temple and the first eleven of Belton. So, essentially Temple’s second team beat Belton’s first team.
I also found out that the feud, if that is the right word, between the cities of Temple and Belton goes all the way back to the 1880s when the railroad was being built. I’ll try to do some research on that as well moving forward. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what I hope to uncover. Stay tuned.