William Madison "Matty" Bell's future as a football coach looked bleak when Tex­as A&M fired him in 1933 after he went 24-21-3 in five years but only 8-14-3 in the Southwest Conference.

He served as an assistant coach at SMU in 1934. Then he was promoted to head coach for the 1935 season when Ray Morrison left for Vanderbilt, his alma mater.

Bell inherited an outstanding team. He recalled, "We had a great line and a great backfield, but only six or seven first-class subs." He also had the two of the finest tac­kles and the four best guards in the conference.

The Mustangs roared past their first 10 opponents, allowing only six points to each of three foes. That set up the showdown at TCU for the Southwest Conference champ­ionship and a shot at the national championship.

Dutch Meyer's second Horned Frogs team at his alma mater was also undefeated. So the winner of the clash with the Mustangs would not only claim the conference crown but also earn a trip to the Rose Bowl and a chance at the national championship.

Both SMU and TCU had outstanding passing attacks led by Bob Finley of the Mus­tangs and junior "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh of the Horned Frogs. Bell credited Morrison with showing him how effective passing could be during the 1934 season.

For one afternoon, Highland Park TX was the center of the football universe.

Downtown streets in both the neighboring cities were deoration with banners, some saying "On to the Rose Bowl." Pep rallies were held all week at both schools.

Grantland Rice, nationally-acclaimed sportswriter for the New York Sun, called the contest "The Game of the Century." He and numerous other top sportswriters from around the country overflowed the press box. NBC radio broadcast the game nationwide—a first for a Southwest conference football game.

SMU was rated a slight underdog on its home field. Injuries to star Mustang FB Harley Shuford and G J. C. Wetsel were a factor in the decision, although Wetsel played part of the game.

36,000 fans, the second largest crowd in Texas football history, filled and overflowed SMU's 25,000-seat Ownby Stadium for the clash. The game lived up to its billing and remains over 85 years later as one of the greatest college football games of all time.

"Fans were all over everything," recalled TCU's Finley, "the hilltops andd the grass. They crawled over feces, pushed gatekeepers out of the way."

TCU's players were sky high. They came out of the tunnel slapping and butting each other. By contrast, the SMU team was looser and less excited.

SMU Coach Bell changed his approach from his usual moaning and doomsaying. Instead, he told the Dallas News sports editor, "Now don't change your selection, but we're going to win this game." Of course, Bell's prediction was leaked, which was probably the way Matty planned it.

Shuford, whose injury forced him to watch the game in street clothes on the sideline, recalled: "There was an awful lot of tension. Yet at the hotel we were relaxed and joking, not tight. We were an experienced bunch."

Bell's approach worked because for years fans talked about how the Frogs dropped Baugh's passes all day long, passes they usually caught.

With Shuford out, Finley called the signals. The Mustangs started sharp as tacks, scoring four minutes into the first period on Finley's 1y touchdown plunge which was set up by Bobby Wilson's leaping catch of a Finley pass for a 33y gain. The 73y drive also featured the line plunging of Finley and Burt and the end runs of Wilson. Maurice Orr kicked the PAT. SMU 7 TCU 0

Finley explained Bell's strategy. "Matty had talked to J. R. (Smith) and me all week. They'd look for Wilson, so we'd use him as a decoy in the first quarter. We faked pitches to him and went over the middle to Lester (Tipton). It worked. Matty had seen that one of their halfbacks would leave his position on a certain play, so Sprague would delay, then sneak out. That was the first play, and sure enough, he was open, and the pass carried over midfield."

SMU's loss of Shuford was equalized on the second play of the game

The first quarter ended with TCU on the SMU 16. But Baugh's fourth-down pass into the end zone fell incomplete to turn the ball over.

SMU proceeded to march 84y to double their lead. Wilson circled right end for 21y. Next, Finley found a hole at left tackle for another 13. Then he threw a pass to co-captain Maco Stewart for a first down on the TCU nine. Wilson took a lateral from Finley and galloped around right end for the touchdown. Orr again kicked goal. SMU 14 TCU 0

The 14-0 deficit was not an insurmountable deficit for TCU with their sensational passing game, and both sides knew it. The Frogs got a chance to put points on the board after Baugh's punt was downed on the SMU 4. Finley immediately tried to kick out of danger, but the ball traveled only to the 26. Scott McCall gained eight before RB Taldon Manton made a first down on the 15. Lawrence then took a "spinner" for a first down at the four.

Just when TCU fans expected a score, Lester Tipton smeared Lawrence for a 5y loss. Then Baugh's pass to Willie Walls in the end zone fell incomplete. Baugh's next pass was knocked down, but interference was ruled to make it first-and-ten on the three. The Frogs took advantage of the break when Lawrence drove through left tackle into the end zone. Walter Roach's kick was good. SMU 14 TCU 7

Midway through the period, Baugh threw to Walls for a first down on the SMU 30. But Shelly Burt intercepted Sam's next pass to end the threat.

Late in the quarter, Charles Sprague intercepted a Finley pass and returned to the TCU 46. After two runs gained six, Baugh shot a short pass to Lawrence for a first down on the Mustang 43 as the quarter ended. SMU 14 TCU 7

Baugh again threw to Lawrence, who broke away to the 25. Then Walls snagged a pass and was downed in his tracks at the seven. Lawrence misfired on a pass into the end zone. Then Baugh flipped a flat pass to Lawrence as he ran over the goal line. Roach's PAT tied the score. SMU 14 TCU 14

But the Methodists wasted little time in regaining the lead. J. R. (for Jack Rabbit) Smith returned the kickoff 27y to his 47. Wilson gained four, and Smith got seven more to move the chains to the TCU 39. That set the stage for the play of the game.

On third-and-four, Smith called the play. The Mustangs set up in deep punt for­mation with the punter, Finley, set to receive the snap. He took the snap and started to punt. Then he suddenly began to backpedal and rear his right arm. Meanwhile, Wilson raced down the sideline. Finley uncorked a prodigious heave toward Wilson. When the closely covered intended receiver reached the three, he looked back, leaped high in the air, tipped down the football to control it, and hugged onto it as he fell into the end zone.

Finley explained: "J. R. called a fake punt, play 11-5. I was the punter, so it meant I would pass. We'd used the play before—it was a first down play. Both ends would buttonhook. But as we broke out of the huddle, Wilson said to me, 'Throw it as far as you can. I'll be there.'"

The crazy thing was that SMU did not come out of the huddle in punt formation. It came out in a passing formation with the ends set to go downfield. In the excitement, TCU did not notice. But Ray Morrison did.

"When they lined up," Shuman recalled, "Morrison stood up and said, 'They're not gonna run with it, are they?'"

On the other sideline, Bell was equally perplexed. He wanted his team to kick the ball out of bounds inside the TCU 10 to gain good field position. But with no coaching from the sidelines in those days and no sending in plays, Bell had to watch with everybody else as the Mustangs ran the play Jack Rabbit called and Wilson amended.

The pass sailed more than 45y in the air and came down to Wilson inside the five just inches beyond the reach of TCU DB Harold McClure. Wilson juggled it, caught it, and fell into the end zone for the score that put the Mustangs in position to win the SWC championship and the Rose Bowl bid. But the extra point was missed, and SMU worry warts knew that Slingin' Sammy plenty of time left to lead TCU to a touchdown and win 21-20.

Wilson, one of the best backs in the country, recalled: "I looked over my shoulder one way, and the ball was thrown over my other shoulder. I turned fast and caught it on the other side. It wasn't a sensational catch. It was a routine job. The pass wasn't a thing of beauty, but it was there."

Wilson later added, "We had planned to use the play on Lawrence because he came up so fast on coverage, but it turned out he wasn't in there when we called it. ... I remember it as a pretty routine catch. All that whirling dervish stuff was a bunch of hooey."

Finley admitted, "We just happened to get away with it. Wilson was out wide. I made as if to kick the ball, and the (TCU) line slowed down. Then I backed up and threw it, and I was buried. I heard the people scream, and when I got up, I saw Wilson in the end zone, jumping up and down."

Baugh, who was playing defensive back on the play but was not covering Wilson, said TCU was not expecting a punt.

"We knew what they were going to do. The rule then was that if you pass in(to) the end zone on fourth down, it's just like a punt if it's incomplete. You bring it to the 20. When you'd get to about the other team's 40, you'd go ahead and throw the ball in the end zone. It's just like a damn punt if it's not complete."

When Wilson scored earlier in the game, a "slightly lubricated" SMU fan stood and declared to those around him, "The two greatest people in America are Bobby Wilson and President Roosevelt."

When Wilson scored the go-ahead touchdown, the same man rose again and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, you may scratch President Roosevelt from the list."

TCU's desperation possession was curtailed by a clipping penalty on the kickoff. After three incompletions, Baugh boomed a 67y punt that rolled into the end zone.

SMU made one first down to run some clock. Then they made a decision that makes no sense from today's perspective. They punted on second down! Baugh returned 20y to the TCU 40.

On third down, Sammy hit Manton for 15y to enter SMU territory at the 41. Another completion to Meyer gained nine. Baugh then threw a long pass toward Vic Montgomery in the end zone. As Mustang fans held their breath, the ball fell incom­plete. On fourth down, Wilson knocked down Baugh's pass, and SMU took the ball.

The Mustangs moved to the TCU 26. Then Wilson fumbled, and Melvin Diggs recovered for the Christians on the 25.

Wilson on his rare mistake: "Matty sent me back into the game late with in­structions not to carry the ball because I was tired. But I ignored it and fumbled the ball at about their 18 yard line. ... I had no business fumbling the ball. I was on the sideline, and I was sure the ball was going out of bounds, but it went the other way. It really scared us when they started to move the ball right after."

Wilson and Baugh formed a mutual admiration society. "He was one of the great runners in the Southwest Conference," Baugh said. "The Southwest didn't get much publicity except in our area. But he was a great runner and a fine football player."

Wilson on Baugh: "He was the only man I ever saw who could throw the soft pass and the hard pass. He had control of the ball whenever he threw."

Passing on every down, Baugh misfired on a long one to stop the clock, then found Montgomery for a first down on the 39. Then he hit Montgomery again to the 47. Staying hot, Sammy found L. D. Meyer to the SMU 35 as the game ended with Baugh having completed only 16 passes in 41 attempts for 184y.

  FINAL SCORE: SMU 20 TCU 14

TCU had the edge in yardage (362-315) and first downs (25-17).

The SMU band played "California Here I Come." It was sweet music to the ears of James H. Stewart, the SMU athletic director. The school owed $85,000 on its stadium, and Stewart had gone to a bank and borrrowed $75,000 to pay it off. The money from the Rose Bowl game would repay most of the remaining debt.

Grantland Rice wrote this for his column the next day: "This was one of the great­est games ever played in the sixty-year history of the nation's finest college sport. In the most desperate game this season has known from coast to coast, Southern Methodist ... carved a clearcut highway right into the middle of the Rose Bowl beyond any argument ... a swirl of action that no other section of the country could approach ... the climax game of 1935.

Five members of the two teams made various All-American teams: T Truman Spain, G J.C. Wetself, HB Bobby Wilson, C Darrell Lester, and QB Sam Baugh.

Baugh later said, "I thought SMU deserved to win. I'll give 'em this—they really set a good defense for us. They closed he gaps in the throwing lanes and basically took away the short pass, which was mainly what we relied on. We had to go to the medium pass, and the reason I was throwing the ball so hard is because they had closed gaps, and I had to throw hard to keep it from being intercepted. But I threw it so hard, the receivers couldn't catch it." (The receivers dropped nine of his passes.)

But receiver J. D. Meyer didn't agree that Baugh's passing cost TCU the game.

"He was throwing those balls right in there on the money, and if you're a receiver, it's your job to catch those balls, no matter how hard they're thrown.

"I think the real problem was the pep talk Dutch gave us before the game. He nor­mally didn't do a lot of that, but this time he was really trying to get us fired up, and he told us the winner would go to the Rose Bowl. We were mostly just a bunch of country boys, and this was the biggest thing that had ever happened in our lives.

"By the time we went out there, we are all tied up in knots, and Dutch always admitted that he thought he made a big mistake."

Baugh didn't agree with J. D. Instead, he said the biggest mistake TCU made was on the fake punt.

"The thing that galled us is that they won on a play we were expecting. We just didn't stop it. It was reported as a daring gamble, but it was actually a routine play for that era."

Wilson's catch of the winning touchdown pass is arguably the biggest play in SMU football history. The score led to SMU playing in the Rose Bowl, where they lost to Stanford 7-0. SMU owed $85,000 on its new stadium, and the Athletic Director bor­rowed money from a bank to pay off the note. The Rose Bowl brought in the revenue he needed to repay the loan. So Wilson's winning score became known as "the $85,000 Touchdown."