Bible, Dana X.
Football
b. Oct. 8, 1891, Jefferson City, TN
d. Jan. 19, 1980
After playing baseball, basketball and football at Carson-Newman College and the University of North Carolina, Bible coached football for a year at Brandon Preparatory School in Tennessee, then took over at Mississippi College, where he had a 12-7-2 record from 1913 through 1915.
He was freshman coach at Texas A & M in 1916 when Louisiana State University lost its coach with three games to play in the season. Bible was loaned to LSU, which won 1 and tied 2 while he was there. He returned to Texas A & M as head coach and athletic director in 1917.
His first Aggie team won all eight of its games. He spent 1918 as a pilot in World War I, then coached Texas A & M to a 10-0-0 record in 1919. His 1927 team was also unbeaten, winning 8 games and tying 1. In 11 seasons, he had a 72-19-9 record and won five Southwest Conference championships.
Bible went to the University of Nebraska in 1929 and won six Big Six titles in eight seasons, compiling a 50-15-7 record. The University of Texas beckoned in 1937, offering an unheard-of 20-year contract for $15,000 a year, the first ten years as coach and athletic director, the second ten as athletic director only. There was an outcry in Texas, since Bible would be paid more than the college president, and the contract was held up until the Texas Legislature gave the president a raise.
At Texas, Bible divided the state into districts and put alumni in charge of recruiting the best football players for their alma mater. The "Bible plan," as it became known, was soon adopted by other state universities. It took some time to produce results, but from 1940 through 1946, Texas had 53 victories with only 13 losses and 1 tie, winning three SWC championships.
Three of Bible's Texas teams went to the Cotton Bowl. The 1942 team beat Georgia Tech, 14-7; the 1943 team tied Randolph Field, a service team, 7-7; and the 1945 team beat Missouri, 40-25.
Bible retired after the 1946 season. His overall record in 33 seasons was 192 wins, 71 losses, and 23 ties, a .712 winning percentage.
His success was due, in part, to his use of psychology to motivate players. At halftime of the Texas-Texas A & M game in 1922, with the score tied 7-7, Bible dragged his foot across the floor of the A & M locker room and said, "Those who want to go out and be known as members of an A & M team that defeated Texas in Austin, step over the line." Players rushed to cross the line, then went out to beat Texas, 14-7.