Jonathon Platt, CEO of The Baylor Line, claims that there is only a degree or two of separation between Baylor University and just about any other story, event, or person you can imagine. I’ve always agreed. And that was before I found an unlikely connection with convicted Watergate conspirator James W. McCord. Let me explain.
Did the Infamous White House Plumber Attend Baylor?: James W. McCord and Me Read More »
For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. In this November 1982 Classic, we meet Rick Diamond, the soft-spoken
From the Civil War to the present, Baylor University students, faculty, and staff on observation have produced a disproportionate number of generals in the United States military. But few soldiers ever achieved the national acclaim and attention of the euphoniously named Gen. Beaumont Bonaparte Buck, a national hero whose every word made headlines. But his
The Former Baylor Drill Instructor Who Saved Paris and Became and American Hero Read More »
Of the 15 men who comprised the original Board of Trustees of a doughty little school on the rolling hills near the village of the Independence in 1845, only William M. Tryon and Judge R.E.B. Baylor are known and celebrated today. The others — J.G. Thomas, James Huckins, Albert G. Haynes, Albert C. Horton, R.B.
George’s tumultuous life is the stuff of legends, of Hollywood action movies, of dime store novels. He was a restless pioneer. A leader. A stone-cold killer. A mass of contradictions. It’s not a pretty story at times, certainly not by today’s standards, but few people in the American west lived a more eventful life than
It was a glorious, picture-perfect night for Willie Nelson’s triumphant return to Baylor University. Not that Willie has ever really been away. He may have resettled in Austin, but his roots and heart are still in the blackland prairie soil of Central Texas — nourished in the rich loam of countless honky-tonks and SPJST halls.
The Last Leaf on the Tree: Willie Nelson’s Triumphant Return to Baylor Read More »
Baylor University’s beloved origin story — how Texas’ oldest university, a scrappy little Baptist college in tiny Independence, overcame impossible odds, moved to Waco, and became one of America’s great institutions — conveniently glosses over the other significant factor in that transformation: Waco University. And while the larger-than-life presence of irascible, imperious Rufus C. Burleson
The School That Saved Baylor: Legacies of Waco University Read More »
William Sidney Graves was born on March 27, 1865, in Mount Calm, 24 miles northeast of Waco on old Highway 31. Before his death on February 27, 1940, he would experience several lifetimes’ worth of adventures, be called a revolutionary and a counter-revolutionary, see much of the world, and become the central figure in one
To say that Nellie and Miriam Buck were Baylor and Waco’s answer to Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan is to over-state the fact – but just barely. Few people of any era have overcome more and achieved more than the indomitable Buck sisters. Civil War veteran and lawyer Giddings Judson Buck and his with Mary
Baylor University’s legacy of filmmakers, screenwriters, playwrights, and actors is uncommonly rich and varied – John Lee Hancock, Kevin Reynolds, Derek Haas, Michael Brandt, Robert Askins, Mark Olsen, Carole “Cookie” Cook, Geoff Moore, Jordan Hearne, Maree Cheatham, Angela Kinsley, Clu Gulager, and so many others – but few have had a more intriguing path than
“The building of a better environment will require in the long term a citizenry that is both deeply concerned and fully informed. Thus, I believe that our educational system at all levels has a critical role to play.” – President Richard M. Nixon At age 91, Dr. Owen Lind still vividly remembers the cacophony of
Owen Lind and the Birth of Environmental Studies at Baylor Read More »
Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This Spring 1998 Classic explores the history of Waco Creek
In February 1973, the Rev. Jesse Jackson – not yet a household name, but a significant figure in the modern civil rights movement – undertook a speaking tour of Southern colleges. Jackson’s presence on that fateful Memphis hotel balcony the day his mentor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated had been the catalyst for
Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. In this November-December 1991 Classic article, Baylor students uncover a
The Baylor Line Foundation’s motto is, “There’s a story for every Baylor grad” and I believe it. But some stories don’t have a happy ending. Some stories don’t have an ending at all. This is one of those stories. I stumbled across a one-paragraph notice mentioning Helen A. McCullough in the July 21, 1944, edition
Helen A. McCullough: The Unfinished Story of One of the Angels of Anzio Beach Read More »
Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This November 1980 Classic article chronicles the ascent of
Great colleges have great art. In addition to the treasures at the Martin Museum of Art and in the Armstrong Browning Library, scattered throughout Baylor University’s campus are a handful of widely recognized classics. But what’s different about Baylor’s collection is that several of these paintings in particular have been hiding in plain sight–seen, yet
This story was originally published by The Baylor Line in 2020 as an e-book. My wife Mary and I encountered Dr. Robert C. Cloud right before a conference at Baylor. We’re both big fans of “RCC”; Mary considers him to be her mentor. As modest as ever, the whippet-thin man who was once the youngest
In its long history, who was Baylor’s first senior professor? Dorothy Scarborough? A. J. Armstrong? Paul Baker? Daniel Sternberg? Glenn Capp? Cornelia Marschall Smith? It was Dr. Luther Weeks Courtney, who taught in the English department for nearly 40 years. In 1954, President W.R. White conferred the newly created title of “Distinguished Professor” on Courtney
Since the Paul Baker era, the Baylor Theatre has always punched far above its weight on Broadway. From the beloved actor Carole “Cookie” Cook to Robert Askins’ award-winning dark comedy Hand to God, dozens of Bears have graced the stages of the Great White Way. Baker’s Baylor was a particularly rich and nurturing home for
Aenard “Ann” Compton left a remarkably small footprint during her life, much less during her time in Waco. Even so meticulous a researcher as Frank Jasek, who spent more than 11 years assembling his book, Soldiers of the Wooden Cross: Military Memorials, could only find a few facts about Compton. Jasek’s ambitious, beautiful book is
Throughout its long history, the Baylor University campus has been remarkably blessed, avoiding tornadoes, the worst impact of the regular Brazos River flooding, and the ravages of fire. Waco’s “other” university – and Baylor’s greatest rival – AddRan College was forced to leave Waco after a massive fire in March 1910 devastated the college’s primary
Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. From spring 2002, the Rev. Eric H. Hooker speaks about
During their brief tenure in Waco, artist Reynold Arnould and his wife, novelist and art critic Martha, were the most famous faculty members at Baylor University – and almost certainly the most glamorous. The Arnoulds brought international attention to the campus before the siren call of Paris eventually, perhaps inevitably, lured them back home. But
Walter Davis Gernand was born February 15, 1917, in Beaumont, Texas, the youngest of the three sons of Clarence A. and Catherine Perthuis Gernand. Julius “Julie” William (February 4, 1913) and Clarence “Bubba” James (October 17, 1914) rounded out the household at 1575 Emile St. All three Gernand brothers enrolled at Baylor University in the
The story of William Martin “Clu” Gulager’s journey, from tiny Holdenville, Okla., to becoming a star of beloved television series like The Virginian and films like The Killers and The Last Picture Show, would make a rip-snorting good movie itself. The son of vaudevillian/Broadway actor John Delancy Gulager, who left the stage to become a
From Shakespeare to Shoot-em-Ups: The Remarkable 70-Year Career of Clu Gulager Read More »
For a time in the 1950s, Baylor graduate John Paul Stapp was the holder of the land speed record and was as famous as Col. Chuck Yeager. Once featured on the cover of Time magazine, Stapp is considered the “Father of the Seat Belt” in the United States and is even credited with coining one
Col. John Paul Stapp: There Was Much More Than Speed to the Fastest Man on Earth Read More »
In fall 1957, just 5’9” weighing only 129 pounds Theodore Otto “Ted” Uhlaender journeyed from McAllen to Waco and asked to try-out for the baseball team. As a non-scholarship walk-on, he led the freshman team in hitting. By his junior year, Uhlaender was one of the Southwest Conference’s leading hitters, batting a sizzling .365. Ted was all-Southwest Conference in baseball three times. After graduating, it wasn’t long before he began an eight-year major league career with the Twins, Cleveland Indians, and ending with the Cincinnati Reds.
Baylor’s most awarded professor gives his advice to a new class of faculty: “If you’ll do those things, you’ll experience what Baylor professors have discovered for the past 178 years. More than anything you ever do or write or say, your greatest reward, your greatest fulfillment will come from the lives you have been privileged to touch every single day.”
Despite all obstacles, the war correspondent was devoted to getting the story and relentless in following it to the end.
Her untimely death meant the world might never truly know her. Until now…
In February and March of 1941, Julius “Jules” Bledsoe might have been the biggest name to visit the Baylor University campus. Bledsoe’s upcoming appearance in Waco Hall on March 13 merited a front-page story in The Lariat, trumpeting the singer’s many accomplishments, calling him “one of the greatest concert and opera singers of the present
Judge McCall was president when I arrived at Baylor in 1972. I never spoke to him, though the door to his office in Pat Neff Hall was always open. I never attended one of his weekly “open” lunches at the old snack bar in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. But like every
