On September 27, 1958, the Houston Cougars buried the Aggies “under a five-touchdown avalanche,” as The Houstonian reported. The 39-7 Rice Stadium thrashing was the biggest one-sided score in school history up to that point. UH ran for 258 yards while holding the Aggies to 101.
“They just whipped the hell out of us,” A&M’s All-SWC end John Tracey said. “They run over you, particularly me. They didn’t need two men to block me, just one.”
Texas A&M scored first, early in the second quarter, on an 11-play, 36-yard drive. They never got in the end zone again. Houston QB Lonnie Holland tied the game before Don Brown gave UH the lead for good. UH played reserves for much of the second half. The Cougars scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to turn a comfortable win into a rout.
“The whole ball club played like a real team,” halfback Claude King said after a 90-yard night. “I really had the blocking all night. All I had to do was run.”
“A&M had a balanced ball club,” right tackle Hogan Wharton said. “Their defense played into our hands. We had the right angles for all our blocking up front.” Wharton was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 1974.
Head coach Hal Lahar was very pleased with his team’s season-opening win.
“You probably know better than I do about what happened out there tonight. The kids really played a great ball game. I think the line did a fine job for us.” QB Lonnie Holland agreed.
“Boy, I’d come up to that line and they’d fire out perfectly,” Holland said.
Among the 65,000 in attendance were 6,200 high school band members, who performed at halftime.
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