100 Day Countdown: 1927 Texas Longhorn Football Team (Deep Dish Pizza Is Born!)

[Blake Munroe]

We are officially 100 days away from Texas Football.

So starting today, and every day from here until kickoff, we’re going to take a look back at the Texas team that matches the countdown number. Today, that means the 1927 Texas Longhorns.

The 1927 team finished 6-2-1 in Clyde Littlefield’s first season as head coach. Texas outscored opponents 164-73, opened the year with a defense-led 103-12 scoring edge over its first five games, posted three shutouts, and held six of nine opponents to seven points or fewer.

There are some pretty cool nuggets with this team, too.

1. Texas shut out a John Heisman-coached team.
Rice’s head coach in 1927 was John W. Heisman, and Texas beat Rice 27–0. Heisman retired from coaching after the 1927 season; the trophy that now bears his name was renamed in his honor in 1936.

2. One of Texas’ 1927 All-SWC players helped create Chicago deep-dish pizza.
Ike Sewell, Texas’ All-SWC guard, later became a successful Chicago businessman and is credited by Texas Athletics with creating Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. That’s your social media banger: “A Texas Longhorn lineman helped invent deep-dish pizza.”

3. This was right before Texas’ “true burnt orange” uniform history.
Texas Athletics notes Sewell later started on the 1928 team that first wore true burnt orange, meaning the 1927 team sits right before that uniform-history milestone.

4. They played in a still-new Memorial Stadium.
The stadium had been dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1924 to honor the 198,520 Texans who fought in World War I and the 5,280 who died. So the 1927 team was playing in the early years of what eventually became DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.

5. The season ended against a monster A&M team.
Texas A&M finished 8–0–1, won the SWC, outscored opponents 262–32, and beat Texas 28–7 on Thanksgiving at Kyle Field.

The Schedule:

[Blake Munroe]