Salute Gen. James Earl Rudder for the Best Decision Ever

If World War II had never taken place, it's conceivable that James Earl Rudder could have been hired as the head football coach at Texas A&M. After all, Rudder, a 1930 graduate of A&M, had already earned his first collegiate head coaching job at John Tarleton Agricultural College (now Tarleton State) by the time he was 28 in 1938.

Perhaps Rudder could have succeeded Homer Norton as head coach in Aggieland in 1948 instead of Harry Stiteler, who "led" A&M to its only winless season in school history and lasted only three years in College Station. Perhaps Rudder could have prevented A&M from falling upon such unfortunate football times, as the Aggies were just 28–56 –7 from 1946–54.

Maybe Rudder, with his legendary leadership skills, would have been so successful at his alma mater that the Aggies would have never needed to lure Paul "Bear" Bryant from Kentucky.

We'll never know, as World War II did occur, and Rudder became one of the most revered military heroes of the D-Day invasion. As commander and trainer of the Second Ranger Battalion, Rudder's Rangers stormed the beach at Pointe du Hoc and, under constant enemy fire, scaled 100' cliffs to reach and destroy German gun batteries. The perilous mission resulted in a higher than 50 percent casualty rate, and Rudder was wounded twice during the fighting.

He later became Texas Land Commissioner and served as the 16th president of Texas A&M from 1959 until his death in March 1970.

He never officially coached a game for A&M. But he certainly deserves the top spot in any book that documents, celebrates, or pays homage to the evolution of Aggie football. For that matter, Texas A&M wouldn't be Texas A&M as we know it today without Rudder's ground-breaking influence and leadership.

During Rudder's administration, the university doubled its enrollment, expanded its research programs, and improved academic and faculty standards. And one extremely controversial Rudder decision laid the groundwork for future growth and — among other things — athletic success, as Rudder transformed the university by making the military requirement optional and opening admission to women.

Until Rudder's landmark decision in the mid-1960s, A&M was all male, all military, and all but forgotten in the minds of most prospective students and student-athletes in Texas. By 1962, for example, A&M's enrollment barely topped 8,000, as high school students throughout the region chose instead to seek admission to coeducational state universities such as Texas, Texas Tech, and Houston.

Rudder could envision an increasingly bleak future for the university, and instead of allowing his alma mater to dwindle into obscurity, he forced radical changes during the recess of an Association of Former Students (AFS) board meeting on January 25, 1964. According to Homer Jacobs' book, The Pride of Aggieland, it was on that day that Rudder approached John Lindsey, president of the AFS board, and handed him a torn piece of paper with a handwritten note that essentially stated, "Admit women on a full-scale basis."

Although the wives of students and daughters of A&M faculty had been allowed to take courses since the college's earliest days, the idea of a full-fledged coeducational institution had been fought vigorously by students and former students for generations. Lindsey knew the note Rudder had handed him would likely whip the attendees into a volatile frenzy. Nevertheless, Lindsey made his announcement.

"Gen. Rudder gave me a resolution to admit women all the way," Lindsey said to the group following the recess. "He wants it and needs it. Gentlemen, this is the best thing for our university — and now I'm going to call on a vote."

Lindsey later described the scene to Homer Jacobs: "I said, 'Those in favor say aye,' and there were some ayes. I then said, 'All opposed say no,' and there were a lot of them. But I said, 'The ayes have it,' and that was that. Many of the men were yelling for another voice vote or ballot vote, but I refused."

With that "vote," Rudder had all he needed for the board of directors to provide the green light to admitting women. At first, the growth of the female student population was extremely slow, but by 1974–75,...