ROTAN -- Despite the fame Sammy Baugh earned on the football field, his funeral Monday focused on other aspects of his life.
Absent was any memorabilia from a career that included two All-American seasons and a national championship at TCU, or his 16 seasons with the Washington Redskins that produced two NFL championships, a number of entries in the team and league record books and inclusion in the charter class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Rather, Baugh's casket was draped with the saddle and chaps that he used in working the ranch that was his home for nearly seven decades, and he was carried to his grave site in a horse-drawn wagon.
Baugh, 94, died Wednesday after several years of declining health.
The bulletin for the service, held at Rotan's First Baptist Church, also made no mention of Baugh's athletic exploits, which first gained notice during his high school days at Sweetwater and included a short stint as a professional baseball player in the St. Louis Cardinals' minor-league system. It's inscription read simply: "He was a pretty good cowman."
"When he came back to the ranch, football was never really mentioned unless somebody else mentioned it," said son David Baugh, who spent 34 years as a high school coach, including 13 at Snyder, before retiring after the 2000 season to run the ranch. "He was there seeing what was going on with the ranch, what the cattle looked like and what the horses were doing. We were just ordinary country folks."
And that's the way Baugh -- just Sam to those closest to him, including his children and grandchildren -- tried to live his life. Even though he spent 15 years in coaching, including five seasons as head coach at Hardin-Simmons following his playing days, the spread between Rotan and Aspermont that Baugh purchased in 1941 was where he wanted to be.
"Sam never sought the special attention that he received from athletics," David Baugh said. "He just wanted to be an ordinary person. That's how he approached people. He treated people really like what he would want to be treated.
"If you wanted to stop and visit with Sam, you were important to him. He would spend time talking to anybody. He'd make a perfect stranger feel welcome just by his personality. People liked being around him and he just wanted to be looked at as one of the guys."
Rotan resident Scott Toliver learned that firsthand as a teenager more than 20 years ago. Toliver was working on the roof of the Baugh home one hot summer day when Baugh's wife, Edmonia, who died in 1990, called him inside for a cold drink and a sandwich. Toliver said he was amazed when Baugh invited him to look at a few mementos from his career.
"I really didn't know he was a football player," Toliver said. "He showed me all these trophies on his wall. I said, 'Goshamighty, this is a great guy.' That was one of the most enjoyable things, seeing him."
Not that his career went entirely unmentioned. A highlight video was shown to start the service, which included representatives from many of the teams Baugh played and coached for. Among those on hand were Bob Hyde, vice president of community relations for the Tennessee Titans (Baugh spent two seasons as an assistant and one as head coach for the Houston Oilers), and Sweetwater High School seniors Josh Ross and Matt Hord.
Even as a rancher, Baugh enjoyed competition, anything from dominoes to calf roping to golf.
Bob O'Day, a longtime friend and golfing partner, got to know another side of Baugh, that of a man willing to help anyone in need. The two started the Sammy Baugh Celebrity Tournament, which raised scholarship money that allowed 57 students to complete their degrees.
"Organizations, charities ... you can't believe the number of things Sam signed for fundraisers," O'Day said. "We had probably 60 good celebrities come in during the five years we had that, and they all wanted to come because of Sam. They were a lot of his friends that he knew back in his college days and pro days.
"It was pretty much a Hall of Fame list, pretty much from Texas. Darrell Royal came, and E.J. Holub, Walt Garrison, Don Maynard, Donnie Anderson, Dave Parks, Cornell Green. Johnny Vaught came one time. He played at TCU and coached at Ole Miss for years and the stadium's named after him. The list goes on and on.
"They wanted to see Sam, and Sam had a great time seeing them. It was great because we raised money for kids to go to college."
Baugh helped countless others receive college educations during his stint at Hardin-Simmons, which hired him as an assistant almost as soon as he retired from playing after the 1952 season.
"The thing that jumps out at me is they're not telling football stories or (talking about) his accomplishments as a football player," David Baugh said, "but what he meant to them as a person, how he helped them out.
"Some gentlemen that played for him at Hardin-Simmons talked to me about how they were some of the first people in their family that could go to college because Sam gave them that opportunity. When they went, then some other people in their family were able to do the same thing."
Among those former players, more than a dozen of whom were in attendance Monday, was Claude Dollins.
"He helped break the poverty cycle and educational cycle for so many of us," said Dollins, who served as HSU captain in 1963 and now heads The Dollins Group in Dallas. "I was the first one out of my family to go to college, and for four guys I'm with, it's the same story.
"The way he recruited us was the most amazing thing in the world. Nobody had a (guaranteed scholarship), but I did. I went in and said I had to have one. The athletic director was typing it out and he put in one year. I looked over at Coach Baugh and said, 'I thought you said four years.' He said, 'Hell, it doesn't make any difference. Six, eight, 10, 12, if you don't play, you ain't going to be here anyway.' His saying was, 'If you don't play, you don't stay.'"
David Baugh said his father never sought recognition for any good deeds.
"There's no telling how many people Sam helped right out of his own pocket," he said. "He never asked for anything in return and didn't expect anything in return. As far as he was concerned, it was just a deal between himself and whoever he was helping. It wasn't anybody else's business."
Another trait was his refusal to capitalize on his name in an age when professional athletes regularly command hefty sums for autograph sessions.
"I had a guy call me and say he knew some area people who were big-name athletes and they wanted you to know they were big-name athletes, but not Sam Baugh," David Baugh said. "He was very humble and he just wanted to be one of the people, one of the guys."
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