Despite the trials of this season, if you are a Lion, you always have reason to feel proud of your roots, especially in football. Football is the prime sport here in Texas, but it is more than just about Football, it is about both fans and players alike remembering the great and deep rooted tradition of Lion football, and 70 years ago, a team that was much in the style of the great Lion teams of yesteryear; tough, talented, well coached, and good. VERY GOOD.

In Milburn Smith’s 3rd and final season at ET, he had already won 20 games, two Lone Star Conference Championships, and his 1952 team went undefeated, and defeated Tennessee Tech 33-0 in the De-facto NCAA Minor College Championship Game, the Tangerine Bowl. Few had any notion that Smith was headed anywhere heading into the 1953 season, but the ’53 Lions had not tasted defeat in almost 2 years. They had much the same opponents to face, would they be able to get an extra bowl of Tangerines?

The Lions started out by squeezing by two tough opponents, Abilene Christian 28-27 and Trinity 20-19. They easily handled Southwestern Louisiana 41-7 and Lamar 32-13. They defeated Chattanooga 19-7, and then the conference reign of terror picked up right where left off from the previous year. ET started with a 32-6 win over Sam Houston, and then official record was set on Homecoming with an 80-0 win over Northwestern Oklahoma 80-0 (The 2019 Lions defeated Seccion Nuevo Leon 83-0, but this does not count as an official NCAA win as SNL was not a member of the NAIA or NCAA.) Stephen F Austin was next up and the Lions were the ones cutting trees in the form of a 39-0 win in Commerce. The Lions finished up the season with two tough games, defeating Southwest Texas 40-19 and then closing out with a 27-7 win over Sul Ross State in Alpine. That had pushed a record of 29 straight wins from 1951-1953 for the Lion program. Their undefeated regular season gave them a second straight invite to the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando.

The 1954 Tangerine Bowl saw a crowd of over 12,300 flow into Orlando’s Tangerine Bowl Stadium. The Indians of Arkansas State came ready for Catfish Smith’s powerful Lion offense, snuffing out Draws and flares that were what gave the potent Lion offense it’s fuel. State also scored first as Ark. State QB Bobby Spann connected with James Turley to put The Indians up 7-0. The Lion offense was woeful but with 9 minutes left in the game, the offense under the command of future Blue Gang Defense architect Bobby Fox, marched 61 yards on 9 plays and Fullback Billy Ray Norris plunged in from 1 yard out to put the Lions of ET on the board. The conversion was good, and it appeared the Lions had all the momentum. The next Indian drive saw a stalled drive and shanked punt that put the ball at the ET 46 yard line with just over 3 minutes to go. The Lions worked their way closer and closer to victory, but on second down at the 24 yard line, Fox’s pass was picked off and Arkansas State ran it back to their own 44 yard line. The Indians tried to score but only went backwards. When the final gun sounded, it was the second tie in Tangerine Bowl history, and the 29 game winning streak, the longest in the nation, came to an end.

The Lions of that year had nothing to be ashamed over. Jim Gray and Bruno Ashley repeated as All-Americans while Guy Broussard, Madison Knight, and George Riley joined Gray on the LSC first team. George Hartman and Judd Ramsey were on the LSC Second Team, and Bob Lundy and Jerry Lytle were LSC Honorable Mention.

It was Milburn Smith’s final year in Commerce. Despite his immense success in Commerce, Smith decided to return to East Texas in Longview as he took the head coaching job at Longview High, but would eventually return to the coaching ranks in college. His winning percentage of 92 % is still the record for Lion football coaches and is likely to never be broken.