
Prior to the 2018 season, Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp made national headlines when he presented A&M head football coach Jimbo Fisher with a national championship plaque that had question marks for a date.
Any Aggie football fan wanting to one-up the head coach will have the opportunity to own an actual A&M championship keepsake.
A rare 1939 “Texas Aggies National Champions” banner will be available for purchase as a part of an estate auction of the late Dr. Jack Marsh Jr. of Bryan. on Oct. 5 and 6.
The approximately three-foot by two-foot banner features Reveille in the center, surrounded by the scores of each one of the Aggies 11 consecutive wins in route to the Associated Press national title nod.
Only three other banners like it are known to exist, auctioneer Buck Buchanan said. One is owned by the A&M, another is in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco and the third is held by a private owner in New York. None are in as good of condition as the Marsh banner, Buchanan said.
“We were setting up to do the estate for them, and I came across it and was overwhelmed by it,” he continued.
Buchanan said he nor Marsh’s widow, Frances, knew the origin of the banner or how it was obtained by Marsh.
An A&M athletics spokesperson said, while they had seen a similar banner before, they were unaware of the history of the banner.
According to Buchanan and Marsh’s obituary, the Brazos Valley native would have first enrolled at A&M around the time of the national championship season. He left the university to serve in World War II as a part of the Texas Battalion D and returned to finish his degree in 1942. While at A&M, Marsh played for the Aggie polo team and helped begin the A&M skeet shooting team.
During this time, Marsh’s father, Dr. Jack Marsh Sr., was the campus physician for the university.
After completing his medical degree at the University of Texas, Marsh returned to Bryan to open a family medical practice in the community. He died Dec. 21, 2013.
Among the items to be auctioned is Marsh’s maroon “Texas Battalion D AMC” sweater, his polo mallet and a record from the same era, which features the “Aggie War Hymn” and “The Spirit of Aggieland.”
Doors open for the auction, which takes place at 8691 Old Reliance Road, at 8 a.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday. More information can be found on the Buchanan’s website, corneroftime.com.
Maybe, the emergence of this fourth championship banner might bring a little luck to the current edition of the Aggie football team, Buchanan mentioned with a grin. However, the real name of the game for Buchanan and Frances Marsh is finding a loving home for such valuable pieces of A&M history.
“That’s part of what’s warming her heart is making it available to other people that appreciate it and will want to carry the baton further in another generation or two and protect these items and I think that is wonderful,” Buchanan said.
2019-09-30 05:00:00Z
https://www.theeagle.com/aggie_sports/rare-texas-a-m-national-title-banner-up-for-auction/article_609f1aa6-e34d-11e9-8d7b-179b031b55ed.html
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