Warren Brooks Woodson (1903–1998)

Texas native Warren B. Woodson was an innovative basketball and football coach who coached at Arkansas State Teachers College (ASTC), now the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway (Faulkner County). During his time at ASTC, his teams won eleven Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC) championships: four in basketball, four in football, two in track, and one in baseball. He was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.

Warren Brooks Woodson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 24, 1903, the only child of William Warren Woodson and Jeanette Woodson. While attending school in Fort Worth, he participated in basketball, football, and tennis. After his graduation in 1920, he enrolled at Baylor University, where he played basketball and tennis, becoming one of the state’s top players in tennis. In 1924, he graduated from Baylor with a degree in Bible and history.

Pursuing his life goal of being an athletic coach, he enrolled at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. The college was well known for producing successful coaches such as Amos Alonzo Stagg and the inventor of basketball, James Naismith.

After graduating from Springfield in 1926, he secured his first coaching job. At Texarkana Junior College in Texarkana, Texas, he coached football, basketball, track, and baseball from 1927 to 1934. He also coached three teams at the local high school. During his eight years at the college, his football team won an average of seven games a season. He married Muriel Young in 1928, and they had one daughter.

In 1935, Woodson came to Arkansas to be the head coach at Arkansas State Teachers College. By the time he left the college six seasons later, he was one of the most successful coaches in school history. Woodson-coached football teams had two undefeated seasons and won the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championships in 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1940. His second team was invited to the school’s first ever post-season game, the Charity Bowl played in Los Angeles, California, where ASTC was defeated by Fresno State by a single point. Woodson’s overall record in Conway was 40–8–3. He also coached the college basketball team to four conference championships in 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940, with an overall record of 114–40 for six seasons. He also coached the baseball team for one season to a 10–4 record and the track team to two AIC championships.

In 1941, Woodson returned to Texas as the head coach of Hardin Simmons University. Woodson won fifteen games during his first two seasons, going undefeated in 1942 and earning a trip to the 1943 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. When Hardin Simmons was defeated by the Air Force team in the bowl game, they were without Woodson, as he had been called to active duty in the U.S. Navy in late 1942 during World War II. As a lieutenant commander, he served as a stateside physical training officer for three years.

At the end of the war, Woodson returned to his coaching duties at Hardin Simmons. In 1946, he successfully restarted a program that had been suspended during the war years. In the first postwar season, Woodson led the 1946 team to a perfect 11–0 record. They finished the season with a victory over Denver University in the Alamo Bowl. The following year, the team won eight games, including a victory over San Diego State in the Harbor Bowl. Though winning only four games in 1948, the team still participated in three bowl games. They played to a tie with Pacific in the Grape Bowl, defeated Ouachita Baptist in the Shrine Bowl, and defeated Wichita State in the Camellia Bowl. Hardin Simmons continued its winning seasons over the next three years but not at the level achieved in past years. During his time at the school, he posted a 57–23–7 record.

The 1951 season was Woodson’s last at Hardin Simmons. His success on the field had caught the attention of larger schools, and at the end of the 1951 season, he accepted the head coaching position at the University of Arizona. Woodson was not able to duplicate his success on a larger stage, however. During his five years at Arizona, he was able to post only three winning seasons; he also had an adversarial relationship with the fans and administration at the university. After a defeat by in-state rival Arizona State in 1956, he was relieved as football coach and assigned other duties. He finished his coaching position at Arizona with a 26–22–2 record. Woodson remained at the university for just one more year.

In 1958, New Mexico A&M (now New Mexico State University) hired Woodson as the head football coach and athletic director. By his second season he posted a winning record and a Sun Bowl victory over North Texas State. The following year, his Aggies went 11–0, including a Sun Bowl victory over Utah State. The Aggies closed out the season ranked seventeenth in the nation, and Woodson was named Small College Coach of the Year.

In 1961, the New Mexico State football program was charged with violating National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recruiting regulations. When the program was found guilty of admissions irregularities and paying players, the school was placed on three years of probation. The football program, though continuing to play a regular season, was banned from NCAA championship competition and invitational events. During the three years of probation, the team twice finished with losing seasons. The team recovered from probation by winning twenty-two games in the three years after probation.

Once again, Woodson’s relationship with the university administration was strained. With the mandatory retirement age at New Mexico being sixty-five, an effort was begun to force Woodson into retirement. Woodson, who was to turn sixty-five the next February, resisted but ultimately stepped down at the end of 1967. The New Mexico administration intended for Woodson to become a consultant to the football team; however, Woodson had other plans.

Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, hired Woodson as coach and athletic director for the 1972 season. Trinity went 8–2 that year and won the Southland Conference championship. There had been a movement at Trinity to de-emphasize sports before Woodson arrived. To cut costs, the university administration voted to offer no new football scholarships starting with the 1973 season. Woodson stayed at Trinity for his second season, but after its conclusion he left the school. He briefly became a consultant at New Mexico Highlands University before retiring in the late 1970s.

In 1977, he wrote a well-received book, Victory Offense: The Complete Football Coaching Manual. He was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1979, the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981, the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame in 1989, and the University of Central Arkansas Hall of Fame in 2001.

Woodson died on February 22, 1998, and is buried in Restland Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.

For additional information:
Hines, Walter. “A Genius for Football: Coach Warren Woodson.” Southern New Mexico Historical Review 19 (2013): 27–36. Online at http://www.donaanacountyhistsoc.org/HistoricalReview/2013/WarrenWoodsonHistoricalReview2013.pdf (accessed December 19, 2024).

“Warren Brooks Woodson.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102429395/warren-brooks-woodson (accessed December 19, 2024).

“Warren Woodson.” National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame. https://footballfoundation.org/honors/hall-of-fame/warren-woodson/1610 (accessed December 19, 2024).

Mike Polston
CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas