T. L. Bayne

T. L. Bayne
Sport(s) Football and baseball
Biographical details
Born July 25, 1865
Died August 31, 1934 (aged 69)
Playing career
1884 Yale
Position(s) Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1893
1893
1895

Baseball
1894–1895
Tulane
LSU (assistant)
Tulane


Tulane
Head coaching record
Overall 4–4 (football)

Statistics

Thomas Levingston Bayne, Jr. (July 25, 1865 – August 31, 1934) was an American football player, coach of football and baseball, and attorney. He served as the first head football coach at Tulane University in 1893 and returned for a second season in 1895. Bayne was responsible for helping to introduce the sport of football to the city of New Orleans with an inter-club game in 1892.[1] In 1893, he helped establish the intercollegiate program at Louisiana State University.[2] He also coached the baseball team at Tulane for two seasons.

Early life

A native of New Orleans, Bayne was born the son of Thomas Levingston Bayne, a reputable lawyer of the city, former Confederate Army lieutenant colonel, and son-in-law of Alabama governor John Gayle.[3][4] The younger Bayne attended Yale University and graduated as a member of the Class of 1887.[5] In 1884, he played on the Yale football team as a quarterback.[5] In 1888, Bayne joined his father's law firm, Denègre & Bayne.[4]

On December 31, 1892, Bayne and his brother, Hugh Aiken Bayne, organized the Southern Club to play a football game against a club from Birmingham, Alabama at Audubon Park in New Orleans.[1] The Southern Club won, 6–0, before a crowd of 2,000 spectators in cold and rainy conditions.[4]

Tulane

Tulane's first football team was coached by Bayne in 1893.

In 1893, he coached Tulane's first intercollegiate football team to a 1–2 record.[6] That season, he arranged for his team to play Louisiana State on November 25 at Sportsman's Park in New Orleans.[2] It was the initial season of football for LSU, and he made several trips to Baton Rouge to assist chemistry professor Charles E. Coates coach a team of cadets.[2][7] Before the game, Bayne discovered that Coates was not available for the contest.[8] Bayne agreed to coach both teams, and also handled ticket sales, construction of the goal posts, and officiating duties.[8] He was compensated with a green umbrella.[7][8] Tulane won, 34–0,[6] which prompted the Chicago Daily Tribune to remark in 1955 that "Bayne's Tulane team whipped Bayne's L. S. U. team."[9]

From 1894 to 1895, Bayne coached the Tulane baseball team alongside Jack Dowling.[10] After a one year hiatus in which Fred Sweet coached the football team, Bayne returned to take the helm for the 1895 season. He coached Tulane to a 3–2 record, and finished his tenure with a final record of 4–4.[6] That year, he also served as the team captain of the Southern Club.[11]

He died on August 31, 1934 and is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Football reigns in the Big Easy, NewOrleans.com, August 4, 2009.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Football memories, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), August 30, 1987.
  3. ↑ Collection Number: 01101; Collection Title: Bayne and Gayle Family Papers, 1798-1963, The Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina, retrieved December 3, 2010.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ned Hémard, Football In New Orleans New Year’s Day, 1890 (PDF), New Orleans Bar Association, 2008.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Parke H. Davis, Football, the American Intercollegiate Game, Volume 3, p. 263, C. Scribner's Sons, 1911.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 T.L. Bayne Records by Year, College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved December 2, 2010.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Doug Lennox, Now You Know Football, p. 101, Dundurn Press Ltd., 2009, ISBN 1-55488-453-5.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Floyd Connor, Football's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of the Great Game's Outrageous Characters, Fortunate Fumbles, and Other Oddities, p. 183, Brassey's, 2000.
  9. ↑ In the WAKE of the NEWS, The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 1, 1955.
  10. ↑ S. Derby Gisclair, Baseball at Tulane University, p. 7, Arcadia Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0-7385-4208-3.
  11. ↑ Outing, Volume 25, p. 59, Outing Pub. Co., 1895.
  12. ↑ Thomas L. Bayne, Find a Grave, April 16, 2003.