Classic Football Charts
Original National Championship Games Charts
Your connection to the classic games in football history!

History of Football Charting

A group of University of Texas architectural students began charting “away” Longhorn football games in the early 1930’s on fall Saturday afternoons at the UT architectural building while listening to the games over the radio. Austinite Karl Kamrath was one of this group.

After college, when Kamrath was stationed in Fort Sam Houston as Base Engineer during WWII, he regularly listened to and charted UT games, both home and away. Upon returning to Houston in 1945, he began teaching his oldest son, Karl Jr., how to chart, and by the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Karl Jr. and youngest son, “Jackie,” were also charting many of the Longhorn games from their home in Houston.

Jack Kamrath remembers charting his first UT game in 1949 versus Rice at the age of eight in his grandparents’ home on W. 6th street in Austin. It was a sellout game, and Jackie could not get a ticket. UT lost this memorable Rice game, 17-15, on Froggie Williams’ last minute field goal.

Karl Sr. and the two boys continued charting Longhorn games into the mid and late 1950’s. By that time, college football on television became enormously popular, starting with the 1952 Rose Bowl game (Illinois vs. Stanford).

When great games and rivalries previously heard on the radio could be viewed on a television screen, fans were mesmerized. Great grid-iron battles from all over the country became fascinating to watch. And if a Texas game was being played at the same time as a big national “game of the week” on TV, fans could watch one game on TV and listen to the other on the radio at the same time. In a short period of time, charting among the boys gave way to the ubiquitous television and the Saturday TV games.

When Texas’ first Rose Bowl invitation arrived in 2004 and UT was to play its first ever game against Michigan, Jack Kamrath realized that it was a game that should have a permanent, physical, play-by-play chart. Furthermore, the game matched two of the three top college football programs (by wins). Michigan, Notre Dame, and Texas were the first, second, and third rated college football programs in the country based on total victories at that time.

After Texas won this incredibly exciting game, 38-37 as time expired, Kamrath sent framed copies of the chart to a few good friends, Coaches Mack Brown and Darrell Royal, and Athletic Director Deloss Dodds in Austin as well as to the 2005 Rose Bowl President, Dave Davis. Comments from some of the recipients as to the detail and unique qualities of the chart were extremely positive and enthusiastic.

As a result of the 2005 Rose Bowl and numerous additional requests for a copy of that game chart, Kamrath currently makes other select classic football charts available to football fans as a rare, one-time opportunity.