Title of Book: Twelve Mighty Orphans
Author: Jim Dent
ISBN Number: 0312308728
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Genre/Market: Sports
Publication Date: November 7, 2006
Book Length: 256 Pages
Price: $ 24.95 (Paperback)
Rating Very Good
Jim Dent’s amazing story of the Masonic Lodge orphanage football team during the 1930s is an underdog story that is as entertaining as it is inspirational. This amazing tale begins with the arrival of Coach Rusty Russell at the home in 1927. Russell, who would gain prominence as the coach of the Southern Methodist University team in the 50s first deployed his brand of innovative high-flying offense with the scrawny football players of the Masonic Orphanage. His offensive game plans were decades ahead of their time and enabled a team composed of a dozen orphans to be not only competitive, but one of the dominant high school football teams of Texas high school football in the 1930s.
At times Dent’s book may be a little heavy on the details, but many of the details are fascinating (who knew that allegedly General Sam Houston did not execute capture Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna?) and give the characters of the story depth and dimension that is so often lacking in sports books. A decade and a half produces quite a few high school football players, even for a team that only dressed twelve team members for its games, and at times it can be difficult to keep up with who everyone is. Before you know it, however, you are caught up with the rest of the state of Texas and large portions of the country rooting on those pesky little orphans who just keep beating the big boys of Dallas, Fort Worth, Abilene and most of the rest of the Lone Star state.
Despite a lack of equipment, finances, assistant coaches, or even a team bus the “Mighty Mites” as they were known spent the better part of a decade towering above the competition. Game after game these young men loaded up into the back of a beat up old blue pickup and rode to the game, emerging victorious a mind-boggling 81% of the team under Russell. Many of the members of the Masonic Lodge’s teams who played under Russell went on to military service in World War II, long and successful lives, and a few even made their mark in the NFL. The mark that was made on Russell and his boys was so indelible that for the rest of theirs lives many would look on their experience during those dusty, depressing days of the 1930s as the greatest time of their lives.
Time after time these amazing boys overcame tremendous adversity in their personal lives and on the field. They fought grief, each other, other teams, and anybody else who dared to get in their way. They were truly Twelve Mighty Orphans, and their story is one that deserves to be read not just by football fans or Texans, but by all who like seeing the little guy triumph.
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