The 2026 Littlefield Lecture
“Undefeated & Rediscovered: Bringing Back the 1914 Texas Longhorns and their World“
DATE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
TIME: 3pm
PLACE: The University of Texas Tito’s Club
A reception will follow the lecture and Q&A
All are welcome to attend, UT Club Membership is not required
Presented by The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center, The Kinesiology & Health Education Department, and The University of Texas Tito’s Club
On Friday, September 11, the Stark Center is honored to partner with The University of Texas Tito’s Club to host the 2026 Littlefield Lecture. This year’s featured speaker is Charles Kupfer, a professor of American studies and history at Penn State Harrisburg. He is the author of Indomitable Will: Turning Defeat into Victory, from Pearl Harbor to Midway and Something Magic: The Baltimore Orioles, 1979-1983, among other titles.
Kupfer’s latest book, Varsity, The Undefeated 1914 Texas Longhorns, is a compelling historical narrative about the University’s national-championship-winning football team and their remarkable season, in which they outscored opponents 358-21. But, life goes on after football.
The roster of men affiliated with the team became a veritable “who’s who” in Texas history. Notable figures include: Clyde Littlefield, Louis Jordan, K. L. Berry, Ray Keck, Len Barrell, and Gus “Pig” Dittmar. Fifteen men earned varsity letters as members of the football team that year. Nearly half of them (7) have been selected for the Longhorn Hall of Honor. More, if you include head coach David Allerdice, trainer and future baseball coach Billy Disch, and “Doc” Henry Reeves, an African-American athletic trainer who provided medical care to the football players between 1895 and 1915.
John H. Keck, grandson of 1914 championship team member Ray Keck co-authored Varsity. He is a retired banker and collects antiquarian books and historical documents. He resides in Laredo, Texas. Keck recently visited the Stark Center and delivered his grandfather’s T-Sweater currently on loan for display in an exhibit about the 1914 Football Team and the team blankets purchased by Lutcher Stark that, for the first time in the history of Texas Athletics, featured an image of a Longhorn.
Learn more about the 1914 Football Team in Gustav “Pig” Dittmar’s Scrapbook:
In 1917, when Gustav Charles Dittmar graduated from UT and entered the First Officer’s Training Camp in San Antonio, he left behind four years of fascinating memories. There were the tough games against Notre Dame and A&M, the intense training camps in San Marcos, the relaxation of Barton Springs and the comradery of fraternity parties. And, he left behind a fantastic record of those years, in the form of this thoughtfully compiled scrapbook. The Dittmar Scrapbook gives us a small, but wonderful, window to look upon the Texas collegiate world of 1913-1917. Here you’ll find startling action photographs of rough football games, candid shots of team members enjoying an outing to Marble Falls, guileless photos of girlfriends, and newspaper clippings narrating the story of UT football.
Official Event Flyer:
