Caprock Chronicles remembers Lubbock coaching legend Weldon Bailey Chapman - lubbockonline.com

According to a Caprock Chronicles piece written by Lubbock Christian University Professor Sam Ayers, Chapman drew his last breath following the last play of that contest. It's the kind of story that sounds too dramatic to be true, yet there it is, locked into the city's football history.

Chapman was born March 26, 1902, in Nevada, Texas, to Robert and Lyde Jean Chapman. He went on to become a coaching figure significant enough that Caprock Chronicles, the history column edited by Texas Tech Librarian Emeritus Jack Becker, dedicated a full feature to his memory decades after his death.

For people here who grew up rooting for Lubbock High, this is a reminder of how deep the roots of West Texas football actually run. Chapman did not die in a hospital or at home. He died on the field, in the middle of a win, in the town he coached in.

The 1939 Armistice Day Classic was meant to honor veterans, and instead it became the day Lubbock lost its coach at the final whistle.