pproft
 |   posted 7:32a, 05/31/09   
Does anyone know when the domino game 42 was first played at Texas A&M, e.g., the year and other pertinent information?
[This message has been edited by pproft (edited 6/2/2009 3:14p).]
[This message has been edited by pproft (edited 6/3/2009 9:47p).]
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Pro Sandy
  |  posted 8:28a, 05/31/09
oddly enough, i found a website that had a short write up on the history of 42. It did not mention anything about A&M.
http://texas42.net/beerdaddy42-hist.html
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CanyonAg77
| posted 9:14a, 05/31/09
Was being played at the Dixie Chicken back in the late 70s. But I suspect it had been around campus for much longer.
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pproft
| posted 10:21a, 05/31/09
Re texas42.net/scenario1887.html#contributions. Forty-two (42) was played at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas in 1896, twenty years after Texas A&M was founded. I would think 42 was played at Texas A&M prior to 1896; however, no documentation has surfaced to support the supposition. - Paul Proft, webmaster, Texas42.net
[This message has been edited by pproft (edited 5/31/2009 10:28a).]
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Texas42Club
|  posted 8:58a, 06/01/09
The game was invented circa 1887. I am sure it would be hard for it to have been played anywhere before then.
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Apache
 |  posted 9:07a, 06/01/09
Necessity is the mother of invention!
quote:
Forty-two is a trick taking game, with four players in fixed partnerships. This game was invented in 1887 in Trappe Springs (now Garner), Texas by 12 year old William Thomas and 14 year old Walter Earl.
These were two fundamentalist Baptists who were caught playing Auction Whist with playing cards and were punished for it by their parents. Fundamentalist Baptists regarded playing cards as "Devil's Picture Book" and did not allow card games, but had no such restrictions on domino games.
http://www.pagat.com/tile/wdom/texas42.html
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Texas42Club
| posted 9:41a, 06/01/09
That is the most commonly accepted version of the game's invention.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram did a story on Walter Earl and that version seems credible enough.
www.Texas42.net does a wonderful job of discussing the history of the game and why it was so popular in this region. The site accepts it as the most likely that is the actual origin and why, though, we won't likely ever know for certain and probably have to settle on that account.
It would be swell if someone would take the time to research the subject thoroughly at the A&M library. I know there are books there as early as 1920 copyrighted with the games rules.
There may be information there about the history of Texas42. In the early days it was called Rounce, 42 Rounce, Domino Rounce, Texas 4-Hand, and possibly other names.
Texas42 - This IS Your GrandPa's Game !!!
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pproft
| posted 9:50a, 06/01/09
Thanks, CanyonAg77. Your "late 70s" is the earliest year(s) posted so far for when 42 was first played at Texas A&M. Surely there are other Aggies (or decendants of Aggies) who know earlier dates. Maybe this will help jog some memories: http://texas42.net/lechnerhall.html.
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NormanAg
| posted 10:10p, 06/01/09
I know lots of people who grew up in Kansas and Oklahoma during the 30's and 40's who cut their teeth on dominos (42), playing in domino parlors in small rural towns.
My Grandmother taught me the game when I was 6 - 1953, San Angelo, TX. She had a genuine ivory domino set she was damned proud of.
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CanyonAg77
| posted 8:51a, 06/02/09
Yeah Norman,
My dad is class of '49, and a very good 42 player. I've never asked him if he played at A&M. I always figured it was a country/small town thing.
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Texas42Club
| posted 12:45a, 06/03/09
canyon, what happened was the game was invented in the late 1880's. The card games Pitch and whist were popular and the game 84 or what became 84 was well in vogue in that era.
Texas and many of the surrounding states had blue laws against playing cards on trains and in many other public places in the 1920's and sooner.
The Ft Worth Star's version may be true, but with the way Texans flower up the truth and little evidence it is not cut in stone that is those boys were the inventors and indeed there may have been more than one game invented similar enough that more than one of the tales of the origins of 42 are correct. Dominoes games and card games using dominoes instead were quite the rage in a time before radio and tv. People were more sociable and entertained themselves with their own music too. You bought sheet music to get the newest songs that were the rage, not records.
Texas 4 hand also called 42 were wide spread by 1949. A good chance the Aggies were highly involved in Texas42 gaming when your dad was there. Most of them probably played their whole lives before going to college. That would not mean that he played while in the corp - but there is a good chance of it.
Texas42 - This IS Your GrandPa's Game !!!
[This message has been edited by Texas42Club (edited 6/3/2009 12:50a).]
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pproft
| posted 11:52a, 06/03/09
According to http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2003/02/05/AggieLife/The-Domino.Effect-514547.shtml, the Aggies were playing 42 in the early 1960s. Can anybody top that?
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SWCBonfire
 | posted 11:58a, 06/03/09
My Dad's Grandpa and grandma played 42 all their lives... they were old when my dad would play with them back in the 50's.
It's been around a long time... I would guess late 1800's is definately plausible. Not an A&M invention by any stretch, just common among rural Texans.
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pproft
| posted 12:48p, 06/03/09
SWCDonfire: Re the posting at http://texas42.net/42Article.html. The most publicized birthplace of 42 is Garner, Texas circa 1887.
I suspect 42 was introduced on the A&M campus by students from rural areas who travelled by the railways. The area now occupied by College station had one of the earliest rail connections in Texas (1860).
Research so far indicates 42 was first played at Texas A&M sometime between its founding in 1876 and the early 1960s. Hopefully, I can narrow this down to a more definitive time period.
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Apache
| posted 2:57p, 06/03/09
quote:
Hopefully, I can narrow this down to a more definitive time period.
Shouldn't be too hard to do. Browse around in some the old Aggielands or Longhorns & I suspect you'll find a picture or two of Aggies playing 42. Better yet, attend your local monthly A&M club meeting & talk to some of the old timers.
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pproft
| posted 3:21p, 06/03/09
Apache: I'm not an Aggie or a Longhorn, but I have a high regard for them. Most of my bosses during my 35-year career with the Air Force were Aggies. A Longhorn boss taught me how to play 42 during lunch breaks at work.
Would appreciate guidance on how to pursue your suggestion.
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aalan94
| posted 3:42p, 06/03/09
It seems that some folks think that the development of 42 had anything to do with A&M, and I'm sorry to disappoint you. My grandparents played that game. It's been around Texas for a long, long time. Probably throughout the south. I think it developed as a variation of a card game.
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Apache
| posted 3:59p, 06/03/09
quote:
It's been around Texas for a long, long time. Probably throughout the south. I think it developed as a variation of a card game.
Skip reading the thread, did we? 
pproft-
OkAg44 posts on the politics board... he's more than likely the patriarch of this entire website. I'll send him a message & tell him he has been requested.
As for the old Aggielands & Longhorns, Cushing Library at A&M would be the place to check them out (I think)
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SWCBonfire
| posted 4:55p, 06/03/09
You know what... I know an Ag who is class of '32 (I think)... I'll ask him this Sunday at church.
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pproft
| posted 5:16p, 06/03/09
aalan94: The earliest documentation on the game of 42 that I'm aware of was in 1927 when W.A. Thomas told a Dallas newspaper that he co-invented the game some 40 years earlier in Garner, Texas.
I did some research to learn more. Here's a wrap-up of my findings: http://texas42.net/proftcomments.html.
My current quest is to find out when 42 was introduced at Texas A&M. Texas 42 is an Aggie tradition, and I believe the game came to College Station via students from rural areas where 42 was played.
Perhaps Apache's suggestion to look for old photos in the A&M library stacks might yield some meaningful insight. For now, however, I'd like to avoid the long drive from San Antonio.
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pproft
| posted 8:26a, 06/08/09
SWCBonfire: Did you see the class of '32 Ag at church yesterday?
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Killer-K 89
 | posted 11:36p, 06/08/09
pproft-
When he talked about Aggie and Longhorn, he actually meant the yearbooks.
Our earliest yearbooks were called "The Longhorn"
Strange thing now, but it was the thing then.
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