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Roy Bedichek and the University Interscholastic League

With the recent UIL events being held here on the Paris Junior College campus, it brought to mind comments made by William A. Owens regarding his good friend Roy Bedichek. In the annals of Texas lore, Roy Bedichek is known as a philosophical figure. My exposure to Bedichek came primarily from what Dr. Owens related to me, and the rather interesting circumstance of my being acquainted with Bedichek’s’s daughter, Mary Carroll, who lived here in Paris for a short while. His is a name lost to most if not for such informative relationships. In my mind I will always link Bedichek with the University Interscholastic League by which he was employed beginning back in 1917. At that time the UIL was a part of The University of Texas Extension Bureau. Bedichek became the second director of the league in 1922, and he eventually retired from this position in 1948. Our local UIL events having triggered such memories, I think it noteworthy to recall that Roy Bedichek was one of the three significant figures making up the legendary triumvirate of J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb, and, as mentioned, Roy Bedichek himself. I don’t know whether this is even mentioned in any of the explanatory material associated with current UIL activities, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of such a noteworthy career. It is told that at the urging of Webb and Dobie, Bedichek took a leave of absence in February of 1946 to write his first book, “Adventures with a Texas Naturalist” (1947). His second book, “Karankaway Country” (1950), and his third book were awarded the best Texas book of the year by the Texas Institute of Letters.

For those interested in more detailed information they might look to William A. Owens, “Three Friends: Roy Bedichek, J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb” (1969), as well as W. A. Owens and Lyman Grant, “Letters of Roy Bedichek” (1985).

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