Side by Side

Walking through the Gatesville City Cemetery one may notice the identical tombstones of two young men buried side by side who died on the same date.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that the two did not die during an epidemic or any other health misfortune but died in a horrible tragedy that sent shock waves throughout the state and especially in the small town of Gatesville.

Gatesville High School classmates James Walker, age 23, and Willis Murray, age 18, would be thrust into the spotlight due to a tragic accident that claimed their lives as well as eight others.

Both young men graduated from Gatesville High School in 1924, and both continued their education together at Baylor. The two were promising young athletes in high school, and when they entered college, both landed positions on the Baylor Basketball team.

It was on the morning of January 22, 1927, that Baylor’s basketball team began their journey by bus for Austin to play the University of Texas that night. Coach Ralph Wolf was taking his team to play in what was considered to be a crucial game in the Bears’ race for the 1927 Southwest Conference championship. The game would never take place.

It was reported that rain had been pouring down in Central Texas that day. The vision of the chartered bus driver was limited as rain and debris sprayed across the windshield of the bus as they approached a railroad crossing in Round Rock. Rapidly approaching from the west was the Sunshine Special, a northbound passenger train. The train was running behind schedule, resulting in the engineer increasing the speed of the train to sixty miles per hour. As the train approached the crossing, the engineer blew its whistle. It was later said that no one on the bus heard the whistle.

Newspaper accounts of the accident report that the driver of the bus was driving about 25 or 30 miles per hour. As the driver approached the crossing, after seeing the fast-moving train coming towards them, he made a desperate attempt to avoid a collision by swerving the bus to one side but couldn’t make it. The train struck the bus about one-third of the way across the rails causing the bus to break up in “scores of pieces.” Ten of the twenty-two passengers were killed – including Gatesville’s James Walker and Willis Murray. The team was only about twenty miles from their destination.

Gruesome accounts about the remains of the victims appeared in newspapers state-wide, as well as nationally. Many reports indicated that some of those killed were “no longer recognizable” following the horrific crash.

The bodies of the Gatesville victims, Walker and Murray, were shipped from morgues in the Round Rock area back to Wilkirson and Hatch Funeral Home in Waco and then transported back to their hometown of Gatesville.

James S. Walker, known as “Tuff” during his high school years, played on the basketball team and was the star track man for running distance in high school. Being a successful athlete opened the door for him to attend Baylor. Walker came from a large and modest family. He had four older brothers and two younger sisters. At the time of his death, he was classed as a Junior at Baylor where he was studying business administration and commerce and would have received his B.B.A. degree in just five months following the accident. Some described Walker as a friendly, but a quiet young man.

Willis Murray’s interest in basketball came from his close friendship and admiration of Walker while they were students at Gatesville High School. After entering Baylor at the age of 16, Murray played on the freshman basketball team. While at Baylor, he was described as being a very “personable” student. Murray had four siblings and was raised on a farm just a few miles outside of Gatesville. Willis E. Murray was 18 years old when he was killed in the accident. He played guard on the Baylor basketball team. He was also classed as a Junior and was completing work towards a Bachelor of Arts degree and a law degree.  He was scheduled to graduate in June of 1928.

Walker and Murray were close friends in high school and at Baylor. Upon their tragic deaths, their families decided to have a combined funeral service for the young men at the First Baptist Church in Gatesville where local pastors and Baylor professors reflected on their short lives. Six students and friends from Baylor acted as pallbearers. Following the service, which had an overflow crowd of hundreds, the friends were buried side-by-side in the Gatesville City Cemetery. Their families would later erect matching tombstones for them along with attached photos.

Shortly after the tragedy, the teammates who were killed became known as the “Immortal Ten” at Baylor. Their story is told each year to freshmen students entering the university and at homecoming. Students then participate in a candlelight remembrance ceremony in remembrance of those whose young lives were lost.

At the capital in Austin, the tragedy caused the re-evaluation of railway safety and with it came the origination of railway overpasses in the state of Texas. Eight years following the accident, Mays Street Bridge in Round Rock opened over the scene of the accident and became the first railway overpass in the state.

In 2017, ninety years after the fatal accident, the City of Round Rock hosted a ceremony to dedicate the overpass to the newly named “Immortal Ten Bridge.” The bridge, originally built in 1935, was updated with green and gold striping to honor those Baylor students who were killed.

In 2007, renowned western sculptor, Bruce Greene, assisted crews as they installed a stunning life-sized monument of the Immortal Ten on the Baylor campus. Among the bronze statues are figures of James Walker and Willis Murray – both of which were immortalized in the history of the university.

Ninety-six years after the fatal accident the two young men remain side-by-side in their hometown of Gatesville.