Jack Castellaw and the Immortal Ten

Jul 21, 2010

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A Disaster in Texas

My second great-grandfather, Tom Castellaw Jr., spent his entire life in Haywood County, as did most of his children. His brother Fletcher’s family took a different path. Fletcher’s son moved to Ennis, Texas, before the turn of the century. There, Jack Coleman Castellaw became a pharmacist and owned a drugstore.

Jack had a son, Jack Pender Castellaw, who attended Baylor University in Waco and played on the basketball team. On Jan. 22, 1927, Baylor’s coach, Ralph Wolf, was taking his team by bus to Austin for a game against the University of Texas. It was a rainy day, and the roads were muddy.

As the bus passed through Round Rock, just a short distance from Austin, it approached a railroad crossing. Visibility was poor. Mud and rain had obscured the windows, and nearby structures blocked a clear view of the tracks. As the bus crossed, a northbound passenger train, known as the Sunshine Special, struck it at high speed.

The impact tore through the bus. Ten of the 21 people on board were killed, including Jack Castellaw. Several others were injured, some seriously. The game in Austin was never played, and the remainder of Baylor’s season was canceled.

The loss was felt across Texas. More than 3,000 people attended a memorial service in Waco in the days that followed. The young men who died soon became known as the Immortal Ten, a name given by a newspaper reporter the day after the accident.

The heart of Baylor University is torn to shreds at this moment. The awful tragedy that brought death and imjury to so many of our noble boys overcomes us all. 1 —Samuel Palmer Brooks, Baylor President

“President Brooks Mourns Death of Baylor Youths,” Waco Times-Herald (Waco, TX), January 23, 1927, 3.

The tragedy had lasting consequences beyond Baylor. In the years that followed, it contributed to changes in railroad crossing safety across Texas, including the construction of overpasses to separate highways from rail lines.

At Baylor, the memory of the Immortal Ten remains part of the university’s identity. Each year during homecoming, freshmen are told the story and take part in a candlelight remembrance. In 2007, a permanent memorial was dedicated on campus in Traditions Square to honor the ten young men.

The connection to my family did not end with Jack’s death. In December 1968, his mother gave approximately $750,000 to Baylor to establish the Castellaw Communications Center in his memory, ensuring that his name would remain part of the university he once attended.

More about the tragedy can be found through the Waco History Project or in the book The Immortal Ten: The Definitive Account of the 1927 Tragedy and Its Legacy at Baylor University, available on Amazon.

For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.

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