Americans who win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University are among the brightest and hardest-working students in the country. But Baylor’s first Rhodes scholar was not some stereotypical bookworm who remained indoors in quiet reflection. Instead, he was a rough-and-tumble Renaissance man who combined a brilliant mind with a determination to live life on his own terms.

Ernest Tolbert “Bull” Adams, who grew up on a farm near Glen Rose, Texas, became Baylor’s first Rhodes Scholarship recipient during his graduation year of 1911. But merely saying that Adams graduated from Baylor doesn’t begin to describe his achievements.

A natural scholar with a passion for learning, Adams spoke six languages –– including Greek, Latin and Comanche. Supporting himself at Baylor by mowing lawns, milking cows and washing dishes, Adams was a large, athletic man who lettered in football, basketball and track. He scored the lone Baylor touchdown in the legendary 1910 football game against the University of Texas, in which the Baylor coach called his team off the field in protest of a referee’s ruling and the game was awarded to Texas on a forfeit.

A legend eventually surfaced in connection with that game, which said that Adams refused to vacate the field and challenged Texas to run their entire team against him –– the result being that Adams singlehandedly held the Longhorns to five yards on two plays. While the legend is almost assuredly untrue, it suggests the kind of reputation that “Bull” built at Baylor.

Adams had a lifelong passion for archaeology, and starting in boyhood he began building a large collection of fossils and Indian artifacts he had discovered while exploring caves, hills and Indian burial grounds. He sometimes wrote up reports of his findings and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution. Once, when someone from that organization dared to write him back to say his report was a bit too unscholarly, Adams sent in a revised version –– written in perfect Greek.

While Adams had grown up in an educated household headed by his attorney father, he seemed to value living a simple life unaffected by pretension. One account claims that Adams had a motto on his wall at Baylor which read, “No Dignity to Uphold, No Pride to Sustain.”

At Oxford, Adams excelled in sports including cricket, rugby and rowing, and ended up wining the university’s highest athletic award. He earned a bachelor’s degree in jurisprudence from Oxford in 1914 and married Mable Wayland, a fellow student at Baylor, in 1915.

Back home in Texas after his time in England, Adams settled on the family farm near Glen Rose and proceeded to build a one-room home of native rock for himself and his bride. He began teaching in a rural school, then moved to Glen Rose and for years was the only practicing attorney in town.

Learning that he would need to pass the Texas bar exam to run for county attorney, Adams thought such a requirement was ridiculous for an Oxford-trained lawyer. True to form, he complied with the requirement and passed the exam, despite answering all the questions in Latin. He then won the job of county attorney and became famous during Prohibition for prosecuting bootleggers.

To relax, Adams might pack up his Model T and spend months roaming the countryside in West Texas or New Mexico, looking for archeological treasures. Or he might just while away the hours at home dressed in informal clothes –– playing checkers with friends, chopping wood, teaching youngsters about fossils or reading a book.

Adams died in Glen Rose in 1961 at age 73, five years after suffering a stroke that left him completely paralyzed on one side and unable to speak clearly. Since he won the Rhodes in 1911, four more Baylor students have gone on to earn the prestigious scholarship –– Robert Lee Guthrie in 1924, Dixon Wecter in 1928, Elmer Hawkins in 1934 and Brad Carson in 1989.

——————

The entire Spring 2015 issue of Baylor Arts & Sciences magazine is available online.