Mel Bashore

Mel Bashore:  You played in ’42 and ’45 for Pittsburgh.  And you came out of Texas.

 

Hubbard Law: Yes.  Sam Houston.

 

Mel:  How did you get into pro ball?

 

Hubbard:  Well, I’ll tell you, I was working.  I don’t know.  I lacked six months that I was out of school.  I didn’t go the full four years. I got out at mid-term in the last year, which was in ’42.  I went down and worked in the oil fields down in Louisiana.  Out there in the swamp, you know.  Out there in the Bayou Teawell[?]  You’ve heard of the old pirate named LaFitte?  Well in Louisiana there’s a little old chapeau that was named after LaFitte, Louisiana.  We’d take the boats and go out fifteen miles out in the water in the bayous out there.  I worked for a California oil company because I owed five hundred bucks for the years I went to school because my family didn’t have loot but squat.  So I dropped out of school at the half the year and went down there.  So I’d been working down there for a couple of three months and one day at noon, the boss come up and says, “Oh.  I forgot to give it to you this morning.”  He says, “I got a telegram here.”  I looked at it and it said that the Pittsburgh Steelers had drafted me and wanted me to come up and sign a contract.  You know.  In the bayous of Louisiana there’s nothing but mosquitoes, alligators, and water moccasins. . . .  So I said, “Good bye.”  It was at noon and I walked out.  It was about two and a half miles back in the swamp.  Just boards laid down, you know, for the trucks to get in.  I walked out.  I caught a ride back to where they kept the boats, you know.  I left there then.  That’s when I went on in to Pennsylvania.  I went home and visited my folks and then up the college and visited my coach.  Then I left and went to Pittsburgh.  I got up at the Pittsburgh.  I think it was March 17^th in ’42.  Man, you know, down to Texas you don’t need no heavy clothes.  I got up there and I was about to freeze!  And I got off of the bus.  Right around the block there was the Steelers’ office.  Well, I walked over there, you know.  I said, “Man, this kind of weather, I’m just about the place where I want to go back home.”  He said, “Don’t.  You know.  Here.  Here’s a hundred dollars.  Go and buy you a good heavy coat.”  Well, you know, I didn’t have no damn money.  So that was my start with the Steelers.  March 17^th I got in there.  There was snow all over the ground.  That’s when I went there.  Well, the season didn’t start until, what the hell, I think it was September 6 when we went to camp.

 

Mel:  So you came up there pretty early.

 

Hubbard:  Well, what the hell, I had registered for the draft down in Louisiana and then I had to transfer that up to Pittsburgh.  I went up there.  I had to pick up me a job right then.  I was working with about six or eight other Steelers, you know, that hadn’t been drafted yet.  We worked until the season started in September.  Eventually had to quit the job and went up to the training camp.

 

Mel:  Was it a guaranteed contract that they gave you?

 

Hubbard:  Yes.  $125 a game.  Big money in them days.

 

Mel:  You didn’t have to make the team?  It was pretty well guaranteed?

 

Hubbard:  No.  You had to make the team.  Well, they guaranteed you a salary if you made it.  No, it wasn’t cut and dried.  Back when I went to college, when I was a freshman in college, my competition was the captain of the football club.  They changed him into another position.  And I took his position.  And I was a freshman in college.  I was pretty good.  I’m not bragging or nothing.  You know.  Now today, I couldn’t even make the club.  You know.  Well, I might, at the weight that they go on with the linebackers.  Because that’s what I loved.  We played out that season.  I was working at a [?] up there. In ’43 we were going to combine with the Eagles.  Philadelphia Eagles.  You know, you’re supposed to notify the draft board.  Well, I called ‘em up, you know.  They said, “Well, hell, ain’t you in it?”  I said, “No.”  He said, “Well, you are now.”  That’s when I had the skip.  You know. That was then.

 

Mel:  Did you play for any service team?

 

Hubbard:  Service team. Oh, yes.  I played for BTC number 10, you know, down in Greensboro, North Carolina, in the air force.  I played one year for them down there.  We were undefeated and unscored on.  What the hell, I made all service team.

 

Mel:  Was there a pretty good caliber of players that came on the team there with you at Pittsburgh?

 

Hubbard:  Well, the best known one we had there in ’42 was Bullet Bill Dudley.  All-American from Virginia.

 

Mel:  Not known for his speed, was he.

 

Hubbard:  No.  He was just quig quag, you know, pretty good.  He made sixteen thousand a year that year.  We had some pretty good players, but none of them, I don’t think any of them went on.  Anyway.  We had six wins and four losses.  Two to Philly and two to Washington.  That’s the year that Washington won the thing, you know.  [?]  It was what they give us . . . for winning second place.  I was down in Texas.  I took my future wife down there to meet my folks.  That’s where the money caught up with me.