Max Henry Bowerman papers

Collection

Identifier: SC-Cent. Misc. Mss. 535

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Max Henry Bowerman papers primarily document his activities as a student athlete at Centenary College of Louisiana from 1935 to 1940. The collection consists of loose items, football publications, football programs, a scrapbook, and newspaper clippings.

The loose items include school certificates and report cards (1926-1940), Centenary football banquet program (1939), correspondence (1940), aviation cadet graduation program (1944), life insurance salesman certificate (1969), and photographs.

Football publications consist of booklets titled “Gentlemen at Play” published annually by Centenary’s yearbook staff to highlight each football season. Also included are pages removed from Centenary’s 1933 yearbook with inscriptions to Wallace “Boots” Lewis, a Black employee of Centenary’s football team.

Football programs are for games Centenary played against University of Tulsa (1936), Louisiana Normal (1937 September 18), Rice University (1939 October 7), and Texas Christian University (1939 October 28).

A scrapbook consisting of newspaper clippings as well as additional folders of loose newspaper clippings relate to Bowerman’s activities on Centenary’s football, baseball, and basketball teams.

Dates

1926 - 1969

Creator

Bowerman, Max Henry, 1917-1991 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Physical rights are retained by the Centenary College of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. copyright laws.

Biographical / Historical

Max Henry Bowerman (1917-1991) is the son of Henry Kipp Bowerman (1880-1954) and Margaret Minerva Gill Bowerman (1886–1969). Raised in Enid, Oklahoma, he graduated high school in 1935. In fall 1935, Bowerman enrolled at Centenary College of Louisiana and played on the school’s football, baseball, and basketball teams. During the unusual and record-setting Centenary versus Texas Tech football game on November 11, 1939, he was one of Centenary’s punters. In 1940, Bowerman graduated from Centenary with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He was an employee of the oil field logging and drilling equipment company Hycalog Inc., and he later worked for Lincoln National Life Insurance Company. In 1941, Bowerman married Susan Azelie Durst (1920-2007).