Texans: Ranger or Riot

[BRD@66]

Wait! They have Rangers in Iowa?

 

[TheDan]

Wikipedia says it's "One riot, one Ranger", so it must be the other way around.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

So at least two people have heard it this way. Your context sounds positive. The people I know use it contextually as a negative.

The context as I understand it and I go back to the 50's when I first heard the story: Texas Giv sent just one Ranger up there and was contacted by folks asking why they only sent 1 Ranger, and the Gov said well, you only had one riot.

One Riot, One Ranger: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=one+riot+one+ranger&ul_noapp=true

 

[BRD@66]

from the 60th anniversary DPS yearbook:
In 1906, Capt. Bill McDonald (1852-1918), arrived in Dallas alone, to enforce legislation against prize fighting. When the alarmed mayor asked the lone Ranger where his men were, legend has it that McDonald responded to the incredulous mayor "Hell! Ain't I enough? There's only one prize fight." Apparently the often repeated retort of "One Riot, One Ranger," came from comments attributed to McDonald in the classic ranger biography Captain Bill McDonald: Texas Ranger, written by Albert Bigelow Paine. This book is also probably the origin of the Ranger Captain's creed, that "No man in the wrong, can stand up against a fellow that's in the right and keeps on-a comin'."

 

[Charlie]

How do they have it at the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco?

 

[Ole Cowboy]

Here is the Official stuff on "One Riot, One Ranger" from Texas DPS: https://www.dps.texas.gov/TexasRangers/silverstars.htm

Also gives the history in highlights over the years, if you are a Texan, take 5 min to read it.

 

[Charlie]

Here is the Official stuff on "One Riot, One Ranger" from Texas DPS: https://www.dps.texas.gov/TexasRangers/silverstars.htm

Also gives the history in highlights over the years, if you are a Texan, take 5 min to read it.

Good read! Thanks!

 

[AustinN4]

Here is the Official stuff on "One Riot, One Ranger" from Texas DPS: https://www.dps.texas.gov/TexasRangers/silverstars.htm

That should settle it.

 

[benenglish]

That should settle it.

Hardly. Everyone knows the proper "One Riot. One Ranger." I heard it that way growing up in Hondo and the overwhelming majority of people everywhere have heard in that same very positive way.

But if you grew up in, say, Crystal City during the ascendancy of La Raza Unida, you had a different experience. There are a whole lot of people who don't visit TGT who understand the coming of a Ranger into any situation meant that unwarranted violence was inevitable. For them, "One Ranger; one riot" is axiomatic.

I am not saying who's right and who's wrong. I'm simply saying that, like in everything else, your viewpoint depends on where you stand.

 

[AustinN4]

I grew up in a northern state about a hundred years ago and even then I knew it was One Riot, One Ranger.

 

[deemus]

Speaking of Rangers, I've seen this movie. Pretty interesting. Ben seems to reference this in his post.

http://www.borderbanditsmovie.com/

 

[majormadmax]

Here is the Official stuff on "One Riot, One Ranger" from Texas DPS: https://www.dps.texas.gov/TexasRangers/silverstars.htm

Also gives the history in highlights over the years, if you are a Texan, take 5 min to read it.

I like how they had to explain that "Three-Legged" Williamson was so nicknamed because he had a wooden leg to support a crippled limb.

Why else would he have such a nickname?!?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I like how they had to explain that "Three-Legged" Williamson was so nicknamed because he had a wooden leg to support a crippled limb.

Why else would he have such a nickname?!?

How is he "three-legged" just because he has a wooden leg?

 

[AustinN4]

How is he "three-legged" just because he has a wooden leg?

You aren't really that naive are you?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

You aren't really that naive are you?

I guess I am.

 

[Chirpy]

Yeah, back in the day when I spent a lot of time in South Texas I was shocked when my AE, whose grandfather was a "Wobblie" organizer told me about his view of the Texas Rangers. It didn't fit mine at all.

One riot, one Ranger. From the Houston area.

 

[davis449]

One riot, one Ranger. I am from the Permian Basin in West Texas.