Career
At the end of the 1935 season, Spain was selected as a first-team All-American by Grantland Rice for Collier"s Weekly and by a board of coaches for Pathé News. He was also selected as a second-team All-American by the Associated Press and in a consensus All-American team The 1935 SMU team had 12–0 record, scoring 288 points while only giving up 39.
The team was invited to play in the 1936 Rose Bowl, and Spain became the center of attention in the newspapers" coverage of the game.
Much of the coverage focused on Spain"s good looks and indications that Spain would be signed by Hollywood as a movie star. One syndicated feature article compared Spain to Clark Gable under the headline: "IF MOVIE COLONY GRABS OFF ONE OF MUSTANGS, Information Technology LIKELY WILL Bachelor of Engineering Clark GABLE SPAIN." The article noted that Spain was "all man" and reported on the reaction of co-eds to his "rumba king" good looks:
An article in a Texas newspaper reported on the attention being focused on Spain: "Spain, towering well over six feet and going past the two hundred pound mark, was the center of attention.
He played high school football in the Oil Belt, and many of his old friends met the train to wish him well. He came in for a lot of kidding about trying to crash the movies." In late January 1936, the publicity drew an offer for Spain to enter the boxing game, which he turned down.
Spain said he was due a movie tryout, and "a bunged-up face wouldn"t be any help in Hollywood, unless Truman wanted a gangster role."
After retiring from football, Spain worked as an oil drilling contractor in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
He died in 1968 of an apparent heart attack at age 55.