Thanks Fossil Ag

I'll send this to Dad, he'll enjoy reading it.

Terry ... I have figured out who your dad is by bits and pieces and would like for you to know he was a much admired athlete in our little piece of the world back in our day. It may surprise him that he is remembered today for exploits 60 years ago, so pass along my fond regards. Also, I can't confirm this since I have boxed up for storage all my accumulated mementos from years past ... but if I remember correctly your dad had a brother on the Sweetwater squad the same years.

Also, you mentioned that "Hayden Fry was a crybaby..." Please know that in those days all of us were crybabies at some time or other. Face guards on helmets were not introduced until 1950 (except for one or two special helmets reserved for kids playing with broken jaws, etc.) Busted lips, broken noses, black eyes, missing teeth were common on every hs squad by the first game and they didn't heal until well after the last game. We always dreaded the center getting a bloody nose because the ball got so slippery with blood, snot and probably a few tears. If any event caused a potential Heisman winner to look for a job in the band, getting popped again on a broken nose was it.

The game of football was different 50-60 years ago. I suppose some of the larger schools had sophisticated offenses, blocking schemes and defensive plays ... but mostly for smaller schools you just picked your toughest old kids, burdened their brains with 5 or 6 plays and let them go at it. In 4 years of high school I never saw a forward pass that didn't look like a wounded duck ... so we disregarded that threat completely on defense. I suppose the Merkel Badgers are still running the Single Wing offense ... just center the ball to a tailback and pull everyone but the waterboy to run interference for him ... a sight to strike terror in the heart of any outside linebacker. Plus, in those days most smaller schools did not have bleachers (or at most only a few for the home team) and the crowd stood on the sideline. This meant if you were in a pile up near the opponents sideline you did not dilly dally getting back to the huddle as protection from getting a kick in the ribs or maybe pelted with dirt clods. The good old days are fun to talk about but I sure wouldn't want to relive a one of them.

Fossil Ag

Thanks for the kind thoughts. I printed this off to send to Dad, he'll really enjoy reading it. (We can't get him to learn how to use the computer) It will make his day. My Dad is Don Lambert and I'm his "favorite" daughter. You might be thinking of Baxter Lambert, no kin, but one of Dad's good friends.
We grew up hearing so many stories about those days and the stuff they did and they are all very funny, sometimes wondered how they stayed out of jail but since Great Granddad was sheriff of Nolan county they just got a lot of strong reprimands.
He!He! the Hayden Frye crybaby comment from Dad was from back in the 70's or 80's. Coach Frye was at SMU and he whinning about something to the Dallas papers. It was probably something about A&M being mean to poor little SMU. Anyway, I was telling Dad about it (they live in Mississippi) and he said that Hayden was a crybaby in high school and is still a crybaby. For some reason that has just stuck with me, I thought it was funny.

If you ever decide that you want to part with that 1945 Odessa/Sweetwater program please let me know, I'll buy it from you.

Terry ... Are the numbers 6912 1604 and 9767 still applicable in your address? If so, an envelope will be in the mail tomorrow.

[This message has been edited by TERRY L (edited 3/9/2006 4:55p).]

William Thomas, Texas A&M linebacker, Amarillo Palo Duro

Fred Acorn, from Rotan, played for the sips & then Tampa, I believe. Also, Sam Baugh is in the long term care facility in Jayton, I believe. His son David, who played at TT in the early-mid 60's and recently retired from coaching, is running the ranch now. In 1962 David Baugh & Howard Van Loon won the class A state track meet for the Yellowhammers, our last state track team title.

Just a tidbit of info on Bulldog Turner. Dad is here visiting this weekend and said that Bulldog Turner was the only player to make the all-pro team while still an active player for the Chicago Bears. Because of his style of play at center the NFL changed the rule on the center not being over the ball anymore at the snap of the ball. He played center on offense and halfback on defense. This was info given to the players by Sammy Baugh when he would come out during the Sweetwater High School football practices.

Bulldog Turner had a colorful career with the Bears. Apparently it was custom at the time for players to be ready to play in any position if needed. Bulldog played linebacker a good bit and returned one interception 96 yards for a TD. As a halfback in one game he had a 48 yard TD run.

But Bulldog had a West Texas teammate no one has mentioned. Ed Sprinkle who claimed either Jim Ned (Brown County) or Tuscola (Taylor County) as home played at Hardin-Simmons '40-43 and joined the Chicago Bears in 1944. Sprinkle was recruited by Turner (a HSU teammate) while George Halas was in WWII. Sprinkle played offensive and defensive end for the Bears from '44 to '55 and played in Pro-Bowl four times.

Sweetwater (Newman High School) has 2 former students in the NFL Hall of Fame---Baugh and Bulldog Turner. Not bad for a town of 11,000.

Fisher County has first claim on Bulldog because Newman School was about 6 miles north of S'water, inside Fisher County, off FM419 between Gannon and Palava. In about 1940 Fisher County schools south of the line between Bernecker, Capitola, Busby, Longworth, and Eskota were consolidated with Sweetwater. I doubt any of those schools ever fielded a football team ... but produced some big tough old country boys. I would not be surprised to learn many of those boys played football for Sweetwater High because UIL eligibility was not of major concern to schools in the 20s and 30s.

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Dan Blocker O'Donnell

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I just noticed this on the first page. Isn't this "Hoss" from Bonanza?

I didn't know he was a ball player. Pardon me if this was already discussed and I missed it. I don't have time right now to re-read 3 pages of posts.

Yes, Dan Blocker of O'Donnell was TVs Hoss Cartwright. Dan played football at Sul Ross at Alpine. He turned down a pro football offer to study drama in New York City. At some point he was 6'3" and weighed 300 pounds ... a giant in those days but sort of ordinary size nowdays.

Chuck Hughes of Abilene High. Chuck played his college ball at Texas Western (now Texas - El Paso). Chuck was drafted in 1967 by the Philadelphia Eagles and subsequently traded to the Detroit Lions. Although not a standour player in the NFL, his career was cut short at Detroit in 1971 in a game with the Chicago Bears when he suffered a heart attack on the field and died. Dick Butkus of the Bears was the first person to reach him and signaled for help. The remainder of the game was played in silence. Detroit retired his number.

Chuck Hughes was the last player in the NFL to die on the playing field.

Bob Harrison, Stamford. I scanned through all the earlier posts and did not see his name. Played college ball at OU. Drafted by the 49ers in 1959 as a linebacker and played for the Eagles and Steelers before hanging it up in 1967.

Fossil, I mentioned him a while back, I believe on the second page.

You scared me for a minute, though. I thought I had forgotten to mention his name, and since I've known him for my entire life and go to church with him every Sunday when I'm back home, that would have been embarrassing on my part.

WestTxAg ... You are correct. You mentioned Harrison on the first page and I missed it. Thanks for the correction.

little late on this one, but Jack Mildren went to Abilene Cooper, not Abilene High

David Davis from Loop and Texas A&M - punter.

Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.

Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.

Y'all remember the wrestler "Chief Wahoo"? Wahoo McDaniel played football at Midland High and went on the NFL prior to his wrestling career.

For those of you uncertain about which local kids from your community made it to the NFL, a good place to start is to check the list of players who have been named to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

High School Football Hall of Fame may be found at http://www.tshof.org/hsfb_inductees.htm


High School Basketball Hall of Fame may be found at http://tshof.org/hsbb_inductees.htm

Biographies of each can be found on the main page of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame by clicking on "Inductees" and then clicking on the name of the individual.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 7/7/2006 11:37p).]

Well, fellows, here we are in the middle of July, moaning and groaning about the 100+ degree heat, and realizing that all over West Texas high school coaches and trainers are cleaning out locker rooms, patching up equipment and stocking up on spare cleats, tape, and other supplies getting ready for pre-season football practices.

Ain't it great to be past that stage of life when August football workouts are a prescribed rite of passage for smart alecky male teenagers ... each one bragging how he had been counting the days until first full contact (and knowing deep inside he was dreading the first day of practice like a tooth extraction.) I recall those days and say to myself, "What was I thinking?"

In this thread we have paid due and proper homage to those who excelled in the sport we call Football ... they were the fastest, the strongest, the most elusive, the most focused, and the most determined on our teams or in our districts, and deserve our everlasting respect. But I think some credit if due to the thousands of us who plodded along in the game doing our best to set the stage for the superstars to display their talents.

For the most part, we were the unknowns who showed up at every practice; suffered through wind sprints; agonized in the heat; nursed the blisters, bruises and scrapes; toiled through the blocking and tackling drills (usually as the dummy for the first teamers); and sometime were able to share in some glory if we happened to win; but more frequently were pointed out as one of the reasons if we lost. And at the end of the season our only reward that made it all worthwhile I suppose was to brag that "I was a member of that team."

I played four years of Class A West Texas football. I wasn't any good at about 130 pounds but with only about 16 guys on the squad everyone got enough playing time ... and frequently more than enough if your injury was not as bad as five other guys. (Yeah, it was not unusual for a reserve guard to find himself playing Half Back or Center.)

That was Texas Class A Football in the late 40s. Few schools had locker rooms for visitors or in some cases even showers, playing fields were more likely to have dirt and gravel than a grassy turf, face-masks and athletic cups had not yet been invented, leather helmets were still fairly common (we got plastic my junior year), and high top shoes had one inch hard rubber cleats that were more like roller skates on hard West Texas dirt. The fellows from Rotan, Hamlin, Merkel, Roscoe, Snyder, Trent, and Munday were in the same boat so no one had a particular advantage. We did enjoy the high life occasionally when scheduled as non-district fodder for Colorado City, Haskell, Seminole and other AA schools.

One thing unique about football in the late 40s for smaller schools was the quality of coaches and their coaching techniques. I have discussed this with folks of the same period and this was standard at the time. Starting in 1947 many WWII veterans were joining the coaching ranks mostly in smaller schools. Our luck of the draw was an ex-Marine vet of Iwo Jima and a few other invasions. (I sometime thought as us kids stood around squinting into the late afternoon sun he had flashbacks to an earlier time and enemy.) We were his first coaching challenge after playing a couple of years at Abilene Christian and he had aspirations of greatness. We could endure his brutal practices ... except for the crazy notion that was common at the time of "no water during practice" and "take plenty of salt pills." During August, four-hour workouts we got no water ... and the more we drooped, the more he yelled. He had us convinced the reason we were dropping out was that we were "out of shape" and the prescription for that was more wind sprints. And the salt pills ... we were encouraged to take a handfull of those before going out for practice. Just trying for anything that would help me get through workouts, I bet I ate a hundred of those things.

That "no water" rule was common practice among coaches of the period ... including the illustrous Bear Bryant who nearly killed some of my classmates at Junction in 1954 by heat stroke.

I have always wondered about that goofy rule, whether it was something prescribed during training in WWII to build endurance in soldiers and marines in preparation for battle. Surely medics were aware of the dangers of dehydration at that time. Whatever, I survived the period and I assume all of my contemporaries did ... but those were sure tough times in West Texas.

But we got water during games ... something I was never able to comprehend ... and that was great. And you fellows would get a kick out of the way water was delivered on the field (standard practice at the time) ... the Waterboy had two wire racks that each held six glass half-pint milk bottles. The bottles were clean for the first timeout or so but soon thereafter they were half full of dirt and grass and covered with blood, snot and sweat. It was nasty, but it was wet, and we survived that too. (Doggone, I envied those guys who played in Class AA and AAA ... I am sure they had plenty of cool clean water.) That may be the reason I never made it to the NFL.

Folks arriving on this board in the past 6 months ... Can you think of anyone who has been missed?

David Terrell from Sweetwater. Played here in the late 1990s, then at UTEP. Played a few years for the Redskins then 1 or 2 for the Raiders. I think he is out of football now. Also, Bud McFadden from Iraan. Played for the Longhorns in the early 1960s or late 50s (was an All American), then played in the NFL for several years. And is Brady considered West Texas? They had Scott Appleton at Texas (late 60s); Putt Choate from Coahoma and SMU then the Jets and Balllinger had a defensive end who played at UofH then in the NFL for a few years. He left Ballinger in 1976. I should remember his name--he put an end to my football playing days in the fall of 1974.

[This message has been edited by SW AG80 (edited 1/1/2007 9:49p).]

Leo Brooks was from Kermit, was all SWC for the sips (back before the hippies took over the place) and played for the Cardinals and the Oilers. I did not realize that he was all pro for the Cardinals in 1976 until I just did a Google search.

He was a fine man (I did a lot of buisiness with him) and something tells me St. Peter found a spot on the DL for him.

EDIT: Jerry Siesmore and Lawrence McCutcheon, both Plainview High grads, if you count that as WT.

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 1/3/2007 4:26p).]

Hmmmm Back at one time Ft Worth had a slogan "Where the West Begins." Abilene in those days countered with a slogan "Where the West is At." So using Abilene as a guide (+/-) it appears that anything west of a line connecting Canadian and Laredo would be considered West Texas ... so that includes the entire Panhandle. So the ruling on the field stands ... Plainview is in West Texas along with all those other towns in the handle of the pan. I know there are some NFL greats up there. (Donnie Anderson from Stinnett for starters.)

Hi Fossil!

Donny Anderson is my Mom's cousin. He sent me an autographed picture when I graduated from high school.
Dan Blocker went to Hardin Simmons sometime cause Mom knew him there. She also knew Fess Parker at Hardin Simmons.

Once again a small world.

Hi TerryL. You probably have more direct connections to TAMC and West Texas football greats than anyone else on this board. It is great to get a glimpse of those personal details to go along with the stats that most of us quote. Nice to have you with us.

My mom is a few years younger than Dan Blocker, and lived in O'Donnell until she was 4, and again later. I have a stillborn "big brother" in the O'Donnell cemetery.

All mom remembers of Dan was a huge bully she tried to avoid. I'm sure her 4-year-old memories are less kind than those who knew Dan as a "gentle giant" in his later years.

The family story is that Dan's dad, a grocery store owner, was known as "Shack", not because his name was Shaquille, but because they lived in, well, a shack.

Dan had a son Dirk who acted in a few TV roles. He was one of the pilots in "Black Sheep Squadron", the TV show inspired by Pappy Boyington.

I did not see anyone mention Dominic Rhodes who played for Cooper in the nineties and just won a Superbowl with the colts. Also Daniel Manning of ACU (not sure where he went to HS) plays for the bears.

ttt for the newbies. I think the subject should be expanded to include West Texas highschoolers, and Aggies, who performed well in college coaching careers.

clayton's a great GREAT guy. i went to school w/ his daughters and nieces and nephews.

most of them were good people but clayton's kids in particular were all gorgeous, athletic, nice girls.

His oldest went to A&M was a white house intern and the youngest is playing hoops at ASU.

slade (his nephew) quit the team though last year. His younger bro is playing for ASU now and his older brother was a QB there for 3 years.

heck of an athletic family.

EMC do you still live on the other side of 87 from him? i grew up not far from there.

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Billy Joe Tolliver was quarterback for Texas Tech '85-'89 but his high school ball was played at Boyd, a small school in Wise County, east of Dallas.

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I guess, technically, if you headed east and went all the way around the world until you got about 45 minutes northwest of Fort Worth, you could make the case that Wise County is east of Dallas.