27 Bearcats

1927 Bearcats

1927

District 3 Section B Champions

DHS OPP

12 Granbury 0

16 @Hamilton 6

20 @Dublin 6

33 Desdemona 7

6 @Comanche 0

33 Stephenville 0

20 Rising Star 7

12 Gorman 6

0 Haskell * 12

De Leon expected to have the best team in W.Z. Compton’s tenure in 1927 and the schedule was set up so that Saturday, November 12, and Thursday, November 24, remained open in case a district play off was needed.

GRANBURY

The Bearcats hosted Granbury in the opening game. Granbury never really threatened as they made only five first downs. De Leon was able to put a touchdown on the board in both the second and third quarter to win 12-0. Huron Polnac scored both touchdowns.

HAMILTON

No details were found in the Free Press, however a very brief article probably from the Fort Worth Star Telegram stated that Cecil Polnac and Murry Nichols starred for De Leon. Hamilton scored their 6 points on a fourth quarter pass interception but De Leon won 19-6.

DUBLIN

For the first time ever, a De Leon game was broadcast on radio. Dublin station KFPL (Kind Folks Please Listen) carried the game live from De Leon. The Lions took the opening kickoff and returned the ball 40 yards. De Leon promptly drew two 15 yard penalties and Dublin suddenly had the ball at the De Leon 3. On the next play the Lions “bucked” for the touchdown. In the second quarter, De Leon scored twice, the first on a series of “line plunges”. On the ensuing kickoff, Dublin fumbled the ball into the end zone and De Leon recovered and took a 13-6 half time lead.

In the third quarter Pete McClellan intercepted a Lion pass in the flat and finding himself alone he retuned it 75 yards for a touchdown. Pete’s dad was one of the official time keepers and is said to have run along the side lines encouraging Pete on. The pass for the extra point was good and that brought the final score to 20-6.

DESDEMONA

The Bearcats whipped Desdemona 33-7. How De Leon scored is unknown but Desdemona scored on a fumbled punt recovery in the end zone. Desdemona players included Moore at center, Mobley and Kraft at guard, Johnson and Rouse at tackle, Wilcox and Martin at end, Simpson at quarterback, Doyle and Reisling at half and Choate at fullback.

RISING STAR

De Leon was to host Rising Star for the next game and it appeared that all the marbles would ride on the game. De Leon felt that Rising Star had built a team with oil field workers who really were not eligible. De Leon protested the eligibility of the Wildcat’s start Joe Martin.

The game was postponed. De Leon claimed that Rising Star would not cooperate in the selection of the officials, wanting only their hand picked three. The Rising Star Record saw no reason for the game not having been played and said “On account of the failure of De Leon High school to play the scheduled game with Rising Star High school at De Leon last Friday, the game has been claimed by Rising Star by forfeit, a petition asking for the awarding of the game to Rising Star having been mailed to the Interscholastic League last Saturday.”

The Class B Committee met at Abilene to hear the protest and determine what was to be done. Both Rising Star and De Leon were required to be there. Complicating the issue was Comanche who was appealing their failure to make the playoffs due to the use of ineligible man.

The committee ruled that Comanche was ineligible because they had played a player older than 20. The age limit had been dropped from 21 during the summer.

The committee then decided that De Leon and Rising Star would meet on November 15 to determine the champion of Section B. If either team did not show up they would forfeit. Haskell was ruled champion of Section A and Sweetwater champion of Section C. Those two teams would face each other for the right to meet the De Leon-Rising Star winner for the district championship.

Another meeting was then held in Gorman with Coach Compton, Superintendent Russell and Rising Star’s coach Red Williams, Superintendent Cantrel and Bert McClamery the district representative for Gorman attending.

A neutral site was to be selected. De Leon preferred Comanche, Rising Star picked Cisco and won the coin toss. The officials selected were the Cisco coach, Sweeny Randolph and a Mr. Golightly and Mr. Nigro, both faculty members at Cisco. Tickets were sold beginning immediately. Adults were charged 50 cents (75 at the gate) and students 25 cents.

De Leon was scheduled to play Gorman, Comanche and Stephenville before Rising Star while the Wildcats would take on Gorman and Dublin.

STEPHENVILLE

The game was scheduled for Stephenville but a conflict with Tarleton forced the game to be moved to De Leon. An article, apparently from the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported the 33-0 De Leon victory but gave not details of the game.

COMANCHE

The Comanche game was a defensive struggle throughout the first half with both teams gaining only four first downs and neither threatening. In the third quarter, Hezzie Dean intercepted a Comanche pass and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown. The extra point was no good.

In the fourth quarter, Comanche drove to the De Leon 3 where they were penalized five yards. Gaining only 1 on the next play, the Native Americans faced a fourth and five but turned the ball over as Hezzie Dean intercepted a pass in the end zone. De Leon took over but had to punt on fourth down. Again Comanche drove to the Bearcat 3 but again Dean intercepted a fourth down pass, this time on the three. The ball went back to De Leon and the game ended with a 6-0 Bearcat win.

RISING STAR

Rising Star had indeed built a powerful team. They were a very large squad and De Leon was very much the underdog in the game. But, every dog has its day and that day was De Leon’s. As the Rising Star Record said, “there was glory in defeat...(as) an evil jinx...held sway over the Wildcats.”

The Free Press reprinted the Cisco Daily News article on the game.

Hezzie Dean took the opening kickoff for the Bearcats. On the return he hit the defender, who happened to be the star of the Wildcat team so hard that he had to be carried out on a stretcher. It would be a big blow for Rising Star as the Wildcats lost their Captain Joe Martin.

And, when everyone in De Leon was talking the next week on how Hezzie had “killed” the man, Hezzie father became quite upset. He didn’t like the game of football anyway, and to find out that his son had killed a player and not told him really had him alarmed. He confronted his son at home but settled down after Hezzie’s explanation. (This incident was confirmed with Hezzie Dean.)

Anyway, the Bearcats were unable to advance and Rising Star took over. The Wildcats could not gain much and then were penalized, forcing them to punt. The punter, Sidney Weatherman had subbed for the injured Martin and was facing his first punt of the season. The punt was blocked and recovered out of the end zone by De Leon for a safety. On the free kick De Leon could not advance and punted with the Wildcats taking the ball at their own 31.

Rising Star put together four consecutive first downs and drove to the De Leon 5. Star’s Leroy Jenkins who had had a 20 yard run earlier in the drive, made 3 yards to the De Leon 2 and reached out with the ball toward the goal as he was going down. Murry Nichols grabbed the ball away from him inside the one yard line and was twenty yards upfield before anyone realized who had the ball. Paul Holleman was the first to realize that Jenkins had not scored and saw Nichols heading for a touchdown. Holleman raced back to block the Star player now in pursuit. Nichols officially went 100 yards on a fumble recovery for the touchdown.

Not to be completely outdone, on the next Rising Star series, Roy Nabors blocked the Wildcat punt and went 40 yards for another touchdown.

In the second quarter the game was a punting duel, with Nabors being credited with hitting one punt for 60 yards. However, several Bearcat fans indicated that Nabors probably averaged near 60 yards for the game which was one of the keys to the De Leon victory. The Wildcats took another blow as Jenkins was knocked out and did not return until he middle of the third quarter.

In the third quarter, Rising Star looked to be putting together a come back. Taking the opening kickoff, the Wildcats scored on a long drive. On their next series Rising Star unleashed a passing attack which was carrying them toward the De Leon goal when Hezzie Dean intercepted a pass at the Bearcat 18 to save the score. The Bearcats had to punt but as Star drove toward the De Leon goal, Dean again picked off a pass, this time returning it to the 25 of Rising Star. Thrown for a 13 yard loss, the Bearcat’s were forced to punt again. This time the punt went into the end zone for a touchback. Back down the field came the Wildcats reaching the Bearcat 20. Once again Mr. Dean picked off a pass but this time he returned it at least 60 yards for a touchdown. Still again, Star blazed down the field and still again Hezzie snatches the ball away, this time at the Bearcat 25. He returned it to the 30 of Rising Star to seal the 20-7 Bearcat victory.

De Leon manage only 2 first downs while Rising Star had 15. Only 300 spectators saw the show and most of them were from Rising Star as the De Leon fans just stayed home. The next year Rising Star had a new coach and the teams did not meet again until 1949.

GORMAN

The Gorman game was scheduled to take place on Armistice Day prior to the Rising Star game but the death of Poe Greer (apparently from Gorman) caused a postponement. A record gate of $300 was taken in but the newspaper coverage was only four lines long. Joe Holleman scored one Bearcat touchdown while Nabors caught a pass for the second. Gorman scored on an end run. The final was De Leon 12-6.

HASKELL

District 3, the Oil Belt, was comprised of 20 counties and divided into three Class B sections. De Leon was Champion of Section B while Haskell claimed the Section A Championship and had defeated Sweetwater the Section C Champion. Haskell had earned the Section A Championship by out pointing the other district members. De Leon was the only undefeated team in the entire district and hosted Haskell for the Championship on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The wind played a major role in the game. Many punts resulted lost yardage. The passing game was erratic at best for both teams.

Craig Nichols reported on the game for the Free Press. Midway through the first quarter Haskell drove for a touchdown but missed the extra point. They added another touchdown toward the end the half when they gained possession at their own 47 and drove for a touchdown using off tackle players. De Leon’s only threat came in the fourth quarter but died when Holleman’s pass went incomplete and Haskell took over at their own 20 yard line. Haskell won 12-0.

On the following Thursday night Coach Compton’s home burned. On Friday, the annual Football Banquet was held at the Travelers Hotel. each of the first string players got a heavy sweater while all the others got lighter sweaters. At the banquet Holleman was re-elected Captain for 1928.

Material for this article, in addition to area newspapers came from interviews with Hezzie Dean, Pete McClellan, and Everette Hansford, and from material from the scrap book of Murry Nichols.