1930 Bearcats

The 1930 Bearcats

Captain:

Clarence LIghtfoot


Arl Scott

Rex Lightfoot

Adrian Grizzelle

Robert Terrill

C.H. Timmons

Charles Wheat

Cecil Cook

Jack Donahue

Frank Gregory

W.S. Sneed

Seth Mathis

Cecil Polnac

Lucien Morris

F.L. Terrill

L.B. Mulloy

_______Southerland






1930


District 5-B

DHS                     OPP

0   Gatesville            0

19 Granbury             6

7  @Strawn               8

2  @Desdemona      0

7  Dublin                   0

0  Stephenville *     19

0  @Gorman           33

13 Hamilton             7

7   May                     0

13 Comanche        38

 

   The U.I.L. changed District 5 in 1930.  There had been 18 Class B schools in the district in 1929 with the district divided into the East and West Sections.  The schools were realigned into four sections including a new North and South Sections in 1930.  The North Section consisted of De Leon Comanche, Hamilton, Hico, Desdemona, Dublin, Stephenville, and Gorman.  There was also a rule change on the extra point try.  The ball would be placed on the two yard line rather than on the three.

   De Leon’s football practice got off to a late start as Coach Compton was away at a coaching school.  The Bearcats picked up two transfers, Frank Gregory from Jakehamon and Southerland from Breckenridge.


GATESVILLE

   No information has been located on this game.


GRANBURY

  Whether it was Compton’s belief that Granbury was a very weak team or his dissatisfaction with the Bearcat’s play in the Gatesville game is not known.  What is known is that he started the second string and left them in throughout the entire first half. 

    Although Granbury was able to move up and down the field, the Pirates could not take advantage of the situation and did not score.

   In the third quarter, Gregory went 45 yards around end for a touchdown to give De Leon  a 6-0 lead and then Jack Donahue intercepted a Pirate pass and took it 50 yards with a key block from W.S. Sneed for another touchdown.

   With a 13-0 lead, De Leon apparently attempted a halfback pass as Donahue put it in the air.  The Pirates picked off the pass and retuned it for a Granbury touchdown. 

    On the next series, the Bearcats drove to the Granbury one but could not score.  Granbury took over and tried to punt out of trouble but the put was blocked by Scott and Lightfoot recovered for the touchdown.  The final score was 19-6.


STRAWN

   De Leon had a 7-6 lead when they tired a “backward lob” that gave Strawn a safety and an 8-7 victory.


DESDEMONA

     The heat was on in De Leon.  The town must have been dissatisfied with the Bearcats’ play in the first three games as play in the Desdemona game was called “ragged” by the Free Press who went on to say that they “played well for all of two minutes” and scores were said to be “as uncommon as Africans in Comanche County.”

       De Leon managed only four first downs and were plagued by penalties throughout the game.  The lone score came when Rex Lightfoot tackled a Desdemona running back for a safety in the third to give the Bearcats a 2-0 win over the Porkers.


DUBLIN

    The Bearcats managed to put together two wins in a row with a 7-0 victory over Dublin.  The Lions managed to reach the De Leon one foot line in the third quarter but tackles by C.H. Timmons on first and second downs and Rex Lightfoot on third and fourth kept Dublin out of the end zone.

    Frank Gregory gave De Leon the win when he intercepted a pass at the De Leon 30 and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown and then kicked the extra point.

    Dublin’s final shot ended when W.S. Sneed intercepted a desperation Lion pass.


STEPHENVILLE

   Stephenville came into the game undefeated and leading the section.  The Yellow Jackets took the opening kickoff and promptly drove down the field for a touchdown but missed the point after.

    “The Bearcats promptly came back and some nice off tackle thrusts by Gregory and a beautiful running pass to Sneed placed the ball in Stephenville territory,”  according to the Free Press.  “Another running pass from Gregory to Sneed found the latter in a broken field.  He was forced out of bounds on the Jackets four yard line.  De Leon made a first down on the two yard marker.  De Leon failed to score when four bucks at the center of the line failed to make the necessary yardage.”   It was the only threat of the day for the Bearcats.

   Stephenville scored twice in the second half and made one extra point for a 19-0 win as the crippled Bearcats could not stop Wolf and Keith Ferguson. Stephenville went on to win the Sectional Championship.


GORMAN

    Gorman had never won back to back games against De Leon.  De Leon had never scored a touchdown at Gorman.  But injuries piled up on the Bearcats and Gorman got its first back-to-back win with a 33-0 drubbing of the Bearcats.

     The Bearcat defense crumbled when injuries sidelined Scott, Grizzelle, Morris, Timmons and Lightfoot.  The offense lost Donahue when he was kicked in the head, and Sneed to a badly split lip.  Gregory was also out and Polnac was hobbled.

     Gorman’s Morris ran the opening kickoff back to the De Leon 20 and quickly turned the opportunity into a 7-0 lead.  At the half that score still stood but most of the half had been played in De Leon’s end of the field.

    The Bearcats, described by the Free Press as “lacking a semblance of an offense,” ran only three offensive plays all day punting regularly on first down.  On one of the punts, Morris raced 90 yards for  a Panther touchdown.  Gorman then added three more scores in the latter part of the game.

     The Gorman Progress stated, “The usual De Leon hustle and fighting spirit was lacking something that is always an asset to  the Bearcats.”


MAY

A few of the players had recovered enough to test their strength for a few minutes in the game against May as the B team played almost all the game in a 7-0 De Leon win. 


HAMILTON

     A few of the first string player returned for Hamilton but the team was mostly second stringers who the coach was forced to play out of desperation.

    One of those players was F.L. Terrill who lined up against Hamilton’s Lemmon a 210 pound tackle, and “dealt him such misery as we have ever seen one man get” said the Free Press.

    Gregory took the opening kickoff for the Bearcats and raced for an apparent touchdown only to have the ball spotted on the De Leon 40 where he was ruled to have stepped out of bounds.

    Toward the end of the first quarter, De Leon put together its first scoring drive as Gregory connected with Sneed on four consecutive passes that moved the ball to the Hamilton 8.  On the first play of the second quarter, Gregory carried to the Hamilton 1 and scored on the next play, giving the Bearcats a 7-0 lead.

    De Leon took the second half kick off and marched down the field on Gregory’s arm.  He hit Sneed at the Hamilton 45 and then connected with Timmons at the 30.  But, the drive stalled and the Bulldogs took over.  Unable to move the ball, Hamilton attempted a punt which was blocked by De Leon and recovered at the Hamilton 12.

   Gregory wasted no time in  throwing a touchdown pass to Cecil Cook who was subbing due to injuries.  De Leon held on to a 13-0 lead until late in the game when Hamilton connected on a pass near the De Leon goal line.  Sargent scored on the next play for the final 13-6 Bearcat win.


COMANCHE

   The Native Americans had never beaten De Leon in De Leon in the seventeen year history of the series.   That streak ended in 1930 as Comanche rolled to a 38-13 win.

    The crippled Bearcat offense was able to post only one first down in the first half but the defense managed to keep Comanche out of the end zone to go into the half tied 0-0.

     Early in the third quarter, Comanche blocked a Gregory punt from the end zone and recovered it for the first touchdown.  The Native Americans passed for a second touchdown later in the quarter.

   In the final quarter, De Leon scored on a drive keyed by passes from Gregory to Wheat and Sneed, with Sneed scoring the touchdown.


DE LEON VS. GORMAN EXES

  On Christmas Day, the alumni from De Leon and Gorman met for a game.  De Leon won 8-0.

   De Leon’s players included Johnnie Walker, Roy Nabors, Elton Boswell, Murray Nichols (then playing for Texas Tech); Doc Self (Tarleton and Randolph Field), Jodie Harvey (3 year letterman at Simmons [now Hardin-Simmons]); Herb Weaver, Jewel Mathis, Huron and Cecil Polnac, Charles Moreland; 1930’s quarterback Frank Gregory; Robert “Slatz” Patterson (SMU and Daniel Baker); Swede Pittman (3 yr. letterman at Simmons and coach at Anson); and Stanley “Tiny” Morris who by then was standing at 6’ 5” the weighing in at a mere 380 pounds.

    Wayne L. Mulloy intended to play in the game.  But, in the week prior to Christmas, he inhaled poison gas in an oil well incident in Colorado City.  He died the day following the game at the age of 22.