1948 Bearcats

THE 1948 BEARCATS



Virgil Evans, T.H. Williams, Harold Wayne McCrary, Truman Ross, Tommy Coan, Johnnie Lee Hodges, Dill Holland, Lee Roy Solley, Jerry Bush, Bobby Lawless, Marvin Boswell, William Campbell, Elza Perry, Glenn Pitts, Buddy Box, Rodney Irby, Rex Tilley, Frank Chupp, Tommy Weaver, Bob Frasier, Royce Eads and Elton Brownlee.  Manager: Bill Ryan.

1948


District 8-A

DHS                         OPP

0  Granbury                14

6  Winters                   32

0 @Methodist Home  28

@  EASTLAND            40

0   DUBLIN *               45

13 @HAMILTON         37

0   @ALBANY              57

0   RANGER*              54

0   GORMAN              52

0   @COMANCHE      20

 

    In June 1948 the famous Bearcat Grill opened across the street from the high school.  (It is the white building across from the present First United Methodist Church.)  The De Leon Bearcat football season should have never opened at all.  It was the single worst season in Bearcat history with 0 wins 10 losses,  only 19 points scored and the three touchdowns came on a fake punt, a fake pass, and what we would today probably refer to as  a halfback pass.

   Coach Latham had only four lettermen returning from the 1947 squad, Glen Pitts at center, running back William Campbell, end Bobby Lawless, and T.H. Williams at tackle.  The team started the season with only 21 players and was plagued by injuries all year.  The final game was called in the third quarter when De Leon could only field 10 men.

     

GRANBURY

    De Leon hosted Granbury in the non-district opener.  The Pirates took home a 14-0 victory but fumbled once at the Bearcat 2 and drove again to the 2 as time ran out.  The De Leon offense generated only 2 first downs and 31 yards.


WINTERS

    Hoping to drum up some spirit among the depressed Bearcat fans, the Bearcat Band marched from the Travelers Hotel to the depot and back preceding the game.  The music was probably nice, but De leon still lost 33-6.

     Winters took a 13-0 lead before Bearcat quarterback William Campbell handed the ball off to Elza Perry who lateraled the ball to Dill Holland.  Holland scored the first of the three touchdowns scored in 1948.  The Bearcats improved to a total of 39 yards rushing and 199 passing.


METHODIST HOME

     The Methodist Home in Waco came to De Leon with a player named Jack Hicks.  Had he not been there it might have been an even game.  After intercepting a pass at their own 20, and returning it to the 50 early in the game, the Methodist then threw a pass to Hicks at the De Leon 32 and he carried it to the 8 before scoring on the next play.  His second touchdown was around end for 30 yards.  He returned a punt from the 50 for a touchdown and finally scored again on a run from the 20 to give the Methodist a 27-0 win.  De Leon gained only 18 yards on the ground but had a respectable 164 in the air on 17 of 39 attempts.


EASTLAND

    The close battles between De Leon and the Mavericks of five years earlier were now long in the past and the first conference game at Eastland was over after the first quarter of play.  In the first three games, the Mavericks had piled up only 120 yards rushing compared to 88 the Bearcats had gained. 

     Jack Kelly carried in from the 4 for the first Eastland touchdown.  An Eastland fumble at the De L 25 saved a second.  Eastland quarterback Don Bradshier sneaked it across from the 2 in the second quarter for the second touchdown and Wadlye retuned a punt from midfield to bring the score to 19-0 at the half.  Eastland added a score in the third and one in the fourth for a 40-0 victory.


DUBLIN

     Dublin scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and one in the second to take a 17-0 half time lead.  Adding 2 more and two points after in  in the third and two more in the fourth, the Lions handed the Bearcats a 45-0 defeat and numerous injuries.  De Leon managed three first downs with just four yards rushing and 72 passing completing 8 of 12 with 2 interceptions.


HAMILTON

     During the week of the game, a water well was completed at the football field (then located east of the present Methodist Church).  For the first time, the field could be irrigated so that there would be a chance of having some grass covering part of the field during the season.

     That was of little consequence for the Bearcats.  With Rodney Irby and McCrary out for the game and Solley out for the season, the Bearcats scored their last two touchdowns of the year as Hamilton downed the Bearcats 37-13.  On a fake punt Campbell handed off to Holland who went 70 yards for a touchdown.  Later Campbell faked a pass (pump fake?) and ran 30 yard for the second score.


ALBANY

     No information on the game has been located but Albany won 56-0.


RANGER

     For the Ranger game, Williams replaced Irby on the injured list and McCrary played but with an injured arm.  The Ranger Daily Times anticipated an easy victory stating “Eastland’s Coach Seibert threw in everyone but the principal” to keep the score down.  The Times went on to say the De Leon was “lacking even a valid imitation of a ground attack” relying primarily on the pass.

     The Times report of the game stated “What was listed as a football game...reverted to a somewhat pitiful sight of an undermanned Bearcat team struggling to retain an organized appearance while faced with overwhelming and complete superiority.”

      The game was “all over when Raymond Comacho trampled 6 Bearcats to score in the first two minutes.  And , when the first string went over twice more in the next four minutes, Coach Waden told his varsity to forget football for the evening.”

     Comacho scored first following a De Leon fumble and he went on to score again from the 20 and the De Leon 35 to give Ranger a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter as brother Jimmy Comacho added the points after.  The 65 yard touchdown was Comacho’s longest of the year.

       The Bulldogs nailed the Bearcats for two more in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth to win 46-0.

     De Leon gained “a few yards rushing, and completed a few ineffectual passes, and never came within miles of scoring.  That was the end and a welcome one for little De Leon,” so said the Times.


GORMAN

     The Armistice Day game at Gorman became the thriller of the season as the Panthers drove to the De Leon 3 yard line early in the first.  But, Dill Holland broke through on the next play to throw the Panthers back to the 11 and the Bearcats held on downs.  Each team punted three times in the second quarter before Gorman’s Stacy completed a 37 yard pass play to Rawls for a Panther score and a 6-0 victory.


COMANCHE

On Thanksgiving Day injuries had so decimated the Bearcats that only 11 men suited up for the game.  Comanche quickly scored but T.H. Williams intercepted a pass for De Leon on Comanche’s next series at the Native American 40.  Campbell carried twice to reach the 16 and then passed to Boswell for 9 yards.  But, here the last threat of the season died.  Early in the second quarter, Campbell was injured and carried from the field.  Playing with only 10 men for the rest of the half, De Leon gave up only two touchdowns and two extra points.  In the third quarter Campbell retuned but was soon knocked out of game again.  With Comanche leading 26-0, the game was called midway through the third quarter because of the risk of serious injuries to the remaining ten players.


Ranger and Dublin tied for the 8-A District Championship with Dublin advancing to the playoffs.  De Leon’s losing streak stretched to 11 in a row.