1950 Bearcats

    There was no place to go but up in 1950.  The losing streak stood at twenty games and would stretch to a record twenty-eight games before the season culminated with unexpected victories over De Leon’s two biggest rivals, Gorman and Comanche.

     District 8-A included De Leon, Dublin, Cisco, Ranger, Eastland, Comanche and Hamilton.  New Braunfels was ranked number one in Class A at the start of the season but Wharton beat Kermit to win the State Championship 13-9.

    Fall workouts began on August 15 for the Class A schools.  Coach Bishop scrimmaged his old high school team Killeen in preseason and the Bearcats, while not looking like champions, showed much improvement.




























SAN ANGELO LAKEVIEW

      De Leon opened the season against San Angelo Lakeview.  The 7-A Chiefs, ran out of the T formation under coach G.C. Groves. They returned a letterman at every position and built a 14-0 first quarter lead, driving 65 yards for the first score.  They threatened again but a fumble gave the ball to the Bearcats who gave it right back on an intercepted pass that was juggled by the receiver.  But, the Bearcat defense stiffened and did not allow another offensive touchdown.  In the third quarter, Rodney Irby intercepted a Lakeview pass and returned it to the Chiefs’ 28.  On the next play, Irby  tried a pass to Royce Eads only to have it picked off by Albert Mecks who took it all the way for touchdown number three.  Webb kicked all three extra points for San Angelo.

      De Leon’s score came in the fourth quarter when the Bearcats drove from their own 35.  From 9 yards out, Irby connected with Eads for the touchdown and Tommy Weaver kicked the pint after. The final score was 21-7.


GRANDVIEW

      When Superintendent Harley Davis left De Leon he moved to Grandview and he brought his new team to De Leon to pickup a 25-12 win.  Grandview scored three times in the first half and added another in the second.  In the second half Irby threw a 20 yard touchdown pass to Eads and scored a touchdown of his own on a keeper from the two.


CROSS PLAINS

       Class B Cross Plains extended the loosing streak to 23 as they won 6-0.  The Free Press described the game as the “Bearcat’s finest effort in a great many seasons.”  De Leon had twice as many first downs, ran up more yardage, and blocked three punts but, also lost seven fumbles and had numerous penalties that kept them from scoring.


CISCO

      Cisco, with an enrollment of 351 had dropped into the district but they too had not won a game since 1947.  De Leon, with Curtis Cozby out with injuries ended the Lobo losing steak with a 19-6 loss.

     Cisco scored on three touchdown by Doug Johnson.  The first came on a 10 yard gallop in the opening stanza.  In the third quarter Johnson added two more touchdowns on 70 and 47 yard runs.  De Leon’s score came on a sustained 71 yard drive in the final minutes of the game.  Irby picked up a first down on a fourth and two and then connected with Eads for a 30 yard gain to keep the drive alive.  Irby picked up the touchdown from the five but the extra point kick hit the crossbar and bounced back into the playing field.


DUBLIN

      Cozby was still out for the Dublin game and Eads and Broughton were injured during the game, killing any chance De Leon had of beating the LIons.  The highlight of the game came when De Leon’s 226 pound Herman Johnson overtook speedy Lion quarterback Bob Little who weighed only 120 at the five to save a touchdown.  De Leon’s lone tally came when a punt return by Broughton for 20 yards put the ball on the Dublin 31.  From the 20 Tommy Weaver took a hand off and then threw a screen pass to Don Stacy for the score.  Dublin won 20-6.


HAMILTON

      Hamilton hammered De Lon 19-0 putting a touchdown on the board in each of the first three quarters on runs of 2, 15 and 1 yards.


EASTLAND

      De Leon lost again the next week to Eastland 31-12 but for the first time in three years De Leon had the lead in a game.  Eastland, who had been unimpressive in the first part of the season had upset Dublin the previous week.  The Mavericks took the initial lead but De Leon answered with two touchdowns as Irby carried in from the two and three respectively. But, the more powerful Mavericks scored just before the half to even the score at 12 all and retook the lead on a 75 yard touchdown pass in the third.


RANGER

      The Ranger Daily Times described the De Leon football field as looking like and “Indian camp” as people huddled around fires to stiffen themselves against a missive blast of cold air that hit Central Texas and dropped the temperature to about 35 degrees during the game.  However, Jim Comacho did not need the fires to keep warm.  He carried 17 times for 128 yards, scored five touchdowns, and converted five points after.  What Comacho did not do, the wind did.

     Ranger took the wind and on De Leon’s first punt, the wind caught the ball and blew it back to the Bearcat 39 for a four yard loss.  Luckily, Comacho fumbled the ball back to De Leon on the next play.  But, on the next punt the ball reached the 43 and on the final Bearcat punt of the quarter the wind got its share of the punt, the return man got his share and referees took theirs on a clipping call and Ranger ended up with the ball at the De Leon ten.  Comacho carried it in from the eight.

    De Leon threatened several times in the third quarter as the wind played havoc with Bulldog punts but Ranger came away with a 35-6 win.  Comacho’s older brother Raymond destroyed the Bearcats in 1948.


GORMAN

     The twenty-five game losing streak finally came to an end in Gorman, appropriately against the last team De Leon had beaten.  De Leon won the game 14-0 as John Edd Simpson scored the first touchdown and Johnson the second as he took the ball in untouched.

     Never since that day, November 11, 1950 has De Leon gone without a win in a season.


COMANCHE

     De Leon had not beaten Comanche since 1946 and certainly was not expected to do so in 1950.  But, a funny thing happened the week of the game.  A letter arrived in Bearcat land and De Leon swept to a 31-14 victory.

      During the week the Bearcats received a letter postmarked in Comanche.  The letter said in part “You can not tackle hard enough to burst a bubble.  Comanche’s linemen are going to be in your backfield the whole game.  They are going to tear the straps off your braziers and the lace off your panties.  You should get a game of Ring Around the Rosey or Drop the Handkerchief or something that fits your talent.”  The masterpiece inspired the Bearcats to a 31-14 victory.

      The Native Americans never knew what hit them, or more correctly they never knew why it hit them.  The only real gains by Comanche came on passes and end runs.  They were completely shut down up the middle.

     Irby took the opening kickoff and handed it to LaDale Broughton.  Broughton weaved his way through outstanding down field blocks and raced 75 yards for a touchdown.

      Herman Johnson added touchdowns on runs of 4, 5, 2, and 30 yards, but the Free Press gave no other details.

    De Leon’s Mayor W.B. Nowlin promised the team he would treat them to a steak dinner if they beat Comanche.  On Monday November 27, the team had those steaks at the Bearcat Grill.

      Who wrote the letter?  For years, I did not share the information at the writer’s request but recently it was revealed at a Festival reunion.  He was the Valedictorian of his De Leon class, a one time assistant coach of the Bearcats, a De Leon Postmaster, and the traditional leader of Osky-Wow-Wow at the reunion each year.  C.L. Mohon is the correct answer.

       The football banquet featured Calvin Beauchamp as speaker.  He was voted Coach of the Year in 1950 after leading the Abilene Christian College Wildcats to an undefeated season and a bowl game.

THE 1950 BEARCATS


CAPTAINS:  TOMMY WEAVER and SHELLYE HAMPTON

COACHES TOM BISHOP and LLOYD JEAN


Front Row:  Coach Tom Bishop, Mgr. Johnny Warren, Lee Weldon Stephenson, Eddie Adams, Ray Goates, J. Edward Eads, Shellye Hampton, Bob Howell, John Edd Simpson, Bill Howell, Johnny Hodges, Jerry Bush, Coach Lloyd Jean.

Back Row:  Rodney Irby, Curtis Cozby, Herman Johnson, Don Stacy, Eddie Polnac, LaDale Broughton, Tommy Weaver, Murray Stroud, Lee Roy Solley and Royce Eads.

Not Pictured: Joe Moore, Roland Whitehead, Virgil Evans,  (Photo from the 1951 De Leonian)

The Mayor’s dinner at the Bearcat Grill.