1951 Bearcats

1951 BEARCATS

COACH: Tom Bishop

Asst.  Lloyd Jeans



#51 Willie Forrest G     SP   125

#52 Eddie Adams B         SO  130

#53 Bob Howell C            JR   136

#54 Bill Howell LG/B       JR   135

#55 Pug Eads E                JR  137

#57 Arnold Pair G                   147

#58 Joe Pittman

#60 Charles Lindley T      SO  154

#61 M.L. Nance LT           SO 175

#62 John Simpson QB     JR  145

#63 Don Stacy B              JR   157

#64 Coy Nelson T             SO  180

#66 LaDale Broughton WB SR 153

#67 Murry Stroud RE        SR 160

#68 Joe Moore T                     170

#70 Shellye Hampton RG  JR 177

#71 Curtis Cozby TB         JR  205

#72 Herman Johnson FB  JR  225

Eddie Polnac RT               JR  159

Stanley Skaggs E             SR  140

Tommie Locke E              SO  118

A.J. Taylor E                      JR  146

Roland Whitehead B        SO  150          

John Ham G                      SO  150


JUNIOR VARSiTY

Harris Brinson

Chester Brownlee

Lester Brownlee

Glenn Campbell

George Christie

Wallace Cook

Miles Davis

Waylon Dickie

Edward Dyson

Charles Gray

Jim Golden

Ken Heathington

Wayne Hunt

Tommy Koonce

James McGinnis

Donald Mitchell

Clyde Nooncaster

Waylon Oliver

Bill Otwell

Jonnie Reed

Avery Reynolds

Autry Stephens

Fred West

Jimmy West

Dalon Whitehurst

Stanley Wright



1951


          District 7-A

DHS                          OPP

32 Lake Worth              0

12 @Dublin                  37

6   Cisco                      38

6   @Comanche           46

6  CROSS PLAINS       25

13 @WILEY*                 40

7   CLYDE                      6

41 @SANTA ANNA      20

31 BANGS                     6

19 @RISING STAR        7

 

   De Leon dropped to Class A for the 1951 season, marking the first time that De Leon and arch-rival Comanche played in different divisions.  And, for the first time since 1921 De Leon would not face its other main rival, Gorman.  The new 7-A District consisted of De Leon, Cross Plains, Wiley, Clyde, Santa Anna, Bangs and Rising Star.    Lloyd Jeans became Coach Tom Bishop’s assistant.

    The Quarterback Club made a lot of improvements to the football facilities then located behind what is now the Methodist Church.  They constructed concrete block bleachers for the visiting team that could seat about 250 people on the east side of the field.  The home stands which consisted of a single metal  (now the interior part of the visitors bleachers at Bearcat Field) and four sets of wooden bleachers were repaired and a fence enclosing the entire field was added.

     Hilmar Waggoner, De Leon’s new band director just out of Texas Tech organized a Junior High Band for the first time.

   De Leon scrimmaged Goldthwaite and Gorman in the preseason besting the Eagles 6-0 and the Panthers 24-6.


LAKEWORTH

    The Bullfrogs of Lakeworth visited the Bearcats to open the season.  Highly favored over De Leon and picked to win their district, they quickly fell behind as Don Stacy intercepted a pass at the Bearcat 10 and raced 90 yards for a touchdown.  LaDale Broughton scored two touchdowns, Bill Howell and Curtis Cozby  added one each as the Bearcats rolled to a 32-0 victory.  It was the largest Bearcat win in 35 games and only the second opening fame victory since 1937.


DUBLIN

   The celebration was short lived as a banged up Bearcat team took on Dublin.  With Don Johnson out and Curtis Cozby limping around on a sprained ankle, the Lions romped to a 39-12 win.  De Leon’s two scores came when Cozby scored from the four to culminate a drive from midfield and John Simpson got the other touchdown on a two yard run set up by a 45 yard pass play from Broughton to Murry Stroud.


CISCO

    Cozby’s ankle completely sidelined him for the Cisco game and the Lobos downed the Bearcats 38-6.  De Leon’s only score was a Simpson to Stroud pass for a 35 yard touchdown.  Cisco’s Robert Jackson scored touchdowns on 3, 37 and 5 yard carries and then added another on a 50 yard pass interception.  The Lobos added two more for the 38-6 win.


COMANCHE

     Comanche was next and the injuries to Cozby and Johnson were compounded with Simpson only being able to play a few downs.  Comanche claimed the county championship 46-6.


CROSS PLAINS

   District play began with Cross Plains.  Early in the game the Bearcats recovered a fumble at the Buffalo 36 and drove to the one but Cross Plains held.  The Buffs then scored on two James Barr to Bobby Vaught touchdown passes one of 15 and the other of 78 yards.  Both Barr and Vaught added another touchdown each, carrying over from the one and twelve respectively.  Simpson connected with Stroud on a 44 yard touchdown pass for the only Bearcat score in the 25-6 loss.


WILEY

    After a much needed week off, the Bearcats journeyed to Abilene to take on Wiley, the eventual District Champion.  De Leon’s scores came on two touchdown passes from Simpson to Stroud for 20 yards and later 30 yards.   Cozby added the point after on the second score.  Wiley won 40-13.


CLYDE

   Rain and mud greeted the Bulldogs in De Leon.  The Bearcats were short LaDale Broughton who was out with injuries.

    The Bulldog’s Marcello Aguero opened the scoring when he went up the middle to give Clyde a 6-0 lead.  Things looked bleak for the Bearcats as they twice fumbled away opportunities, once at the Bulldog three yard line.  Then, late in the game Eddie Polnac blocked a punt, “almost taking it off the shoe of the punter” and raced 40 yards for a touchdown.  Herman Johnson plowed through the line to add the winning extra point and give De Leon a district win.


SANTA ANNA

After three losing seasons in a row, hope began to grow that the Bearcats might have a chance to break even since their final three opponents were struggling through their respective seasons.

    In what was described as the best game since 1947, the Bearcats scored twice in the first six plays of the game.  A recovered fumble at the Mountaineer two was followed by a Johnson touchdown on the ensuing play.  On the next Mountaineer series, Don Stacy picked off a pass at the Santa Anna 26. Johnson carried for five and then went 21 yards for another touchdown.  Johnson scored again in the second quarter from 16 yards out to give De Leon a 21-0 lead.

    Just before the half, Santa Anna got on the board with a 33 yard drive to narrow the lead to 21-7 at the half.

    In the third quarter Santa Anna picked up two touchdowns and pulled within a point of the Bearcats at 21-20.  But,  De Leon regained the momentum as Simpson hit Stroud for 15 yards to the one followed by Johnson’s run to pick up the touchdown.  Simpson then intercepted a pass at the 45 yard line and returned it to the Santa Anna five.  Johnson carried it in for the score.  Johnson added his sixth score of the night on a 43 yard run.  Cozby accounted for three extra points, Johnson and Eddie Adams one each.

   The 41 points scored by the Bearcats was the most in a game in 21 season, since the 1931 Strawn game when De Leon scored 81.  One thing was settled, for the first time in three years the cellar would not be occupied by De Leon.


BANGS

    A punt return by Don Stacy for 24 yards to the Dragon 26 set up the first Bearcats’ score against Bangs.  Johnson added 15 yards, Adams carried  to the one and Johnson scored.  Bangs intercepted a Bearcat pass in the second quarter to set up their only score and take a 7-6 lead.  But, the Bearcats came right back and strung together a 66 yard drive with Johnson picking up another touchdown.  Stacy then grabbed his second Dragon pass and returned it to the Bangs’ 30.  Six plays later Johnson ran it in from the five.  A 72 yard touchdown run by Cozby was called back but he then scored  on a 47 yard run later in the drive.   Johnson added two more touchdowns on 16 and 15 yard runs to bring his total TDs to 11 in two games.  De Leon won 31-6.


RISING STAR

    Johnson began his scoring early against Rising Star going off left guard for 21 yards in the opening series.  But Star answered on their next series with an 80 yard drive kept alive with a 15 yard penalty on the Bearcats. 

    Trailing 7-6, De Leon retook the lead in the second quarter on a 77 yard drive that culminated with Johnson scoring from the 20.  In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats drove to the De Leon 11 before the Bearcat defense could stop them.  De Leon then drove 89 yards in a series that included a 15 yard penalty against the Bearcats, one of the twelve for 105 yards that would be assessed against De Leon.  At the 23, Simpson hit Stroud at the 10.  Johnson carried to the two and scored on the next play.  Cozby scored the point after in the 19-7 win.

    The Bearcats rolled up 345 yards and 12 first downs in the game and finished third in the district. Wiley won the championship but was eliminated by Albany 27-13 at Bi-district.  Wink’s Wildcats hammered Abernathy 70-20  to win the state championship.

    At midterm, Coach Bishop resigned to enter business in Killeen.  Bob Blair was eventually hired as his replacement.