1959 ENDING THE DIRTY DOZEN
1959 Bearcats
1959 District 8-AA Champions
Bottom Row L-R: Charles Straub, Mickey Robinette, Steve McGinnis, Roger Spruill, C.A. Brinson, James Bruton, Wade Smith
Middle: Gerald Van Zandt, Bobby Phillips, Larry Nabors, Grady West, Don Coan, Noel Weaver, Tony Sharp, Bobby Wall,
Top: Head Coach Bill Little, Terry Barnes, Lenward Caraway, J.W. Sadberry, Jackie Morgan, Mike Thomas, Wayne Terry, Stanley Kirk, Asst. Coaches Charles Clary, John Baskin.
Not pictured: Asst. Coach James Perkins, Managers: Max Holleman and Bill Smith.
A season of spirit ribbons. Each ribbon cost 10 cents except the Bi-District ribbon (far right) which cost 15 cents.
Ribbons and programs provided by C.A. and Patsy Reed Brinson.
Head coach Bill “Chief” Little on the right display the District Championship Trophy in the High School Auditorium with assistants John Baskin (L) and Charles Clary (C).
1959
DISTRICT 8-AA
CHAMPIONS
DHS OPP
38 Gorman 0
28 @Cross Plains 0
6 Eastland 20
24 @Ranger 20
6 Cisco 34
38 Goldthwaite 24
20 COMANCHE 14
36 @HAMILTON 6
40 DUBLIN 6
30 @GRANBURY 0
6 CISCO (B) 31
The Start of Something Great
by Bill Morgan
A fable tells of a wise father who gave his quarreling sons a bundle of sticks with the task of braking the bundle in half. Try as they may none of his stout young sons could accomplish the task. The smaller and weaker father then untied the bundle and easily broke each stick one at a time. The moral was that as long a the brothers were bound together no one could defeat them whereas separately they could be easily over come. Such was the strength of the 1959 De Leon Bearcats. Although small in number and size, as a unit they were formidable. De Leon had not won a district title since 1946 and that was the only one since 1932. The small, inexperienced 1959 squad changed that and in so doing established a tradition of excellence for Bearcat football which would carry on for decades to come.
LOW EXPECTATIONS
Expectations were not high in De Leon as the 1959 two-a-day practices began. The Bearcat team had only two seniors and was coming off a a 3-7 record in 1958. The coaches had to construct a team using younger players who had not played significantly at the high school level. The team was composed of only eight lettermen, seven squad men (players from the prior year who did not letter), seven freshmen and one junior coming out for football for the first time. for those of you counting that is a total of 23. This number dwindled to 22 by season’s end. The team was so few in numbers that after an injury or two there weren’t enough players to effectively practice. Coaches Charles Clary and James Perkins would often have to don pads and fill in as running backs in order to allow scrimmaging to continue.
It is hard to imagine in today’s world of weight rooms and specialized diets that this successful starting lineup could sport 4 starters weighing 155 or less. Even at that, center James Bruton stated that the official playing weights were in some cases “rounded up” in order to give the appearance of a more substantial player. To make matters worse, this was in the single platoon era. By limiting the number of substitutions per play, a team was practically forced to use the same players on offense, defense and special teams. Thus, the young undersized De Leon starters would often have to slug it out on every play with no hope of getting a breather. in a De Leon Free Press article before the opening game, Ham Locke (who voluntarily covered the games for the paper) eloquently stated “boasting no behemoths, the locals never-the-less appear to have adequate weight if they apply it properly.”
BASIC TRAINING
Lack of size for the most part was overcome with superior execution of the basics. The younger players had all been schooled in the fundamentals by James Perkins, the Junior High School coach and principal. Perkins attention to the minutest details of the art of tackling and blocking produced players who could overcome larger opponents. The writer remembers a coaching technique used by Perkins involving a two by twelve board. He would have opposing players face one another while taking a stance with both feet and hands staddling the board. The goal was to knock the opposing player off the board while maintaining your balance with feet still straddling the board. The size of the opponent had little to do with success in this drill whereas leverage and pad level were at a premium. James Bruton indicated that this drill made blocking taller, heavier and less agile players something like ”taking candy from a baby. “
Bruton also remembers the near perfect tackling form used by Grady West and taught by Perkins. Perkins’ young players were equally skilled at skirting blocks and tackles. Three of the four linebackers on this team weighed in at 155 pounds or less, yet had little problem fighting off blocks by larger opposing linemen while making open field tackles. Perkins also required his running backs to play basketball in order to teach them to avoid tacklers by “running to daylight” and following blockers.
COACHES
The head coach was Bill Little who had served two years as an assistant coach at De Leon before moving up to the head coaching position in 1958. His 1958 team had three wins against seven losses. Three of those losses were by small margins but De Leon had not fared well in district play. His assistants were John Baskin and Charles Clary. James Perkins helped with coaching during the preseason practices in addition to scouting the opposing teams.
Coach Little was was affectionately known by his players (and by the entire student body) as “Chief”. He starred at football for Howard Payne College where he was in recent years inducted into the (now university’s) Hall of Fame. He served as head coach at De Leon for five years during which time he won a district championship and finished second three times. His teams won 66% of their games (33-17-1) and narrowly missed winning tow other district titles. His players had a special bond with him. Some remembered taking the field to start a game with tears in their eyes from his inspiring pre-game talks. He and his assistants coached a brand of hard nosed and relentless football which stressed speed and agility. One of his players stated in reference to Coach Little that “as a coach, teacher and leader he set a great example of doing it the right way in all aspects of how he conducted his life.”
PLAYERS
Coach Little did not seem to be bound by the conventional coaching philosophy which would have dictated that the largest players be on the line and smaller and faster players be in the backfield. For example, he moved Jackie Morgan from center to the bacfield in order to supply a little heft and razzle-dazzle at the right halfback position. That move required the use of a smaller James Bruton at center. He used David Coan in the backfield rather than on the line in order to have a bruising chain moving fullback. (In later years he did this with Mike Thomas). And Coan was a bruiser. Grady West remembers Coan breaking into the open and literally picking out a linebacker or safety to run over. Dash and flash were supplied in the backfield by quarterback Grady West and the fleet hard running left halfback Stanley Kirk.
It was possibly in the line that Coach Little was forced to be at his creative best. He used three talented but untested sophomores (Wayne Terry, Mike Thomas and Lenward Carawy), three solid but small juniors, James Bruton(155 pounds), C.A. Brinson (145 pounds) and J.W. Sadberry (170 pounds), along side Senior Captain Terry Barnes. Sophomore Tony Sharp (guard) and Junior Bobby Phillips (end) also played regularly in the line. Barnes (185) and possibly Terry (190) were the only linemen whose weights seemed even remotely appropriate for their position. While the young sophomores would fill out in their junior and senior years, they were smaller as sophomores. There was not a 200 pound player on the line or even on the team. Quickness, strength and leverage allowed these linemen to open gaping holes for the talented backfield. As a side note, the requirement of the single platoon system gave the Bearcats an advantage on defense as the quickness of these linemen allowed them to snake into the backfield and run down opposing backs before they cold get up a head of steam.
No team reaches it potential without daily practice regimen against challenging opposition. The starters worked against may underclassmen who would later be excellent players for the Bearcats. The scrimmage team included a backfield of the two smallest players on the team, Mickey Robinett and Roger Spruill and two other very capable runners, Gerald Van Zandt and Wade Smith. The scrimmage linemen in addition to Sharp and Phillips included center Larry Nabors, guard Charles Straub and tackle Bobby Walls.
FORMATIONS
The offense used by the 1959 Bearcats was a “T” formation with the quarterback under center, a fullback behind him and two halfbacks on either side of the fullback. The line typically played with two tight ends. The entire formation gave the appearance from above of the letter “T” and lent itself to attacking in a balanced manner. De Leon offensive plays included dive and crossing plays run by the two quick and shifty halfbacks, slants and belly plays run by the punishing fullback, and a number of belly options and quarterback keeper plays which featured the undersized yet elusive quarterback, Grady West. West was also an excellent passer and De Leon featured more passing than was customary in those days.
On defense a 5-4 scheme was employed. One of the guards, Lenward Caraway, the two tackles, Thomas and Terry, and both ends, Barnes and Sadberry, made up the defensive front five. Bruton, the defensive captain, dropped back to linebacker where he played along side Morgan, West and hard hitting Steve McGinnis. The safeties were Kirk and Noel Weaver. This defense was not scored upon until the third game of season and held five of its opponents to six points or less. Ham Locke articulated that “With the Bearcats on the defense, the opposition often found themselves with a greater deficit in yardage on the fourth down than when they gained possession of the ball”
While all the games were exciting those against Ranger, Comanche and Hamilton best illustrated the character of this team.
RANGER
Early in the season De Leon traveled to Ranger to play the Bulldogs. De Leon’s last win over Ranger was in 1919 and the Bearcats had a ten game losing streak that began in 1946 against the Bulldogs. (De Leon and Ranger did not play each other between 1919 and 1946.) As such, there was a definite feeling of superiority on the part of Ranger’s team and the Bearcats were given little hope of winning. The game was exciting both athletically and meteorologically.
Ranger took the first lead with a quick first quarter score. De Leon returned fire and moved ahead as Jackie Morgan capped a De Leon drive with a touchdown run and Stanley Kirk added the two point conversion. Ranger came back to take the lead with another score. This time the Bearcats reestablished the lead with a Kirk touchdown and a Morgan two point conversion. Ranger ended the first half scoring with a touchdown and added a two point conversion to make the score, Ranger 20, De Leon 16.
Torrential rains mixed with hail started at the intermission and became the dominate theme of the second half. Grady West recalls the hail falling so hard that the fans sought relief under the stands and peered out between the seats to watch the action. James Bruton recalls that some De Leon and Ranger fans, in their haste to escape the storm, ended up sharing the same automobile. The constant pelting of the hail on the players’ helmets made it difficult for them to hear the quarterback calling the play.
Neither team could accomplish much offensively during the deluge. At a point, the referees asked the coaches about stopping the game with Ranger still leading 20-16. James Bruton remembers Coach Little offering his team the opportunity to escape the harsh elements but to the man they were unwilling to stop as long as they were behind. Bruton allowed “we couldn’t get any wetter than we were and we flat out did not want to lose that game.” with the hail and rain breaking many of the stadium lights, the Bearcats continued to battle and with practically no time left in the game, halfback Jackie Morgan squirted through a hole and dashed 12 yards into the end zone to score the winning touchdown. David Coan added insult to injury by making a two point conversion. De Leon had come from behind three times in the game. The 24-20 victory signaled a change of attitude for the Bearcats versus the Bulldogs as they did not lose to Ranger again until 1967.
COMANCHE
One of the toughest district games and a game which illustrated the pluck of the undersized Bearcats came against none other than the cross-county rival, Comanche. The amazing aspect of this game was the size differential of the players. Ham Locke writing for the Free Press stated “James Bruton, Lenward Caraway and C.A. Brinson carried large burden for the Bearcats, bucking a 25 pound weight advantage down the middle while Wayne Terry, Mike Thomas and Tony Sharp also did a great job against heavier Indians. J.W. Sadberry, Terry Barnes and Bobby Phillips contained the wide game very effectively. Steve McGinnis (145 pound linebacker) contributed one score-saving tackle and many good defensive plays.” The Bearcat defense stopped the Indians inside their own five yard line twice to preserve the victory.
On the offensive side, Jackie Morgan scored on a three yard run for the Bearcats’ first touchdown. This score followed a short punt by Comanche’s John Gleaton which came as a result of a torrid De Leon rush. After two good runs by Grady West, Stanley Kirk scored De Leon’s second touchdown. David Coan added the two point conversion. Terry Barnes capped the scoring with a reception from West. J.W. Sadberry set up one of the touchdowns with a long reception from West. A third and fourth quarter score by Comanche’s John Gleaton and Jimmie Waler proved to be too little, too late as De Leon held on to win. the 20-14 victory resulted in several players being injured but a bye week allowed enough healing to permit the team to continue their quest for an elusive District crown.
HAMILTON
The De Leon-Hamilton game was played in Hamilton. According to the Free Press, the game was played “despite the rain, fog, black mud and poor lights....” Hamilton appeared to be unbeatable. The Bulldog team, prior to meeting the Bearcats, were averaging 32 points per game. James Limmer and Bob Keeter were the big guns for Hamilton. Keeter had scored four touchdown in 10 minutes against Clifton only two weeks earlier. Prior to the game a Fort Worth paper predicted that “Hamilton will have little trouble with a weaker opponent.” James Bruton remembered Coach Little reading this prediction to the team before allowing them off the bus. He commented that “no one believes you can win this game. Let’s go out and show them what kind of team we are.”
And the team did just that. Ham Locke described the linemen as “the first gang all season to stop the high scoring Limmer-Keeton combination.” He went on to add “Lenward Caraway, CA. Brinson and James Bruton manned the middle with District Championship determination. Mike Thomas and Wayne Terry played extra tough tackle and turned in the dirtiest shirts for the night. Bobby Phillips, Terry Barnes, J.W. Sadberry and Steve McGinnis who had responsibility for stopping the Bulldog wide game, did just that. Jackie Morgan was used as a roving linebacker. Wherever the play went Morgan was there.” Locke went on to say Grady West was “double tough on defense, applying two of the best tackles that I have ever seen, to a ball carrier that outweighed him 40 lbs.” When the night was over the high scoring Bulldog offense had scored only six points.
On offense the top honors went to West who ran 52 yards to set up the first touchdown by Jackie Morgan; ran 34 yards for another touchdown; and threw to Morgan for another score. David Coan hammered in an eleven yard touchdown and a two point conversion while Stanley Kirk scored twice on two point conversions. Terry Barnes helped put the game out of reach when he intercepted a Hamilton pass and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. The 36-6 Bearcat victory left the football prognosticators with the most crimson of faces and for the first time gave the team and its fans the real hope of a district title.
THE REST OF THE STORY
The Bearcats went on to end the regular season with a 30-0 win over the preseason District favorite Granbury Pirates. it was the only shutout experienced by Granbury that year. The game was played in 30 degree weather with 20 mile per hour winds. Rain and sleet added to the misery but the De Leon team and its fans (De Leon fans outnumbered the Granbury fans despite the 60 mile drive) were at night’s end to celebrate the first District Championship in twelve years.
The team had won district with an eight and two record. One loss was to Cisco who had outstanding athletes in halfback Charles Lipsey and fullback Duane Hale. They met Cisco again at Bi-District where they lost a second time. In the first game Lipsey scored three times in the first 5 minutes on an 85 yard kickoff return, a 45 yard run and a 73 yard interception return. But, it was Hale that James Bruton remembered as “a man among boys.” Hale went on to star for Abilene Christian in later years. Cisco lost in a close game to a Gordon Woods coached Stamford team who ultimately won State that year.
POST SEASON HONORS
In the days of one platoon football the all district team consisted of 11 players on the first team and 11 players on the second team. De Leon placed five players on the first team, Lenward Caraway, Grady West, Mike Thomas, James Bruton and Terry Barnes. Three players made the second team, Stanley Kirk, Jackie Morgan and J.W. Sadberry. Thus, two sophomores, four juniors and two seniors were among the top 22 players in the five team district. These players and their other teammates had definitely made an impression on their opposition.
CONCLUSION
De Leon Football was to be forever changed. The number of boys coming out for football went up markedly after that season. While De Leon would not win district every year, it would consistently produce excellent teams that challenged for the district crown. Having produced only one other district champion in the previous 27 years it would regularly produce championships in the years to come. The next district championship would be won in 1965 and would feature younger siblings of the 1959 players, Mike Thomas , Gerald Van Zandt, Wade Smith, Noel Weaver and Stanley Kirk. Many of the later championships were under the coaching of the 1959 quarterback Grady West. Two players from this squad, Mike Thomas and Grady West, would go on to have distinguished college careers at Baylor and Howard Payne.
As stated in the introduction to this article, the 1959 team, “although small in number and size, as a unit they were formidable.” From a talent aspect this bunch was about as balanced as a team could be. At year’s end (by this writer’s unofficial count) the four starters in the backfield came within ten points of scoring the same number of points (West 48, Coan 50, Kirk 50 and Morgan 58) and the three receivers had the same number of points (Barnes, Sadberry, and Phillips each had 12 points). With the diversity of talent, no member of the team could be individually focused upon by the opposition and as a consequence the team as a group met with unprecedented success. James Bruton remembered the players for the most part as making up in heart and hustle what they lacked in size and skill. Coach Little stated in simple terms, “they were just a bunch of tough country boys who wanted to play football.”
This article would not have been possible without the input from James Bruton, GRady West and Phil Tate. Perhaps the greatest assistance came from the late Ham Locke who penned the weekly summaries of the games for the De Leon Free Press. Ham had a distinctive writing style and discerning eye for not only the players who scored in the game but those involved in the action along the line of scrimmage. Ham Locke was quite possibly the greatest goodwill ambassador the city of De Leon ever knew. Undoubtedly, this article will contain errors as gleaning facts which are almost fifty years old is at best, a dicey proposition. Any such errors are greatly regretted and unintentional.
GORMAN
Quarterback Grady West started the season with a bang as he kept the ball and raced 60 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the game. David Coan scored the second touchdown from the Gorman 5 and Stanley Kirk picked up the third from 12 yards out. In the fourth quarter J.W. Sadberry caught a touchdown pass from West and Noel Weaver grabbed his first career touchdown on a 15 yard sprint. David Coan added eight points on 4 two-point conversions. The final score was De Leon 38-0. It was the eighth consecutive win over the Panthers in what had been a close, bitter rivalry in earlier days.
CROSS PLAINS
While Class AA De Leon was whipping Class B Gorman, Class A Cross Plains lost to Class B Baird 24-20. Even so, the Brownwood Bulletin picked the Buffalos over the Bearcats and then did not even report the score when De Leon won 28-0.
The Abilene Reporter News reported that David Coan picked up six points on a one yard carry in the first quarter giving the Bearcats a 6-0 lead that stood until the fourth quarter. Stanley Kirk went around left end for a 12 yard touchdown and Coan ran it in for the two-point conversion. Grady West then connected with Bobby Phillips on a 25 yard touchdown pass and Coan again added two. The final score came when Jackie Morgan went 46 yards for a touchdown.
EASTLAND
The Reporter News considered it a mild upset when Eastland downed the Bearcats 26-6.
On the fifth play of the game, the Mavericks’ James Lewis went 51 yards to take the lead but the Bearcats bounced right back on a 65 yard drive with Morgan taking it in from the 7 to tie the score. In the third quarter Mickey Garner returned a De Leon punt 63 yards for another Maverick score. Eastland’s final score came in the fourth quarter with the Bulletin giving credit to Lewis and the Reporter News giving the touchdown to Garner. It mattered little since De Leon had one drive killed on a fumble at the Eastland 11 while four pass interceptions killed other drives.
GOLDTHWAITE
Goldthwaite was the next opponent. De Leon scored first only to have the Eagles come right back and tie the game. Then the Bearcats opened up the passing game. A West to Phillips pass for 50 yards to set the Bearcats up at the Eagle one and West took it in for a 14-6 lead.
In the second quarter a West to Sadberry pass covered 46 yards for another Bearcat touchdown and with the conversion the half ended with a 22-12 De Leon lead. In the second half Grady West picked up a 10 yard touchdown in the third and a 65 yard touchdown in the final quarter for a 38-24 win.
COMANCHE
It was not out of respect for the Bearcats, but out of the proximity of Comanche to Brownwood that the Bulletin finally acknowledged the Bearcats strength with a three column heading “De Leon sets pace in District 8-AA’. Then in only one paragraph it noted De Leon won 20-14. That is, the paper noted the BearKats won 20-14. With the victory De Leon indeed jumped into the lead in the district as the defending champions and district favorite Granbury was upset by Hamilton 52-28.
DUBLIN
It was cold and wet and the refs had hankie fever as the Bearcats were assessed 135 yards in penalties and still amassed 26 first half points and one second half score before the subs came into post a touchdown of their own.
Each back in the De Leon backfield scored a touchdown, while Bobby Phillips caught a West pass to up the point total to 34. Mickey Robinette scored the final touchdown as he quarterbacked the subs down the field. The final was De Leon 40, Dublin 6.
GRANBURY
De Leon indeed “iced” its first District Championship in 12 years with a 30-0 win over Granbury.
An odd thing happened to the band on the way to the game. The base drum which was riding atop the bus in the luggage rack came lose, fell off the bus and bounced down the highway and into the ditch. If fans hadn’t stopped the bus, the band would have been one drum short since no one heard it come lose. The only damage was a cracked rim.
THE OTHER 1959 GAMES
A SIDE NOTE: Stamford eliminated the Lobos 32-22 the following week in the Regional Championship. Stamford went on to defeat Brady 19-14 for the state title but had it stripped from them when All-State center Wendell Ray Robinson was declared ineligible after the season ended. Brady was then awarded the State Championship. Gordon Wood had coached the 1955 and 1956 Stamford State Championship teams and Larry Wartes the 1958 and 1959 State Championship teams. It was the only time a team had been stripped of a title to that date.