Bearcat Fields

    Texas has enough space for 1,650,000 football fields.  Four have been located in De Leon.  Each has been an improvement over the previous field and Bearcat Field, compared to its predecessors, is indeed a dream field.  Although De Leon’s facilities were never the best in the state, they were consistently better than the fields of most of its opponents.

    B.J. Pittman recalled that at a game in Hamilton, played sometime between 1914 and 1918, the park was laid out on nothing more than a corn field that still had stubble remaining.  He received a cut over his eye when he landed on the remains of a stalk.  Many schools had fields in low areas that quickly became quagmires when it rained.  Large dips and rises on the playing surface were not uncommon even as late as the 1980s.   Dressing facilities were almost universally inadequate.  Even within the last twenty years, one opponent had a press box that looked as if it belonged on the set of the Muensters.  Perhaps the worst plague of all the fields was grass-burrs.  No school had much more than token control of these weeds until herbicides became available but still, grass-burrs have not been totally eliminated, unless the school has artificial turf.

    When  the De Leon team first lined up in 1914, they played on a field located on the school grounds.  De Leon’s single school building had been constructed in 1903 and a wing had been added to the east end in 1912.  That building was located somewhat in between the present high school and middle school.  All but one of the dozen or so De Leonians who were interviewed, said that the football field ran in an east west direction in the area where the north wing of the high school is today.  Only one person told me that the field ran north and south. 

    Normally, with overwhelming consensus, the lone dissenter could be discounted.   But in this case, the lone dissension came from B.J. Pittman Jr. at the time the oldest surviving Bearcat.  He stated that the field ran north and south from the old school building along what is now Johnson Street toward what is now Manchaca Street.   The sole photograph that has been located seems to back him up (see the 1915 season).  Also if you look carefully at a photo on page 32 of the Centennial book, the house to the right of the goal post is faintly visible as is the white area with the lone tree that is visible behind the team.  Both appear to be roughly on the corner of Johnson and Manchaca.  The tree line well to the back of the photo still exist today behind Bearcat Field.

     The field was prepared by the entire student body.  After a mule and plow had turned the ground over, the younger students picked up rocks and were helped by the older students in pulling up the remaining weeds.  The older students then leveled the ground with shovels and rakes.  The ag boys, which were really most of the boys in the high school, built and erected the goal post.

     Even with this work, B.J. Pittman remembered the ground as being really rough and covered with grass-burrs during his playing years.  The length of the grass is also very noticeable in the 1915 photo.

     Jeff Tate told virtually the same story of how the field was prepared.  He also noted that when it rained, the potholes filled with water.  One of the tactics used by both locals and visitors was to hold the head of the ball carrier under water in a major pile up if he was unlucky enough to fall into one of the depressions.

      De Leon players complained of the condition of the field at Ranger in 1919 as rains had caused the field to be “full of holes and mud and cost several Bearcat touchdowns.”   There is little doubt that Ranger was equally unimpressed with the De Leon facilities on the return game later that year as they complained about playing in a sand field.  The inadequacy of the field was a common complaint among all the schools of the area, especially when a loss could be blamed on field conditions.

     B.J. Pittman told of a game in Hamilton where the grass was high, probably much as it appears in the 1915 photo.  To slow down De Leon’s fastest player B.J.’s brother Ralph Pittman, Hamilton managed to run a pipe to the football field from a windmill and the students carried buckets to water down the field.  Sadly, nothing has been found on this game.


THE NORTH SIDE FIELD

   It is speculation as to exactly when and why De Leon moved its football field to a new site but sometime after the fall of 1920 the school leased a site at Sequin and Travis Streets on the northeast corner opposite the present day Assembly of God Church.  B.J. Pittman who graduated in the spring of 1919 stated that he never played on that field. Over the years the field came to be called the North Side Athletic Park or by most De Leonians, the North Side Field.

    In all probability, the move was made in 1920 when construction began on what for many years was called North Ward (later the Junior High) and the Bearcats began playing there in 1921.  However, the Free Press noted in 1933 that the field had been leased for the previous ten years at a cost of $60 per year, possibly indicating that the move was made around 1922 or 1923.

     In any event, it would seem a strange choice for a football field location.  The high school had moved to the opposite end of town in the fall of 1918 and what ultimately became the third football field was built immediately behind the high school a decade later.   But there was more to it.  Almost from the founding of the town there was an area just south of the north side field called “the grove,” originally a Methodist outdoor meeting location that evolved into a site for picnics and community events.   In the early days a baseball field was laid out at the grove, but the field was moved a couple of blocks north during the oil boom and a small grandstand built for fans of  De Leon’s semi-pro baseball team.  After the boom, the semi-pro team became more of a town team and the baseball field was used by both the town team and the high school baseball team.

     The new location was hardly a prime spot for a football field.  The field had to be laid out running east and west.  In an era when games generally began no earlier than three in the afternoon, both teams could expect to be looking directly into the sun for at least half the game.

     A high wooden fence that was completed during he oil boom days of the semi-pro team enclosed the field.  Unfortunately, the baseball facility was about twenty feet short of the length needed for a football field.  So, on game day the west end of the wooden fence would be picked up and moved into Travis Street.  The street would then serve as the west end zone.   As a result, there was a significant rise on the west end of the field.

    There were no dressing facilities in the park.  The players would suit up at the City Barber Shop (Hansfords) and walk or catch a ride to the park.   After the game they would return to the barbershop for baths.  Their gear remained at the shop when not being used.  The shop provided bath facilities for anyone willing to pay the price.  The price for the Bearcat team for the entire 1927 season was $35.

     With the exception of the small baseball stands at the southwest corner of the field, there were no bleachers.  Fans roamed the sidelines as play moved up and down the field.

      In 1926 De Leon won the Section Championship and Anson agreed to come to De Leon to play for the District Championship.  For that game, De Leon built football seating in the ball park for the first time.  The wooden bleachers had five rows and seated an estimated 400 people.  Several raised platforms provided seating for an additional 200 people in chairs.  Automobiles were allowed to park along the south sidelines to provide additional viewing areas.  Two ticket boots were also added.

      In 1927, the Free Press discussed the need for improvements to De Leon’s football facilities and told about the efforts that were underway to complete those improvements.  Before the season began, the school was able to lease an adjoining lot to the north and the field was turned so that it ran north and south and was regulation size without moving any fences.

     A limited bath house was eventually built and some additional bleachers were constructed.  But there was no water to maintain the playing field and it remained little more than a sand lot throughout its existence except during rains when it became a mud hole as the field was a little lower than its surrounding area.


SOUTH SIDE FIELD

   In 1932 De Leon advanced to the ultimate game then played in Class B, the Regional Championship.  The following spring the town began a quest to build an adequate facility for both football and basketball.

    The biggest problem facing the community was finding funding in the middle of the Depression.  De Leon also needed a new city hall and auditorium as the foundation of the old facility had cracked.  The city council and the school board arrived at a plan which would ask the Works Progress Administration to fund and build a new municipal facility on Bivar (the old Gorman highway) that had been the location of a refinery during the oil boom.  The plan included a city hall, auditorium, fire station, indoor gym, football facility and swimming pool. 

     The city acquired the land and it appeared as everything was set.  But typical of the federal government, the WPA changed its mind and announced they would only construct a new city hall, auditorium and fire station and only on the existing site of the city hall.  Eventually, the WPA did agree to include a gym in the city auditorium but there would be no football or swimming facilities and the work did not get underway for nearly six years.

        So the school board with a vote on April 15, 1933, decided to fund a new field.  The site chosen was immediately behind the high school (now the Methodist Church).  By the 28th, equipment had been borrowed from both the county and the city.  The site was plowed, leveled, and seeded and by the fall De Leon had a new field.  Wooden bleacher were built along the west side of the field.  Two sections were later replaced by a larger metal structure.

     In 1935 De Leon journeyed to Albany to play and win its first night game, but no school in the De Leon district had lights.  Ranger and Eastland, then large Oil Belt powerhouse schools had played under lights as early as 1925.

      Late in the summer of 1936, the school board selected a finance committee to raise funds to install lighting for the field.  The committee was composed of H.F. Davis, the high school principal, E.L. Locke, J.D. Tate, Van Hyde, Reese Upshaw Jr. and Earl Bell.  the committee was asked to secure $600 to fund part of the cost.  If that amount could be raised, the school would borrow the remaining $700 from the F&M Bank.

      By September 25th, $540 had been raised and the board went ahead with the plans and borrowed the money.

     De Leon purchased the lights from Graybar Co. of Dallas, and Texas Electric Service Company installed five 70 foot tall poles on each side of the field.  Each pole had four lights totaling 1,500 watts and providing 60 kilowatts of light on the field .  The scheduled completion date of October 9 was met and De Leon played Desdemona in the first night game in De Leon.

     In the twenty-two years that the football field was located behind the school many improvements were made. A loud speaker system and press box were adeded. A manually operated scoreboard was install at the north end zone although it provided nothing more than the quarter and the score.  In 1951 concrete block bleachers were added for visitors and a brick ticket booth was constructed.  Improved bath houses were added following World War II when several army barracks were moved to the north end of the field.  A well was drilled to allow the field to be watered during the summer months.  A concession stand was constructed on the southwest end of the field.

       But history has a way of repeating itself.  De Leon High School was moved back across town at midterm 1951-52 to the very site of the first football field and once again the the playing field was on the opposite side of town.


BEARCAT FIELD

    In January 1954, an announcement was made that a new football field complete with track wold be constructed nearer the new high school.   Planning for the project had been underway for sometime between then superintendent J.C. Helms Jr., coach and principal Floyd Sorley and the the school board which consisted of W.A. Morgan, Lloyd Boyett, Kermit Neel, Jack Donahue, I.C. Donegan, and Terrill Sharp. But right in the middle of the planning there was a turnover.  J.C. Helm accepted the superintendent’s position at Stephenville.  Al Langford was hired as head football coach allowing Sorley to concentrate on his other duties.  (Sorely coached in 1945 and 1946 and again in 1953.)

    It was estimated that the cost would be $8,000 and in the first week, Bearcat fans raised $2,313.  By the fall, over $10,000 had been raised.

  Nineteen acres were acquired from J.Doss Miller Jr., and clearing and leveling of the site began immediately.  Much of the construction work was provided by local volunteer labor.

    The section of metal bleachers from the west side of the old field were moved to the new field, expanded anc still today serves as the visitor’s stands.  The newly constructed ticket booth was loaded on the back of flatbed and made the journey down main street to its permanent location across town.

    Various local firms with welding equipment assembled the light poles and then hauled their equipment over to the site to help construct the home stands.  The press box was moved from the old field, remodeled and put in place.

      The most controversial aspect of the construction was whether to build a field house.  Many people felt that a new agricultural building should have had higher priority.  But De Leon had finally committed itself to a first class athletic facility and the field house was constructed first.

     By opening night, the field was ready for play although it lacked a scoreboard or permanent concession stands.  Dr. Pepper furnished booths that served as the concession stands.  On wet or cold nights those four sided waist high booths provided little protection from the cold or rain.

     The first game played in Bearcat Field was against Gorman.  The Bearcats came away with a 37-0 win.

    The dedication was held just prior the Coleman game on October 8, 1954 and again De Leon won, this time 25-20.  There had been speculation that the field might be name for Floyd Sorley, the former coach and principal who had returned Bearcat football to a winning program in the 40s.  But the new Superintendent K.H. Rowland felt that it should not be named in honor of a living person.

    Instead, the “House that Helms and Sorley built” was dedicated as Bearcat Field after a school board vote on September 15.  In his dedicatory remarks, Grammer School Principal C.E. Irby noted the contributions of Floyd Sorley and former Superintendent J.C. Helms in getting the field built.

  Irby then stated, “Usually a dedication ceremony means dedicating something and naming something after an individual with an outstanding record in some field or the other.  But in De Leon, we have too many outstanding citizens for us to singe out one to name the field after...It has been decided to name the new athletic facility Bearcat Field and dedicate it to all of the youth that will every use it...  Form this field will come the leaders of our town, state and nation for the generations to come.... To every youth of our city, to every boy that ever carries a football, or makes a tackle or just sits on the side and cheers, to every girl that sits in the pep squad and cheers her team to victory... this field is dedicated.”

    The following season, concession stands were added on both sides of the field, the old manual score board was relocated from its previous location but it was soon replaced by an electric scoreboard which featured a circular clock face.  The clock hands always stopped a just shy of twelve o’clock high and the buzzer would sound. After years of use De Leon lost a game because of the hands of that clock and within a few weeks, a new digital scoreboard was installed.  The dirt track was upgraded to an all weather surface and replaced several times since.   Aluminum seats replaced the wooden seats, the old press box was moved to the visitor’s side and a new press box constructed.  The lights which were probably the best lights in central Texas at the time of installations were replaced by better lighting and new poles were set behind the bleacher instead of in front of the bleachers.

     In 2008, marks the 55th season at Bearcat Field and De Leon’s 95th season of High School Football.


Page last updated July 26, 2008

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