When I was in 8th grade Don Roe came to our church as the Minister of Music. His son Johnny was a year younger than me but 2 years behind me in school. Don invited me to take a float trip down the Brazos with them.
I think we spent two nights out on the river, so I got out of school early on Thursday and was out all day on Friday. Don and Johnny picked me up at the drugstore at the corner of Handley Drive and Lancaster (Hwy 80/Division) and we drove somewhere near Glen Rose for our trip down the river.
It was really fun floating down the river. Somehow we put the boat in the river upstream and someone took the car and boat trailer several miles down the road to a park where we were supposed to come out. Occasionally we fished while we floated down the river and we talked and we just hung out. Of course, Don was always singing. Since we didn't get on the river until fairly late in the day on Thursday, we didn't go very far when we stopped before sundown to build our camp.
Johnny and I gathered wood for an open fire and Don made something for us to eat. I have no idea what we ate. I remember finding a trot line that someone had put out just above the rapids. There were a couple of fish on it and the guy came by sometime that evening and took them off.
The next day was fairly uneventful until Don saw a school of gar coming down the river behind the boat. We quickly pulled the boat over onto the bank, again just above some rapids. Gar have alligator type mouths with rows of sharp teeth. I guess they can be dangerous. After we got out of the boat Don loaded his shotgun and started shooting the gar as they came by where we were standing. Sometimes the concussion of the shot would stun some of the fish and they'd wash up on shore by the rapids. Johnny and I were then supposed to take big rocks and crush their skulls. It was really kinda exciting.
The other thing I'll never forget is what Don did while we were floating down the river. He pulled his pants down, hung his rear over the back of the boat, and proceeded to take a dump. A few seconds later these little brown logs came floating down by the me in the river at the front of the boat. Gross!
We floated a long way and were on the river all day but we weren't anywhere near our take out point. It was getting dark so we floated until we came to a place where there was a house. We pulled over to shore there to find out how much further the park was. It was still a long way away. By the road we were only going a few miles, but the way the river twisted and turned we would have had to have gone 5 or 10 times that much further. The guy helped us pull the boat out of the water and carry it to a place where we could load it onto the trailer. Then he took Don to get the truck and trailer from the park. After we loaded up and drove home it was pretty late and we had church the next morning.
I had a good time. I was also pleased years later when Don told me why I was invited. He said he'd learned that to build a good youth choir you had to recruit the leaders. Even as an 8th grader he recognized me as a leader of my grade and a future leader of the entire youth group, so he wanted to get me to know and like him.
There are lots of Don Roe stories. He was quite a character, but I'll always thank him for teaching me to enjoy singing and I know he always had a heart for the Lord.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Basketball - Junior year
I began my sophomore year at 5'2" and grew to 5'7" by the end of the year. When my junior year started I was up to 5'9" and still growing. When we had our one school pep rally of the year at the start of the basketball season, Coach Howerton announced me as "the most improved player on the team." I had gone from almost cut from the B-Team as a sophomore to a member of the varsity as a junior.
Memories of the season include the first game in which I played. We played Richland at their gym. They ran a full court press the entire game and beat us by about 8 points. With 10 seconds to go in the game the second one of our guards fouled out. Coach put me in and simply said, "get through the rest of the game without a turnover." After the made free throw they were still running the press. I tossed the ball into Dwight, the other second team guard, and he quickly passed the ball back to me. I quickly passed the ball up to someone at half court, ran past the half court line, and got the ball back. The clock ran out and I hadn't turned the ball over. Coach said, "good game." In the scorebook the 10 seconds went down as a full quarter played. I ended up playing enough throughout the year to letter.
The highlight of my junior year was the Fort Worth Optimist Tournament. It was Fall 1966 and, while intergration was already taking place, there was still a Texas high school Negro league and the regular UIL league. I.M. Terrell and Dunbar were the two Fort Worth schools that were still all black and played in the Negro league. Every other school in Fort Worth was intergrated except Eastern Hills. We were the last all white high school.
I.M. Terrell was the defending state Negro champions and went on to win the league in the 66-67 school year, its final year in existence. Terrell was invited to play in the Optimist tournament. It would be the first time an all white high school played an all black high school in Fort Worth athletics. There would be about 2,000 people in Public Schools Gym, now the Billingsley Field House, with 1,000 whites in the lower portion of the stands around the court and 1,000 blacks in the upper portion of the stands ringing the court.
I.M. Terrell had a great team! If you couldn't dunk, you couldn't be on the team. Every player could dunk the basketball. The coaches told us not to watch their warm ups because they didn't want us to get psyched out. I wasn't going to get to play anyway, so I watched them. As they came out to the dressing room hallway onto the court the upper portion of the stands started this hissing sound, "sssssss". The players ran single file like a big black snake completely around the court. All the time the "ssssss" was going on. The first 4 or 5 guys carried basketballs in their hands as they were running. When they completed the lap around the court they dribbled to the basket. Reaching the basket, they jumped and dunked the basketball. "Whoomp!" went the upper section of the gym as each player dunked the ball. After everyone had dunked the ball a guard dribbled to the basket followed by one of the post men. The guard flipped the basketball up on the blackboard and the trailing post man jumped up, grabbed it in mid-air, and slammed it home with a resounding dunk to an even louder "Whoomp!" from the crowd. It was incredible! They then went about the normal warmup routines still ocassionally dunking the basketball, and each time they dunked the crowd went "Whoomp!"
It was a close, well played game with neither team getting more than a couple of points ahead of the other. In the middle of the 3rd quarter they stole the ball at around the top of key on their defensive end. David Payne, a senior 6'2" guard who played 4 years at UTA, grabbed the ball, dribbled to mid court, and flipped the ball high toward the basket and Sherman Evans who was running full speed down the court on the break. Evans was 6'4" senior, muscled like crazy, and had a 90' vertical leap. (So, I'm exaggerating a little, but he could really jump!) The ball was actually thrown over the backboard. At that end of the gym there was about a 15-foot walkway between the stands and the court. Evans leaped out parallel to the ground and batted the ball back over the backboard where Lee Shaw, a junior 6'3" forward leaped, grabbed the ball in mid-air, and slammed it home to a tremendous "Whoomp!" from the upper portions of the stands! It was absolutely astounding! It was the most athletic sequence I have ever seen in a basketball game. That play took a 3 point lead to 5 and the game was never in doubt after that. They probably won by 10 or 12. That played simply crushed us.
Terrell lost the championship game to Paschal, but not before an empty whiskey or gin bottle had been tossed from the upper reaches of the gym onto the court, splattering glass all over the court and cutting the scorekeeper. Terrell didn't like to lose, and when they got behind you could expect the crowd to get raucous and throw stuff on the court. Later that year they had a riot when they were playing Dunbar and bricks were added to the bottles raining down on the court.
That tournament was easily the highlight of my junior season even though I didn't play. I played in a few games, enough to letter but nothing memorable. I do remember our post season/ off season inter-team championship, but that's another story.
Memories of the season include the first game in which I played. We played Richland at their gym. They ran a full court press the entire game and beat us by about 8 points. With 10 seconds to go in the game the second one of our guards fouled out. Coach put me in and simply said, "get through the rest of the game without a turnover." After the made free throw they were still running the press. I tossed the ball into Dwight, the other second team guard, and he quickly passed the ball back to me. I quickly passed the ball up to someone at half court, ran past the half court line, and got the ball back. The clock ran out and I hadn't turned the ball over. Coach said, "good game." In the scorebook the 10 seconds went down as a full quarter played. I ended up playing enough throughout the year to letter.
The highlight of my junior year was the Fort Worth Optimist Tournament. It was Fall 1966 and, while intergration was already taking place, there was still a Texas high school Negro league and the regular UIL league. I.M. Terrell and Dunbar were the two Fort Worth schools that were still all black and played in the Negro league. Every other school in Fort Worth was intergrated except Eastern Hills. We were the last all white high school.
I.M. Terrell was the defending state Negro champions and went on to win the league in the 66-67 school year, its final year in existence. Terrell was invited to play in the Optimist tournament. It would be the first time an all white high school played an all black high school in Fort Worth athletics. There would be about 2,000 people in Public Schools Gym, now the Billingsley Field House, with 1,000 whites in the lower portion of the stands around the court and 1,000 blacks in the upper portion of the stands ringing the court.
I.M. Terrell had a great team! If you couldn't dunk, you couldn't be on the team. Every player could dunk the basketball. The coaches told us not to watch their warm ups because they didn't want us to get psyched out. I wasn't going to get to play anyway, so I watched them. As they came out to the dressing room hallway onto the court the upper portion of the stands started this hissing sound, "sssssss". The players ran single file like a big black snake completely around the court. All the time the "ssssss" was going on. The first 4 or 5 guys carried basketballs in their hands as they were running. When they completed the lap around the court they dribbled to the basket. Reaching the basket, they jumped and dunked the basketball. "Whoomp!" went the upper section of the gym as each player dunked the ball. After everyone had dunked the ball a guard dribbled to the basket followed by one of the post men. The guard flipped the basketball up on the blackboard and the trailing post man jumped up, grabbed it in mid-air, and slammed it home with a resounding dunk to an even louder "Whoomp!" from the crowd. It was incredible! They then went about the normal warmup routines still ocassionally dunking the basketball, and each time they dunked the crowd went "Whoomp!"
It was a close, well played game with neither team getting more than a couple of points ahead of the other. In the middle of the 3rd quarter they stole the ball at around the top of key on their defensive end. David Payne, a senior 6'2" guard who played 4 years at UTA, grabbed the ball, dribbled to mid court, and flipped the ball high toward the basket and Sherman Evans who was running full speed down the court on the break. Evans was 6'4" senior, muscled like crazy, and had a 90' vertical leap. (So, I'm exaggerating a little, but he could really jump!) The ball was actually thrown over the backboard. At that end of the gym there was about a 15-foot walkway between the stands and the court. Evans leaped out parallel to the ground and batted the ball back over the backboard where Lee Shaw, a junior 6'3" forward leaped, grabbed the ball in mid-air, and slammed it home to a tremendous "Whoomp!" from the upper portions of the stands! It was absolutely astounding! It was the most athletic sequence I have ever seen in a basketball game. That play took a 3 point lead to 5 and the game was never in doubt after that. They probably won by 10 or 12. That played simply crushed us.
Terrell lost the championship game to Paschal, but not before an empty whiskey or gin bottle had been tossed from the upper reaches of the gym onto the court, splattering glass all over the court and cutting the scorekeeper. Terrell didn't like to lose, and when they got behind you could expect the crowd to get raucous and throw stuff on the court. Later that year they had a riot when they were playing Dunbar and bricks were added to the bottles raining down on the court.
That tournament was easily the highlight of my junior season even though I didn't play. I played in a few games, enough to letter but nothing memorable. I do remember our post season/ off season inter-team championship, but that's another story.
Monday, July 16, 2007
10th Grade basketball
I entered 10th grade at Eastern Hills High School as a 5' 2" 14-year old. Not only was I very small, I was younger than my classmates. By age, I should have been in the 9th grade. Unlike today, 10th grade was the first year we were actually in the high school building.
Meadowbrook and Handley junior highs fed EHHS and, if you recall from my earlier stories, Handley had beaten Meadowbrook for the 9th grade championship. That meant there would be a lot of competition for the basketball team. We didn't have a 10th grade team, just a varsity and a B-team or JV.
At 5' 2" I was very small but I was very fast and a good ball handler and defender. I thought I was pretty good. Little did I know how close I came to getting cut as a sophmore.
We practiced with the varsity. So you can get an idea of my relative size, this was the starting lineup for our varsity.
Wayne Nash, center, 7'0" senior (They listed him as 6'11" in the program to keep the expectations and hype down)
David Wolliman, forward, 6'8" senior
John Heatherly, forward 6'4" junior (Ralph Hill a 6'5" senior was in the starter here until be broke his foot and football was over bringing Heatherly in)
David Hannebutt, guard, 6'2" junior
Jerry Miller, guard, 6' senior
Tommy Thompson, guard 5'10" senior
Jimmy Aycock, guard, 5'11" senior
Other guys were Danny Harris a 6'3" senior guard
Dwight Smith a 5'10" junior guard
Phillip Berry a 6'4" junior center
and some other juniors and seniors.
As far as 10th graders my competition at guard was Jay Worley 6'1" (he was a "star", scored a lot of points but wouldn't play defense, and was given a varsity jersey as a 10th grader but chose to play on the B-team), Charlie Cook 6'0", Jimmy Swanson 6'2", and my brother Gary 5'9". Gary was playing football so he wasn't around the first part of basketball practice. When football was over the starting QB, a junior, decided he wanted to play basketball, too. He'd been the starting point guard at Handley in the 9th grade but didn't play in 10th grade. That bumped me back a little more. In addition, there were a couple of other juniors trying out as guards.
As I've said before, I thought I was pretty good. I was fast and I could play defense. Most importantly, I hustled all the time. We would run wind sprints at the end of practice and I'd win almost every time. That would remain true throughout my high school career. I remember in practice that I would particularly make Danny Harris look silly. I would steal the ball frequently on his dribble and deflect his passes like crazy. Coach Howerton would yell at him and tell him, "You're a foot taller than he is and you can't get the ball past him?" Danny was a great guy but sometimes it seemed I had his number.
I really didn't play that much in the games, so I have no memories of them. I also kept the scorebook for the varsity games. I learned later that the only reason Coach Howerton didn't cut me was that I hustled so hard and had such a great attitude. Even though I was small I could hold my own in practice and worked the varsity guys hard. Maybe I'd grow, so he kept me that 10th grade year. I'm sure glad he did and I did grow. I was 5'7" by the end of the 10th grade and ready for my junior season.
Meadowbrook and Handley junior highs fed EHHS and, if you recall from my earlier stories, Handley had beaten Meadowbrook for the 9th grade championship. That meant there would be a lot of competition for the basketball team. We didn't have a 10th grade team, just a varsity and a B-team or JV.
At 5' 2" I was very small but I was very fast and a good ball handler and defender. I thought I was pretty good. Little did I know how close I came to getting cut as a sophmore.
We practiced with the varsity. So you can get an idea of my relative size, this was the starting lineup for our varsity.
Wayne Nash, center, 7'0" senior (They listed him as 6'11" in the program to keep the expectations and hype down)
David Wolliman, forward, 6'8" senior
John Heatherly, forward 6'4" junior (Ralph Hill a 6'5" senior was in the starter here until be broke his foot and football was over bringing Heatherly in)
David Hannebutt, guard, 6'2" junior
Jerry Miller, guard, 6' senior
Tommy Thompson, guard 5'10" senior
Jimmy Aycock, guard, 5'11" senior
Other guys were Danny Harris a 6'3" senior guard
Dwight Smith a 5'10" junior guard
Phillip Berry a 6'4" junior center
and some other juniors and seniors.
As far as 10th graders my competition at guard was Jay Worley 6'1" (he was a "star", scored a lot of points but wouldn't play defense, and was given a varsity jersey as a 10th grader but chose to play on the B-team), Charlie Cook 6'0", Jimmy Swanson 6'2", and my brother Gary 5'9". Gary was playing football so he wasn't around the first part of basketball practice. When football was over the starting QB, a junior, decided he wanted to play basketball, too. He'd been the starting point guard at Handley in the 9th grade but didn't play in 10th grade. That bumped me back a little more. In addition, there were a couple of other juniors trying out as guards.
As I've said before, I thought I was pretty good. I was fast and I could play defense. Most importantly, I hustled all the time. We would run wind sprints at the end of practice and I'd win almost every time. That would remain true throughout my high school career. I remember in practice that I would particularly make Danny Harris look silly. I would steal the ball frequently on his dribble and deflect his passes like crazy. Coach Howerton would yell at him and tell him, "You're a foot taller than he is and you can't get the ball past him?" Danny was a great guy but sometimes it seemed I had his number.
I really didn't play that much in the games, so I have no memories of them. I also kept the scorebook for the varsity games. I learned later that the only reason Coach Howerton didn't cut me was that I hustled so hard and had such a great attitude. Even though I was small I could hold my own in practice and worked the varsity guys hard. Maybe I'd grow, so he kept me that 10th grade year. I'm sure glad he did and I did grow. I was 5'7" by the end of the 10th grade and ready for my junior season.
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