You know you are getting old when one of the kids you grew up with dies of health related causes. We buried Mark Strickland last week. He died of a heart attack at the age of 55. His son was in the 8th or 9th grade which is strange because Mark's dad died of a heart atack when Mark was in the 9th grade.
I don't really remember Mark in elementary school. My first real rememberance of him was when he was in the 7th grade and I was in the 9th grade. Although I was only a year older, I was 2 grades ahead of him because I started 1st grade at age 5. Mark and I roomed together on our church's first Youth Chior tour. Remember, I was a little guy. I was 5'2" when I started my sophomore year, but Mark made me look big. Mark was really a little kid growing up. I remembering him asking me about girls and how you get them to like you and kiss you and stuff.
I also remember us going to an amusement park in Oklahoma City on that chior tour. There was a fancy red cadillac convertible, highly waxed and shiny, with Illinois plates parked in the lot with the top down. We couldn't believe such a nice car was sitting on the parking lot totally open and unlocked. As we were admiring the car a black guy walked up to use and told us to "go ahead, reach into the car." We looked at him questionally and he said, "go ahead, it's my car." We reached into the car and I don't think we had even touched anything when the horn started blaring and an alarm started sounding. The man quicly shut off the alarm and said, "You gotta have an alarm system like that if you want to keep a car in Chicago."
The next year I started fooling around with a girl (Cindy) in Mark's class at different church trips. She was going with a guy named Guy Davie who was a football star at Nichols and much bigger than Mark. I don't know how or why but somehow Mark and Guy got into a fight over me and Cindy. Mark and Leonard Sanderson had to give me a complete blow by blow account about how Mark had whipped him. Mark was small, but he was tough.
After his dad died, Mark's mother married her dad's brother and they moved to North Carolina. Two years later they were divorced and Mark, his mom, and his little brother Lynn had moved back to Arlington. In the years he in North Carolina Mark grew up a lot and played a lot of basketball. Basketball was king in North Carolina and everyone played that all the time instead of football or baseball. Besides getting bigger Mark had become a pretty good basketball player.
I was now a sophmore in college and Mark was a senior in high school and we played on the FBC men's basketball team at church. That would start a number of years playing basketball together. That will be a separate story. Mark also was working in the mailroom at the Citizen Journal with Verne and me. He continued to work in the mailroom while he went to college at UTA and I moved to the front office and worked in the accounting department. The C-J had a softball team.
I think I told this story in another post, but no story about Strick would be complete without it. We were playing a game at Randol Mill park and I thinkwe were losing. Mark was trying to motivate eveyone and was hollering stuff. Jerry Hyde was the General Sales Manager, stood about 6'2" 240 pounds, and had been drinking. He didn't take well to Mark's encouragement and told him to shutup. Mark, being the banty rooster, combative person that he was said "No'. Jerry had been sitting on the bench instead those chain link dugouts and he started coming out after Mark. It was 180' down the right field line to the 5-foot fence. Mark made the fence and jumped it in about 2 seconds.
Later, when we played on the church softball team, we were playing the Word of Victory church team for first place. The score was close and they were mouthing and had taken a couple of cheap shots. Mark was playing first base when one of their guys grounded out and proceeded to run up Mark's legs. Mark had already had multiple knee surgeries and was already amd and intense from the game. When the guy ran over Mark's legs the tripped and sprawled over the ground behind Mark down the first base line. Mark was on him in a flash, had him turned over, and had his fist lifted ready to smash him in the face. I was playing second base and hollered, "No, Mark, no!" That was enough to bring Mark back to his senses and he didn't hit him. We went on to win the game. Later that season we played Word of Victory in a rematch and beat them again. This time the score wasn't close. They also didn't mouth off or play dirty. I think they scared of us and especially of Mark.
As the years went on Mark and I stayed in touch through church. After we quit playing baskeball and softball we only saw each other on occasion. I wasn;t a golfing or drinking buddy, but we remained friends.
Strick was the first of my childhood friends to die. I guess I am getting a little older.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
1740 Sharon
I was born in Sweetwater, Texas but my family quicly moved to the Arlington area when my dad got a job with Vought aircraft. Initially, we moved to Grand Prairie but, after a few months, bought a new house at 1740 Sharon Street in Arlington. Sharon street was directly west of C. B. Berry Elementary, right off Browning Street. Running along the east border of the school was New York Avenue and on the other side of the street was a big Cotton field surrounding a large farmhouse.
The house was wood frame with a light green color paint, like the cabins in the mountains, and had 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a kitchen with a small eating area, and a combination living/dining room. There were hardwood floors throughout, except for linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom. Gary and I shared a bedroom, my folks were in another, and we used the largest bedroom as a den. There was no air conditioning. We had a big evaporative cooler. (That's a big fan with a water reservoir at the bottom. The fan evaporates the water by blowing over it and out into the room, cooling the air somewhat.) The cooler was in the den, positioned so that it blew done the hallway toward the kitchen. Hopefully, along the way, some cool air would get into each room. When I was 10 or 11 my folks got a window A/C unit for their room. There was a gas heater in the living room that always looked like to me that it had a mechanical man inside. I think there was a small gas heater in the bathroom, too. The total size was almost 1,000 square feet. The house had a large backyard with a nice sized patio and a covered front porch.
My earliest memory was Gary and I peeking out the front door to our neighbor's house on the east and looking at the little boy in that house who was peeking around his screen door at us. When we saw each other we quickly closed the door and ran back inside. Then we'd look out again, see each other, and run back inside. We kept doing that until eventually we met the little boy. The boy was David Purcell. He was Gary's age and his dad worked at Vought, Temco, Bell or one of the aircraft companies.
All of the houses were new, inexpensive, and owned by young families with small children. On our side of the street were the Purcell's to the east and then to the west the Wiseman's and the Dickey's. Across the street from the Purcell's were the Ferguson's and then the McAlister's, ???, Keener's, Brouillette's, a family with a son my age named Chuck, and a couple of houses futher, the Harrigan's. They all had kids around our age. I already told you about David Purcell. Then there was Frank and Wade Wiseman. Frank was a couple of years older than Gary and wade was my age. The Dickey's had Glenn, Gary's age, Paul (also known as Doody) a couple of years younger, David, a couple of years younger still, and another brother even younger. The Ferguson's had a boy much older than us, about Sis Erin's age or older, and Martha, my age. The McAlister's had a boy Sean who was my age and the house next to him didn't have any kids. That's why I can't remember their name. The Keener's had 3 or 4 boys, all older. Kenny was a year older than Gary, Billy was a couple of years older than that, and the other(s) were several years older. The Brouillette's had Mike, Gary's age, and Maureen, Bunny's age. The Harrigan's and a boy and girl the same age as the Brouillette's. I can't remember their names. Anyway, there were 8-12 boys of an age close enough that we could play baseball, football, or other games together, so we spent all our time outside playing. When we played hide and seek that game could be spread over several houses on both sides of the street.
David was left handed and grew up to be a pretty good pitcher. He played for the Bankers and, along with Mike Nichole, led them to our league championship when they were 12 and I was 11. He also pitched for Sam Houston in high school. Mrs. Purcell was Catholic but I think Mr. Purcell was Methodist. I don't ever remember seeing them go to church. Two other remembrances of David were: (1) Once Gary held my arms behind my back so David could punch me in the stomach. When my dad got home, he held Gary and let me punch him in the stomach. (2) We were playing tackle football in his front yard with no pads. I was tackled and hit the back of my head on the sidewalk. My head got busted open and needed 3 stitches to close it up.
The Wiseman's were originally from Illinios and Mrs. Wiseman was "Yankee" through and through and smoked. I didn't like her much. Mr. Wiseman was a tall, skinny, really nice guy. He was a salesman for Watkins, a company that sold products like Amway but it was a regular business, not multi-level marketing. Frank wore glasses and, despite being several years older than us, he wasn't much of an athlete. I remember a Little League game when he was the runner on 3rd base. The batter hit a ball down the line and it hit Frank standing on the base for the 3rd out. Wade was a much better athlete. They moved back to Illinios before he was 12. He came back to Arlington on vacation when he was 25-30 and came over to our house. He was a motorcycle racer. The other thing I remember about Frank and Wade was that they were saved in the same revival as Gary and me. I made my profession of faith first and Brother East came to our house to talk to me further since I was only 6. While he was there Gary also made a profession of faith. He then went next door to the Wiseman's and Frank and Wade made profession of faith. They all walked down the aisle at the revival meeting, I think on a Friday night. The Wiseman's were baptized on Saturday and Gary and I on Sunday.
Glenn wasn't much of an athlete either and Paul, David, and the other brothers were really too young. You had to tryout for Little League and you weren't guaranteed to make a team. When Glenn was 11 he tried out for Little League but didn't make it. His parents and a bunch of other parents went to the Optimists who sponsored the Arlington Little Leagues and demanded a change. They insituted a minor league for the kids who didn't make the "major" league teams, but after a couple of years moved everyone into the same league and guaranteeed spots for everyone who wanted to play. One time Wade Wiseman and I started a "club". The initiation was you had to drink pee out of a dog food can. We told Paul and David that we had both done it and if they wanted to be in our club they would have to do it too. Paul didn't believe we'd done it, so we peed in a can and I put it up to my lips and faked drinking it by swallowing saliva. I then put on a nasty face and ran for the water hose. Of course, I never drank it but they thought I had, so Paul did it. He took a big swallow and then ran for the water hose. We told David to just fake it and he did and ran to the water hose, too. Kids can be mean. The other thing I remember about the Dickey's was smoking my one and only cigarette. Wade, Paul, David, their little brother, and me were all out in front of my garage. I guess the Dickey's parents smoked because they had a cigarette and the little brother who was about 5 really enjoyed smoking. We lit the cigarette and I took a puff. It burned my throat! It was horrible! I've never taken another puff in my life. Wade tried it too with the same result, but the little 5 year old just smoked away.
On down the street was a family with two boys 6 or 7 years younger than me. One of them looked just like me. It was incredible. Of course, I liked him a lot, but I don't remember his name.
I'll tell you more about the other side of the street in another post.
The house was wood frame with a light green color paint, like the cabins in the mountains, and had 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a kitchen with a small eating area, and a combination living/dining room. There were hardwood floors throughout, except for linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom. Gary and I shared a bedroom, my folks were in another, and we used the largest bedroom as a den. There was no air conditioning. We had a big evaporative cooler. (That's a big fan with a water reservoir at the bottom. The fan evaporates the water by blowing over it and out into the room, cooling the air somewhat.) The cooler was in the den, positioned so that it blew done the hallway toward the kitchen. Hopefully, along the way, some cool air would get into each room. When I was 10 or 11 my folks got a window A/C unit for their room. There was a gas heater in the living room that always looked like to me that it had a mechanical man inside. I think there was a small gas heater in the bathroom, too. The total size was almost 1,000 square feet. The house had a large backyard with a nice sized patio and a covered front porch.
My earliest memory was Gary and I peeking out the front door to our neighbor's house on the east and looking at the little boy in that house who was peeking around his screen door at us. When we saw each other we quickly closed the door and ran back inside. Then we'd look out again, see each other, and run back inside. We kept doing that until eventually we met the little boy. The boy was David Purcell. He was Gary's age and his dad worked at Vought, Temco, Bell or one of the aircraft companies.
All of the houses were new, inexpensive, and owned by young families with small children. On our side of the street were the Purcell's to the east and then to the west the Wiseman's and the Dickey's. Across the street from the Purcell's were the Ferguson's and then the McAlister's, ???, Keener's, Brouillette's, a family with a son my age named Chuck, and a couple of houses futher, the Harrigan's. They all had kids around our age. I already told you about David Purcell. Then there was Frank and Wade Wiseman. Frank was a couple of years older than Gary and wade was my age. The Dickey's had Glenn, Gary's age, Paul (also known as Doody) a couple of years younger, David, a couple of years younger still, and another brother even younger. The Ferguson's had a boy much older than us, about Sis Erin's age or older, and Martha, my age. The McAlister's had a boy Sean who was my age and the house next to him didn't have any kids. That's why I can't remember their name. The Keener's had 3 or 4 boys, all older. Kenny was a year older than Gary, Billy was a couple of years older than that, and the other(s) were several years older. The Brouillette's had Mike, Gary's age, and Maureen, Bunny's age. The Harrigan's and a boy and girl the same age as the Brouillette's. I can't remember their names. Anyway, there were 8-12 boys of an age close enough that we could play baseball, football, or other games together, so we spent all our time outside playing. When we played hide and seek that game could be spread over several houses on both sides of the street.
David was left handed and grew up to be a pretty good pitcher. He played for the Bankers and, along with Mike Nichole, led them to our league championship when they were 12 and I was 11. He also pitched for Sam Houston in high school. Mrs. Purcell was Catholic but I think Mr. Purcell was Methodist. I don't ever remember seeing them go to church. Two other remembrances of David were: (1) Once Gary held my arms behind my back so David could punch me in the stomach. When my dad got home, he held Gary and let me punch him in the stomach. (2) We were playing tackle football in his front yard with no pads. I was tackled and hit the back of my head on the sidewalk. My head got busted open and needed 3 stitches to close it up.
The Wiseman's were originally from Illinios and Mrs. Wiseman was "Yankee" through and through and smoked. I didn't like her much. Mr. Wiseman was a tall, skinny, really nice guy. He was a salesman for Watkins, a company that sold products like Amway but it was a regular business, not multi-level marketing. Frank wore glasses and, despite being several years older than us, he wasn't much of an athlete. I remember a Little League game when he was the runner on 3rd base. The batter hit a ball down the line and it hit Frank standing on the base for the 3rd out. Wade was a much better athlete. They moved back to Illinios before he was 12. He came back to Arlington on vacation when he was 25-30 and came over to our house. He was a motorcycle racer. The other thing I remember about Frank and Wade was that they were saved in the same revival as Gary and me. I made my profession of faith first and Brother East came to our house to talk to me further since I was only 6. While he was there Gary also made a profession of faith. He then went next door to the Wiseman's and Frank and Wade made profession of faith. They all walked down the aisle at the revival meeting, I think on a Friday night. The Wiseman's were baptized on Saturday and Gary and I on Sunday.
Glenn wasn't much of an athlete either and Paul, David, and the other brothers were really too young. You had to tryout for Little League and you weren't guaranteed to make a team. When Glenn was 11 he tried out for Little League but didn't make it. His parents and a bunch of other parents went to the Optimists who sponsored the Arlington Little Leagues and demanded a change. They insituted a minor league for the kids who didn't make the "major" league teams, but after a couple of years moved everyone into the same league and guaranteeed spots for everyone who wanted to play. One time Wade Wiseman and I started a "club". The initiation was you had to drink pee out of a dog food can. We told Paul and David that we had both done it and if they wanted to be in our club they would have to do it too. Paul didn't believe we'd done it, so we peed in a can and I put it up to my lips and faked drinking it by swallowing saliva. I then put on a nasty face and ran for the water hose. Of course, I never drank it but they thought I had, so Paul did it. He took a big swallow and then ran for the water hose. We told David to just fake it and he did and ran to the water hose, too. Kids can be mean. The other thing I remember about the Dickey's was smoking my one and only cigarette. Wade, Paul, David, their little brother, and me were all out in front of my garage. I guess the Dickey's parents smoked because they had a cigarette and the little brother who was about 5 really enjoyed smoking. We lit the cigarette and I took a puff. It burned my throat! It was horrible! I've never taken another puff in my life. Wade tried it too with the same result, but the little 5 year old just smoked away.
On down the street was a family with two boys 6 or 7 years younger than me. One of them looked just like me. It was incredible. Of course, I liked him a lot, but I don't remember his name.
I'll tell you more about the other side of the street in another post.
Monday, September 17, 2007
1740 Sharon - the other side of the street
On the other side of the street, starting across from the Purcels were the Fergusons. They went to our church and had a girl my age, Martha, another girl a couple of years older, and a son several years older, probably Steve East's age or more. Martha was not good looking and not very smart. I never had anything to do with her, even at church. She's still a member of our church. She used to live in one of the low rent apartments that were torn down for the new Cowboys stadium. She and her husband, I think they're married, rode bicycles to church and sat in the foyer. I haven't seen her in several months but I remember her being so happy one day when I did see her and said "Hello, Martha." It's amazing how a simple "Hello" can seemingly brighten someone's day.
Next to her and across from our house was Sean McAlister who was my age. He wasn't an athlete but he had more board games than anyone I can remember. I used to go over there a lot and we'd play Chutes and Ladders, Life, and other games.
Next was a house that didn;t have kids and then the Kenners. They had 3 or 4 boys. Kenny was a year or two older than me and Billy was a year or two older than that. They other boys were much older. Kenny and Billy would play football and baseball with the neighborhood. I'll never forget two baseball games involving Billy. We were playing with some kids from another neighborhood and Mike Hedlund was pitching. Hedlund was a big red-headed kid and could really throw the ball. He was 12 and I was 9. He could have struck me out on 3 pitches, so Billy, playing left field, sat down when I came up. For fun, Hedlund decided to try throwing a knuckleball rather than simply striking me out on 3 fastballs. I smashed the 2nd pitch over Billy's head and got a home run. The other event I remember was having a brand new bat that I'd brought up to the field to hit with. I was playing left field and Billy decided to use my bat instead of his own and he broke it. I cried all the way home carrying my brand new broken bat.
Next to the Kenners was a family with a boy my age, also named Charles, but who everyone called "Chuck". He was a dork, a gangly, dumb kid that I didn't like. Because of him, I never let anyone call me Chuck to this day.
The Brouillettes had a son my age and a girl a few years older. Mike was a lot of fun and we'd play together all the time. When I accepted Christ as my Savior I tried to witness to Mike. He was a Catholic. As I was talking to him Wade Wiseman came over and started making fun of me. That hurt becasue he and both had just made professions of faith and had been baptized that week and I couldn't believe he was making fun of me for trying to tell someone else about Christ. I'm sure that experience inhibited me from sharing the gospel with anyone else for many years. Mike also woked in the CJ mailroom with Verne and me years later. He lives in Red Oak, I think, now. His sister Maureen and the Harrigan girl who lived a couple more houses down would sometimes have backyard plays. They'd charge a dime or something and we'd go watch them. They'd use a bedspread for the stage curtains and the shows were always fun. She's an artist now and has paintings at the Upstairs Gallery. Her dad was a nationally acclaimed watercolor painter who sold through the Gallery.
A couple of houses further down were the Harrigans. The main thing I remember with them was the summer that I sold tomatoes from our garden in the country, 2 pounds for 20 cents. They wanted only the cherry tomatoes.
Our neighborhood played the Farhat/Barnett neighborhood in baseball and football a couple of times. They had a great baseball field on a block in the middle of thier neighborhood where no houses had been built. I don't know who won, I just know we had a good time. The Farhat's daddy was Big Daddy as in Big Daddy's liquor store. I would play basketball against Owen Barnett later on in high school. I think Huey and Denny Insell were in that neighborhood as well. Denny was on the First Methodist men's basketball team that I'll tell you about later. And, a kid with the last name Vaughn was also in that neighborhood. He was a grade ahead of me and played quarterback on the football team. He peed in his uniform pants at the start of every game.
It was fun growing up on 1740 Sharon. We'd treat ot treat in an area from Abram on the north, Park Row on the south, New York Avenue on the east, and Meadowbrook Park on the west. Lots and lots of candy, haunted houses in people's garage, and just plain old fun without having to worry if any wierdo was going to do something.
Next to her and across from our house was Sean McAlister who was my age. He wasn't an athlete but he had more board games than anyone I can remember. I used to go over there a lot and we'd play Chutes and Ladders, Life, and other games.
Next was a house that didn;t have kids and then the Kenners. They had 3 or 4 boys. Kenny was a year or two older than me and Billy was a year or two older than that. They other boys were much older. Kenny and Billy would play football and baseball with the neighborhood. I'll never forget two baseball games involving Billy. We were playing with some kids from another neighborhood and Mike Hedlund was pitching. Hedlund was a big red-headed kid and could really throw the ball. He was 12 and I was 9. He could have struck me out on 3 pitches, so Billy, playing left field, sat down when I came up. For fun, Hedlund decided to try throwing a knuckleball rather than simply striking me out on 3 fastballs. I smashed the 2nd pitch over Billy's head and got a home run. The other event I remember was having a brand new bat that I'd brought up to the field to hit with. I was playing left field and Billy decided to use my bat instead of his own and he broke it. I cried all the way home carrying my brand new broken bat.
Next to the Kenners was a family with a boy my age, also named Charles, but who everyone called "Chuck". He was a dork, a gangly, dumb kid that I didn't like. Because of him, I never let anyone call me Chuck to this day.
The Brouillettes had a son my age and a girl a few years older. Mike was a lot of fun and we'd play together all the time. When I accepted Christ as my Savior I tried to witness to Mike. He was a Catholic. As I was talking to him Wade Wiseman came over and started making fun of me. That hurt becasue he and both had just made professions of faith and had been baptized that week and I couldn't believe he was making fun of me for trying to tell someone else about Christ. I'm sure that experience inhibited me from sharing the gospel with anyone else for many years. Mike also woked in the CJ mailroom with Verne and me years later. He lives in Red Oak, I think, now. His sister Maureen and the Harrigan girl who lived a couple more houses down would sometimes have backyard plays. They'd charge a dime or something and we'd go watch them. They'd use a bedspread for the stage curtains and the shows were always fun. She's an artist now and has paintings at the Upstairs Gallery. Her dad was a nationally acclaimed watercolor painter who sold through the Gallery.
A couple of houses further down were the Harrigans. The main thing I remember with them was the summer that I sold tomatoes from our garden in the country, 2 pounds for 20 cents. They wanted only the cherry tomatoes.
Our neighborhood played the Farhat/Barnett neighborhood in baseball and football a couple of times. They had a great baseball field on a block in the middle of thier neighborhood where no houses had been built. I don't know who won, I just know we had a good time. The Farhat's daddy was Big Daddy as in Big Daddy's liquor store. I would play basketball against Owen Barnett later on in high school. I think Huey and Denny Insell were in that neighborhood as well. Denny was on the First Methodist men's basketball team that I'll tell you about later. And, a kid with the last name Vaughn was also in that neighborhood. He was a grade ahead of me and played quarterback on the football team. He peed in his uniform pants at the start of every game.
It was fun growing up on 1740 Sharon. We'd treat ot treat in an area from Abram on the north, Park Row on the south, New York Avenue on the east, and Meadowbrook Park on the west. Lots and lots of candy, haunted houses in people's garage, and just plain old fun without having to worry if any wierdo was going to do something.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Senior Year Basketball - District Play
Non-district play and the tournaments are over and the calendar has turned over to a new year (1968) as we begin district play. Due to intergration I.M. Terrell and Dunbar, the two all-black high schools, were added to our district creating a 9-team district. Rather than have a 16 game district schedule, the school district opted to split the district into zones.
Poly, Arlington Heights, Trimble Tech, Dunbar, and EHHS were placed in one zone. I.M. Terrell, Paschal, Carter-Riverside, and North Side were placed in the other zone. I can't remember if Diamond Hill was also in that zone or iff they played in a lower classification. If they were in the zone that would have made it a 10-team district and an 18-game schedule without the zones. Paschal, Carter, and North Side were all poor teams giving Terrell a free shot to the district championship game. Poly, Heights, and EHHS were all musch superior to any team in the other zone except Terrell. Dunbar and Tech were as good as any of the other teams, so our zone was much tougher. In the pre-district forecast the Star Telegram rated us as "probably the 4th best team in their zone on paper, but they'll find a way to finish second." Riddle was our tallest player at 6'4" and the other teams all had bigger guys. They were right, we did finish second.
Our first game was against Arlington Heights whom we had just beaten by 30 points in the Lions Club tournament. Our team wasn't a 30 points better team. We were really very evenly matched, we were just super hot in the tournament. The district game was a much closer game. It was also one of only a couple of games that we had that were filmed. We played our 1-3-1 zone with me on the top, Riddle in the middle, Hall and Worley on the wings, and Groody on the baseline. Heights attacked the zone differently than they had in the tournament and exploited the baseline. They drove the baseline and were either getting around Groody or getting fouls called on him and really beating us underneath. One of my worst memories was at the end of the half. They scored with three seconds to go and went ahead by one. I grabbed the ball out of bounds and tried to throw it downcourt so we'd have a chance at a last second shot. One of their guys was in my face as I threw and deflected the ball into the lane by their basket where another guy picked it up and they scored again. A horrible play on my part. I had no business trying to force the pass. They went on to win the game by 5 or 6 points. We all made so many mistakes that Coach Howerton, after making us watch the entire game film once, said he was going to burn it. WE NEVER SAW IT AGAIN.
Our next game was against Poly. They were the favorite to win our league. The had a 6-9" post man who was very good, Bob Bounds a 6'5" or 6'6" forward who was really good, a really quick 5'11" left handed point guard and several other good players. They could play an 8 or 9 man rotation without a drop off in quality. We played a 6 man rotation. In preparation for the game we made a couple of changes. I was moved to the baseline on the 1-3-1 so that no one could beat us down there again. Worley was moved to the point and Groody was moved to the wing. With me on the baseline the wing guys had to be more active (remember Coach Howerton was trying to get them to do that back in the Castleberry game) and they did. Our defense was now actually better. We also worked on a spread 4-corners offense to use against Poly to try and neutralize their height advantage. We could also use the 4-corners to stall away the end of the game in normal situations. Frankly, I didn't like it as an offense to run as a base offense during the game. We started the game well against Poly. Running our normal rotation offense we got ahead by 6 points in the first quarter. We were playing well and they couldn't stop us. Coach Howerton had us change to the 4-corners spread offense for the second quarter and the wheels came off. We lost our intensity, we had a couple of bad calls, and we let them get back in the game and go ahead by half. We went on to lose a close game but now had started out district 0-2.
We beat Tech and Dunbar as expected and were 2-2 for the rematch with Arlington Heights. It was another close back and forth game. There were two plays I vivdly remember late in the game. On one fast break the lead pass to me was thrown too far. I finally grabbed the ball on a full sprint directly under the backboard with Charlie Jenkins their 6'1" guard on my back. As I grabbed the ball I jumped back as best I could toward the basket and flipped the ball behind my head toward the basket. It went in and I was fouled. A picture of the play ran in the Star-Telgram. Later with 11 seconds to go we were down by one. I had the ball on the left side of the court beyond the top of the key. I drove the free throw line, squeezed by Jenkins and split between him and the post guy coming up to help, shot, scored and was fouled. I was excited. I had just scored to put us up by one and the the free throw would make it two. But, wait. The ref said "No basket!" He said I was fouled before the shot. I made the free throw and we won in overtime. I'm still hacked that I didn't get the basket and a free throw. In later years I would make a similar play to "win" the Arlington Church League city championship only to see the ref not only disallow the basket but call a charging foul on me.
I don't remember anything about the Poly rematch except that we lost and I fouled out. Linda Kaye, the freelance photographer who shot mostly for the Fort Worth Press, took my picture on the bench. The Star-Telegram used that picture in their article about me. Again, it was a close game but they were simply bigger, deeper, and better. We akso won the rematches with Tech and Dunbar. I think the Tech game was the last game of the year. As I was dirbbling up court our fans, led by Marge Johnson, started yelling "Shoot Charlie" and laughing. As they continued to call for me to shoot, I decided "Why not!" and put up a 20-25 foot jump shot. Swish, nothing but net! And, so ended my high school career. I averaged 9.5 points for the season and 8.5 for district play. I played almost every minute of every game, at least while the game was in doubt. I had a good season and loved it. It is a memory I will treasure always.
I hope I didn't bore you too much. There are hundreds of details I could have added, but I think you get the picture.
Poly, Arlington Heights, Trimble Tech, Dunbar, and EHHS were placed in one zone. I.M. Terrell, Paschal, Carter-Riverside, and North Side were placed in the other zone. I can't remember if Diamond Hill was also in that zone or iff they played in a lower classification. If they were in the zone that would have made it a 10-team district and an 18-game schedule without the zones. Paschal, Carter, and North Side were all poor teams giving Terrell a free shot to the district championship game. Poly, Heights, and EHHS were all musch superior to any team in the other zone except Terrell. Dunbar and Tech were as good as any of the other teams, so our zone was much tougher. In the pre-district forecast the Star Telegram rated us as "probably the 4th best team in their zone on paper, but they'll find a way to finish second." Riddle was our tallest player at 6'4" and the other teams all had bigger guys. They were right, we did finish second.
Our first game was against Arlington Heights whom we had just beaten by 30 points in the Lions Club tournament. Our team wasn't a 30 points better team. We were really very evenly matched, we were just super hot in the tournament. The district game was a much closer game. It was also one of only a couple of games that we had that were filmed. We played our 1-3-1 zone with me on the top, Riddle in the middle, Hall and Worley on the wings, and Groody on the baseline. Heights attacked the zone differently than they had in the tournament and exploited the baseline. They drove the baseline and were either getting around Groody or getting fouls called on him and really beating us underneath. One of my worst memories was at the end of the half. They scored with three seconds to go and went ahead by one. I grabbed the ball out of bounds and tried to throw it downcourt so we'd have a chance at a last second shot. One of their guys was in my face as I threw and deflected the ball into the lane by their basket where another guy picked it up and they scored again. A horrible play on my part. I had no business trying to force the pass. They went on to win the game by 5 or 6 points. We all made so many mistakes that Coach Howerton, after making us watch the entire game film once, said he was going to burn it. WE NEVER SAW IT AGAIN.
Our next game was against Poly. They were the favorite to win our league. The had a 6-9" post man who was very good, Bob Bounds a 6'5" or 6'6" forward who was really good, a really quick 5'11" left handed point guard and several other good players. They could play an 8 or 9 man rotation without a drop off in quality. We played a 6 man rotation. In preparation for the game we made a couple of changes. I was moved to the baseline on the 1-3-1 so that no one could beat us down there again. Worley was moved to the point and Groody was moved to the wing. With me on the baseline the wing guys had to be more active (remember Coach Howerton was trying to get them to do that back in the Castleberry game) and they did. Our defense was now actually better. We also worked on a spread 4-corners offense to use against Poly to try and neutralize their height advantage. We could also use the 4-corners to stall away the end of the game in normal situations. Frankly, I didn't like it as an offense to run as a base offense during the game. We started the game well against Poly. Running our normal rotation offense we got ahead by 6 points in the first quarter. We were playing well and they couldn't stop us. Coach Howerton had us change to the 4-corners spread offense for the second quarter and the wheels came off. We lost our intensity, we had a couple of bad calls, and we let them get back in the game and go ahead by half. We went on to lose a close game but now had started out district 0-2.
We beat Tech and Dunbar as expected and were 2-2 for the rematch with Arlington Heights. It was another close back and forth game. There were two plays I vivdly remember late in the game. On one fast break the lead pass to me was thrown too far. I finally grabbed the ball on a full sprint directly under the backboard with Charlie Jenkins their 6'1" guard on my back. As I grabbed the ball I jumped back as best I could toward the basket and flipped the ball behind my head toward the basket. It went in and I was fouled. A picture of the play ran in the Star-Telgram. Later with 11 seconds to go we were down by one. I had the ball on the left side of the court beyond the top of the key. I drove the free throw line, squeezed by Jenkins and split between him and the post guy coming up to help, shot, scored and was fouled. I was excited. I had just scored to put us up by one and the the free throw would make it two. But, wait. The ref said "No basket!" He said I was fouled before the shot. I made the free throw and we won in overtime. I'm still hacked that I didn't get the basket and a free throw. In later years I would make a similar play to "win" the Arlington Church League city championship only to see the ref not only disallow the basket but call a charging foul on me.
I don't remember anything about the Poly rematch except that we lost and I fouled out. Linda Kaye, the freelance photographer who shot mostly for the Fort Worth Press, took my picture on the bench. The Star-Telegram used that picture in their article about me. Again, it was a close game but they were simply bigger, deeper, and better. We akso won the rematches with Tech and Dunbar. I think the Tech game was the last game of the year. As I was dirbbling up court our fans, led by Marge Johnson, started yelling "Shoot Charlie" and laughing. As they continued to call for me to shoot, I decided "Why not!" and put up a 20-25 foot jump shot. Swish, nothing but net! And, so ended my high school career. I averaged 9.5 points for the season and 8.5 for district play. I played almost every minute of every game, at least while the game was in doubt. I had a good season and loved it. It is a memory I will treasure always.
I hope I didn't bore you too much. There are hundreds of details I could have added, but I think you get the picture.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Basketball- Senior Year- Tournament Time
We played in two tournaments - Abilene and the Fort Worth Lions Club tournaments. We had an invitation to play in the Arlington Classic at UTA but it was the same weekend as the Abiliene tournament. Since that was our only out of town opportunity the team voted to play in Abilene.
North Side didn't play in the tournament this year, so, instead of taking a bus, we drove in 3 players' cars and Coach Howerton's car. I decided I wanted to make the all-tournament team and the way to do that was score a lot of points, even though that wasn't my strength or my role on the team.
Our opening game was against Lubbock Monterrey. They were one of the better West Texas teams and won their district. We lost by 4 or 5 points and I scored 15. I also took a lot of bad forced shots and cost us several quality offensive possessions. It was the kind of game that the stats might get me an all-tournament vote but it wasn't winning basketball. In the second game we played Haltom. They ran a full court press the whole game. They also had a guard who was a friend of mine from RA basketball who would jump in front of you and draw a charge. The way things are called today it would probably be called a blocking foul on him. Anyway, our team played poorly and I was atrocious. I didn't score a single point and missed several shots. I wasn't taking wild forced shots, but I wasn't making the shots I was shooting. So much for all-tournament and I lost my starting job for the last game of the tournament. I didn't play at all in the first half but played quite a bit in the second half. I went back to playing the way I was expected to play, scored 4 points, played good defense, didn't force shots, and our team won. I learned a lesson that is as good in life as it was in basketball: Don't try to be something you're not. Do what you can do and do it well. That will make you and your team better.
I mentioned the private cars to tell two stories about them. First, after the game against Monterrey David Lebeouf, the team manager, and Dwight Mitchell, a cheerleader, took David's Mustang and drove to Mexico. They had just enough time to get there and turn around and come back. They drove into the motel parking lot just before we were to leave for our Saturday morning game. No purpose to the trip, they just did it because they could. Dumb!
After the Riverside game we were supposed to meet at a particular restaurant for dinner. Coach gave us the name and said to meet him there in 30 minutes. I was in a car driven by Kim Riddle. Also in the car were Don Groody and Jimmy Swanson. Kim had a Chevy Impala with a big V-8 engine. Following us to the restaurant was Lebeouf with Allen Stanford, a little bitty sophomore kid with the big black plastic rimmed glasses that were the style in that day who was a team manager, and someone else. When we got to the restaurant no one was there. We found out there were three locations for that particularly named restaurant. We looked at the food, it was a cafeteria, and decided not to eat there. We also decided not to try to find the "right" restaurant and figured we'd find something to eat on the way home.
Abilene was 150 miles from Fort Worth and there was no I-20. You had to go through each town and most of the road was two lane highway. LeBeouf and Riddle decided to race home. Even worse, they decided to drink beer while they raced home. The only guys not drinking were the little manager and me. Riddle had the speedometer pegged a 130, that was as high the the speedometer went, and we were still gaining speed. Lebeouf passed us, probably going 135-140. The manager's eyes were as big as saucers in the back seat as they passed. Ahead of us on the highway the road turned to the left and went up a hill. An 18-wheeler was ahead of us. Lebeouf turned off his headlights and "snuck up" on the 18-wheeler. As he started to pass him he flipped on his lights. You could tell the trucker's startled reaction by the way his truck moved momentarily from side to side. We slowed down to 70-80 to go through the towns. Somewhere along the way we stopped at a roadside cafe and had chicken fried steak and all the trimmings. We arrived in Fort Worth 2 hours after leaving Abilene. Take out the 30 minutes for dinner and we made the 150 miles in 1.5 hour, an average speed of 100mph. It was crazy and I'm glad I only experienced it once. I wouldn't want to do it again. We were lucky we weren't killed.
The second tournament was the West Side Lions tournament. We played Lake Worth in the first game and crushed them. It was a total mismatch and everyone on our roster played. I only played the first quarter and scored 2 points. Most of the starters only played the first half. Worley wasn't having a good shooting day and Coach Howerton left him in into the 3rd quarter so that he could get close to his normal game average. Still, he only scored 8 points. The second game was a rematch against Haltom. This time we handled the press a lot better. We also did a better job of avoiding the charge calls. However, once we were going down the court on a fast break. I had the ball near half court and saw Hall open on the side near the free throw line. I also saw the Haltom guy setting up to take a charge. I passed down to Hall and stepped to my right to avoid the charge, but the guy slid over another step, too. I slammed him hard with my left elbow and forearm into the stomach and he crumpled to the floor. They called a foul on me, but it should have been a block. They had to help the Haltom guy off the court. When he came back he didn't try to take any more charges. We won and and I scored 8-10 points.
The 3rd game was against IM Terrell. This was the first year of intergration, although we had played them in a tournament the previous year. They were in a different zone from us in district so this would be the only time we played them unless we met for the district championship playoff. They had several of their key players back from the previous year. They didn't get to do their dunking routine because of the rule change outlawing dunks, but they still all had to be able to dunk in order to make the team. We played a 2-3 zone and really sagged on their big guy, Lee Shaw, a 6'4" guy who could really jump. We invited the guards to shoot the 15' jumper. While they missed some, they also made a bunch.
My first shot early in the first quarter rattled in and out from the top of the key. I wouldn't miss again from the field until my last shot of the game. Later in the quarter I made a 15' jumper and then, as time was running out in the quarter, I made a 25' jumper. Nothing but net!
In the second quarter I made another basket and was open for a 20 footer near the end of the quarter. Worley was determined to take the last shot and was trying to get free even though he was being double teamed. They poked the ball behind him and I was able to run over and retrieve it about 30 feet from the basket with a second on the clock. I jumped and shot, nothing but net! We went into halftime tied or ahead by one or two. Shaw had 4 fouls on him and we were in an excellent position to win. For the quarter we had shot 50%. Terrell had shot 80%. We had no turnovers and had allowed almost no offensive rebounds. That's why we were still ahead even though they were shooting such a high percentage.
In the third quarter is was still a close game. After a foul call on them, a double cup full of ice came flying onto the court from high in the stands and hit just a few feet in front of me at mid-court. At least it wasn't a whiskey bottle like they'd thrown the year before against Paschal, but the damage was done. The refs were now scared. I kept setting up in front of Shaw and let him run over me but they wouldn't call the 5th foul on him. Riddle fouled out midway in the third quarter. Shaw could do whatever he wanted and no foul was called. I still hadn't missed a shot since the first one and with three seconds to go in the 3rd quarter it was our ball out of bounds near half court and we were ahead by one. I made Worley throw it in to me. Standing in the corner of the halfcourt line and the sideline I took the inbounds pass and heaved a shot toward the basket, off the glass and in! We were ahead by three. I had made last second shots at the end of each quarter from successively further distances - 25', 30', and half court.
The fourth quarter continued with the refs afraid to make a call against Terrell. I was really tired. I played the whole game with no substitution. I was fouled once and had trouble shooting the free throws because I was so tired. I should have called time out so we could rest. Terrell had rotated 8-10 players in so they were much fresher in the 4th quarter. They got ahead of us. Without Riddle in for us they were getting offensive rebounds and scoring. We were get one shot and that was it. I turned the ball over on a poor pass to Hall and then missed a shot from the side. They ended up winning by 6. In the last minute they finally called the 5th foul on Shaw but the game was already over. The refs came into our locker and apologized after the game. They said they were scared.
In the Fort Worth Star Telegram story of the game the headline was "Terrell holds off hot shooting Highlanders". If you looked at the stats they shot a much higher percentage, ours were just from further away. The story also read "Gary" Goodyear did this and that. Bob Hood, the sportswriter, knew my brother Gary's name from football and just assumed it was G Goodyear instead of C Goodyear. He made it up later in the season by featuring me in a 1/4 page story with picture.
In the last game of the tournament we played Arlington Heights and beat them by 30 points. Again, even though I was shooting and scoring well Worley hogged the ball. On one 2 on 1 fastbreak he wouldn't throw me the ball. Finally, he threw a behind the back pass below my knees. In full running stride I couldn't reach the ball and kicked it out of bounds. Despite the 2 point opening game, I averaged 10 points for the tournament. I played well and I played within myself. More importantly, the team won.
We either played in another tournament that I forgot about or we played another game in the Lions Club tournament because we played Paschal. Like Terrell, they were in another zone for district play but we played them in a tournament game. We drilled them, beat them by 10 or more but they played the whole game at a slow, slow pace. We were running a 2-3 zone defense and they would simply hold the ball out front. They wouldn't try to penetrate. There was no shot clock so they weren't doing anything illegal, just boring. Charlie Turner was their coach and he was a strict disciplinarian. Anyway, that's what I remember of the tournaments. Next post, district play.
North Side didn't play in the tournament this year, so, instead of taking a bus, we drove in 3 players' cars and Coach Howerton's car. I decided I wanted to make the all-tournament team and the way to do that was score a lot of points, even though that wasn't my strength or my role on the team.
Our opening game was against Lubbock Monterrey. They were one of the better West Texas teams and won their district. We lost by 4 or 5 points and I scored 15. I also took a lot of bad forced shots and cost us several quality offensive possessions. It was the kind of game that the stats might get me an all-tournament vote but it wasn't winning basketball. In the second game we played Haltom. They ran a full court press the whole game. They also had a guard who was a friend of mine from RA basketball who would jump in front of you and draw a charge. The way things are called today it would probably be called a blocking foul on him. Anyway, our team played poorly and I was atrocious. I didn't score a single point and missed several shots. I wasn't taking wild forced shots, but I wasn't making the shots I was shooting. So much for all-tournament and I lost my starting job for the last game of the tournament. I didn't play at all in the first half but played quite a bit in the second half. I went back to playing the way I was expected to play, scored 4 points, played good defense, didn't force shots, and our team won. I learned a lesson that is as good in life as it was in basketball: Don't try to be something you're not. Do what you can do and do it well. That will make you and your team better.
I mentioned the private cars to tell two stories about them. First, after the game against Monterrey David Lebeouf, the team manager, and Dwight Mitchell, a cheerleader, took David's Mustang and drove to Mexico. They had just enough time to get there and turn around and come back. They drove into the motel parking lot just before we were to leave for our Saturday morning game. No purpose to the trip, they just did it because they could. Dumb!
After the Riverside game we were supposed to meet at a particular restaurant for dinner. Coach gave us the name and said to meet him there in 30 minutes. I was in a car driven by Kim Riddle. Also in the car were Don Groody and Jimmy Swanson. Kim had a Chevy Impala with a big V-8 engine. Following us to the restaurant was Lebeouf with Allen Stanford, a little bitty sophomore kid with the big black plastic rimmed glasses that were the style in that day who was a team manager, and someone else. When we got to the restaurant no one was there. We found out there were three locations for that particularly named restaurant. We looked at the food, it was a cafeteria, and decided not to eat there. We also decided not to try to find the "right" restaurant and figured we'd find something to eat on the way home.
Abilene was 150 miles from Fort Worth and there was no I-20. You had to go through each town and most of the road was two lane highway. LeBeouf and Riddle decided to race home. Even worse, they decided to drink beer while they raced home. The only guys not drinking were the little manager and me. Riddle had the speedometer pegged a 130, that was as high the the speedometer went, and we were still gaining speed. Lebeouf passed us, probably going 135-140. The manager's eyes were as big as saucers in the back seat as they passed. Ahead of us on the highway the road turned to the left and went up a hill. An 18-wheeler was ahead of us. Lebeouf turned off his headlights and "snuck up" on the 18-wheeler. As he started to pass him he flipped on his lights. You could tell the trucker's startled reaction by the way his truck moved momentarily from side to side. We slowed down to 70-80 to go through the towns. Somewhere along the way we stopped at a roadside cafe and had chicken fried steak and all the trimmings. We arrived in Fort Worth 2 hours after leaving Abilene. Take out the 30 minutes for dinner and we made the 150 miles in 1.5 hour, an average speed of 100mph. It was crazy and I'm glad I only experienced it once. I wouldn't want to do it again. We were lucky we weren't killed.
The second tournament was the West Side Lions tournament. We played Lake Worth in the first game and crushed them. It was a total mismatch and everyone on our roster played. I only played the first quarter and scored 2 points. Most of the starters only played the first half. Worley wasn't having a good shooting day and Coach Howerton left him in into the 3rd quarter so that he could get close to his normal game average. Still, he only scored 8 points. The second game was a rematch against Haltom. This time we handled the press a lot better. We also did a better job of avoiding the charge calls. However, once we were going down the court on a fast break. I had the ball near half court and saw Hall open on the side near the free throw line. I also saw the Haltom guy setting up to take a charge. I passed down to Hall and stepped to my right to avoid the charge, but the guy slid over another step, too. I slammed him hard with my left elbow and forearm into the stomach and he crumpled to the floor. They called a foul on me, but it should have been a block. They had to help the Haltom guy off the court. When he came back he didn't try to take any more charges. We won and and I scored 8-10 points.
The 3rd game was against IM Terrell. This was the first year of intergration, although we had played them in a tournament the previous year. They were in a different zone from us in district so this would be the only time we played them unless we met for the district championship playoff. They had several of their key players back from the previous year. They didn't get to do their dunking routine because of the rule change outlawing dunks, but they still all had to be able to dunk in order to make the team. We played a 2-3 zone and really sagged on their big guy, Lee Shaw, a 6'4" guy who could really jump. We invited the guards to shoot the 15' jumper. While they missed some, they also made a bunch.
My first shot early in the first quarter rattled in and out from the top of the key. I wouldn't miss again from the field until my last shot of the game. Later in the quarter I made a 15' jumper and then, as time was running out in the quarter, I made a 25' jumper. Nothing but net!
In the second quarter I made another basket and was open for a 20 footer near the end of the quarter. Worley was determined to take the last shot and was trying to get free even though he was being double teamed. They poked the ball behind him and I was able to run over and retrieve it about 30 feet from the basket with a second on the clock. I jumped and shot, nothing but net! We went into halftime tied or ahead by one or two. Shaw had 4 fouls on him and we were in an excellent position to win. For the quarter we had shot 50%. Terrell had shot 80%. We had no turnovers and had allowed almost no offensive rebounds. That's why we were still ahead even though they were shooting such a high percentage.
In the third quarter is was still a close game. After a foul call on them, a double cup full of ice came flying onto the court from high in the stands and hit just a few feet in front of me at mid-court. At least it wasn't a whiskey bottle like they'd thrown the year before against Paschal, but the damage was done. The refs were now scared. I kept setting up in front of Shaw and let him run over me but they wouldn't call the 5th foul on him. Riddle fouled out midway in the third quarter. Shaw could do whatever he wanted and no foul was called. I still hadn't missed a shot since the first one and with three seconds to go in the 3rd quarter it was our ball out of bounds near half court and we were ahead by one. I made Worley throw it in to me. Standing in the corner of the halfcourt line and the sideline I took the inbounds pass and heaved a shot toward the basket, off the glass and in! We were ahead by three. I had made last second shots at the end of each quarter from successively further distances - 25', 30', and half court.
The fourth quarter continued with the refs afraid to make a call against Terrell. I was really tired. I played the whole game with no substitution. I was fouled once and had trouble shooting the free throws because I was so tired. I should have called time out so we could rest. Terrell had rotated 8-10 players in so they were much fresher in the 4th quarter. They got ahead of us. Without Riddle in for us they were getting offensive rebounds and scoring. We were get one shot and that was it. I turned the ball over on a poor pass to Hall and then missed a shot from the side. They ended up winning by 6. In the last minute they finally called the 5th foul on Shaw but the game was already over. The refs came into our locker and apologized after the game. They said they were scared.
In the Fort Worth Star Telegram story of the game the headline was "Terrell holds off hot shooting Highlanders". If you looked at the stats they shot a much higher percentage, ours were just from further away. The story also read "Gary" Goodyear did this and that. Bob Hood, the sportswriter, knew my brother Gary's name from football and just assumed it was G Goodyear instead of C Goodyear. He made it up later in the season by featuring me in a 1/4 page story with picture.
In the last game of the tournament we played Arlington Heights and beat them by 30 points. Again, even though I was shooting and scoring well Worley hogged the ball. On one 2 on 1 fastbreak he wouldn't throw me the ball. Finally, he threw a behind the back pass below my knees. In full running stride I couldn't reach the ball and kicked it out of bounds. Despite the 2 point opening game, I averaged 10 points for the tournament. I played well and I played within myself. More importantly, the team won.
We either played in another tournament that I forgot about or we played another game in the Lions Club tournament because we played Paschal. Like Terrell, they were in another zone for district play but we played them in a tournament game. We drilled them, beat them by 10 or more but they played the whole game at a slow, slow pace. We were running a 2-3 zone defense and they would simply hold the ball out front. They wouldn't try to penetrate. There was no shot clock so they weren't doing anything illegal, just boring. Charlie Turner was their coach and he was a strict disciplinarian. Anyway, that's what I remember of the tournaments. Next post, district play.
Basketball - Senior Year part 1
The highlight of my high school years was easily my senior basketball season. We had a good team and I was elected co-captain. Our two stars were Ricky Hall and Jay Worley. Both had started as juniors, both made all-district as seniors, and both got scholarships to TCU.
Jay, a 6'2" guard, was a great shooter. He had a really pretty shot and wanted to shoot every time down the court. As good as he was on offense and as much as he cared about offense, he was the direct opposite on defense. It's not that he couldn't play defense, he just didn't want to. In my opinion, he was also a selfish player. He wanted to be the leading scorer and wouldn't pass you the ball if you might outscore him. The exception was Hall, he had to pass the ball to Hall. I think Jay averaged 17-18 points a game and had a high game of 31 points. Jay got a scholarship to TCU but was gone after one year. I heard he flunked out.
Ricky Hall was a 6'3" forward. He hustled, played hard defense, and worked to get rebounds and shots around the basket. He also averaged 17-18 points a game and was right around that number game in and game out. There were no big fluctuations. Ricky also got a scholarship to TCU , played a lot, and was a 2-year starter.
Kim Riddle was a 6"4" center. He was a really good defensive guy and rebounder. Offensively, he was weak and probably averaged only 5-6 points a game. I think he got a scholarship to Tarleton State and played there 4 years.
John Groody was a 6'3" forward. He was a red-headed, goofy guy. "Goofy", not meaning dumb or anything derogatory, but goofy as in funny, crazy, silly, etc. He was a big wrestling fan and would mimic the fake punches and stuff. He was a good shooter, defender, etc., just a good all around player. He played a couple of years at McClennan Junior College and then, I think, went to school at A&M. I know he was a big Aggie fan. He probably averaged about 8-10 points a game.
I filled out the starting lineup at guard. When we did the height measurements I stood in at a little over 5'11" but the guys wanted everyone to be at least 6'. Groody, who was measuring me, told me to stretch and I stood up just a litle taller until I reach 5'11 1/2". When I hit 5'11 1/2" he said that rounds to 6'0" and that is what was put in as the official height and on the scorecards. I averaged 10 points a game. Actually, it was 9.5 but that rounds to 10 and 10 sounds better. I had 2 games where I scored 17.
Typically, we only played a 6-man rotation with the sixth guy being a 6'4" sophomore who could play any position. I can't remember his name but he was a good player and a good guy. Coach Howerton always called him "Sophomore" and he averaged about 4 points a game. I usually played the entire game unless we subbed at the end because we were well ahead.
We played Nolan in the first game of the season in our gym. Even though they were a private school they were about the same enrollment size as we and the game was close, although we were clearly the better team. At halftime it was tied or a 2-point game. I had played rather tentatively in the first half. David O'Dell was the senior team manager when I was a sophomore and he was now at Texas Tech on scholarship as the trainer/manager for their basketball team. He was at the game and came into the locker room at half. He pulled me aside and told me that I needed to make this my team and that I needed to step it up. In short, he gave me a really good pep talk and gave me some additional confidence. Early in the second half I scored my first basket. I drove the middle of the lane, did a 180 in the air at the basket, and put it a reverse layup from the left side. It was a really pretty shot. From then on we controlled the game and won by about 10.
A few games later we went to Arlington Sam Houston to play a game. If we hadn't moved to the country I would have gone to Sam. I went to elementary school with a lot of their players and still knew them from church and other functions. A lot of their fans also knew me. Before the game I was talking to a bunch of girls. There was one girl, Carolyn, who always seemed so tall in elementary school. In 6th grade she seemed a foot taller than me. Now, I was almost a foot taller than her. She hadn't grown an inch since 6th grade. I also remember that we had to dress in the girl's locker room. We beat Sam by 6 points and I scored 8. Phil Kevil told me we were "lucky" and that they'd beat us when we played again at our gym. Every time we saw each other at church he'd again talk about us being lucky and how they'd beat us the next time we played.
The next time we played, Kay Ellen, Jean, and Greg were supposed to come to the game. I wanted them to see me play but, when it came game time, Jean and Greg backed out. I left class early that day because I was running 102 fever but I was still going to play. I remember washing our yellow 1965 Mustang before I went by to pick up Kay Ellen and then using my hankerchief to wipe off some of the wet spots. When I put it back in my pocket it I could feel the wetness through my pants. I was a little embarrassed to pick up Kay Ellen, afraid the wet spot might show in the back of my pants. Anyway, I brought her to the game, got her up in the stands, and I think a couple of my girl friends from school sat with her. Also at the game were our Training Union teachers, a young couple who had recently moved to Arlington. Ken was a former Marine and his wife was the daughter of the President of East Texas Baptist College. Ken was later the coach of our 18 & under fastpitch softball team. That's another story.
I had a great game. I didn't miss a shot from the field all night. In the first half I had the ball on a 1 on 2 fastbreak. As I came to the top of the key I slowed down, turned to the side a little and dribbled the ball a little behind me, and prepared to back out and wait for the offense to set up. However, I saw the two defenders relax and separate like they were going to pick up their normal defensive assignment. When they did, that left a seam down the middle of the lane. I quickly drove the lane and put in a layup. I scored a couple of goals in the first half and at halftime we were leading by 6 or 8. Sam's coach was mad so our coach let him have our locker room for halftime and we went to a classroom just outside of the gym. Coach teased me about bringing a girl to the game and said I need to do it more often if it meant I was going to play like that.
In the second half we continued to lead, although they did get close at one point. Worley was shooting every time down the court and wouldn't pass me the ball even though I hadn't missed a shot all night. Worley ended up scoring 31 points but also took over 30 shots from the field in addition to some free throws. Down the stretch, when we had to have a score, I was the guy to do it or Hall's defender had to come help on me and I passed to him for the basket. On one play, Phil Kevil was guarding me. I drove the from beyond the top of the key to the free throw line, stopped quickly and shot a jumper that went in and got fouled. With the free throw we were up 6 or 7. I scored 17 points in the game and we won by 6 or 8. After the game Phil said, "You guys just beat us. You have a better team." Years later I was talking to Owen Barnett, a guard and the star of Sam's team along with Bill Ford their center. He said, "Ford and I could match Hall and Worley, but we had no answer for you. You were the difference in the games." That was almost 35 years after we'd played and he could remember it too, just like it was yesterday. The Star-Telegram listed Worley's 31 points but said nothing about my 17.
One other game stands out in our non-district schedule. It was against Castleberry at their gym. We were a much better team than Castleberry but Coach Howerton wanted us to change the way we were running our 1-3-1 defense. I was on the top of the zone, Riddle in the middle, Hall and Worley on the wings, and Groody on the baseline. I was extremely active on the top covering more ground, especially pressuring the wings, than the coach wanted. He wanted Hall and Worley to step up more aggressively on the wings. In retrospect, I think he knew he had no one to sub for me who could cover the same ground defensively, so I had to play the whole game. In the first quarter I stopped at the edge of the lane extended where the coach had told me to stop and relied on Hall and Worley to pick up the man on the wing. They were making every shot and were killing us. Coach called time out out, yelled at us to play better defense, and they still killed us. At the end of the first quarter they had scored 25 points or so and we were behind by 10. Coach Howerton was livid. "You guys won't listen to me! I'm not going to talk to you! You figure it out!" and sat down. I pulled the guys together and said we were going back to our old way of playing the 1-3-1. I was going to come further out on the wings and help with the defensive pressure. At halftime we had erased their 10 point lead and had a 10 point lead of our own. In the lockerroom Coach Howerton said, "Y'all are doing pretty good on your own, so I'm not going to say anything" and he left. We won the game 96-60 something. We would have scored 100 but I missed two layups on open fast breaks.
That's enough for this post. Next post will be tournament time and you'll get to hear, again, about my last second heroics and some not so heroic moments.
Jay, a 6'2" guard, was a great shooter. He had a really pretty shot and wanted to shoot every time down the court. As good as he was on offense and as much as he cared about offense, he was the direct opposite on defense. It's not that he couldn't play defense, he just didn't want to. In my opinion, he was also a selfish player. He wanted to be the leading scorer and wouldn't pass you the ball if you might outscore him. The exception was Hall, he had to pass the ball to Hall. I think Jay averaged 17-18 points a game and had a high game of 31 points. Jay got a scholarship to TCU but was gone after one year. I heard he flunked out.
Ricky Hall was a 6'3" forward. He hustled, played hard defense, and worked to get rebounds and shots around the basket. He also averaged 17-18 points a game and was right around that number game in and game out. There were no big fluctuations. Ricky also got a scholarship to TCU , played a lot, and was a 2-year starter.
Kim Riddle was a 6"4" center. He was a really good defensive guy and rebounder. Offensively, he was weak and probably averaged only 5-6 points a game. I think he got a scholarship to Tarleton State and played there 4 years.
John Groody was a 6'3" forward. He was a red-headed, goofy guy. "Goofy", not meaning dumb or anything derogatory, but goofy as in funny, crazy, silly, etc. He was a big wrestling fan and would mimic the fake punches and stuff. He was a good shooter, defender, etc., just a good all around player. He played a couple of years at McClennan Junior College and then, I think, went to school at A&M. I know he was a big Aggie fan. He probably averaged about 8-10 points a game.
I filled out the starting lineup at guard. When we did the height measurements I stood in at a little over 5'11" but the guys wanted everyone to be at least 6'. Groody, who was measuring me, told me to stretch and I stood up just a litle taller until I reach 5'11 1/2". When I hit 5'11 1/2" he said that rounds to 6'0" and that is what was put in as the official height and on the scorecards. I averaged 10 points a game. Actually, it was 9.5 but that rounds to 10 and 10 sounds better. I had 2 games where I scored 17.
Typically, we only played a 6-man rotation with the sixth guy being a 6'4" sophomore who could play any position. I can't remember his name but he was a good player and a good guy. Coach Howerton always called him "Sophomore" and he averaged about 4 points a game. I usually played the entire game unless we subbed at the end because we were well ahead.
We played Nolan in the first game of the season in our gym. Even though they were a private school they were about the same enrollment size as we and the game was close, although we were clearly the better team. At halftime it was tied or a 2-point game. I had played rather tentatively in the first half. David O'Dell was the senior team manager when I was a sophomore and he was now at Texas Tech on scholarship as the trainer/manager for their basketball team. He was at the game and came into the locker room at half. He pulled me aside and told me that I needed to make this my team and that I needed to step it up. In short, he gave me a really good pep talk and gave me some additional confidence. Early in the second half I scored my first basket. I drove the middle of the lane, did a 180 in the air at the basket, and put it a reverse layup from the left side. It was a really pretty shot. From then on we controlled the game and won by about 10.
A few games later we went to Arlington Sam Houston to play a game. If we hadn't moved to the country I would have gone to Sam. I went to elementary school with a lot of their players and still knew them from church and other functions. A lot of their fans also knew me. Before the game I was talking to a bunch of girls. There was one girl, Carolyn, who always seemed so tall in elementary school. In 6th grade she seemed a foot taller than me. Now, I was almost a foot taller than her. She hadn't grown an inch since 6th grade. I also remember that we had to dress in the girl's locker room. We beat Sam by 6 points and I scored 8. Phil Kevil told me we were "lucky" and that they'd beat us when we played again at our gym. Every time we saw each other at church he'd again talk about us being lucky and how they'd beat us the next time we played.
The next time we played, Kay Ellen, Jean, and Greg were supposed to come to the game. I wanted them to see me play but, when it came game time, Jean and Greg backed out. I left class early that day because I was running 102 fever but I was still going to play. I remember washing our yellow 1965 Mustang before I went by to pick up Kay Ellen and then using my hankerchief to wipe off some of the wet spots. When I put it back in my pocket it I could feel the wetness through my pants. I was a little embarrassed to pick up Kay Ellen, afraid the wet spot might show in the back of my pants. Anyway, I brought her to the game, got her up in the stands, and I think a couple of my girl friends from school sat with her. Also at the game were our Training Union teachers, a young couple who had recently moved to Arlington. Ken was a former Marine and his wife was the daughter of the President of East Texas Baptist College. Ken was later the coach of our 18 & under fastpitch softball team. That's another story.
I had a great game. I didn't miss a shot from the field all night. In the first half I had the ball on a 1 on 2 fastbreak. As I came to the top of the key I slowed down, turned to the side a little and dribbled the ball a little behind me, and prepared to back out and wait for the offense to set up. However, I saw the two defenders relax and separate like they were going to pick up their normal defensive assignment. When they did, that left a seam down the middle of the lane. I quickly drove the lane and put in a layup. I scored a couple of goals in the first half and at halftime we were leading by 6 or 8. Sam's coach was mad so our coach let him have our locker room for halftime and we went to a classroom just outside of the gym. Coach teased me about bringing a girl to the game and said I need to do it more often if it meant I was going to play like that.
In the second half we continued to lead, although they did get close at one point. Worley was shooting every time down the court and wouldn't pass me the ball even though I hadn't missed a shot all night. Worley ended up scoring 31 points but also took over 30 shots from the field in addition to some free throws. Down the stretch, when we had to have a score, I was the guy to do it or Hall's defender had to come help on me and I passed to him for the basket. On one play, Phil Kevil was guarding me. I drove the from beyond the top of the key to the free throw line, stopped quickly and shot a jumper that went in and got fouled. With the free throw we were up 6 or 7. I scored 17 points in the game and we won by 6 or 8. After the game Phil said, "You guys just beat us. You have a better team." Years later I was talking to Owen Barnett, a guard and the star of Sam's team along with Bill Ford their center. He said, "Ford and I could match Hall and Worley, but we had no answer for you. You were the difference in the games." That was almost 35 years after we'd played and he could remember it too, just like it was yesterday. The Star-Telegram listed Worley's 31 points but said nothing about my 17.
One other game stands out in our non-district schedule. It was against Castleberry at their gym. We were a much better team than Castleberry but Coach Howerton wanted us to change the way we were running our 1-3-1 defense. I was on the top of the zone, Riddle in the middle, Hall and Worley on the wings, and Groody on the baseline. I was extremely active on the top covering more ground, especially pressuring the wings, than the coach wanted. He wanted Hall and Worley to step up more aggressively on the wings. In retrospect, I think he knew he had no one to sub for me who could cover the same ground defensively, so I had to play the whole game. In the first quarter I stopped at the edge of the lane extended where the coach had told me to stop and relied on Hall and Worley to pick up the man on the wing. They were making every shot and were killing us. Coach called time out out, yelled at us to play better defense, and they still killed us. At the end of the first quarter they had scored 25 points or so and we were behind by 10. Coach Howerton was livid. "You guys won't listen to me! I'm not going to talk to you! You figure it out!" and sat down. I pulled the guys together and said we were going back to our old way of playing the 1-3-1. I was going to come further out on the wings and help with the defensive pressure. At halftime we had erased their 10 point lead and had a 10 point lead of our own. In the lockerroom Coach Howerton said, "Y'all are doing pretty good on your own, so I'm not going to say anything" and he left. We won the game 96-60 something. We would have scored 100 but I missed two layups on open fast breaks.
That's enough for this post. Next post will be tournament time and you'll get to hear, again, about my last second heroics and some not so heroic moments.
Junior year basketball - part 2
I remembered a couple of other interesting things and I wanted to talk about our annual Spring EHHS basketball championship series.
First, two items from the season. We went to Abilene to play in a tournament in early December. North Side High School was playing in it as well and we all went on the same school bus and stayed in the same motel. The motel was a typical "It'll Do Motel", not even a Holiday Inn caliber. After our first game and dinner we went back to the hotel to spend the night. I'm not sure where they came from or how the guys met them, but two local girls came to the hotel and were hanging out with the two teams. The seniors got one girl to go in a room with them and they visited for several hours. Jay Worley and a guy who played quarterback for North Side and was on the basketball team took the other girl into a room by themselves. They played strip poker with her, cheated, and of course she ended up with no clothes before long. They left the window shades open so anyone outside could see. The really funny thing was the next day at North Side's game. The coach called for the quarterbackto go in but he was on the end of the bench sound asleep, although he was in a sitting position. The coach said, "Nevermind, let him sleep."
For the last game of the season we played Paschal at TCU's Daniel Myer Coliseum. Whoever won the game would win the district championship. Ricky Hall was a junior forward for EHHS and was really good even though he was only 6'3". He had a little jump hook shot that he started at his waist, but the defenders could never block it because they were shielded from the ball by his body. In practice prior to the game, for some reason, I was guarding Hall. I figured out when he was going to take that shot and was quick enough to dart around him and block the shot between his waist and his shoulder. I did it 2 or 3 times in a row. He got really mad at me when I blocked it again, pushed me, and said, "No one that would normally guard me can do that, so quit!" I sometimes felt that it affected him because he wasn't as confident with the shot in the championship game and we lost. Hall was our leading scorer as a senior, made all-district, and played for TCU, 2 years as a starter.
The Spring EHHS World Basketball Championship was an annual event where the coach would divide that year's sophs and juniors onto two teams and they would play each other a 7-game series for the championship. Jay Worley, a 6'2" guard and really good shooter, and Ricky Hall had both started as juniors. They were put on a team together with John Tandy, a 6'4" center who lettered as a junior, my brother Gary, and some of the top players from the JV. On my team was John Groody, a 6'3" forward and Kim Riddle, a 6'4" center. Both of them had lettered along with me as juniors. We also got Allen Stanford, a 6'3" forward/center, Jimmy Swanson, a 6'2" guard, and some JV guys. So, on one side you had 3 lettermen, 2 of whom had been starters, and some other players versus a team with 3 lettermen, none who played all that much, and some other guys. On paper the Hall/Worley team should have won, but we beat them 4 games to 2.
I vividly remember one play during the series. They got the ball on a steal or something and went downcourt on a fastbreak. The ball was passed over to Gary on the baseline about 10 feet from the basket and he shot. I had been running down the court trying to get on defense and was still 10-15 feet away from Gary when the ball was passed to him. When he shot I was still 3 or 4 feet away but coming down a line that would eventually put me between him and the basket. I took a running leap and, with the ball 3 or 4 feet out of his hands on its way to the basket, swatted the ball out of mid-air and out of bounds. Coach Howerton went crazy, "Oh, little brother stuffed you!" he yelled at Gary. "Oh my! What a block" and so on. It was the kind of play you would have expected from a big, tall, athletic shot blocker but not from a 5'10" guard. I really got up in the air. The ball was around 10 feet or over in height when I swatted it with my entire palm. It was a great block!
First, two items from the season. We went to Abilene to play in a tournament in early December. North Side High School was playing in it as well and we all went on the same school bus and stayed in the same motel. The motel was a typical "It'll Do Motel", not even a Holiday Inn caliber. After our first game and dinner we went back to the hotel to spend the night. I'm not sure where they came from or how the guys met them, but two local girls came to the hotel and were hanging out with the two teams. The seniors got one girl to go in a room with them and they visited for several hours. Jay Worley and a guy who played quarterback for North Side and was on the basketball team took the other girl into a room by themselves. They played strip poker with her, cheated, and of course she ended up with no clothes before long. They left the window shades open so anyone outside could see. The really funny thing was the next day at North Side's game. The coach called for the quarterbackto go in but he was on the end of the bench sound asleep, although he was in a sitting position. The coach said, "Nevermind, let him sleep."
For the last game of the season we played Paschal at TCU's Daniel Myer Coliseum. Whoever won the game would win the district championship. Ricky Hall was a junior forward for EHHS and was really good even though he was only 6'3". He had a little jump hook shot that he started at his waist, but the defenders could never block it because they were shielded from the ball by his body. In practice prior to the game, for some reason, I was guarding Hall. I figured out when he was going to take that shot and was quick enough to dart around him and block the shot between his waist and his shoulder. I did it 2 or 3 times in a row. He got really mad at me when I blocked it again, pushed me, and said, "No one that would normally guard me can do that, so quit!" I sometimes felt that it affected him because he wasn't as confident with the shot in the championship game and we lost. Hall was our leading scorer as a senior, made all-district, and played for TCU, 2 years as a starter.
The Spring EHHS World Basketball Championship was an annual event where the coach would divide that year's sophs and juniors onto two teams and they would play each other a 7-game series for the championship. Jay Worley, a 6'2" guard and really good shooter, and Ricky Hall had both started as juniors. They were put on a team together with John Tandy, a 6'4" center who lettered as a junior, my brother Gary, and some of the top players from the JV. On my team was John Groody, a 6'3" forward and Kim Riddle, a 6'4" center. Both of them had lettered along with me as juniors. We also got Allen Stanford, a 6'3" forward/center, Jimmy Swanson, a 6'2" guard, and some JV guys. So, on one side you had 3 lettermen, 2 of whom had been starters, and some other players versus a team with 3 lettermen, none who played all that much, and some other guys. On paper the Hall/Worley team should have won, but we beat them 4 games to 2.
I vividly remember one play during the series. They got the ball on a steal or something and went downcourt on a fastbreak. The ball was passed over to Gary on the baseline about 10 feet from the basket and he shot. I had been running down the court trying to get on defense and was still 10-15 feet away from Gary when the ball was passed to him. When he shot I was still 3 or 4 feet away but coming down a line that would eventually put me between him and the basket. I took a running leap and, with the ball 3 or 4 feet out of his hands on its way to the basket, swatted the ball out of mid-air and out of bounds. Coach Howerton went crazy, "Oh, little brother stuffed you!" he yelled at Gary. "Oh my! What a block" and so on. It was the kind of play you would have expected from a big, tall, athletic shot blocker but not from a 5'10" guard. I really got up in the air. The ball was around 10 feet or over in height when I swatted it with my entire palm. It was a great block!
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