Going back to 1959, it was my senior year in high school and I remember the football team very well. Fact is, in 1959 we thought we had a shot at the State Championship. We didn’t know if they really could, but the title arrived the next year when Gordon Wood showed up with a team nobody thought would win big.
In 1959, I can remember the excitement as a senior in high school and a lot of these guys were friends of mine, and you look at the football team – Jacky Joe Bullion, Joe Loudermilk, Dale Smith and Buster Weatherman – I could go on and on. A very, very good football team. We were excited. Of course back in 1959, there was one team in the playoffs in high school football. The Dallas Cowboys were just getting organized. The Houston Oilers, I don’t know if they even existed or not. Brownwood started off stumbling out of the blocks. We played San Angelo Central in San Angelo and we got beat by ten or fifteen points, but then after that, man, you talk about getting on a roll. We had eight consecutive wins and none of them were close. Then came game number ten and low and behold, the Breckenridge Buckaroos were there. We had to play in Breckenridge. By the way, Breckenridge had won four or five State Championships. They were kind of like Stephenville is today. They won the State Championship that year. I believe they actually tied for the State title and they got a half. Anyway, Breckenridge was I think, undefeated on the year at 9-0 and we were 8-1.
It was a highly publicized ballgame. The Brownwood Lions in their all white and Breckenridge in their solid green. At halftime, that’s when I left that ballgame, 30-0 Breckenridge. Thirty to nothing Breckenridge! It ended up 44-6. The Fort Worth Star Telegram ran a column that week that Brownwood had the biggest offensive line in Texas. The biggest in Texas! That’s regardless of college, major, minor, and regardless of pro football. It was enough to write an article about. Brownwood was the biggest offensive line in the State. It did them no good that night – 44-6 Breckenridge. I really think, had we made it to the playoffs, we could have gone deep. I believe Brownwood was probably the second or third best team in the state, but back then you didn’t get a chance to prove it.
Texas A&M was an all boy school back in 1959. It shocks me now to even think about it. A&M was all boys. Texas had a little bit of everything, and the Brownwood Lions probably had a State Championship team – maybe. Gordon Wood told me often, he said, “Man, I wish I had come a year earlier because that 1959 team was loaded.”
Brownwood has nothing but a memory of 1959. We practiced just off Austin Avenue. We played at Old Lion Stadium. But that was a great football team – a great team in 1959!
Until next time, so long everybody.
***
‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].