Brownwood in football’s most heated rivalry is probably one you don’t think of. You could go down main street in Brownwood, or let’s call it Center Avenue, or any street and just pick out people. One, two, three, four, however many you would like, and they would probably come up with the biggest rivalries in Brownwood’s history. In the 50’s and 60’s it was Breckenridge. In the 80’s and part of the 90’s it was Cleburne. From the 90’s until today it is Stephenville. But I prefer not to talk about those teams.

I will tell you, one of the biggest rivals Brownwood has had over the years, in my opinion, is Wichita Falls Hirschi. The Hirschi Huskies.

I can’t even remember the times we’ve played them. I can’t remember the scores but I just know that every time we got in the playoffs and had to beat somebody, it was always the game after Hirschi, or two games after Hirschi, and we never got by them – at least in the games that really mattered. The Hirschi Huskies. I’ll never forget the game in ’98 probably. We had beaten Stephenville 40-38 and we got them again the week after we play Hirschi. So, we won our bi district game and then we played Hirschi got beat by them 23-21. Unbelievable! It’s a game we led 21-0 at halftime. There wasn’t any way we could lose but we did. We would have played Stephenville again and who knows what would have happened. A lot could have changed with that ballgame! Then there were two or three, maybe four games against Hirschi where we didn’t win. Anyway, I would consider them one of the great rivals that we had. It was always in the playoffs and most of the time we didn’t win.

I do think another team worth mentioning here is Iowa Park believe it or not. Iowa Park came up from 3A and were highly respected in that class. A lot of people told us that. 1971 was the first time the two got together. I think that’s right, 1971. We were able to beat them – barely. Then in ’72 we went to Wichita Falls. That’s the “television game”. We had two TV stations there or whatever they turned out to be. Anyway, they were making a movie called something. They wore us out in ’72, just flat wore us out. I think we played them in other rounds but the one I vividly remember was in 2010. It was a bi district game we played on a Thursday night. I think we scored the second most points in UIL history or something like that. The score was 88-24 and we beat them. We’ve never played them since and there may be a reason!

Until next time, so long everybody.

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