Sobriquet

As the fans were arriving, approximately 6:30-6:45, the officials had everyone leave the stands due to a threatening lightening storm. They also stopped admitting anyone else to the stadium. Don't know anything after that. Rain persisted throughout most of the evening. I don't know if the game eventually went forward or not.

Listening to the sounds of silence. May have lost the radio again.

Weather radar shows that patch of rain still growing. On the screen it looks like the center of the rain band is directly over the stadium.

Weather radar shows the band of rain in LA is growing. Now seems to cover East half of Orange County. But it's mostly light rain. None of the really heavy stuff.

Radio finally has recovered signal from the stadium. Broadcasting game again.

Thanks again for updates. On radio someone is singing about dirty air.

Weather radar shows a band of rain just over state line in LA. But clear enough to the West for at least a bit of time yet.

Much thanks for the updates. Radio station has lost signal from stadium and can't seem to get it back, so you're all we have.

Perhaps it would have turned out differently if instead of saying "Play my son, or else" the school board president had said "Play, my son, or else."

Probably no one is really having trouble reading and comprehending the statement, but just in case to spell it out as I understand it: My two younger brothers and I are smacking our heads at Mr. Buddy Garrity's comment. For a coach who was let go for something like this I cite Dayton head coach Bruce Pruett who coached in the years 1968-69-70 with a record of 25-4-1. He was let go by the Dayton Independent School District under these circumstances. He told the son of the president of the school board that he would be off the team if he went to church camp for over a week. The player went anyway and the coach removed him from the team. The coach had the best won/loss record ever for Dayton and did it in only 3 years. He then joined the staff at Rusk for 2 years and then was head coach at Crosby in the years 1973-74 with a record of 13-8.

[Hidden Content]

The video of the recent trick play by Driscoll Middle School seems to really be an Internet hit. [Hidden Content] I guess it answers the questions I asked four years ago. [quote name="Sobriquet" post="85959" timestamp="1164167515"] I’m going to describe a trick play and ask, “Could this play be run in the modern game? [/quote] They just did it. [quote author=Sobriquet link=topic=10617.msg85959#msg85959 date=1164167515] Would the officials allow it? [/quote] They did in this game. [quote author=Sobriquet link=topic=10617.msg85959#msg85959 date=1164167515] And would the other team be fooled? [/quote] The video speaks for itself.

A&M ran that play against UT (or tu if you prefer) in 1965. It was pretty well publicized and famous(?) at the time and for years afterward. That might have been the first time the play was ever run. Don't know if anyone ever ran it prior to '65.

That certainly would have been a wonderful thing, if it could have happened. But realistically, we didn't have the team or the talent to go all the way in 1963. In district play, the hard fought win over Nederland was impressive, and Bridge City, Vidor and Jasper didn't present much of an obstacle in the next three games. But we did lose the final game at Silsbee, which set up a three way tie for first place. Only one team could go to the playoffs back then, so they did a three way coin toss and Nederland won. And then they lost to Conroe in the very first round. The real shame of it, at least from our point of view, was not merely the fact that we didn't go to the playoffs, but rather if we had been the team playing, the game with Conroe would have to have been played in Orange under UIL rules. You see, the previous year the really great 1962 team had played Conroe in the first round. And when it came to choosing the location of that game it was the same old story. We wanted a neutral site, they wanted a home town site, so the school officials flipped coins to settle it. Of course they won the toss, the other school always did, but it didn't do them any good. We still beat them in their own stadium. But since the 1962 game was played in Conroe, if there had been a 1963 game, UIL rules would have required it to be in Orange. And, Heaven Be Praised, it wouldn't have involved a coin toss. A real shame that we didn't get to enjoy that luxury, for just one time. But it was Nederland not us, the location for that game was decided by a coin toss, and Conroe won that toss, opted to play in their own stadium, and won the game. But even if things had turned out differently, I don't think we could have won state. Not even sure we could have beaten Conroe. *** About Jasper. Their really great days were ahead of them and they were not yet what they would later become. But they did have a really good quarterback named Tommy Mixon that year, and he was somebody who could hurt you. You don't forget opponents like that. Leastways I don't. Unfortunately for Tommy it didn't just rain that night when we played, it was a real SE Texas frog drowner. And the mud! Even our bright orange jerseys were just as brown as their white ones by the third quarter. I always felt we would have won anyway, but I think the weather hurt them more than us because it limited Tommy so much. But he was a great quarterback. Hope he's still around and enjoying life. He certainly hasn't been forgotten.

Truth In Advertising Statement: Anyone who doesn’t care for “think pieces†should hit the back button now. Is an athletic scholarship worth having? I doubt that a generic answer of “yes†or “no†to that question is meaningful. The true answer varies from individual to individual depending on how it turns out for that person. There are many examples of people who received athletic scholarships and then went on to great success in life. And the athletic scholarship was clearly instrumental in attaining that success. For them the scholarship was undeniably worth having. There are also many examples of people who ultimately received no real benefit from the athletic scholarships they were given. For them it simply wasn’t worth it. I’m sure high school athletes strive for that scholarship, but it still seems to me a mistake to blithely assume that once the scholarship is obtained, a bright future is guaranteed. It would be more sensible for each athlete to consider the realities and to formulate his own personal “game plan.†To ask, “If I accept an athletic scholarship now, how will that make my life better ten years from now? Or thirty or forty years from now?†One might answer, “I get a college education for free.†Oh, really! That’s probably the first reality the athlete needs to confront. “It’s not impossible but the odds are definitely against your getting a college education.†Think of it in terms of a football player, but the same analysis is valid for the other sports. When the football player is offered an athletic scholarship, the college does not guarantee him an education. They probably aren’t interested in educating him. More often than not, the player will never really be a student at the school. He will simply be an athlete maintained on campus for the purpose of playing football. And as part of the “system†everyone will pretend that he is working on a Batchelor of Arts degree. As part of the pretense he will have to be on the enrollment sheets for classes in such things as history, English and business. He will have to go through the motions of sitting in those classes and taking tests and maybe even occasionally turning in papers, not necessarily written by him. Usually the player has no interest and no aptitude for any of those subjects, and no useful purpose is served by his taking them. And no one cares if the player learns nothing from the experience. The actual commitment the college makes to the player is to train him athletically and develop his talent to the maximum extent possible. To make him the best football player he can be. And he can count on the college to fulfill that commitment. Schools that provide athletic scholarships, especially the “big boys,†have superb facilities. Large staffs to provide all the specialized training and individual attention needed. State of the art equipment. The finest material. Beautiful stadiums. Enthusiastic fan support. Exposure on national TV and in bowl games. Highly trained and skilled teammates to support him. Highly trained and skilled opponents to challenge him. Oh yes, the player who gets an athletic scholarship will have his talent trained and developed to the max. Count on it. And that’s the key. That’s what it’s all about. The player is not there to learn history, English or business. He is there to be trained for a specific profession. The profession of professional football. And that is certainly a very desirable profession. For those who make it, the rewards, the prestige, the money is enormous. Lifetime success is well within reach and the athletic scholarship which made it possible was definitely worth it. For those who make it. Unfortunately most won’t make it. The colleges turn out thousands of people each year who are trained for a profession that only has openings for a few dozen newcomers. For all the rest there are no job openings. So for the player who doesn’t make it, how then does the athletic scholarship make his life better ten or thirty or forty years later? Yes, there is an opportunity to really be a student and really get an education, and the college and its athletic department will certainly not try to prevent the player from getting that education. And if he does, and if he leaves with a diploma, he can parlay that into a respectable career with comfortable salary and benefits. For such a player the scholarship was clearly worth it, even if it didn’t lead to the NFL. But this is not the common outcome, which is why the high school athlete needs to have someone point out the realities to him, and help him work out a “game plan†that fits him as to exactly how he is going to make the athletic scholarship work to benefit him. And it would be well to note that the athletes who use a scholarship to master the challenges of college work and really get a college education, tend to be the people who had little or no trouble making good grades in the less challenging world of high school classes. The high school player who has to sit out several weeks due to a “no pass, no play†situation, and who complains that this might cost him an athletic scholarship, probably doesn’t have any kind of “game plan†at all. Those years immediately after high school are so very important to all the future life of an individual. It's a time for making choices about what kind of career to pursue, about where to live and how to live. At the time the horizons can seem unlimited, but later on this will no longer be the case. Later on the person may well be stuck in a kind of life dictated by the choices made way back when. Those years are not something to be squandered. Once gone they never come back. Not something to thrown away on a dead end street. So is an athletic scholarship worth having? It can be. But it’s not a sure thing. Depends on the individual, and how well he plans.

I recently read that back in the 1950’s there were times when a team, as a matter of game strategy, would have a player fake an injury. The player would fall down and wince, maybe even let out a few screams, and generally act like he was really hurting. The purpose of course was to have the officials stop the clock in situations where the team had no other way to do it. I don’t know how widespread the practice was, but apparently it wasn’t all that uncommon. In fact Notre Dame employed the technique often enough that some pundits dubbed them “The Fainting Irish.†Interestingly it seems that back then this was not a violation of the rules and the officials routinely granted the time out even when it was quite obvious that the whole thing was a sham. And even when this ruse had the potential, often successful, to change the outcome of the game. So I’m curious. What is the modern day situation? Does this kind of thing happen today, albeit in a less blatantly obvious way?

Reminds me of what happened way back in ’87. During regular season it was WOS 3, Jasper 0. Very tough game. Played at Jasper and as always Jasper was ready to play WOS. First round of the playoffs it was West Columbia 28, Jasper 6. Easy enough win for West Columbia. But two weeks later it was WOS 30, West Columbia 7. It wasn’t some kind of fluke. WOS was clearly the superior team and when it was over West Columbia knew it.

Here are three that come to mind. (3) Fast Times at Ridgemont High Jefferson demolishes the entire other team, methodically putting practically every one of their players in the hospital—one or two or three being carried off on stretchers after each play. The opposing players cowering in terror as they eyeball the berserk and violently enraged Jefferson. Jefferson thinks they trashed out his prize car. Actually it was Jefferson’s kid brother and Sean Pean who wrecked it on a joy ride. And they painted graffiti on it afterward to frame the other school. (2) Jim Thorpe All American Carlisle Indian School vs. University of Pennsylvania. Each team led by an All American. A good presentation of why Thorpe—later honored as the greatest American athlete of the first half of the 20th century—was so great. And most memorable of all: (1) The Long Grey Line Recreation of probably the most historically significant football game ever played. Notre Dame at West Point in 1913. Notre Dame takes a stunning 35-13 victory by unleashing—the Passing Attack. Before that football was a running, grind it out on the ground kind of game. Yes, the forward pass was recognized in the rule book, but it was nothing more than a novelty—a trick play. On those rare occasions where it was used, you did it one time, everyone got a good laugh, and then you went back to playing real football. The difference in this game was that it wasn’t a novelty. Notre Dame built their whole offense around the pass, and Army—the highly ranked powerhouse heavily favored to win—was finished. No way were they going to figure out pass defense in a couple of hours. And the game of football was forever changed.

I’m sympathetic to your position, but I also think that the preservation of the vocabulary and grammatical forms of the English language, as we learned them, is a lost cause. “Your†and “You’re,†“To†and “Too and “Twoâ€,†“Their†and “They’re†and “There,†etc.—there are fewer and fewer people who know the difference, and probably even fewer who care. And I don’t know how many times I’ve heard supposedly educated commentators make statements like, “Your facts are wrong.†I was once up for jury duty and listened in dismay as a lawyer, of all people, told us certain facts would be presented during the trial. And if selected for the jury our job would be to decide whether or not those facts were true. Gee! Where I grew up having to decide if a fact is true was kind of like having to decide if the color blue is blue. I wish I had raised my hand and asked the lawyer to give me an example of a fact that isn’t true. Maybe I’ll do that next time, even though I still think it’s a lost cause.

Mrs. Oglesbee would have taken a whip to you if you had ever turned something like that in. Just kidding!

Here are a couple of pages from the Houston Chronicle website that I've found to be helpful during hurricane season. The first is to the Sciguy blog. For the past three years or so that I've been following his tropical storm system analysis, I've found him to be highly reliable. He definitely knows his stuff, and does an impressively detailed analysis, and explanation, of all the relevant data. There are lots of other weather reports (and rumors) available, but this guy usually hits the nail right on the head. The second is to the tropical weather page. This sort of brings all the information together. You can go from there to details on any current tropical storm, including the latest computer models and official forecasts. Anyway, based on the latest information, I'm feeling increasingly confident that the SE Texas area, from the state line westward to Houston is going to be OK. The lastest Sciguy blog gives the details. [Hidden Content] [Hidden Content]

I don’t know if this counts because it didn’t happen in a regular football game or on a regular football field. It did happen in a regulation college intramural football game, played on a regulation intramural football field, though. My roommate, Chuck, was playing on one of the teams, and they didn’t exactly set the league on fire, as they lost every game. But on one occasion Chuck was a participant in a play that can probably be considered funny, and was certainly one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen on a football field. It was the final game, and the other team was having an easy time dispatching Chuck and his teammates. They had already scored two touchdowns and were cruising to their third. And when the opportunity presented itself they threw a pass. The intended receiver was wide open in the end zone. Chuck should have been covering him but he wasn’t anywhere near. He did try to correct the situation when he realized where the pass was going. He came charging up as fast as he could, but with no hope of getting there in time to break up the pass. However it had rained recently, the grass was slick, and suddenly Chuck’s feet shot right out from under him. He went into an uncontrollable skid, with his body almost parallel with the ground and his arms flailing wildly. And since he was approaching on the back side of the intended receiver, that fellow had no idea what was happening to Chuck. He was just standing there, apparently all alone in the end zone, watching the easy pass glide toward his hands. I was watching too, as a spectator standing on the other side of the lines marking the playing field, and I had a close up view of what happened. The ball arrived, right on target, right in the intended receiver’s hands. A half second later, it couldn’t have been as long as one full second, it must have been less, Chuck’s slide came to an end as he skidded flat on his back into the intended receiver’s ankles. The intended receiver, who didn’t see this coming and was completely unprepared for a chop to his ankles, was so startled that he dropped the ball. Which landed squarely on Chuck’s chest. And Chuck instinctively clutched the ball with his arms. I was watching and I’m not sure Chuck was even aware of what he was doing. The official was standing there watching too, and three things were evident. (1) The ball made contact with the intended receiver’s hands before Chuck hit his ankles. (2) The intended receiver never had possession. (3) The ball never touched the ground. And so the official immediately ruled the play an interception. Chuck didn’t have a chance to celebrate, though. He came out of it with a badly sprained ankle, and was on crutches for the next few weeks. Which wiped out his plans to play intramural basketball that season. Football—it’s a great game.

I remember that game. There was no chance of overtime in that game if I remember correctly. TJ would have won the game on first down stats. I remember in the paper that Thompson said that a tie was like kissing your sister. TJ tried a Rizal dazzle play and fumbled. OP came back and made one more penetration to win the game if my memory serves me correctly. Once again I have to disagree. There was no possibility of overtime, since overtime did not exist in college or high school football back then. If the score was tied at the end of regulation play, then the game ended as a tie. At the same time there was considerable misunderstanding of the use of “penetrations†during playoff games. Often when a playoff game ended in a tie the statement would be made that Team A had “won the game on penetrations.†Incorrect because regardless of whether the game is played in regular season or in the playoffs, a tie is a tie and neither team “won.†The difference is that in all playoff games, except for the finals, one team must advance to the next round and the other team must be eliminated. In most playoff games it’s easy to determine which because one team has more points on the scoreboard when time expires and therefore “wins†the game. However if the game ends in a tie, neither team wins, but one of them must still advance to the next round. Therefore some other means of making that determination must be used, which is where penetrations, and then first downs (if necessary), and then total yards (if necessary) comes in. Yes, when one team advances and the other is eliminated it does give an appearance that the one team “won†and the other “lost.†But regardless of that the only way to win a game is to outscore your opponent. Therefore it is incorrect to say that "Team A won on penetrations." The correct statement is that "Team A advanced on penetrations." Advanced, not won. The difference in the finals is that neither team will advance to the next round as there is no next round to advance to. The team with the most points wins the game and the state championship. If the score is tied neither team wins and the two teams are co-championships. And all your penetrations and first downs and total yards combined with a big chunk of your paycheck will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

I’m going to have to offer a different answer. In 1986 WOS played McKinney in the Astrodome in the final game. At the end of the third quarter WOS was ahead 21-3, but McKinney scored in the opening seconds of the fourth. The two point conversion attempt failed and the score remained 21-9. Which meant McKinney would need two touchdowns to win. Field goals wouldn’t do it, and they had an excellent kicker. After the McKinney score WOS couldn’t move and had to punt. And then astonishingly McKinney burned off practically the entire fourth quarter on their next drive. Would have been sound strategy if they only needed one score, but as they slowly moved down the field and the time evaporated they left themselves with no choice but the onside kick option. If they could get the first touchdown. As it turned out they didn’t. They got close, but I don’t think they made it to the 1 yard line. On fourth down they were still far enough out to not try the run. They threw a pass, the defense was there and it was incomplete. WOS retained the 21-9 lead and easily ran out the few seconds that remained on the clock. One year later, in 1987, WOS played Kerrville Tivy in the semi-final game, in the Astrodome. The score was tied at 7-7 and Tivy had the ball on the one yard line, on fourth down. WOS had called their defense, but as Tivy came out of their huddle, Quentin Tezeno (hope that’s spelled correctly) intensely studied their formation and shifting. And he recognized something he had seen them do one time before. Tezeno concluded that Tivy would run the same play which was the quarterback rolling to his left and then handing the ball on a reverse to a guy coming back to the right. And having drawn that conclusion, Tezeno ignored the called for defensive assignment and charged through the middle of the Tivy line the instant the ball was snapped. And when the Tivy man came back on the reverse Tezeno was right there to put the hit on him on the four yard line, which was as close as he ever got to the goal line. That fired WOS up and they took control of the game. Tivy never again threatened. And the following week WOS won the final game and claimed their second state championship.

That would be 1961. It’s hard to remember now in light of all these years of WOS glory, how frustratingly unsuccessful the Stark HS football program was. There were a few bright spots, but they were exceedingly rare. As for 1961, Stark had pulled off an astonishing victory over TJ. I believe it was about the fourth or fifth time the Tigers had beaten the Yellow Jackets in the approximately 70 year history of the rivalry. But that win preserved a possibility that Stark could tie for first place in district and qualify as the (one and only back in those days) team to advance to the playoffs. But they had to win the final game at PNG. And they had the lead until the final play. Later on during that pre-Beatles year there was a briefly popular sentimental song titled “We Will Have These Moments To Remember.†The Stark kids modified one of the lines to say, “The quiet walks, the noisy fun, The ball game that we almost won.†It’s hard to remember now in light of all these years of WOS glory, how desperately the Stark kids longed for some kind of athletic success. And when talking about Stark there are so many other games that might be mentioned, where things almost went their way. The memories remain, but not the emotions. Nearly half a century has passed and it’s long since time to let it go.