My thanks to Leon Anhaiser (SLHS '57) for finding this newspaper account of the Sugar Land - Katy game played in the fall of 1956. My thanks to his wife Bettye for retyping it from a bad original copy.
As I mentioned in one of yesterday's postings, I'll recap the '56 season each week with newspaper articles & memorabilia, so you can track what happened 55 years ago. I'll do the same for the '51 season, which was the year Sugar Land High won its first regional championship.
As I mentioned in one of yesterday's postings, I'll recap the '56 season each week with newspaper articles & memorabilia, so you can track what happened 55 years ago. I'll do the same for the '51 season, which was the year Sugar Land High won its first regional championship.
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Barton Stars As Gators Down Katy
By Dave
Cooney
Sports
Staff
Katy—Elusive
Ray Baton, a hard-driving, two-time all-district halfback, led the
Sugar Land Gators past Katy Friday night, 41-13, to open 1956
football activity for both teams.
Barton
was magnificent as he operated from the tailback spot in Coach L. V.
Hightower’s Notre Dame box formation.
Scoring
17 points himself, the 175-pound whiz carried the ball for a total of
195 yards in 18 carries and completed two passes good for 35 more.
The
Gators marched 70 yards after receiving the opening kick-off to take
a 7-0 lead with the game only minutes old.
It was
Barton who scored on a four-yard sweep of right end.
Recovering
a faulty Katy pitch-out on their own 47, the Gators made it 14-0
early in the second quarter by going over in only four plays.
Wingback
Sonny Astorga on a reverse skirted left end from the six for the
touchdown.
Sugar
Land made it 28-0 before the half ended, using a beautiful 29-yard
broken field scamper by Barton and a 14-year pass from Barton to Joe
Lopez for six pointers. (Note from Chuck Kelly: The newspaper article is incorrect here. The scoring pass went to Leon Anhaiser.)
The
Tigers lost four of five fumbles in the first half, setting up two of
their opponents’ touchdowns.
Katy
finally broke into the scoring column in the third quarter, but only
after the Gators had counted again, on a 35-yard end-around run by
Punt Helcamp.
The
Tigers traveled 61 yards on nine plays with fullback Ernest Thomas
hitting the left side for the final three.
Sugar
Land retaliated immediately, taking the kick-off and going over from
their own 35.
William
Boyd tallied from the six.
In the
waning minutes of the game, Katy quarterback George Miller found John
Culpepper with an 83-yard pass which closed out the scoring for the
night.
Sugar
Land Katy
First
downs 14 11
Passes
attempted 9 9
Passes
completed 2 4
Yards
gained by passes 35 111
Passes
intercepted by 0 3
Net
yards by rushing 369 160
Total
net yards gained 404 276
Number
of punts 2 3
Punting
average 36.5 16.7
Number
of penalties 4 1
Yards
lost by penalties 40 5
