Fifty years ago a pivotal event occurred. Nope, I'm not talking about JFK's assassination; I'm talking about another event. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Dulles High School's only trip to the AA State Finals.
I thought I'd post newspaper clippings and memorabilia from that football season. I'm already behind because the Vikings' first game against Bellville was played on September 6, 1963 in Bellville. I'll stay a little behind for the next couple of weeks, but I'll eventually catch up and post game reports almost to the day they were published 50 years ago.
As an added twist, I'll post results for Rockwall Yellowjacket games. I've talked with Jerry Anderson, whose younger brother Jackie, was the star halfback on their team. He's sent me clippings, so we'll track their season as it progress to the championship game in Waco. I hope Rockwall players (or fans) might send me some anecdotes about the season, so I can post them here.
I want to thank Terry Bates, a friend of Dulles High's Class of '68, for sending me a scan of this promotional item Mr. Womack gave out that year. You can use it to check who we played next as the season unfolds.
Here's a team photo and article Leonard Scarcella wrote for The Fort Bend Mirror previewing the season on the Thursday before the Bellville game. I thought his concerns about the team line up and the widely varying opinions about the team's potential were very interesting. From what I can tell, Dulles was a definite dark horse that season. They never cracked the top 10 rankings until very late in the season.
As I said, the Vikings played Bellville on September 6th. I have The Houston Post's account of the game thanks to Rick Kirkpatrick (DHS '67), who has given me a scrapbook he kept his
freshman year. It's a goldmine for items I can use in this series of
posts. I appreciate his donation, which will go to the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation after 'the 1963 season has ended.'
I wasn't aware of this till Jerry Anderson told me, but Rockwall hired a new coach before the '63 season started. In fact, this article appeared in The Dallas Morning News in February 1963.
They hired Jim Hess, but Jerry has told me most Rockwall fans worried that the '62 season was their year to win the state championship. The team that lost to Jacksboro, the eventual state champions, was very strong, and there were concerns they couldn't replace graduating letter men. Sounds a lot like Leonard Scarcella's opinion of the Vikings.
The Yellowjackets had little trouble with Wilmer-Hutchins in their opening game. Here's an account from The Dallas Morning News.
