JFK's Trip To Texas

As everyone knows, we're coming up to a big anniversary of the events in Dallas on November 22, 1963.  I found a few articles from The Dallas Morning News pertaining to the run up to JFK's visit.  If your interest in history extends to source documentary evidence, here are some article you can scan.  Note the 'unfortunate' political cartoon in the last  clipping.

It may be helpful to remember why JFK came to Texas in the fall of '63.  He had barely won the 1960 election.  He needed to win Texas badly and he was way behind in the polls.  More importantly, the Texas Democratic Party was falling apart.  

A conservative faction led by John Connally (Governor) and a liberal faction led by Ralph Yarborough (Senator) were in open warfare.   During his short stay in Houston, JFK and LBJ (a Connally suporter) had a loud shouting match in the Rice Hotel before the President gave his speech to LULAC.  

The overriding purpose of Kennedy's trip was to patch up problems in a state he desperately needed to win in 1964.  The only direct influence this intra-party conflict had on the assassination were the seating arrangements in the presidential limousine.

 

(Dallas Morning News)

(Dallas Morning News)

(Dallas Morning News)

(Dallas Morning News)

(Dallas Morning News)

(Dallas Morning News)

(Dallas Morning News)

   

A&M Beats Rice 13-6 in 1963 Game, But Fight To A Draw At Half-Time

As I went through the Dallas Morning News archive recently, I ran across the attached file.   I attended this game and remember it well.  (I've attached an aerial of Rice Stadium to help set the scene of the crime.)

  

(Dallas Morning News article)

(Photo from Houston Area Digital Archives at the Houston Public Library)

   

Bruce and I went with our parents who met a salesman and his wife and sat with them in the upper deck of the east stands.  Bruce and I bought end zone tickets.  Probably a $1 a piece.  We sat in the south end zone a few rows down from the top.  It was a muggy day, not particularly cold for November, but not particularly warm either.  I always liked going to the Rice-A&M game because they always played in mid-November when the sun's vertical angle in the sky gave daylight a definite autumnal glow.

A&M was pretty dismal during the early 1960s, so Rice was the favorite.   The article says 48,000 attended, and the score was 6 - 3 at the half with Rice leading, but note the paragraphs I've highlighted in red.  I remember the incident well although a little differently than how the article recounts it.

After the bands had performed at half time, Rice students (all male) poured out of the stands to make a path from the tunnel to the benches on the sideline.  I went to a lot of Rice games in those days, but I don't remember that the Rice student body did this as a rule.  As Rice students were forming parallel lines, the Corps poured out onto the field from their seats in the northeast corner of the stadium and ran down the field toward the tunnel.  They began forming a path to the Aggie benches on the east side of the stadium.

The newspaper account says the melee started when an Aggie began tearing the 'B' off a sign saying 'Beat A&M.'  That's probably true, but I didn't see it. As I casually scanned the field, I happened to see a Rice student start running from somewhere near the mouth of the tunnel and race behind the Cadets as they began forming a line.  Without breaking stride, the weanie grabbed an Aggie's cap and continued running back toward the Rice students lined up around mid field.

Of course, a mob of Aggies tore out after him and fisticuffs began. They spread all across the field.  I was 13-years old and thought it was the most amazing sports spectacle I'd ever seen.  The whole south half of the field was one big fist fight, and more students from both sides began pouring out of the stands to join in.

I vaguely recall some fat old Houston cops trying to stop it as the article says, but I definitely recall the A&M band playing the Star Spangled Banner to bring the mayhem to a grinding halt.

After the game, Bruce and I walked the concourse to meet our parents in the east stands, so we had to pass the Rice student section as it emptied.  I saw lots of broken glasses, split lips, black eyes, etc.  The weanies were pretty impressive, however.  They held their own even if the Owl football team lost the game. 

  

Roy Cordes, Sr. and 'Flying The Hump'

I got a note last week from Ronald Miller (SLHS '51) reminding me that Roy Cordes, Sr. 'flew the Hump' in WWII.  Here's the note Ron sent me:

You may want to check this out with Betty, but as I recall, Colonel Cordes "Flew the Hump."  CBI stands for China, Burma and India Theater".  By "flying the hump" it simply meant that there were a contingent of Army Air Corps crews flying C47s to deliver supplies to the forces fighting the Japanese in those countries.  This was a very hazardous mission because the service ceiling altitude of the C47 was below the very tall Himalayan Mountains.  These guys flew to support the logistics network in all kinds of weather and by some reports about 1000 crew members and 600 aircraft were lost during this very important campaign.

While the Berlin Airlift was also very important, the importance of what Roy did during WWII is lost in the CBI initials.  I had a cousin by marriage that was a foot soldier in China behind enemy lines.  He is no longer around to talk with, but he told me that they heavily relied of the supplies delivered by the guys that Flew the Hump.

Ron

I have forgotten how I heard it (I think my father told me), but I know Roy did fly the in CBI theater.  Here is some information if you're not familiar with this story.  Amazing stuff.

A modern news article summarizing the CBI story.

A 3-minute YouTube video of newsreel footage about Flying the Hump.

A lengthy Wikipedia article on the subject.
 

Veteran's Day

I've posted several items about Sugar Land area veterans.  Here are a few:

Lonnie Green tribute.

Carl Berger tribute.

Arthur Medina tribute.

A DHS '68 classmate, Frank Lampson was in Washington, D.C. last week and took these photos of the Vietnam Memorial.  Frank and I both knew Arthur Medina (DHS '69) as a student manager of the Dulles football team.  Although we didn't know him real well, we both liked him, and Frank wanted to find his name on the memorial.  I'm certain all the players on the team liked Arthur; he was quiet but very personable.

 

Dulles Had A Bye Week 50 Years Ago

As I mentioned last week Dulles took a break at this point in the '63 season.  Their final game versus Sweeny is next week.  It was the Vikings' home coming game as this article indicates.  Note the comments about previous matches with the Sweeny Bulldogs, who were at the top of the district in November 1963.

I had forgotten that Leonard Archer wore a Viking costume to the games until I found this article.  The big, fiber-glass mascot (Erik) was scheduled to make his first appearance at the Sweeny game next week, so Leonard provided authentic color.  Actually, he was ahead of his time, but I wonder if he could get into a stadium nowadays with a sword like that.

A final note: I got the following message from Travis Gandy about the Boling loss.  He's right that Halloween fell on the Thursday night before the Boling game.  At first I wondered why the coaching staff was at Kempner Field on Halloween night, but then it dawned on me the freshman and junior varsity teams played that night in Sugar Land, which explains their presence.

 

I do remember something about the night before the game. If i'm not mistaken the Thursday before the game was Halloween. The coaches were mad at us for being out on the streets the night before a game. I remember the coaches standing at the top of Kempner Stadium watching us have water balloon fights on 6th street. Boy did we hear about that when we got to school on Friday.

The Rockwall Yellow Jackets were in a completely different situation.  They were steam rolling through their schedule.  Here's an account of their 44-0 shellacking of Whitesboro.  

As I said, we're coming up on November 22nd.  Here's an unexpected tidbit I found relating the Oswald family and Rockwall.  (Everything I've read said Oswald's mother was a 'pill.')

More People Of Old Sugar Land

I want to thank Haroldetta Robertson for letting me scan these pictures from her family's scrapbook.  The first shows the extended Edward and Mildred Earnest family as they gathered at their old home on 6th Street this past July.  Haroldetta now owns the home and graciously invited the Earnests relive the past once again.

The second photo shows Haroldetta's husband, Louis Robertson, with his good friends, Jo Grace, Judy, Billy and Carolyn Earnest around 1960.

  

Meet Sugar Land Junior High's 1963/64 Cheerleaders.   Here are their initials to help you identify them: P.M., P.C., Y.F., V.G., and J.J.

The following series of photos show Sugar Land Elementary in the 1962/63 school year. 

Mrs. Behrens's art class.

Mrs. Robinson leading the choir as it performs in the Auditorium.

Mrs. Lockett checking out books to little book worms.

The walkway on the south side of the cafeteria.

Mrs. Doris Kruger collecting lunch money from the little chow hounds.

The little chow hounds shoveling it in.

The cafeteria staff who prepared and served good grub - and cleaned up afterward!

I want to mention that one former student sent a message saying he remembers the cafeteria's Friday fish sticks were very tasty.  I agree, but it was hard to beat Hamburger Day (Wednesday) and Beans & Corn Day (Thursday).

Next comes a series of photos from the 1955/56 school year.  They show some of the Sugar Land contingent in the Class of '67 at Dulles High School.  They were 1st graders when these pictures were taken.  Since some of you may want to test your memories, I will put down initials (no married names), so you can have a guess.  If you're stumped, then send me a message.  You'll see there are a few I can't identify, but I can identify most of them.  (Update) I got some help from a couple who appear in these photos.  Their revisions are in RED.  I won't give the helpers' names and spoil the fun.

Top: J.A. & L.B. Bottom: B.B. & R.E.

Top: R.B & J.B. Bottom: C.G. & P.G.

Top: E. C. & B.C. Bottom: J.G. & C.G.

Top: W. H. & L. J. Bottom: E.M. & J.M.

Top: R.K. & ? K. Bottom: J.M. & L.M.

Top: J.K. & T.L. Bottom: D.N. & F.N.

Top: L.N. & P.P.(?) Bottom: J.S. & B.W.

Top: ? P. & F.P. Bottom: W.W. & B.W.

Top: E.S. & H.S. Bottom: L.W. & D.W.

  

More Images Of Old Sugar Land

  

The intersection of Brooks and Bluebonnet Streets looking eastward toward Oyster Creek sometime in the 1960s.

A view of the Main Street Bridge from the Char House sometime in the 1960s.  At the creek bank just this side of the south end of the bridge you see a small derrick.  I think it is/was one of the wells supplying Sugar Land's water.  I need to investigate this further, but there were a number of wells in the same vicinity supplying water to the town.

The Antonio Reyes home in Mayfield Park just after construction in June 1965.  The inset shows a sign for the company which remodeled old homes and built new ones in the subdivision, Kinkaid Builders.

I don't have any info on this picture, but I think it shows the lower end of Pine Street in the mid 1960s.  This section was incorporated into the refinery complex when Imperial built a new Machine Shop and Truck Fleet Maintenance Facility in the area in 1966.

I haven't found any info on this picture, but I think it shows home construction on upper Guyer Street in Mayfield Park.  (Note the bend in the north end of the street.  Oyster Creek is out of view on the right.)

Demolition of the old St. Theresa's Church on Main and 5th Streets sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s.  Of course, the new church now stands on 7th Street.

A birds-eye view of a Sugar Land traffic jam in 1967 or '68.  Note the cars stopped on Highway-90A and on Main Street in the lower left.  Also note there are no crossing barriers although there are warning lights.  I recall some train-vehicle collisions, but they didn't happen often.

Note that Savoy and connecting streets in Venetian Estates haven't been constructed.

A photo of 3rd and 4th grade class rooms at Sugar Land Elementary in 1963.  They were constructed in 1953 and still stand to this day, I think.  Rita Drabek's 4th grade class room was the one on the far right.  Each unit housed two abutting class rooms with separate exterior doors visible under the covered walkway.

The following series of pictures shows demolition of the old Wash Plant in April 1967.  I've included two articles from The Imperial Crown which explain the significance of the building.  Notice the piping through which liquid sugar flows into and out of the Char House.  The connecting building is actually the heart of the refinery although the Char House is its most visible part.

(This is the 1965 article referenced in the 1967 article above.)

  

Hall Smashes Scoring Record As Sugar Land Trounces Orchard

Sixty years ago the Sugar Land Gators defeated the Orchard Badgers 67-19 in Orchard.  The big story was that Kenneth Hall broke Dick Todd's career scoring record with 35 points in the game (5 touchdowns and 5 extra points).  The newspaper below (sorry for the poor quality) says 750 spectators witnessed the historic event.

Hall played 1-1/2 quarters, rushing for 297 yards on 7 carries.  The article mentions total rushing yards and said no one knows the exact total over his 4-year career.  Newspaper articles from 1951 onward often mention yardage, but apparently there was no authoritative number.  I've been asked about statistics from the early games.

I know that W. E. White, Superintendent of SLISD and mentor to the football program, had detailed stats recorded for all games.  I assume officials eventually verified those records and used them to certify Hall's career total of 11,242 yards.

The newspaper reporter, Joel Carroll, writes near the bottom of the article, "Hall tried the same play from the antiquated Notre Dame Box."  True, it was old, and no other team in Texas, maybe the whole United States, used the formation, but many old timers will say it was a key to the Gators' success.
  

  

It sounds as if the team, and probably most of Sugar Land, stopped at White's Cafe for a post-game celebration.