Beatitudes of Mr. White, Superintendent & Football Coach

I got a note from B. I. Webb, who graduated from Sugar Land High School in 1951. He participated in an independent documentary about Kenneth Hall a few years ago. As part of the film, he wrote Mr. White's football tenets, or his Beatitudes as B. I. called them.

I thought they were great. Of course, Mr. White was the school superintendent, but apparently he was a hands-on kind of guy. As Dot and Scotty Hightower have told me, he was fully committed to getting things done right. If the football team didn't play well, he was at practice on Monday afternoon telling them what they needed to correct. If the band didn't perform well, he was at band practice telling them what they should do to be better. He was probably over-bearing and stepped on people's toes, but he was fully committed to making Sugar Land High School the best.

I think that comes across in his football beatitudes as B. I. states them:

1. Every play I design is designed to go all the way. If it doesn’t someone has missed his block.

2. My practices consist mostly of running plays. You can practice a play 100 times but if it doesn’t go all the way you do not have it right. Therefore, we will stay here all night if needed.

3. Score on the first play of the game. Score 21 points in the first quarter. Most teams can not come from behind by 21 points.

4. Have fun playing football. That is its object. You can only have fun when you win by 30 or more points. A 1-point victory is a hard job.

5. 1950-We will not win the district championship this year, but by the end of the season we will be district champions. (We were when we beat East Bernard on the last game and gave the championship to Needville). Next year we will win the Regional. We did.

6. A track team makes a football team therefore everyone who plays football will go out for track this spring. Now we will win the Regional this year and next year we will win the State Championship. After that meeting we all laughed because we had never had a track team to speak of at Sugar Land. His prediction came true.

7. We will run from the Notre Dame Box formation. Very few have ever seen it and fewer coaches can defend against it. We will run with a balanced line however the wing back makes it unbalanced but few coaches realize it and leave their ends “in” where they are easy to block and useless on an end run.

8. We will not block the defense tackle on an end run because there are not any tackles in Texas who can catch Kenneth or J.B. on an end run.

9. If you do not want to block in practice, please go up in the stands and watch us. Therefore, you will not be in our way while we are practicing plays.

9. The hole you are to run through changes by the time you backs get there. It is not where it is on the chalk board. For instance Kachinski, the 4 hole is off the guard’s block not where he lined up.

10. Center the ball with a slight lead so the back can receive it on the run.

11. If you linemen are not interested in blocking down field go sit in the stands. You will not get hurt, have a better view of the play and be out of the runner’s way.

12. Kenneth needs more playing time but we can not afford to score anymore points.

13. We lost to Needville by a touchdown because I thought you knew how to tackle. After the following Monday’s practice everyone did. The only day we did not scrimmage or run any plays.