Dulles Vikings Scalp Santa Fe 50 Years Ago

The Vikings coasted to an easy victory over the Santa Fe Indians in Sugar Land 50 years ago this week.  I've got 3 newspaper articles on the game.  I think Leonard Scarcella wrote the last article which appeared in The Fort Bend Mirror.

As always, Rick Kirkpatrick's scrapbook is filled with interesting Dulles High School trivia.

I got a note this week from Travis Gandy (DHS '64) explaining the picture of him and other football players dressed as Indians.  His comments are appropriate since they were portraying the Santa Fe Indians.

Hey Chuck ... The pictures of K. Dinges, B. Husbands, T.V. Abercrombie, T. Frankie, and myself dressed up in costumes was not a freshman initiation. We dressed up as mascots of the teams in our district and we put on a skit, during a pep rally, showing how the Vikings were going to beat each team in our district. The capitans of the team (Ralph S., P. Horn, Bobby H., & K. Dinges) were dressed as Vikings. Tony, T.V. and myself were the Santa Fe Indians. At least that is how I remember it.  Travis

 Finally, I want to thank Rockwall resident, Jerry Anderson, for sending me this link.  It is an article on the Rockwall ISD Web site about the festivities honoring the State Champs earlier this month.  If you want a good view from the opposing side, be sure to check out the video clip.  I enjoyed it -- thanks, Jerry.

Rockwall defeated Commerce 50 years ago this week, but I couldn't find a newspaper account of the game.  However, I know Rockwall won.

 

More Images Of Old Sugar Land

Playground at Sugar Land Elementary in the 1940s.

Auditorium in the 1920s.

Dry Goods Store at Christmas in the early 1960s.

Commercial Building under construction in the early 1970s at Brooks and Guenther Sts.

St. Theresa Rectory under construction on The Hill in the late 1960s.

St. Theresa Rectory under construction on The Hill in the late 1960s.

Baldwin Cleaners at Bayview & Highway-90A in the late 1960s.

Baldwin Cleaners at Bayview & Highway-90A in the late 1960s.

Click here to see a view of the location today.

A view of the Farmer's Market area in the early 1970s.

A view of the Farmer's Market area in the early 1970s.

A view of the Farmer's Market area in the early 1970s.

Click here to see a view of the location today.

A view north from the intersection of Highway-90A & Industrial Blvd. in the early 1970s.

Click here to see a view of the location today.

A view south at the intersection of Bel Mar & Lombardy Sts. in Venetian Estates in the late 1960s.

   Click here to see a view of the location today.
 

More People Of Old Sugar Land

  

I've posted the following photo of the 1935 flood a few months ago.  It shows the torrent of water flowing through Dam #2, also known as Coburn's dam.  

I'm reposting it now because I found a negative, which gives a much clearer image.  If you zoom in, you can see the faces of the men and boys on the bridge

I posted a different photo of this work crew last week.  I found a similar picture in the Imperial Crown dated March 1956.  I've included it here since it has a caption listing the men appearing in the photo.

I found an article in the October 1970 Crown about Cosme Gonzales, Imperial's oldest retiree at that time.  Further searching turned up a good picture of him and his wife, which I've included with the article.  Obviously, it was taken for the article but not used.  Notice he was a bugler in the revolutionary army that overthrew Diaz in Mexico.

Imperial employee, Joe Lee Mills.

Sugar Land Lions Club Meeting in the early 1960s.

Sugar Land Lions Club Meeting in the early 1960s.

1948 Sugar Land High Prom. (Thanks go to Tom Woolley whose mother Ellen is in the front row 2nd from the right.)

 

Sugar Land Wallps Van Vleck - Hall Scores 35 Points

Sixty years ago, the Sugar Land Gators continued their long winning streak that spanned two football seasons.  They beat Van Vleck in an away game 41-7.  With the 35 he scored in this game, Kenneth Hall's scoring total reached 619 points.  Here's the short newspaper account of the game from The Houston Chronicle.

Those of you who heard Kenneth speak last week learned of another amazing statistic from the Gators' 1953 season.  It's a record that still stands.  Ken said the Gator team racked up more than 8,000 rushing yards in that year.  I've forgotten the exact number, but I did a quick calculation.  Since they played 12 games, they averaged roughly 700 rushing yards per game.  Unbelievable.

Here are a few pictures from that record-breaking season.  They come from the Gator annual.

A pep rally in the Auditorium.

A victory celebration on the field after the game.

Fullback Tommy Fatheree adding to the team's record rushing yardage.

High spirits after the game.

 

An Update On The 1938 Gator Football Season

Dorothy Schultz Gandy (SLHS '40) kept a scrapbook in her high school years that is filled with interesting items, including memorabilia from the 1938 football season.

One of the things I treasure is this program from the Sealy - Sugar Land football game.  It is the earliest program I have found.

  

I posted this newspaper account of the Sealy game a few weeks ago, but I'll include it here to save readers from searching for it.  I've also included an account of the East Bernard game, whose 75th anniversary is coming up in a few weeks.

 

I want to point out that the Gators played Sealy in Sugar Land on Friday, October 21st.  They played at 3:30 in the afternoon because Kempner Field had no lights.  (See the front page of the program.)  Lights weren't installed at Kempner until the next season.  I'm reasonably sure the East Bernard was a day game, too.  I've read a quote from T. C. Rozelle that the only Fort Bend County school with a lighted football field was Rosenberg.  He said playing at night felt a little odd since all other games were played during the afternoon.

One last thing.  I've read that bad blood ran between Sugar Land and Sealy in the 1920s when they first started playing football.  An old Sugar Land newspaper says officials called a halt to their first meeting when the teams started fighting.  Ernie Koy, Sr. played on the Sealy Tiger teams of that era, and he mentioned the fight in his recollection of early Sealy High football.

  

Dulles Plucks The Jaybirds Clean in '63

First a little catching up.  I found an article on the Ganado victory.  Red Binford had a good game -- today is his birthday, by the way.

 

I also found a couple of pictures from freshman initiation, which I mentioned last week.  I wonder why they didn't get some buffed football players to act in the skit.  (Just kidding.)

 

The Viking Shield reported the student body was behind the move to get a mascot.

Finally, the Vikings beat Needville 14-0 in both team's district opener.  The two newspaper accounts make it sound like a tough victory.

Our friends to the north, the Rockwall Yellow Jackets, were also victorious in a low-scoring game over 7th-ranked Plano.  (It's hard for me to imagine Plano as a AA school.)  It was their district opener, too.

The Dallas Morning News honored Jackie Anderson as Back of the Week, and Rockwall popped up in the top-10 ranks for AA teams. Dulles is absent in the poll. (Oops: looks like I jumped the gun on the poll.  It came out the following week, after teams had played 8 games.)

 

It seems Rockwall was the site of exciting events besides football in the fall of '63.