Morales Family Donations to SLHF

In 2014, the Morales family, long-time residents of Sugar Land, donated two historic jerseys to the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation. A ceremony highlighting the donation occurred at a Turn Back The Clock Night at Constellation Field before the start of a Skeeters game.

The jerseys were worn by George Morales, Sr. who played for the Imperials, a Hispanic team sponsored by the Imperial Sugar Company for many years. These jerseys date to the mid-1950s. You can see examples in the two photos below.

Sugar Land Imperials, mid-1950s.

 Manager Joaquin Mora wearing the same uniform.

In early August, the Morales family made another visit to the SLHF to donate a jersey from another team sponsored by Imperial. This one is an Imperial Pirates jersey. Here's an old team photo from the 1970s, showing the jersey.

Imperial Pirates in the 1970s.

   

The next photos show the Morales family displaying the Imperials and Pirates jerseys during their recent visit. The SLHF is very pleased to have these jerseys, which commemorate the tradition of Hispanic baseball in old Sugar Land.

 

Joe Morales with Imperials jersey and George Morales, Jr. with Pirates jersey.

The Morales family, long-time Sugar Landers and generous donors to the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.

The visit included a surprise. Notice the black-and-white photo of the young boys in the background.  Here's a clearer view of it.

Four young SL baseball fans in the mid-1950s. Clockwise from lower left: George Morales, Jr., Julian Astorga, Fred Mora, and Mike Mora.
  

George Morales, Jr. saw it as we gathered in the museum and said, "That's me!"

George Morales, Jr. then and now.
      

The old photo was part of Sugar Land's 2016 FotoFest exhibit. When we put it together, we liked the photo and decided to use it, but had no idea who the boys were. There was no annotation on the back to give us a clue.

George said, "I heard all over town that people had seen my picture, but I never saw it. I'm glad to see it now!" 

The photo was taken for an article that appeared in The Imperial Crown, the monthly bulletin for employees, but it wasn't used. George supplied the identities for us. He's kneeling on the left. Behind him is Julian Astorga. Standing on the right is Fred Mora. Kneeling on the right is Mike Mora.

One last item to mention. We learned recently of an Arcadia book on Hispanic baseball.  It's Mexican American Baseball in Houston and Southeast Texas. There's a chapter devoted to Sugar Land, which is very good. I enjoyed it.

Images from the Storm Family Collection

 

I want to thank Peggy Shallock, granddaughter of Bob Storm, for letting scan these photos from their family album. The first set of images concern sugar can harvests and crushing the can to produce juice for boiling.  Peggy's great-grandfather, Robert J. Storm, invented the type of crusher shown in the image below. It was used at the Sartartia Plantation (I believe the Imperial Mill on Oyster Creek across from Constellation Park) and the House Plantation down at Arcola.

There are a few other photos I thought interesting, including a couple of baseball images I've posted before. One shows Bob Storm in a Blues uniform from 1915. Another shows the team in different uniforms in 1914. I infer that the team got it's Blues nickname in 1915. Also, note that I identified E. O. Guenther in the 1914 team photo. 

Click on the image to view the album.
 

Sugar cane crusher invented by Robt. J. Storm in 1895 & used at Sartartia and House Plantations.

  

Interview With Ernest Trevino in 2011

I wanted to post another of the interviews Pat Pollicoff (City of Sugar Land) did with an old timers at Kempner Stadium in 2011.  Like the one with Wayne Boehm, Ernest talks about playing football with Ken Hall and the camaraderie of teams of that era.
  

Sugar Land Imperials

I want to thank Roland Rodriguez for letting me scan these photos from his family scrapbook.  They show him when he played for the Sugar Land Imperials, a Hispanic team sponsored by the Imperial Sugar Company in the 1950s.  

  

I've explained this before, but they played in the old West End Ball Park at the end of old Imperial Boulevard.

The relevance of these photos is that the Sugar Land Skeeters have scheduled a 'Turn Back The Clock Night' for June 10th.  The team will wear replicas of the jersey and cap Roland is wearing in the first two images. The Skeeters will auction the game-worn replicas and allow winning fans an opportunity to meet players on the field for autographs of their replica souvenirs. Proceeds will go to the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.  I'll have much more on this event in late May.

Roland Rodriguez in his Imperials uniform c. 1950

Roland Rodriguez in his Imperials uniform c. 1950

Imperials team photo in the mid 1950s

Photo of the St. Theresa Knights in mid-1960s with anager Roland Rodriguez in the back row

Cleveland, Texas Baseball History

  
I want to thank Tommy Ruffino (DHS '70) for posting a link to this article from the Cleveland (Texas) Advocate.  (Click on the image below to view the article.)  

Notice two things as you read the story.  First, the man designated #6 in the photo is L. Hightower.  I'm almost certain this is Coach Dugan Hightower's father, i.e., grandfather of Scotty Hightower Bass (DHS '66).  The second thing is the reference to a famous series of games against the Sugar Land Blues in the fall of 1915.  Since I have a date for The Houston Post article, I should be able to find more info on this epic 7-game battle.
   

 

I like the team's nickname, "The Hustlers."  My favorite team name belongs to the Longview Cannibals.  Click here for more about them.

Old Sugar Land Baseball

I had the chance to talk with Peggy Shallock recently and since her grandfather was Bob Storm, baseball was one of our primary topics of discussion.  Bob was an instrumental member of the Sugar Land Blues, a team sponsored by Imperial Sugar around in the WWI era.

There's much more to her grandfather's story than baseball, but we focused on that and left other topics for later discussions.  Peggy brought me excellent copies of photographs I've posted before.  She also identified people in the photos, so I want to repost them now.

The photo below is from the 1915 season and shows 4 players with the team mascot.  Notice that he (or she) is wearing a catcher's mask.  Bob Storm is kneeling by the goat and pointing at the camera.  The player behind is was nicknamed 'Dutch,' but we haven't determined his identity exactly.  He may be E. E. Saeger.  The player directly behind the goat is Peggy's great uncle (Bob's brother) Clif Storm, and the young man on the right is Oral 'Lefty' Craig.

1915

The next photo may also be familiar.  It shows Clif Storm, Lefty Craig, and Bob Storm at the same photo session, whose location must have been a home on The Hill.  It's a superb image of their uniforms.

1915

Lefty Craig's name rang a bell, and after our conversation I remembered seeing his name in a Texas Farm and Industrial News article published in 1921.  Here it is.  (Unfortunately, the end is missing.)  

  
I found this entry for him in the Baseball Reference Guide.  It logs his minor league career, but leaves out his semi-pro days with the Blues.  Note that it verifies the information in the newspaper article.
  

This next photo shows E. O. 'Ernie' Guenther in the 1914 season.  Real old timers may well remember Mr. Guenther, but I've included a later photo from 1949 to refresh faded memories.

1949

More Baseball Lore

Earlier this year I found a piece of major league baseball history which had just been made available to the public. It was newly digitized home movies taken by Helen (Mrs. Jimmie) Foxx during a trip to Japan in 1934.  She accompanied her husband and other major leaguers on a 10-day goodwill tour.  It's an interesting story, even if you aren't a big baseball fan.  Click here to access the video.

I sent the link to several friends who are big baseball fans, and Johnny Harris (DHS '64) sent me this comment about his father, Luman Harris, who many may remember as a coach and manager of the Colt .45s and Houston Astros.  Here's what Johnny said:

Those are great ... Foxx hit a home run off my dad when he pitched for Connie Mack and the old Philadelphia A's.  The way my dad told me the story was Mr. Mack told him not to throw him a high inside fastball ... Well, my dad, being a control-type pitcher, got the fast ball sign from his catcher and thought "Hmm, I can keep it down on him" ... Well, of course the ball flew high and inside and Foxx hit it so far you would need two bus tokens to go get it ... The worst part came as he went back to the dugout to face Mr. Mack ... No one ever called him 'Connie.'

 

Sugar Land resident Luman Harris was the newly appointed manager of the Colt .45s (September 1964)

More People of Old Sugar Land

 

This first photo is undated and shows members of the extended Smith-Jenkins-Rozelle-McCord family at the John McCord family home on South Belknap.  It's a little-known fact that the Kellys are connected to this group.  That's my grandfather's sister Mae Kelly Smith on the far right.  (Thanks to Jean McCord Babineaux for the photo.)

L-to-R: John McCord, Hattie Lee McCord, Minnie Jenkins, William Smith, Dubbo Jenkins, Livian Stowell, Monnye Rozelle, Walter Smith, & Mae Smith

The next photo shows the McCord family (with son-in-law, George Andre, on the left) in their front yard on 2nd St.  I think this was taken around 1942.  Jean McCord Babineaux is between her parents.  Siblings John, Carolyn, & Monnye Alice are in front.

 

My thanks go to classmate Linda Hagler Mosk (DHS '68) for these images of her junior high diploma.  I have my diploma, too.

I think this is a photo taken during the '57 football season showing Frankie Rogers, Ray Barton, Jackie Cooper, Jerry Cooper, and Bennie Bono.  Ray and Jerry had graduated from Sugar Land High School that spring and must have returned for a visit with old team mates.

 

Odds & Ends

 

Notice the home games were split between Sugar Land & Missouri City during Dulles High's first season.

Scotty & Dot Hightower gave me the next two images.  At first we weren't sure they showed Kempner Field, but now I'm fairly certain they do.  I think they show it before the 1958 reconfiguration with the cement stands on the west side of the field and the lighted scoreboard behind the south end zone.

I think that's Butch Boyd throwing the shot next to the old visitors' stands on the west side of the field.  Note the old scoreboard in the distance on the left.

The second shows Coach Hightower with some of the track team on the south side of the field.  Note the concession stand and ticket booth in the background.  If I remember correctly, that was the main entrance into the field.

 

 

I've included this final photo showing the corner of Milam & Prairie in Houston in 1945.  (It was posted on Facebook.)
  

Wrastlin' Match at the Auditorium in 1919

I saw the following ad in the Texas Farm and Industrial News printed here in Sugar Land on September 28, 1919.  I think the Cultural Arts Foundation ought to revive this spectacle.  They could have Bull Curry's great-grandson battle Jose Lothario's great-nephew.  I was going to say something about a celebrity match, but I better not.

 

  

Some of you sharpies may remember that Joe Kopecky performed in a wrestling exhibition with his brother as part of the July 4th celebrations in 1919.  I guess it was a hit.

Click here to view the original Texas Farm and Industrial News article about the July 4th match.  (See the end of the first article.)

Click here to read a transcription, which is much easier on the eyes than the image of the original.

Houston's West End Park

Yesterday (Saturday, July 12th) the Harris County Historical Commission unveiled a marker commemorating Houston's old West End Park. Click here to view a Wikipedia article on the Park.  The map in the article is poor, so here's an annotated Google map to help you locate the Park in today's Houston.

Click here to view a short video of Saturday's unveiling of the marker.  (BTW, Mike Vance is a Dulles alum.)

You may wonder if Sugar Land has a connection with West End Park.  Well, it does.  No doubt many Sugar Land sports fans saw athletic competitions of all types there roughly 100 years ago, and I know with certainty that the Sugar Land Blues played a game at that site in 1915.  (I don't doubt they played there several times.)

A few years ago, Ultimate Fort Bend, a suburban section of The Houston Chronicle, had a story about the Blues playing Liberty at West End Park.  They've taken down the original article, but here's the text, which I saved for future reference.

Baseball in Sugar Land - Sound Familiar?

As the city of Sugar Land pursues a minor league baseball stadium and team, it's interesting to take a look back and see that baseball had a strong following in 1915.

Chances are you've never heard of Fletcher "Sled" Allen, but 95 years ago, he had many people in Sugar Land ticked off.  Allen was a baseball player who played one season with the St. Louis Browns in 1910 before he ended up being a player/coach in the Texas League.

In the summer of 1915, Allen ended up umpiring a baseball game at West End park in Houston between teams from Liberty and Sugar Land (which was spelled "Sugarland" back then in newspaper accounts).  According to a small story in the Rosenberg News-Herald, more than 1,500 people were in attendance for the game, which Liberty won, 1-0.  Unfortunately, there's no details on whether the teams were amateurs, semi-pro or perhaps rival schools.

Nonetheless, it was Allen's umpiring that drew the wrath of many in attendance. Here's what the news article had to say:

"A crowd of more than 1500 people saw the Sugarland boys go down in defeat, and a great per cent of the crowd also realized that Sugarland's defeat was due almost entirely to the partial umpiring of "Sled" Allen."

2014 Turn Back The Clock Night at Constellation Park

 

June 13th saw the second annual Turn Back The Clock Night at Constellation Park, as the Skeeters honored the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.  Lou Payton (SLHS '46) threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which was a called strike low on the inside corner.
  
Three of Lou's friends and team mates joined him on the field.  They were:

Jim Shamblin, who played 2nd base for the first National Championship team at the University of Texas in 1949.  He held the hitting record of 5 hits in one game at the College World Series that stood for over 50 years. He played for Weimar in the Houston Post Semi-Pro Tournament in 1949 and Victoria in 1950 when both teams won the tournament.

Roland Walton, a 4-year letterman at short stop and MVP in 1951 at the University of Houston when U of H won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. He played on the Houston Post Tournament Championship teams from Victoria, and coached the Cougar baseball team from '74 to '86.

Felix Fraga, a 4-year letterman at first base for the Cougars. He played on the '51 Championship team and captained the '52 Cougars. He has been involved with the youth program at Ripley House for over 60 years. He served on the HISD school board  for 4 years and was a City of Houston Councilman for 6 years. 

And, of course, Lou who played center field for the '51 and '52 Cougars.  He was captain and MVP in '52. He played for the Ft. Bend Jaybirds and other local semi-pro teams for several years.  He won the batting title of the Houston Post Tournament in 1950 with a .500 average and played on the Jaybird team that won the tournament in '52.

It was a great night at the ball park. Click on the image below to view a selection of photos from that evening.

   

Turn Back The Clock Night at Constellation Park, June 13, 2014

Next Friday (June 13th) is 'Turn Back The Clock Night' at Constellation Park in Sugar Land.  The Skeeters will wear authentic Sugar Land Blues jerseys and caps (see below)  to honor Sugar Land heritage.  The jerseys and caps will be auctioned to Skeeters fans to help raise funds for the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.  

  

Sugar Land Blues uniform c. 1917.

  

There will be other promotions to highlight Sugar Land's heritage, but I want everyone to know that Lou Payton (SLHS '46) will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. As the following clippings show, Lou played for the Fort Bend County Jaybirds after playing for the University of Houston in his college days.

Jaybirds, 1951.

I don't know if Lou has been limbering up his arm, but I'm certain he'll do better than 50 Cent.

More People of Old Sugar Land

My thanks to Richard Bunting (DHS '67) for posting this photo on Facebook.  It shows the 1962 Sugar Land Junior High boys 880-yd. or 1320-yd. relay team.  From left to right: Gary Thorp, Richard Bunting, Lupe de la Cruz, Randy Edwards, and Coach Bill Appelt.

   

   

Last week's post included a article in The Houston Post written by Morris Frank in 1944.  He mentioned that Leroy Starr (SLHS '32) died while on active service in the US Army.  Here is an obituary notice explaining the circumstances of his and his wife's death.

  

    

Many of you will remember Preston Means as the manager of the old ice house and then 7-11 convenience store.  You may also remember his wife Sybill ('Bill'), who worked in Imperial's General Offices.  Here is a photo of them in 1945.
          

      

I also posted a photo of Mrs. J. Q. Boyer last week, showing her in the crowd at the 1947 Imperial & Industries Awards Banquet.  Here's a photo of her 20 years earlier (1927) with her daughter Kathryn (SLHS '43).

I had never heard of Mr. Etherage until Jean McCord Babineaux (SLHS '47) let me scan her copy of the following newspaper article from the 1990s.  (Here's a photo of Mr. Etherage, who taught Jean and her classmates the 6th grade in 1940/41.  He's standing in the middle behind his students.)
    

    

I'm not certain of the date or location of this final photo.  I think it was taken at Imperial Sugar's bulk liquid depot in Arlington, Texas in the mid-to-late 1960s.  I don't know the two men on the left, but that's Ken Laird (VP Sales), Odell Wood (Traffic Manager), and Bruce Edwards, Sr. (Chief Engineer) with them.

      

Richmond vs Sugar Land - Baseball in July 1919

I've been working on old copies of the Texas Industrial News lately.  (Thank you, Jane McMeans, for lending me your microfilm copies.)  The images are sometimes hard to read, but here's a short baseball article I wanted to post.

It's a report on a July 4th baseball game between African-American (colored) teams from Sugar Land and Richmond.  Apparently, they played in the open land on the north side of Mayfield Park.  Here's an aerial to show the spot.  

I'm assuming this was the location because the article mentions the school, which is the 2 white buildings appearing on the edge of the open field, where they must have played the game.

The article is very difficult to read, so I've transcribed it below.

 

 

Richmond vs. Sugar Land

They do say that when Galveston and Houston or Dallas and Fort Worth get together on the base ball diamond, the fur flies.  But, people, there is nothing but brotherly love between them, as compared with the colored sections of Richmond and Sugar Land when the clubs representing those two towns get tangled up.  The Fourth of July was one hot, sizzling day, in more ways than one, and the colored population did all they could to keep off dull times for the bold and enterprising visitors from the village on the Brazos.  Why, there was fried chicken, hot biscuit(s), and several other such inducements awaiting at the school, but there was nothing stirring until the little matter of a ball game was settled.  As a matter of fact, it has not been settled yet, as the perspiring athletes were forced to call it a day at sundown with the score evened up -- four and four.  Richmond declares they will handle the job in such a way next time that there will be no room for argument, while Wash Huitt, manager and arranger and general factotum for the Sugar Land outfit says they are entirely correct - "they will so do," says Wash, "but they won't go away from here with no ball game."

The score:

                    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11    R  H E
Sugar Land    0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0  0   0    4 11 0
Richmond      1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1  0   0    4  8 0

Batteries - Sugar Land, W. Simmons and Sunny Davis; Richmond, R. Simmons, Buddy Wheeler and Barnes.
Umpire - Landry. 

Winding Up The Vikings' 1963 Football Season

The following articles appeared after the '63 season was complete, and Dulles lost to the Rockwall Yellow Jacket 7-6 in the AA State Championship game.

My congratulations go to the Dulles players (and their opponents) who made the '63 season not just thrilling, but legendary, too.

 

 

This next article appeared in The Dallas Morning News, which closely covered North Texas high school football.

  

Wrapping Up The 1938 Sugar Land Gators Football Season

Over the autumn months I've posted items about the Sugar Land Gator 1938 football season.  They won the school's first district title 75 years ago, but then lost their bi-district championship game to Alvin.  

Unfortunately, I don't have a newspaper clipping for that game.  However, I do have a wrap-up article Morris Frank, long-time Houston Chronicle sports reporter, wrote about the post-season sports banquet.  In many ways, it's much better than a game report.  At the bottom of this item is a good, clear image of the 1938 team's starting line up.  Alfred Tarver's daughter provided it via her cousin Carlos Tarver (SLHS '53).  Unfortunately, I've forgotten her name, but I want to thank her nonetheless.

 

Rockwall Crushes Dulles In A Heartbreaker 7-6

We've reached the end of the story, but before we finish I want to thank Rick Kirkpatrick for letting me scan his scrapbook and use these images to tell the story of the Dulles Vikings' 1963 football season.

Here are a few pregame articles from the Houston papers.  Note that Rockwall was a 7-1/2 point favorite. Dulles was worried about Rockwall's speed. Dulles played AA football for 4 years (they advanced to AAA in 1964) and had a 30-6-2 record from '61 to '63 when they were consecutive district champs.

  
If you were there, I don't have to tell you how it happened.  If you weren't there, mere words can't describe it.  All you need to do is look at the last two minutes of the game film.  You'll see Dulles fans filing out of the stands onto the sidelines to swarm the field as Marc Noel grabs a last-minute, desperation pass for a touchdown and scuttles the Viking victory.   It's sort of like watching the Hindenburg disaster: "Oh, the humanity!"

Here are some post-game newspaper articles

Here are links to the game film:

Video of 1st Quarter.

Video of 2nd Quarter.

Video of 3rd Quarter.

Part 1 of Video of 4th Quarter.

Part 2 of Video of 4th Quarter. (The soundtrack has been muted since I originally posted the video.)

And, here's a link to a blog entry I posted a few years ago.  Note the comments, program, and other memorabilia.

I've found the following articles in The Dallas Morning News archive, which give the same story from the Yellow Jackets' viewpoint.

I'll have one more item about the aftermath next time, so I'll wait and wax philosophical then.