McQueen

Continued from page 1 schools Simmons was the former head football coach for Ballinger and he quickly hired Ballinger assistant Jim Fryar in 1984 for the football coaching staff By 1985, Fryar was promoted to head coach and athletic director. In 1988, Howe hired a young roofer to be an assistant coach His name was Joey McQueen, but everyone called him "Buck" and he called everyone "Buck." McQueen just so happened to be the former starting quarterback for Simmons at Ballinger with a reputation of being a "come-back-quarterback " Out of college, McQueen, who began his coaching career in 1980 as an assistant at Wink, Texas, he took a break when he thought he was going to make a lot of money as an entrepreneur in the roofing business, but soon realized his passion was in the athletics field And he had one thing you really need in the coaching profession - connections

McQueen was loved by the players and students of Howe in that first year of 1988 He was young, energetic, and overly polite to all that met him Simmons was known to have a nepotistic nature about him as his brother-in-law became the head coach at Tom Bean during his tenure here But in football, players are also family and when Bells went searching for a head coach and athletic director, Simmons helped his former quarterback land the position which was his first head coaching ob in 1989 Since that initial season in Bells where he led the Panthers to a 10-0 regular season ecord and a trip to the area championship, McQueen coached n many towns before originally etiring from high school football n 2011 to become the receivers coach at Hardin-Simmons University He did eventually eturn to high school as a head coach in 2014 for Florence and hen Comfort where he just ecently announced he had retired rom coaching after a quarter century of seasons head coaching Texas high school football

While McQueen advanced with Bells in the playoffs on a tie, Howe and Fryar were also riding a powerful senior class to a threeround run That became the second time in five years that Fryar had taken Howe to the final 16 Young coaches use opportunities to upgrade their ranks of high school coaching and Fryar did just that by landing a position at Jacksboro This resulted in a job opening at Howe and Simmons' former quarterback was probably in mind before Fryar got the final "o" in Jacksboro from his lips McQueen was able to exit his Bells contract and accept the head coaching position at Howe for the 1990 season.

With Fryar, and the success of previous Howe Head Coach Buck Smith, Howe had become a fullblown football town and had grabbed the "Ballinger East" mentality with the sudden reputation of consistently beating Celina and being regarded in the ranks with Pilot Point But even in football towns, there are highlytalented non-football playing athletes When McQueen returned to Howe, he was welcomed with open arms except for one lady who had one eyebrow raised This particular mom had a son who was a basketball-first athlete and they wanted equal representation in this sudden football haven As the Ballinger Brigade was erected in Howe, a dedicated varsity basketball coach was left to a football coach that didn't particularly want the position So how did McQueen solve the equation? He brought with him another Ballinger guy - his best friend Tim Rose who would coach the varsity basketball team in Howe for 24 seasons Thanks to that mom, McQueen was perhaps indoctrinated into the role of athletic director as well as head football coach at a very early age Howe had one returning offensive starter in Monte Walker and a defensive linebacker returning in Jon Norwood Both of those teenagers made phone calls to McQueen's office and left notes on his Bells desk trying to lure him