Buffalo Thunder by Steve Giddens

t h e e a r ly y e a r s

The AThleTic TrAdiTion of

WesT TexAs A&M UniVersiTY

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an mpr nt of

a wholly owned subs d ary of southwestern/Great amer can, Inc. P. o. Box 305124 nashv lle, tn 37230 1-800-358-0560 www.thebooksm thgroup.com Publ sher: stephen d. G ddens Publ sh ng Consultant: leeanne seely Manag ng ed tor: Jenn fer dawn day assoc ate ed tor: he d l. t. tuey Photo ed tor: Bobby sagm ller, V s b l tyCreat ve.com text: dr. B lly sm th; J m hannaford Book des gn: susan Browne des gn Photography: Jeremy enlow; Bobby sagm ller, V s b l tyCreat ve.com, and un vers ty arch ves stock Photography: front cover / Buffalo © larry Jacobsen, 2007. used under l cense from stockphoto.com. leather texture © selahatt n BayraM, 2007. used under l cense from stockphoto.com. / Buffalo © Matt n ebuhr, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 1 (and others) / old photo frame © le gh Prather, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. chapter openers / old paper w th frame © dm try Kosterev, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. thunder clouds © Xtuv Photography, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. scalloped edge photo frame (here and others) © robyn Mackenz e, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 4 (and others) / tattered edge old paper texture © naj n, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 8 / gold nugget © steffen foerster Photography, 2007. used under l cense from 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elnur, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 144 / soccer ball © Photod sc. 145 / soccer field w th mark ngs © sab no Parente, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 146 / c rcles on squares background © lu s stort n sabor aka CVadrat, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 147 / basketball close-up © djapeman, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. 149 / ant que texas map part © steven Wr ght, 2007. used under l cense from shutterstock.com. IsBn (standard): 978-1-934892-20-6 IsBn (Prem um): 978-1-934892-21-1 l brary of Congress Control number: 2008934423 Pr nted n the un ted states of amer ca f rst pr nt ng 2008

t h e E a r ly Y e a r s

iii

contents introduction ...................................... 1 chapter 1: The early Years................3 3 chapter 2: The 1960s .......................39 chapter 3: The 1970s .......................63 chapter 4: The 1980s....................... 77 chapter 5: The 1990s ..................... 107 chapter 6: The 2000s .................... 133 conclusion..................................... 159

IntroduCtIon

introduction Almost from the first day students arrived at WT in 1910, sports wove a brilliant tapestry throughout the fabric of student life. Certainly no one then envisioned the packed crowds at Kimbrough Stadium that would watch the Sun Bowl-bound Buffs rewrite the record books in 1951 and send a ripple into the professional ranks. No one predicted that twins Earl and Myrl Goodwin’s transition from WT football to the professional ranks in 1928 would be only the start of WT’s contribution to professional football. The Pottsville Maroons was a long run from the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Colts, Dallas Cowboys, and Los Angeles Rams. Yet decades later, Mercury Morris, Duane Thomas, Jerry Don Logan, and Jerry Richardson would grace the prairie campus of WT and make their own headlines in the National Football League in the 1960s and ’70s. No one prophesied the dominant athleticism of women’s volleyball or the Box’s packed house that would watch the Lady Buffs deliver three-point salvos. Nonetheless, sports began at WT even before throngs of early Texas Panhandle settlers descended on Canyon to dedicate what students now call Old Main.

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Chapter 1:

The Early Years

the

best that is in us

ld tallest team in the wor

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The confines of early WT athletics were primitive by todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standards, even oddly melancholy. for nearly a century, athletes stra ned under the shadows of West texasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old Ma n. they clashed on football fields w th and w thout helmets, on pr ckly pra r e grass and eventually smooth synthet c turf. Women lofted set shots w th first s x, then five players on the basketball court. (Modern-day basketball

fans would find the juxtaposition of a grass court shared with distant herds of grazing cattle both amusing and unsettling.)

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For certain, West Texas Normal College ushered in an infant century with its own brand of drama, athletic and otherwise. there here was rumor of a gold str str ke ke southeast of Canyon about the same t me t the G rls’ athlet c assoc at on sponsored an oyster supper to ra se the first twenty-e ght dollars to underwr te women’s athlet cs. under a th ck adornment of bloomers and t ghtly knotted athlet c boots, women played t all—basketball, volleyball, field hockey, soccer, and dance.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;in time to will rival the our boys in

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come our girls’ team standing set by basketball.”

Back then sport was an end to itself for early WT women. In 1912, M. Gentry—the tallest player on the women’s basketball team at s x foot one—saw her future as a far cry from the basketball court. her s mple dream? “herd ng cattle,” she told Wt’s first yearbook ed tor. eventually, though, the pronouncement made by Wt G rl’s athlet c assoc at on member frank e Broyles n 1923 would be fulfilled: “In t me to come our g rls’ team w ll r val the stand ng set by our boys n basketball.”

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The Buffalo Bowl

W th a capac ty of twenty thousand fans, West texas’s

ass stant coach under Gene Mayfield, and longt me fan

un que, mpress ve, and h stor c play ng field has

and booster. “It was l ke go ng from the outhouse to

become a second home to many fans through the

the penthouse.”

decades. It has also been a susta ned matter of pr de

Behrens should know. as an offens ve guard, he

for Wt supporters and players s nce t was fin shed n

played n the last game at the old stad um and the first

1959 to replace an ag ng and a l ng and much smaller

one n the new—a heartbreak ng, one-po nt loss to the

fac l ty on campus. and, co nc dence or not, t played

un vers ty of ar zona for wh ch eleven thousand fans

home to a new era of excellence, w nn ng ways, and

turned out. (Wt chalked up ts first at-home v ctory

fiercely loyal support for Wt’s footballers.

soon after aga nst drake un vers ty.)

Bes des allow ng more fans to watch the Buffs from

the Bowl also made a last ng mpress on on a young

up close, the new stad um offered luxury amen t es that

Pete Pedro, when he by chance rolled through Canyon

were almost unheard of n the day, nclud ng electr cal

as a member of the track team at tr n dad College n

outlets for fans to power up electr c blankets, rad os,

Colorado, wh ch was headed to south texas for a cham-

coffeepots, and even portable telev s on sets, wh ch

p onsh p meet. Gaz ng out the bus w ndow on the long

then were mov ng past novelty status.

dr ve south, Pedro thought: Wow, that would be a great

“the Buffalo Bowl on Canyon h ll,” t was called.

place to play football.

Its ded cat on was the centerp ece of the un vers ty’s

and another th ng caught the Massachusetts nat ve’s

fift eth ann versary celebrat on on september 25, 1959,

eye: the l fe-s ze statue of a buffalo that’s outs de the

when then-u.s. senator lyndon Johnson—soon to be

stad um and fac ng the h ghway. a couple of years later,

the country’s v ce pres dent—was among the speakers.

as he was first be ng recru ted by Coach Joe Kerbel,

With its rolling hills just off campus forming a natural bowl, it seemed like the perfect place for a football stadium. And not just any stadium—this one was a big deal, a “doozie,” as some might call it.

Pedro asked: “West texas? Is that the place w th the

“It was truly state-of-the-art, no doubt about t,”

and athlet c d rector frank K mbrough, and was g ven

sa d Jerry Behrens, a former Wt player (1958–61),

a major overhaul n 2002. It reta ns the nt mate feel

b g stad um and the buffalo?” the stad um, wh ch rema ns prom nent and mpress ve among those n d v s on II, was renamed K mbrough Memor al stad um n 1971 n honor of the late coach

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that makes see ng a football game there an unforget-

At big games, an overflow of fans stretches out on the grassy hills—the same ones that Kerbel’s soldierly squadrons would sprint up and down—to be close to their beloved Buffs. As many say, there’s “not a bad seat in the house.” table, almost-fam l al exper ence.

In october 1998, Wt beat angelo state 37–7 n front of 12,240 fans n what was the two-hundredth Buff game played at the stad um. In 2005, a lone star Conference-record crowd of 22,993 filled the seats—and the grass—as the Buffs defeated eastern new Mex co n a thr ll ng 52–51 overt me w n. “It’s just a great place to watch a game,” says Behrens, summ ng up the feel ngs of twenty thousandplus people n Canyon on a good day.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Under any circum-

stances we will put forth the best that is in us.â&#x20AC;?

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â&#x20AC;&#x153; Many of them left their last ounces of bravura on the shores of Europe and the jungles of unfamiliar Pacific Islands.â&#x20AC;?

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World War II later illuminated a brand of courage that transcended the playing fields as dozens of Wt students, many of them athletes, left the r last ounces of bravura on the shores of europe and the jungles of unfam l ar Pac fic slands. star Wt football player and second lt. J. e. P etzsch was l kely the first texan to d e at Pearl harbor on the now-sacred grounds of h ckam f eld.

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“The Best That is in Us” In a boarding house somewhere in Canyon, a few students declared maroon and white the school colors. transportat on transportat ransportat on was expens expens ve and unrel able, so West texas normal College scheduled amar llo h gh school for ts very first football game. for or whatever reason, one hundred years of W Wt football began as nausp c ously ously as the jackrabb jackrabb ts that streaked through the kafir fields— w th th a ra ra ra nout. so, “the normal eleven” were forced a few days later to play the unnamed “town team.” they launched Wt athlet cs w th a 6–0 w w n on the 35-by-70-yard gr d ron. But t. stalnacker, Wt’s first football capta capta n, couldn’t have env s oned the last ng truth of h h s own prophet prophet c utterance, wh ch l ngered n the corr dors of old Ma Ma n and meandered up the steep cl mb of Buffalo f eld and even the fore fore gn beaches of europe. “under any c rcumstances,” stalnacker mplored, “we w ll put forth the best that ss n us.”

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Tallest Team in the World somet mes that “best” d dn’t measure up, as the sportswr t ng pund ts would declare 1953 the “worst season n the h story of football at Wt.” at other t mes the best was the flamboyant 1940s-era men’s basketball team. self-descr bed as “the tallest team n the world,” they tra psed through the northeast and c t es l ke Buffalo, Ph ladelph a, and new york to play n venues such as sacred Mad son square Garden. the team frequently traveled n match ng three-p ece wool su ts, gaudy roach-k ller boots, and less-than-subtle ten-gallon hats that put them all well past the seven-foot mark. The

team averaged six-foot-six in an era when anyone who could stretch a measuring tape more than six feet was considered a tall drink of water.

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In the 1941 season the team went 28–3 and was prom nently featured n w dely c rculated magaz nes l ke Colliers, Time, Life, Look, PIC, and Esquire. they were led by frank stockman, Charles halbert, and the qu rky Pr ce Brookfield, who would be named allamer can at both Wt and Iowa state dur ng the 1940s and go on to play profess onally.

In fact, in one hundred years of WT men’s basketball, seven players have found playing time in the ABA or NBA, five of whom played in the 1940s. the packed crowds at old Burton Gymnas um and the nat onal attent on at Wt bel ed darker t mes to come for Wt athlet cs, n part cular, but more mportantly, for the world. the entry of the un ted states nto World War II ended all organ zed Wt athlet cs and effect vely turned the ent re campus nto a preparatory school for young men headed nto battle. Wt ended ts 1943 season as Border Conference co-champ ons. student journal sts understood the effect on Wt athlet cs: “at th s wr t ng there s no way to pred ct the future. But t s not dle speculat on to bel eve that, had not the war d srupted athlet cs, West texas state l kely would have had the greatest basketball team of a long l ne of great outfits.”

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athlet c d rector al Baggett left to become a capta n n the u.s. a r force, and dozens of players sh pped out for boot camp and entry onto battlefields across europe and the Pac fic. “West texas state s always tough,” wrote one student journal st n descr b ng the departure of student athletes nto war. “th s s be ng carr ed over to a league n wh ch some of the stars, temporar ly, are adolf, Il duce, and h roh to.” desp te the lows of war and the sp r ted h ghs of the “world’s tallest,” Wt athlet cs was po sed to launch nto the 1960s, from wh ch some of ts greatest football athletes would emerge. and Wt would do t w th swagger. In 1959, Buffalo stad um opened as the “world’s most modern football plant.” unfortunately, the team struggled to eke out only one w n for spectators enter ng the twenty thousand-seat fac l ty. But 1960 would usher n the Joe Kerbel era, and Wt football would redefine “the best that s n us.”

“despite the lows of war and the spirited highs of the ‘world’s tallest,’ WT athletics was poised to launch into the 1960s, from which some of its greatest football athletes would emerge.”

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Giants Among Men

By today’s standards, they weren’t that tall. But back

the team fin shed w th a record of 28–3 n 1941, w th

n the early 1940s, the Buffaloes were a spectacle and

a few lops ded w ns that went over the one hundred-

a sensat on on the basketball court.

po nt mark. In an art cle n Time magaz ne n 1942,

they were the self-procla med “tallest team n the

Baggett sa d he had a s mple ph losophy for success

The team averaged six feet, six inches, with the tallest, Charles Halbert, towering above most players of the era at six foot ten.

on the court: he would tell them, “Boys, don’t bother

Coach al Baggett was s x foot four h mself, and

he was quoted as say ng, “It takes three t mes as much

l ked to recru t other tall fellows for h s team. Most

work to develop a tall player as t does a short one, but

of them came from the Panhandle area, though others

when you’ve fin shed, you have someth ng.”

World,” and they had the he ght to back t up.

were brought n from M ssour .

pass ng to anybody—just pass t at the basket.” dur ng h s t me as coach, Baggett’s start ng l neup always averaged at least s x foot three. In the magaz ne,

Indeed he d d.

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“it takes three times as much work to develop a tall player as it does a short one, but when you’ve finished, you have something.”

Chapter 2:

The 1960s gram they werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t on the pro backs golden age for running renaissance no more lady buffettes

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the 1960s

“They weren’t on the program.” As longtime WT broadcaster Warren Hasse recalled it, quarterback Hank Washington and receiver Ted Wheeler popped a facile request: a few moments to speak during WT’s annual football banquet in 1964. “I told them I would g ve them a l ttle t me f they prom sed me that they d dn’t have any fool shness planned,” sa d hasse, who emceed the banquet. “they weren’t on the program.” Wash ngton was a los angeles recru t from a d fficult fam ly s tuat on, and Wheeler came from detro t, and both capta ned the 1966 team. Both had found a father figure n the ex gent Kerbel. the two team leaders muscled a large box to the lectern and extracted a gluttonous trophy, present ng t to Kerbel as a g ft from the players.

“It sent Joe to tears,” Hasse recalled. “He just started bawling and sobbing.”

“Both had found a father figure in the exigent Kerbel.”

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A D ay i n t h e S u n

out n the West texas town of el Paso, they play a

logan, who had a background as a rancher n

game called the sun Bowl. And on the last day of

Graham, texas, was one of the early greats at Wt

1962, Jerry Don Logan was its star.

dur ng the Coach Joe Kerbel era. he went on to have a

It’s the second-oldest cont nually played bowl game

sturdy ten-year career w th the Balt more Colts n the

n the nCaa ranks, beh nd only the rose Bowl, and

nfl, and was on the w nn ng s de aga nst the dallas

t carr ed w th t a great amount of prest ge for West

Cowboys n super Bowl V ( n wh ch Wt’s duane thomas

texas players and fans. Many of them made the tr p by

also played.)

car, and others stayed home to watch t on tV—a rare

In 1962, when Pete Pedro was down w th njur es,

thr ll at the t me. the Buffs themselves flew to el Paso

logan led the nat on n scor ng and returned s x nter-

by jet and were put up n a swanky hotel as they got

cept ons for a total of 168 yards. aga nst ar zona state

ready to face oh o un vers ty for the first t me at the

that year, logan returned one n nety n ne yards for a

end of a tr umphant season that saw only two losses.

game-w nn ng touchdown.

It was a close one, w th Wt edg ng oh o 16–15

“out of all the great athletes that have played at

thanks to a late-game two-po nt convers on. logan

Wt, he was probably the best all-around,” says dawson.

was a dec d ng factor n the w n and was named ts

“he could l terally do everyth ng—he could run, catch,

Most Valuable Player. In those days, players played

punt, return punts . . . he would even block field goals.”

both ways, on offense and defense, and logan excelled

and though sheer speed wasn’t logan’s greatest

on e ther s de of the ball. In the sun Bowl game he was

weapon, he made up for t w th unbel evable qu ckness

l terally all over the field, mak ng tackles and ass sts

and an amaz ng ab l ty to ant c pate the d rect on of

left and r ght, break ng up passes, runn ng back punts,

the play.

and catch ng a touchdown pass.

“there are few athletes that are born w th such

and though h s play on that day certa nly warranted

natural nst ncts,” says Jerry Behrens, another team-

MVP recogn t on, t wasn’t an unusually great perfor-

“Logan was two steps ahead of everybody—he could analyze the play at the snap of the ball. He just always had a jump on things.”

mance by logan’s except onal standards. “It was really just a normal game for Jerry,” says Quarterback Corky dawson, who was also logan’s roommate at Wt.

mate.

the 1960s

The Original Pistol

years before Pete Marav ch put lsu on the map w th

make h m r de on the back of the bus,’ and he sa d, ‘you

h s jaw-dropp ng basketball sk lls, college football fans

don’t have to worry about that.’”

thought of one man when they heard the name “P stol

unl kely because Pedro was from lynn, Massachu-

Pedro acclimated quickly to Canyon, on and off the field. He remembers that Jerry Don Logan, whom he called “Cowboy,” bought him his first jeans, boots, and Stetson hat. though d m nut ve at just five foot

setts, a suburb of Boston and a world away from Canyon,

seven and 150 pounds, Pedro was a dazzl ng runner who

texas—and n fact, nearly a three-day tra n r de.

was th rd-team all-amer can h s first season and once

It was an unlikely speedster named Pete Pedro, who once scored six touchdowns in a single game for the Buffs. Pete.”

to th s day P stol Pete rema ns one of the very

scored s x touchdowns aga nst texas West n. unfortu-

favor te players n the canon of Wt greats. Coach

nately, knee problems shortened h s career, though he

Kerbel’s staff heard about Pedro n a roundabout way.

d d play one season w th h s hometown Boston Patr ots

he had played at tr n dad Jun or College n southern

and another w th toronto n the Canad an football

Colorado, but had also appl ed to attend a college n

league.

Cal forn a. he d dn’t meet the adm ss on requ rements

he met h s future w fe wh le at Wt, and together

there, but somehow h s stats, nclud ng an mpress ve

they had five ch ldren. Pedro went on to work n the

9.7 seconds n the one hundred-yard dash, got Kerbel’s

educat on field, eventually becom ng v ce pr nc pal of

attent on.

an alternat ve h gh school. he loves return ng to Wt, as

Pedro s Puerto r can, but many thought he was

he d d n 2000 when he was honored as one of the top

black because of h s dark sk n. he had grown up n

100 sports legends of the Panhandle.

a mostly Ital an ne ghborhood, so race was never an

“Every time I go there it’s unbelievable. I get a big welcome,” he said. “If I had to do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

ssue back home. and t wasn’t at West texas, e ther. “My mother sa d to Coach Kerbel, ‘you better not

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the 1960s

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the 1960s

Kerbel’s attenuated emot onal outburst was juxtaposed to h s devot on to football coach ng legends Paul “Bear” Bryant and Bud W lk nson. In h s decade-plus-one tenure, Kerbel became an en gma wrapped n a mystery and shrouded n contrad ct ons. Kerbel recollect ons span the range from the b zarre to the emot ve. In 1966 West texas state opened the season by play ng newly named texas-arl ngton (formerly arl ngton state) at the Buffalo Bowl on september 17. Wash ngton quarterbacked the Buffs, and Karl W ll ams of K rkpatr ck h gh n fort Worth quarterbacked the uta rebels. Both quarterbacks were black, and th s may have been the first major college football game to have two start ng black QBs. Kerbel was fanat cally comm tted to h s players and refused to call them by anyth ng other than the r g ven names. Mercury Morr s was “eugene” and P stol Pete Pedro was “Peter.” yet the coach was a firebrand who marched up and down the Wt s del nes bark ng orders to players, shout ng obscen t es, and mplor ng players to g ve more. “he was just very ntense,” hasse sa d. “The

players respected him and feared him at the same time. I don’t think any of them really liked playing for him at the time, but they were devoted to him.”

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Even before Frank Kush’s antics made history at Arizona State University, Joe Kerbel was slinging players onto and off of WT football fields in fits of rage, and yet worked double time to protect them from negative influences. Players learned the Kerbel way early and dec s vely. s nce 1925, Wt letter w nners were nducted nto the t-Club, a r te of passage that somet mes ended pa nfully. some t-Club nductees even allowed other club members to brand g ant ts on the r chests n add t on to other forms of haz ng. former Wt player and profess onal wrestler dory funk’s tbrand came at the end of a spark w re connected to an ant que telephone crank. and he looked forward to do ng l kew se to the nductees. But Kerbel ended the pract next crop of t-Club nductees. pract ce n h s second year as coach. “Kerbel called a team meet ng and la d down the law; there would be no such haz ng, no brand ng of the young athletes, and anyone nvolved n haz ng would be mmed ately d sm ssed from the team and k cked off scholarsh p. We were a team work ng together for a common cause, and no haz haz ng would be tolerated,” funk unk recalled. the next season, Wt went 9–2, nclud nclud ng a sun Bowl w nclud ng w n.

the 1960s

Jerry don logan, who would later play for a decade n the Balt more Colts’ defens ve backfield, was the sun Bowl MVP and led the nat on n scor ng. P stol Pete Pedro led the nat on n rush ng the same year. as a former Mar ne, Kerbel carr ed h s wart me exper ence to the gr d ron w th elongated pract ces and a constant barrage of mercur al orders that he began us ng dur ng h s early successful years as a h gh school coach n Breckenr dge, texas, and later at amar llo h gh school. one former Wt player confided n hasse that after h s t me at Wt, he entered the

“He told me that every time he felt like quitting, he would remind himself that he had made it through Joe Kerbel two-a-days,” says Hasse. “Everything after that was a breeze.” army and went through the r gorous army ranger tra n ng.

Kerbel told hasse that as a Mar ne he had seen sold ers d e n combat because someone n the r un t d dn’t carry h s we ght. he would hold Wt football players to the same standard as he d d the Mar nes under h s command. Kerbel’s reckon ng was no respecter of persons. after a spectacular rush ng performance, crack runn ng back duane thomas ended a long run by stepp ng out of bounds. Kerbel exploded, k cked h m off the team, and ra led at h m through the next defens ve ser es. By the next offens ve possess on, he had re nstated thomas. from that po nt forward, thomas rout nely ran over defenders at the end of runs.

Buffalo thunder

Quick as Mercury

here are the facts: Mercury was the roman god who was known for h s sw ftness and mob l ty. the element mercury s named for the god and s also called “qu cks lver.” the planet Mercury takes nearly three months to orb t the sun.

and talk about double trouble: Morr s was just a year ahead of duane thomas, another of Wt’s true greats, and as a pa r n the backfield they were almost unbeatable. thomas was flu d, smooth, and defin tely strong. But Morr s, a l ttle b t smaller, was also known for h s speed and qu ckness and had surpr s ng and ncred ble strength and power.

In h s day, t must have seemed that young eugene

“he had the upper-body strength that allowed h m to

Morr s, w th h s l ghtn ng qu ckness, could have made

break tackles,” says Mank n. “It was l ke h tt ng a p ece

the tr p much sooner—and w th lots of flash and style.

of steel. People could not arm-tackle h h m at all.”

Morris, perhaps the most famous West Texas sports figure of all time, earned his dashing nickname soon after arriving in Canyon from the faraway metropolis of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. unt l he was pegged w th the memorable mon ker, he was known as eugene. amar llo newspaper column st frank Godsoe, now deceased, s bel eved to have been the first to put the tag on Morr s. “I remember they were say ng he was ‘qu ck as

ng tenure at West after h s groundbreak ng mer can, w th l ttle texas, the two-t me all-amer can, se from anyone, was the th rd player surpr se chosen n the 1969 nfl draft.

He went on, of course, to become an integral part of perhaps the best NFL team of all time, the Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s. he

mercury, ’ ” says former teammate, coach, and longt me

ned more than one ga ned

fr end ronn e Mank n. “all I can say s, t certa nly

thousand

seemed appropr ate.”

M am went undefeated

yards

the 1960s

n 1972, and ga ned cruc al yards for them n three super Bowls. But before he wore the aqua and orange of the dolph ns under Coach don shula, Morr s left ndel ble marks on West texas dur ng h s three seasons as a Buffalo. In 1967 and ’69 he—and the un vers ty— earned a h gher profile as he was runn ng v rtually neckand-neck w th the un vers ty of southern Cal forn a’s o. J. “the Ju ce” s mpson, who ult mately captured the coveted he sman trophy, g ven to college football’s most outstand ng player. “Merc,” as h s former teammates affect onately call h m, set nCaa records at Wt for most yards n a career (3,388), most yards n a season (1,571), and most yards n a game (340). During

the years that he was in the backfield, the Buffs lost only eight games. He averaged more than six yards a carry. And he gained them quickly.

Buffalo thunder

Golden Age for running Backs the 1960s was the golden age for Wt football. the Buffs won more games

As WT’s winningest coach, Kerbel sent twenty-one players to the NFL via draft and dozens of others as free agents. dur ng the 1960s than n any other decade before or s nce.

Kerbel was one of the early ntercolleg ate coaches to understand the mportance of speed, part cularly at the runn ng back pos t on. Wt contr buted to the nfl backfields P stol Pete Pedro, Mercury Morr s, rocky thompson, and duane thomas, among others. Wt had won just two games n two years before Kerbel replaced Clark Jarnag n. In eleven years he re gn ted the program, amass ng a 68–42–1 record and w nn ng two bowl games along the way, the 1962 sun Bowl and the 1967 Jun or rose Bowl. Kerbel was fired n 1971 am dst a sw rl of controversy and a polar zed commun ty. “It broke h s heart,” sa d hasse. “I went to v s t h m r ght after the announcement. he was s tt ng n h s house w th h s beloved dog and was heartbroken and angry.” Just two years later, Kerbel would d e of a heart attack. Wt football would never aga n scale the he ghts of d v s on I that t d d under Kerbel, who struggled w th h s we ght and suffered from chron c back pa n and c rculat on a lments throughout h s Wt career.

the 1960s

Buffalo thunder

D u a n e T h o m a s a n d We s t T e x a s

W th assured s desteps and eye-bl nk ng d splays of unquest onable power, duane thomas qu ckly but del berately carved h s own un que h story nto the Wt legacy. and he d d t one sw ft and sh fty, confident step at a t me.

first touchdown in the now-landmark Texas Stadium, and leading “America’s Team” to victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI in 1972. thomas, who now l ves n san d ego, has lots of

dur ng those glory days, Wt’s beloved #33 often

memor es reserved for the occas onal t me for reflect on.

thought of the cowboys and front er men who had come

and West texas comes to m nd often, he says. Wh le he

before to stake the r own but d fferent cla ms. leav ng

had other college offers, he says go ng to Wt was “abso-

home n south dallas for the relat ve unknown of l ttle

lutely” the best dec s on he could have made.

Canyon, texas, was somewhat of a W ld West adventure

he saw an opportun ty to show h s sk lls on the field

for thomas—and espec ally as a black athlete n the

and to sat sfy an unbr dled pass on for travel. Because

1960s try ng to prove h mself n the relat vely l ly-

the Buffs were ndependent, and not confined to

wh te realm of major college football.

reg onal conference games, t was a chance for h m— n

the strong and speedy thomas had just started play ng

many ways—to break nto the great w de open. road

football n the n nth grade but was an early bloomer.

tr ps n those days took h m, n h gh style n the late

desp te nterest from other colleges, he jumped at the

1960s, to far-flung, exc t ng tr ps to great amer can

chance to play at West texas—for many reasons. as t

places l ke tempe and las Cruces and salt lake C ty,

turned out, he would become one of the true Wt greats

and even over to Memph s and up to fargo, all the

as he shared the backfield and learned firsthand from

t me marvel ng at the amer can countrys de from the

other standout players l ke quarterback Pete Wash ng-

fr endly sk es above.

ton and such great runners as eugene “Mercury” Morr s,

the young star was recru ted from all s des, and

But he would also pave his own golden path that would lead to two years with the Dallas Cowboys, Rookie of the Year honors, scoring the

was tempted by other offers, some of them reportedly

ronn e Mank n, and alb e owens.

nvolv ng cash and cars. But Coach Joe Kerbel’s stra ght talk w th thomas’s father, a hard-work ng contractor whom young duane had learned to respect greatly,

the 1960s

sealed the deal. Kerbel offered something more basic:

challenging Thomas’s Cowboys as part of the dynamic

“We don’t give money,” the Kerbel story goes, “and we don’t give special favors. But I guarantee you two things: one, we’ll give him an education; two, he’ll have the opportunity to play football.”

Miami Dolphins’ backfield. Thomas was Offensive Rookie

Dad’s response was that not only would Kerbel get

backfield mate—on the opposing side, fellow Cowboys

Duane, but the other Thomas sons as well. (Duane’s brother Bertrand worked as a trainer and Franklin, Jr., played as a backup guard and linebacker.) While other former Buffs have mixed feelings about Kerbel and his sometimes-harsh ways, Duane Thomas

of the Year with Dallas in 1970, a key player in their first-ever Super Bowl win, and was seemingly on top of the world. With the flashy and fleet Morris—Duane’s former looked for insight from Thomas. “I remember [Cowboys defensive back] Mel Renfro saying, ‘What can you tell me about this guy, Mercury?’ And I said, ‘I’ll tell you one thing . . . don’t let him get past you, or you’ll never catch him.’ ”

says he always took Kerbel’s histrionics in stride and

Renfro and the other Cowboys were able to contain

was thankful to have a great coach, as he had also

Morris and headbanging bruisers Larry Csonka and Jim

experienced at the all-black Lincoln High.

Kiick as they dominated the Dolphins 24–3.

“Race was never an issue with Coach Kerbel,” Thomas

Old pal Eugene wasn’t a factor in the game, though

reiterates. “He loved and respected all of the players,

he would help lead Miami to an unprecedented and

across the board.”

perfect 17–0 season the next year.

As for the travel, which Thomas longed for: “It was

Thomas said he was never surprised at—and never

first-class all the way. Our practice facilities and travel

jealous of—Morris’s success, and feels that they each

arrangements were top-notch. We would travel just like

made the other better through their experiences of

a pro team; we had chartered flights and stayed in the

running in tandem and blocking for one another at WT.

nicest hotels.”

One thing is puzzling to Thomas, though:

Thomas would go on to experience this first-class treatment for two years as a Dallas Cowboy and two more as a Washington Redskin. He would play in Super Bowl VI in 1972, with former running mate Mercury Morris

“I was faster than Merc at first, but he went back home [in the off-season] and then came back and he was fast, man. I haven’t been able to catch him since.”

Buffalo thunder

renaissance enaissance Wh le Kerbel fulm nated nated along the s del nes of Buffalo stad um, d m nut ve basketball coach J mmy V ramontes and p oneer ng allene stovall were attempt ng to resusc tate the long-dormant men’s basketball program and to remake women’s sports, respect vely. V ramontes had replaced Metz lafollette n 1963 w th an eye toward resurrect ng the fame Wt had cult vated more than twenty years pr or. student journal sts descr bed V ramontes as “an ntense man who approaches perpetual mot on,” and he was able to encourage h s team to a 13–9 record, the best n more than a decade. not long after, Wt offic als were outlaw ng “the dog dance” on campus and students were post ng “au h20” s gns consp cuously around campus. yet V ramontes was never able to take advantage of the momentum. In fact, by the end of the 1967 season, Wt had exper enced ts worst season ever at 1–18. they beat only texas a&M n a stunn ng upset. one sports pund t op ned that t “was ndeed a gray year.” V ramontes was out and former Wt star denn s “duck” Wall ng stepped n and mmed ately del vered a more respectable 10–11 record n the next season. By the following season, the 18–7 program

had received its first NIT bid since 1942, won more games than any WT team since 1951, and earned new respectability among its rivals.

the 1960s

no More Buffettes as duck Wall ng was rebu ld ng the men’s basketball team, allene stovall qu etly cobbled together the framework for what would become a dom nant women’s athlet c mach ne. Before her career had ended, stovall coached women’s basketball, volleyball, bowl ng, badm nton, cross country, golf, softball, and track and field. she helped resurrect women’s sports from the obscur ty of ntramural fields to leg t macy, and eventually found a place n the Panhandle sports hall of fame. she organ zed teams on a shoestr ng. a few players even sold the r own plasma to ra se money for travel and un forms.

Perhaps Stovall couldn’t have envisioned the powerhouse volleyball and basketball teams to come, but she would live to see some of them. her most obscure and least apprec ated contr but on was find ng a way to gracefully jett son the early Wt Buffettes for the current women’s mon ker of “lady Buffs.” Women’s sports would spark n the 1960s, slowly burn n the 1970s, and gn te n full burn n the 1980s, and stovall would l ve to see her dream of a full-fledged women’s athlet c program come to fru t on.

Buffalo thunder

“Blood on the Moon”

you can’t talk about West texas football w thout talk ng about Coach Joe Kerbel. and h s former players have plenty to say. Mostly, t’s out of respect. they feared h m—and even hated h m at t mes—but came away from the r somet mes-harsh exper ences w th last ng respect.

Mankin’s initial impression of Kerbel was his sense of humor. “He was a Jackie Gleason-type guy. He could make anybody laugh at any time. He just had a great, great personality. “unt l I put on the un form the first day, and then he

Kerbel’s exper ence as a u.s. Mar ne framed h s

wasn’t funny anymore. he could put you on a pedestal

approach as one of college football’s great taskmas-

and make you feel you were on top of the world, and he

ters. several former players commented that game day

could also make you want to crawl nto a cleat hole.”

was almost a rel ef compared to the brutal marathon pract ce sess ons.

“P stol Pete” Pedro, a Wt star n the early 1960s, laughs when he remembers Kerbel’s un que commands

n ’67. he also coached under Gene Mayfield from 1970–

“We would be at practice, and he would get onto the guys for not hitting hard enough. He would say, ‘I want to see blood on the moon!’”

75. he says that Kerbel prepared h s players for battle

Pedro remembers scor ng touchdowns on four

ronn e Mank n, a nat ve of Coleman, texas, came to Wt n 1963 as a quarterback. he later played runn ng back and defens ve back and was a graduate ass stant

on the field, and l fe off of t as well.

and demands.

stra ght plays n pract ce. sens ng that Kerbel had

“he had a tremendous nfluence on all of us,” Mank n

warmed up to h m, he made a s mple request. h s feet

says. “he taught us that there are go ng to be ups and

had been hurt ng because the screw- n cleats they used

downs, but you can’t stay down. you’ve got to get up

n those days were pok ng through the nsoles of h s

and keep go ng.

shoes and nto h s feet. he figured Kerbel would be

“he was very much concerned w th us be ng good

sympathet c—after all, a great runner needs comfort-

c t zens as well. and most of the guys I played w th

able shoes—so he asked the coach f he could get a

have been successful n l fe—good fathers, good

new pa r. the coach’s response can’t be pr nted here;

c t zens,” he sa d.

Pedro carr ed on w th h s feet st ll hurt ng.

the 1960s

other m nor ty players are thankful that Kerbel was truly

about developing character, developing manhood . . . . It was about creating cohesiveness among the team.”

color-bl nd when t came to race. he act vely recru ted

and, of course, “he had a great m nd for the game,”

Pedro, though Puerto r can, s cons dered to have broken the “color l ne” when he arr ved at Wt n 1961.

players from all parts of the un ted states, nclud ng Pedro from outs de Boston and eugene “Mercury” Morr s from P ttsburgh, Pennsylvan a. “Coach Kerbel was a very car ng person,” says former star runn ng back duane thomas. “Everything

was about family, about commitment, and

thomas says. Pedro, who thought about go ng back home to Massachusetts after h s first spr ng tra n ng under Kerbel, changed h s op n on qu ckly. “We really d d respect h m and he really d d love us,” Pedro says. “he cared about us.”

Buffalo Thunder

the 1970s

Chapter 3:

The 1970s highs and lows a capricious decade of mortality brushes with athletic im

Buffalo thunder

the 1970s

A capricious decade of highs and lows the he departure of the revered and tumultuous Joe Kerbel ushered n more than the erud te Gene Mayfield as h s replacement to lead Buff football—Wt entered the M ssour Valley Conference, and the accompany ng trava ls of compet ng gorous schedule every year. Kerbel’s aga nst a r gorous departure also marked the beg nn ng of a capr ghs and lows. Indeed, Wt saw c ous decade of h ghs ron grow ng pa ns n the ’70s. plenty of gr d ron

Buffalo thunder

“there seemed to be a lot more lows than h ghs [ n the 1970s],” descr bed ronn e Mank n, who played and coached for Kerbel and cont nued h s coach ng career w th Mayfield unt l 1975. Mayfield had left odessa Perm an h gh school w th a 62– 10–2 record, a state champ onsh p, and two state final sts n five years. Perhaps more mportantly, Mayfield had earned l ttle all-amer can honors wh le lead ng the Buffs to a sun Bowl v ctory n 1950. Mayfield was ostens bly com ng home. Kerbel, on the other hand, was d sm ssed on february 8, 1970, four days after the death of h s coach ng predecessor, frank K mbrough, who had led the Buffs from 1947–57, and whose teams had posted w ns n the sun and tanger ne Bowls. Wh le K mbrough’s teams had posted one of the best (10–1) and one of the worst (1–8) seasons n Wt h story, t was Kerbel’s d sm ssal that polar zed Wt football fans. Kerbel mmed ately fired verbal salvos aga nst the Wt Board of regents, call ng them “an nexper enced board . . . w th whom I have never even had the opportun ty to confer.” the 1971 yearbook wr ter asked “the quest on that many asked follow ng the d sm ssal . . . . ‘Is that any way to repay Kerbel for gett ng West texas state n the MVC?’” on Kerbel’s last day on campus, he told a student journal st that he had “no apolog es to make for my staff, my players, or for myself.” and n latent protest, Wt students n 1971 named the r newest Buffalo mascot “l ttle Joe” n Kerbel’s honor. th s was the env ronment Gene Mayfield walked nto. and he saw only l m ted success.

the 1970s

Buffalo thunder

Mayfield swapped the pro-style offense nst tuted by Kerbel and replaced t w th the runor ented w shbone offense. and although Mayfield was only able to assemble one w nn ng season n five campa gns, he managed to grab a share of the MVC n Wt’s first conference season. Wt wouldn’t w n another conference champ onsh p unt l B ll yung re gn ted the Wt pro-style offense and took the Buffs to the top n 1977. Mayfield also sent a handful of players to the nfl, most notably offens ve l neman John ayers, who went to three super Bowls—two w th san franc sco enver. (ayers ( and one w th denver. returned to Canyon after onal career had ended and d ed d h s profess onal n 1995 ng a bout w th w l ver cancer.) after los ng eves that the lack of college-level Mank n bel eves ence, the sh ft sh to the w shbone, coach ng exper ence, emphas on and a strong emphas s ng locally kept recru t ng Mayfield’s teams from on. gather ng tract on.

the 1970s

Buffalo thunder

In th s notable decade women’s sports advanced n the texas Comm ss on of Intercolleg ate athlet cs for Women, but Wt left the MVC before ts first women’s conference champ onsh ps. Men’s tenn s was the only Wt team to establ sh an early dom nance n the MVC, allow ng Coach dav d Kent to promulgate a legacy set by h s father, who played tenn s at Wt n the 1920s. Bob K tchens also establ shed h s coach ng legacy n track and field, mentor ng s x nCaa allamer cans and seventy M ssour Valley Conference champ ons, and be ng named MVC Coach of the year after lead ng the Buffs to the 1977 MVC cross country and the 1979 MVC ndoor t tles. Perhaps more remarkable was that K tchens’s teams overpowered southern Ill no s, whose squads had won each prev ous MVC t tle n the 1970s.

Basketball faced up to the demands of mid-major competition when Coach Ron Ekker traveled to Chicago to recruit a hot prospect; he returned with a lesser-known talent—Maurice Cheeks. the angular Cheeks would set a bevy of Wt records and launch the most prol fic nBa career of any Wt player before or s nce. desp te two years of probat on for recru t ng v olat ons, Wt challenged for the MVC t tle n basketball throughout most of the 1970s. Cheeks was a three-t me all-M ssour Valley Conference p ck, tw ce to the first team.

The passing of Frank Kimbrough, longtime coach and athletic director, also marked the evolution of WT to a fully developed athletic program. The Buffalo Bowl was renamed in 1971 to honor Kimbrough’s memory.

the 1970s

Brushes with Athletic immortality As WT walked through the transom leading to the MVC, it welcomed more rigorous competition and brushes with athletic immortality: larry B rd pa d a v s t to the amar llo C v c Center and eked out a w n for Ind ana state. In 1972, ekker welcomed Cheeks, who would forever etch h s name n nBa h story as a champ onsh p po nt guard for the Ph ladelph a 76ers and a coach w th the Portland tra l Blazers and the 76ers—and maybe as the greatest player n Buff annals. ekker would go on to make h s own mpr nt n the nBa as well, as an ass stant coach and scout w th several teams. Pat W ll ams chron cles a conversat on between ekker and legendary coach John Wooden n h s book How to be Like Coach Wooden. ekker was dr v ng Wooden back to the amar llo a rport after Wooden had del vered a speech on campus. “It was a w ndy, dreary n ght, and as we got n the car, Wooden sa d, ‘It’s got to be a tough job recru t ng here.’ I sa d, ‘Well, t s solated and there’s no soc al l fe, but that allows the players to concentrate on basketball.’” Wooden then recounted how d fficult t was for h m to recru t dur ng h s early years at uCla. Most sports pund ts thought of uCla as a “football school.” “My staff kept say ng, ‘We can’t recru t. We can’t do th s or that.’ you’ve got to get r d of that att tude before you can succeed,” he told ekker.

Buffalo thunder

Pr or to ekker’s arr val, “Maroon Madness” had gr pped the mag nat on of Wt basketball fans and Coach denn s “duck” Wall ng had—temporar ly—ho sted the Wt men’s program from the doldrums of the 1960s to respectab l ty. after a 1969 nIt appearance, though, Wt’s men had crumbled to a 9–17 fin sh and 2–10 n conference play by 1972, ts first year n the MVC. the men’s team l terally l mped nto the MVC w th a flurry of njur es that s del ned at least s x players dur ng the year. By 1973, Wall ng had passed the torch to naIa standout coach ekker. ekker’s team mmed ately posted an 11–15 and 5–8 conference record. the follow ng season the Buffs collapsed w th a 9–17 record, fin sh ng last n the MVC. r s ng from the ashes of the 1974 season debacle was the Wt l neup w th Cheeks on board.

the 1970s

Perhaps the b ggest—or at least most exc t ng— game of ekker’s and Cheeks’s career came on January 9, 1975, when Wt played the th rd-ranked un vers ty of lou sv lle n the amar llo C v c Center Col seum. W th the score t ed at fifty one w th e ghteen seconds rema n ng, Cheeks drove the lane and put up a shot that was choked back by s x foot n ne lou sv lle center B ll Bunton. he swatted the ball hard enough to reach m dcourt, where Card nal guard Ph ll p Bond snatched the ball and waltzed n for a le surely, game-w nn ng layup. nearly one year later, on January 3, 1976, ekker’s Buffaloes shocked legendary coach denny Crum’s Card nals by a score of 84–78 n overt me at freedom hall n lou sv lle. the w n propelled the Buffs to a top 20 rank ng and a final season mark of 19–7. they lost to lou sv lle 69–57 later n the season before a record crowd of 6,308 at the amar llo C v c Center.

Buffalo thunder

“Little Mo”

he was dwarfed n compar son by some of the Buffs’

basketball ach evements. he started for four years and

legendary tall players of the 1940s, but Maur ce Cheeks

was named Most Valuable Player three t mes and all-

towers above even that generat on n terms of h s

M ssour Valley Conference before graduat ng n 1978.

accompl shments both at West texas and beyond.

he averaged 16.8 po nts h s sen or year and shot for

The six-foot, one-inch Cheeks went on to make major marks in the NBA both as a player and coach. Besides his accomplishments on the basketball court, he’s remembered and loved at WT as an allaround great player and for his personal integrity and inspiring work ethic.

56.8 percent from the field, fin sh ng fourth on Wt’s

l ke many of Wt’s athlet c greats, Cheeks came

on and off the court, Cheeks had ncred ble char sma

from outs de the area. he grew up on Ch cago’s

and a magnet c personal ty, though he was somewhat

hardscrabble south s de and made h s way south to

naturally shy and ret cent, schaeffer sa d.

Canyon because, somewhat unbel evably, very few other schools recru ted h m.

all-t me scor ng l st w th 1,227 po nts. “he was an all-around player w th ntell gence and great phys cal sk lls,” sa d Jerry schaeffer, a teammate n the 1970s who rema ns a fr end. “he had unbel evable qu ckness. he was a world-class athlete and was very, very strong.”

“Maur ce was a guy who was always very engaged w th people when they were n h s presence. he was

It wasn’t a natural fit at first, and Cheeks strongly

ns ghtful and able to connect w th people then and

cons dered leav ng Wt beh nd after h s freshman year.

there. He would always stop and give you his

But h s mother ns sted that he stay n school, and way for fifteen years n the nBa as a po nt guard—

full attention. Because of that, he became a real treasure to the campus when he was here. Everybody loved him,” says schaeffer.

eleven w th the Ph ladelph a 76ers—and more years

and help ng h m to make the trans t on from urban

as a coach. he led the Portland tra l Blazers as head

Ch cago to rural Canyon was a couple n amar llo named

coach from 2001 to 2005, and was then h red to take

John and Betty sol s. they essent ally “adopted” the

the helm of h s beloved s xers.

young Cheeks—and other players over the years—and

he went on to have an amaz ng career that paved the

h s graceful ball handl ng and cons stent play put

made h m feel at home. “Betty was a great cook,” says

h m at the top or near the top of many of Wt’s all-t me

shaeffer. “she reached out to some of the players that

the 1970s

she thought needed a fam ly outs de the r own fam ly.” Wh le he was at Wt, a scout from Ph ladelph a got to see Cheeks n act on several t mes, and the s xers eventually selected h m n the second round (the th rty-s xth player selected overall) n the 1978 draft. he xers greats as went on to star alongs de such s xers ng and Moses Malone—both Jul us “dr. J.” erv ng —and because of of them legends n the nBa—and stency, eventuh s ach evements and cons stency, red by the ally had h s #10 ceremon ously ret red Ph ladelph a organ zat on. n the early 1980s that Cheeks It was n ttle Mo,” as a contrast became known as “l ttle ne to “B g Mo,” Moses Malone, who stood n ne nches taller. In the nBa, Cheeks averaged 11.1 po nts and 6.7 ass sts per game. he played n 1,101 games, scored a total of 12,195 po nts, and had 7,392 ass sts. at the t me of h s ret rement, he was the nBa’s all-t me leader n steals, w th 2,310. he played n the nBa all-star Game four t mes and helped Ph ladelph a go to the finals four t mes, w nn ng the champ onsh p n 1983.

Chapter 4:

The 1980s an elegant culture lleyball women’s...and men’s vo speed and the three a string of four loss...and gain women’s softball

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the 1980s

An elegant culture

If Allene Stovall cultivated WT women’s sports in the 1960s and ’70s, Bob Schneider didn’t bother harvesting the crops—he and his Lady Buff

basketball team set the field of women’s sports ablaze in the 1980s and ’90s, fulfilling Frankie Broyles’s prophecy sixty years prior.

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The trek to WT for Schneider meandered through the arable ranks of Texas Panhandle girls’ basketball, its own polestar for collegiate recruiting. In forty-three years of coach ng, schne der’s teams posted only two los schne der’s los ng seasons. hee was pred pred ctably rewarded w th a place n the texas t h gh gh school Basketball hall of fame. after fter a short st st nt at texas Woman’s un vers ty, schne der der planted h h mself n Canyon and choreographed the elegant mythos that became ’s legend n d v s on II women’s basketWt’s ball. In the wake of the lady Buffs’ success floated a troupe of talented players, many of whom followed schne der nto coach the coach ng ranks.

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after los ng twelve games n both the 1981 and 1982 seasons, twenty more years would pass before the lady Buffs roundballers would drop a dozen games n a s ngle season. W nn ng became the lady Buffs’ elegant culture, an expectat on, a noblesse that gn ted all of women’s athlet cs.

Under Schneider’s coaching mastery, the Lady Buffs staged twenty-five straight winning seasons and launched one of the most storied women’s programs since moving into Division II play in 1986. the r se of lady Buff basketball came just n t me for Wt to m grate from the remote M ssour Valley Conference to the more fam l ar compet t on n the lone star Conference.

“Winning became the lady Buffs’elegant culture, an expectation, a noblesse that ignited all of women’s athletics.”

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The Lady Buff basketball team’s list of accomplishments became almost mythical in Division II basketball; among other Division II coaches, Schneider inhales rarified air. · 585–163 at WTAMU · Twenty five straight winning seasons (Schneider’s WT teams never posted a losing record) · Eighteen seasons with 20-plus wins · 1997 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year · NCAA Invitational Tournament Runners-Up · Only two losing basketball seasons in more than 43 years of coaching · Eight Lone Star Conference titles · Two Women’s National Invitational Tournament appearances In 1988 the lady Buffs posted the best season n ts h story, fin sh ng at 33–1 and as nCaa tournament runners-up. along the way, the lady Buffs captured a str ng of four lone star Conference Champ onsh ps even though they played only half of the decade n the lsC. they followed the nearperfect 1988 campa gn w th a 26–3 season and a th rd stra ght lsC t tle. Wt’s teresa t nner was named lsC Player of the year and leona Gerber was named all-Conference.

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Women’s . . . and Men’s Volleyball At the same time that the women’s basketball team was gaining dominance, women’s volleyball was producing conference-threatening teams in the 1980s that became national menaces into the 1990s, tak ng advantage of a robust supply of local athletes. Panhandle athletes who rema ned close to home were v rtually assured four w nn ng seasons and postseason play. By the m ddle of the ’80s, K m hudson ratcheted up the women’s volleyball program just n t me for the trans t on from the old o l Country athlet c Conference to the lsC. Pr or to hudson’s arr val, Wt had jumped from a 2–27 record n 1979 to a 23–13–2 record n 1980 and earned a b d to the reg onal tournament at uta under Coach Bobb e Cox. In 1982 the lady Buffs won the o l Country athlet c Conference w th a 38–21 record n Carmen Penn ck’s first year. three seasons later they lost a share of the 1985 conference t tle by .00203 po nts n the league’s complex scor ng system. dur ng hudson’s first year n 1986, Wt mproved from a 10–24 season to a 25–7 w nn ng program. In 1989 hudson’s g rls closed out the decade w th a 33–8 record to w n the lsC. hudson and the double threat of s sters J ll and Jul e Myatt stamped the close of the 1980s w th a forebod ng volleyball dom nance. Player eve Posey set the stage for the oncom ng decade—and eventually the greatest season n Wt volleyball h story. In 1989 she and her fellow lady Buffs produced a 31–9 season, took home a share of the lsC t tle, and made the r naugural appearance n the el te e ght. Posey took home f rst-team all-lsC, amer can Volleyball Coaches assoc at on all-south reg onal team, south Central reg onal tournament MVP, and aVCa second-team all-amer can honors. on the court, she set a Wt and an lsC record w th 1,616 ass sts.

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dur ng hudsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenure her teams won 127 games and lost only twenty five. under her forbearance, Wt secured two lsC t tles and a co-champ onsh p. hudson was named the d v s on II Coach of the year by the amer can Volleyball Coaches assoc at on n 1990 and moved the follow ng year to coach northern ar zona. named to the Wt hall of fame five years later, she s now ret red after coach ng the un vers ty of south Carol na Gamecocks. Wt even br efly launched a menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ntercolleg ate volleyball team n 1980, but t was trag cally marred when team member Greg thompson was k lled n a car acc dent dur ng the season.

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speed and the Three Over a decade, three WT men’s basketball coaches attempted to bring WT basketball back to its earlier prominence, beg nn ng w th Ken edwards. after backto-back 8–19 seasons n 1979 and 1980, newcomer edwards pulled off a 19–10 record w th the help of terry adolph, whose older brother Mose adolph was edwards’s ass stant coach. adolph broke Cheeks’s record for most ass sts w th 215. adolph, who developed a well-deserved reputat on for h s speed and pass ng ab l ty, led the team to an nIt berth for the th rd t me n school h story and beat 20th-ranked southern Cal forn a.

In 1981, Adolph won the Frances P. Naismith Award as the best player in the nation under six feet tall. he went on to the Golden state Warr ors as a fourth-round draft p ck.

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edwards’s team sl pped the follow ng year, post ng an 8–20 season, and cont nued to struggle unt l Gary Moss took over the Wt men’s program n 1984 and nstantly elevated them to an 11–17 season. the team followed w th another 11–17 season n ’85, and by 1986 Moss had helped the Wt men cl mb to the top of the lsC w th a 24–7 record, and w th another sem nal

Charles Byrd had all but mastered the three-point shot that had just been introduced into the Lone Star Conference. Byrd ended the 1986 season as the conference’s second most prolific three-point shooter, all the while leading WT to an LSC co-championship. force on the court.

Coach Moss left after only three seasons and under the cloud of an nCaa nvest gat on that eventually ended w th two years’ probat on placed on the Wt men’s team. Consequently new coach Mark adams began h s tenure at Wt nel g ble for postseason play; nonetheless, adams led the Buff’s to an 18–10 season and a t e for second n the lsC. adams’s teams put together a 108–40 record from 1987–92, nclud ng consecut ve twenty-plus w nn ng seasons n h s final three years.

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A String of Four A string of four head football coaches throughout the 1980s sought to produce winning seasons for WT football. dynam c B ll yung could only st tch together a 26–27–2 record n five seasons. h s team was able to capture two conference champ onsh ps n the 1970s, but none n the 1980s. yung left that chore to don dav s, choos ng nstead to step nto the helm at texas-el Paso, wh ch competed n the Western athlet c Conference (WaC). dav s nst tuted a run-and-shoot-style offense that let V ctor McGee emerge as one of the top passers n the country n 1982. But dav s’s team took a nosed ve n 1983 and posted only a s ngle t e and the worst season n Wt h story. In don dav s’s last season, 1984, Wt posted a paltry 3–8 record but ended an e ghteen-game los ng streak that had started n 1982.

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In 1985, under the direction of new coach Bill Kelly, WT tried to parlay the arm of standout quarterback Tod Mayfield into victory in a season that saw Mayfield rewrite the record books and emerge as one of the top Division II quarterbacks in the nation. the follow ng year, 1986, was Wt’s first year n d v s on II and the lone star Conference. the Buffs began 1–4 and los ng on the road at stephen f. aust n state (a d v s on I-aa team) by a score of 36–31. on the follow ng Monday meet ng of the Wt touchdown Club, master of ceremon es and K mbrough stad um publ c address announcer Ph l Woodall pred cted that the Buffaloes would not lose another game that year. Wt r pped off s x consecut ve v ctor es, nclud ng a w ld 54–49 w n at texas a&I and a season-end ng tr umph at ab lene Chr st an on november 22. the Buffs were beh nd 28–7 at the start of the fourth quarter, but they scored twenty five unanswered po nts to w n 32–28 and cl nch the outr ght lsC champ onsh p. although they were conference champ ons, the Buffs were not selected for the nCaa d v s on II playoffs, wh ch then took only e ght teams. It was probably a good th ng for the rest of d v s on II, s nce the Buffs could have won t all.

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Loss . . . and Gain am d all the tr umphs of the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;80s, Wt sadly b d farewell to ts track and field programs. Coach ng legend Bob K tchens parlayed h s early success at Wt nto fabled programs, first at M ss ss pp state and then at the un vers ty of texas-el Paso. But t was dur ng th s decade that bowl ng erupted n ts place. though B ll Passonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1980 menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team lost n the finals of the nat onal Colleg ate

they became known as one of the most prolific bowling squads in the collegiate ranks, producing national and international talent for years to come. Bowl ng tournament,

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among the several alumn Wt has sent to the Profess onal Bowlers assoc at on are amar llo tw ns M ke and Mark scrogg ns. M ke jo ned the PBa tour n 1989 and has won nearly m $1 m ll on, and another teammate, Marc Mcdowell, became PB rook e of the year, served as PBa pres dent from the 1986 PBa t 1991–92, won five t tles, and earned Bowler of the year honors st ranks as one of the top twenty bowlers n 1992. Jack Jurek st ll Profess n the Profess onal Bowlers assoc at on. In 1983 Jurek qual fied Bowl for the World Bowl ng tour n austral a wh le play ng for the Buffs. the lackawanna, new york, nat ve eventually jo ned the PBa tour and won nearly $400,000.

The women’s team sent shockwaves through the collegiate bowling ranks with a dominating national championship in 1982 and again in 1987. By the end of the decade, the women’s squad had made eight straight trips to nationals, even after they lost all university funding. By that t me, Coach reg na loveall had assembled one of the most n m table teams n the nat on and ra sed the funds to keep them on the lanes. s sters Cathy and Carolyn Pr ce returned the favor by prov d ng strong leadersh p.

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Women’s softball Women’s softball made an impressive launch in 1979 before the program fell victim to budget cuts in 1984. Under the tutelage of Brenda Marshall, the brief chapter in WT women’s sports history is still paying dividends. lady Buff renee luers set school records for most w ns, saves, complete games, nn ngs p tched, and str keouts, and later converted texas tech’s women’s team to nat onal prom nence n 1998 before tak ng the un vers ty of Central flor da job. In add t on, she p tched several no-h tters and a shutout aga nst nat onally ranked oklahoma state n 1983.

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Chapter 5:

The 1990s

a farmer down the road hunting for a job a remarkable season the best season ever

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A farmer down the road WT faculty and administration had sparred for much of the 1980s, leaving little goodwill for the tattered athletic department. WT needed a change.

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So Barry Thompson was summoned from Tarleton State University to assume the presidency of WT and to ameliorate the administrative footing that was splintered by the years of facultyadministration head-butting. thompson orchestrated a plan for Wt to jo n the texas a&M system and changed ts name to West texas a&M un vers ty. But first, he had to face the financ al d fficult es of rehydrat ng the emac ated shell of the Wt athlet cc department. thompson was a cunn ng r sk taker who had fash oned a reputat on for retool ng broken nst tut ons. he’d brought tarleton state back from the br nk of collapse; Wt’s s tuat on wasn’t qu te as d re, but old wounds needed tend ng. thompson held h s own pass on for sports—horse rac ng n part cular. (after ret r ng from h s publ c un vers ty career, thompson would open h s own horse rac ng operat on n West texas.) But h ss personal sports hurrah would have to wa t, for Wt’s football program was n the red, and anem c on the field.

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The interplay of WT politics and athletics careened into the 1990s with especially ruinous consequences for WT football. after talks w th then head football coach steve Graf, and one of the worst seasons n Wt h story (1–10 n 1990), thompson canceled the 1991 season. “It was a very d fficult dec s on, espec ally when you cons der how much I love college sports,” thompson sa d.

“it was a very difficult decision, especially when you consider how much i love college sports.”

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Students complained. Scholarship athletes scrambled to find spots with other intercollegiate teams. And Kimbrough Stadium fell silent with no collegiate football for the first time since its construction. even Wt’s march ng band was forced to look for fr day n ght g gs at area h gh schools, and homecom ng found a temporary home w th ntercolleg ate rodeo. cally, the haymaker of a cancelled season trag cally, was felt throughout most of the 1990s as the nued to sputter. When football program cont nued thompson rev ved the sport a year later, Wt was ng out of the lone star Conference and compet ng th non-scholarsh p as a d v s on II ndependent w th teele took the unenv able athletes. the jov al ron steele task of rebu ld ng Wt football and was only able to put together seasons of 1–9 (Wt beat Pra r ee V ew a&M, w th ng seasons) and 3–6 before leav ng n ts own legacy of los ng the spr ng of 1994. tone, held the re ns for the next steele’s ass stant, Morr s stone, tan McGarvey took the helm n 1997 three seasons before stan ty back to Wt football, post ng and brought some respectab l ty n the w nn ng seasons n 1997 and 1998. however, three Wt teams n ’90s ended the r seasons w th only one w n ap ece, as four coaches dur ng the decade assembled total records of 38–57. stone’s 1994 team went to the a r on the arm of prol fic quarterback Grady Benton, an ar zona state transfer, and produced a 9–2 record, g v ng longt me fans a gl mmer of the past. the Buffs scored 506 po nts and threw v rtually every down under stone’s run-andshoot offense, but the next two years were d smal.

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even w th the spark of 1994, though, Wt was st ll unable to defeat even the lesser teams of the lsC. they lost to both ab lene Chr st an and eastern new Mex co n the season pr or to reenter ng the lone star Conference. By 1995, Wt was back n the lsC, and the teeth of the lsC buzz saw cut deep: Wt fin shed w th a s ngle w n. stone res gned. and eventually athlet c d rector M ke Chandler left. longt me d v s on II athlet c d rector ed harr s took over the athlet c department and h red stan McGarvey, whose demeanor was the ant thes s of Joe Kerbel, whose shadow st ll hung over K mbrough stad um.

Nonetheless, McGarvey’s job was to reincarnate WT football as the decade

wound down. McGarvey quietly propagated a sense of dedication, commitment, and integrity in Kimbrough Stadium and recruited heavily from the junior college ranks to field immediately competitive teams. In h s first season McGarvey’s Buffs posted a 7–4 record w th three stra ght w ns to end the season. By the 1997 season Wt won s x of ts first seven games and completed an 8–3 campa gn. for McGarvey’s final three Wt seasons, h s teams struggled to hold on to what they had started, and by 1999 they’d dropped to 3–8. desp te McGarvey’s dr ve toward respectab l ty, K mbrough stad um never saw a cons stent stream of fans pack the stad um once the l ghts were turned back on. If the 1960s were the golden years of Wt football, the 1990s were a tarn shed d splay of courage and struggle followed by heartache and d sappo ntment.

Sustaining traction was difficult. Money was in short supply. Students struggled to envision a football renaissance. No one realized that the resurrection of WT football was embodied in a farmer toiling just a few miles west of Canyon.

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hunting for a Job It was an odd confluence of the happenings—deer hunting, a disastrous football season, and a sliver of an article in a small north central Texas newspaper. But it all fell together for Butch Lauffer, the only full-time soccer coach that WT has ever had. the dem se of Wt’s football team n 1991 had jeopard zed Wt’s el g b l ty n d v s on II. they needed another men’s sport, and soccer was the cheapest add t on to a financ ally strapped athlet c department. Wh le he was tak ng a break from deer hunt ng n el dorado, lauffer spotted a newspaper art cle that announced Barry thompson’s dec s on to end Wt football. the story nd cated that Wt m ght add another men’s sport—perhaps soccer—so t could ma nta n d v s on II status.

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Lauffer was under no illusions. soccer was a l ttle exot c for Wt. By the early ’90s, ch ldren were just d scover ng organ zed soccer and the knowledge pool was a l ttle shallow. But lauffer took on the task of bu ld ng a soccer program w th the zeal of an evangel st and the savo r fa re of a soccer ntellect. he wrote nstruct onal books, cast soccer v deos, and elevated the stature of the world’s most popular sport among youth organ zat ons n the texas Panhandle. Wh le he was at t, he created a few w nn ng teams at Wt. he lobb ed local sportswr ters to take an nterest n Major league soccer. he had to enl ghten a w ll ng but somewhat gnorant Wt athlet c adm n strat on on the finer es of soccer et quette: “do you have cheerleaders at soccer games?” More mportantly, he understood that soccer needed early success or t wouldn’t last past the renewal of football at Wt. “It was a heckuva learn ng exper ence from day one. at the t me I was runn ng a club n houston, so I was able to find some players. I told recru ts that they’d have a chance to play r ght away. We had to be successful early on or t wouldn’t work,” he recalled. h s teams d dn’t d sappo nt, w th the men go ng 10–9–2 n the r first season and the women post ng a 12–4 record and w nn ng the lsC t tle us ng Panhandle talent n the r naugural season a few years later n 1996. M dfielder Jul e saylor young, an amar llo h gh school graduate, completed her career w th twenty one goals and twenty four ass sts and was f rst team all-lsC as well as rece v ng all-lsC academ c honors. In seventeen years as head men’s soccer coach and another twelve years as the women’s coach, lauffer’s teams would amass a 334–143–32 record. By 1997 (and then aga n n 2000), the Buffs reached the nCaa d v s on II playoffs. Both the men’s and women’s teams would make the tr p n 2001.

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“he wrote instructional books, cast soccer videos, and elevated the stature of the world’s most popular sport among youth organizations in the Texas Panhandle.”

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A remarkable season Undeterred by the gridiron struggles of the 1990s, Bob Schneider’s Lady Buffs basketball team posted winning seasons during each year of the decade. the lady Buffs notched five lsC champ onsh ps and e ght appearances n nCaa postseason tournaments. Perhaps the most remarkable season n the decade was 1997. the lady Buffs ran nto a labyr nth of njur es; n one game the lady Buffs lost two players to l gament njur es w th n the span of one m nute. at t mes they had only one healthy player on the bench. so Coach schne der looked for help. a product of the texas Panhandle’s women’s basketball lore, schne der knew there must be a few players among the student den zens. In the earl est days of texas Panhandle h story, g rls n farm ng commun ty schools played basketball long before adm adm n strators n large schools env saged women’s athlet cs. “the larger schools thought sports were too tough on gg rls unt unt l about the 1970s. the small schools knew better, so some of these gg rls had mothers, grandmothers, and greatgrandmothers that played basketball,” schne der sa d.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The larger schools thought sports were too tough on girls until about the 1970s. The small schools knew better, so some of these girls had mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers that played basketball.â&#x20AC;?

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“We are in the Texas Panhandle. i knew that there were talented girls on campus.” Schneider publicized an all-campus tryout, recruited volleyball players who were in their off-season, and figured out a way to win. the lady roundballers lost only two games and won the lsC champ onsh p as schne der not only punctuated h s own coach ng legacy but spotl ghted the latent talent w th n reach among Wt’s student body. “It was really a remarkable season,” he recalled. “I asked some of the g rls f they wanted to play, and they were very w ll ng, worked hard, and had a great att tude.” one of those players was W Wt volleyball standout lesl e Brown Murrell who, at the t me, was struggl ng for play ng t me at the net. “I was rr d ng the p ne. for some reason I th nk play ng basketball that season made me help a better volleyball player. I went to help them and they ended up help ng me,” sa “the next year volleyball seemed to cl ck.” she sa d. Brown, who l ves n omaha, nebraska, and performs n stand-up comedy clubs, ser was forced to adjust to a culture that was far more ser ous than she was. “I remember one t me, on a road tr p, Coach schne der was dr v ng. I was jok ng w the other teammates, ‘Why do you dr ve on a parkway and park on a around w th dr dr veway?’ ‘If you dr nk half of half-n-half, does that make t Quarter-Quarter?’ and Coach schne der sn ckered and sa d, ‘lesl e, f you could put half of that effort nto remember remember ng our plays, t’d be wonderful.’ touché. I st ll remember some of the plays wh now. It took me a wh le, but I figured them out.” for most players, schne der and h s fam ly became the r extended fam ly. schne -

“I wanted the girls and their parents to understand that even though they were away from home, they had a home with us,” said the coach. w der’s w fe, Barbara, acted as cook and confidante.

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The Best season ever With Coach Kim Hudson’s departure at the close of the 1980s, people feared the WT volleyball program would go downhill fast. But thanks to a few coaching connections (including a Buff men’s basketball player from Brazil) and some serendipity, Hudson had gotten her hands on a videotape of two promising Brazilian players with lightning speed and blistering kills who would make their mark in the new decade. hudson had conv nced ana Carol na and ana Cr st na Pere ra to make the tr p to Canyon. they were k nd, even-tempered, and qu et women off the volleyball court, but they merc lessly pun shed unsuspect ng teams on the other s de of the net. “I’ve burned my hand n the oven and felt less pa n than the t me I blocked Carole [Carol na] dur ng pract ce,” sa d lesl e Brown.

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W th plans to stay for perhaps a month, the s sters nstead gu ded the lady Buffs to ts best season ever (38–1) and a nat onal champ onsh p n 1990, and aga n n 1991 under new head coach J m G acomazz . the Pere ra s sters also rece ved allamer can honors. In 1991 nCaa d v s on II nat onal champ onsh p p tted Portland state aga nst WtaMu at the amar llo C v c Center before 3,199 rab d volleyball fans. ana Cr st na “t ta” Pere ra was the d v s on II nat onal Player of the year. the next year “t ta” d d not play, but her s ster ana Carol na “Carole” led the lady Buffs to a 30–11

After Giacomazzi was fired by the athletic director, a diminutive spark plug named Debbie Hendricks filled the void. record and th rd place n the nat onal tournament.

tak ng over n 1993, hendr cks mmed ately endeared herself to volleyball boosters and sol d fied her teams by br ng ng n a few playmaker recru ts. In four seasons Wt was 97–37 w th two lsC champ onsh ps. hendr cks left at the close of the 1998 season after a first-round loss n the reg onal tournament to pursue a med cal career. But not before the year—1997— when amar llo h gh product sarah Butler surpr sed the B g 12 world by leav ng the un vers ty of texas after be ng named the B g 12 freshman of the year to return to her home n the texas Panhandle. Can you say “nat onal champ onsh p”? “We were so fortunate to get her,” expla ned hendr cks. “It was a real coup and we knew t.” so hendr cks and her staff beg n assembl ng a cadre of players around Butler, made up mostly of local talent. “you had to stop our team. d fferent people stepped up at d fferent t mes, but sarah was the nucleus.” as the cornerstone of the 1997 team, Butler and company posted a 37–3 record, nclud ng an e ghteen-match w nn ng streak to end the season, and earned another nat onal champ onsh p w th an exc t ng five-game rally over Barry (4–15, 15–13, 21–19, 7–15, 18–16) n Bakersfield, Cal forn a. It was a match that was heard n the early morn ng hours back n amar llo and Canyon. hendr cks was named the 1997 aVCa nCaa d v s on II nat onal Coach of the year. she also won 1997 and 1998 lsC south d v s on Coach of the year honors. hav ng posted th rty-plus w nn ng seasons n 1995 and 1997 and comp led a 159–47 record. hendr cks was selected to the lsC’s seventy-fifth ann versary allsports team n 2007.

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Along the way, Sarah Butler collected enough postseason hardware to secure a spot in the conversation about the best volleyball players in WT history—and remain in it. she was a two-t me nCaa d v s on II Player of the year, nclud ng that nat onal champ onsh p season as a sophomore, and she eventually jo ned only five other women named to the nCaa d v s on II all-t me volleyball team. Butler repeated the d v s on II nat onal Player of the year honor n 1999 n Coach tony Graystone’s first year, when the lady Buffs lost n the el te e ght sem finals at Battle Creek, M ch gan. Butler eventually jo ned tony Graystone’s staff as an ass stant and marr ed Colby Carthel, Wt football’s defens ve coord nator.

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T h e Vo i c e o f t h e B u f f s

for nearly th rty years, Warren hasse was the vo ce

assoc ated the r teams’ progress on the field w th

of the Buffs on the rad o. It was sort of an acc den-

hasse’s gentle, d rect del very.

tal career for hasse, and t was a perfect match. he cher shes h s decades of assoc at on w th West texas. hasse, a nat ve of W scons n, was a sportswr ter before he got nto rad o. at the 10,000-watt KGnC— at 710 on the aM d al—he would go on to announce v rtually all of the Buffaloes’ sports contests, even go ng on the road w th the teams and arrang ng to have the sun Bowl telev sed reg onally n 1961.

“I just tr ed to be profess onal. My nterest was more n people—the players and the coaches—than try ng to keep scores and stat st cs,” he says.

“On radio, you can’t talk too much—you have to paint the picture. You have to describe everything—the wind, the temperature, the color of the uniforms, the size of the crowd. Everything. one of the

he says he had no model as a broadcaster; he just

b ggest compl ments I’ve rece ved s that three d fferent

wanted to keep t natural and preserve the flow of the

bl nd people have told me, ‘I could p cture everyth ng

nterrupted by commerc als commerc als n n those games (v rtually un nterrupted

that’s happen ng.’”

He was literally thrust into the job one sunny day in 1954 for the second game of a baseball doubleheader. the regular announcers, days).

hasse’s son, John, of course, has been a part of the West texas athlet cs program for th rty years, now as ass stant athlet c d rector. When he was l ttle, he would somet mes accompany h s father on the road tr ps.

he sa d, had gone off for a b te to

former player ronn e Mank n says

eat between games, and fa led to

what made hasse’s del very stand out

tch return n t me for the open ng p tch

was ts personal nature. he would go to

of the second game. ere’s Warren hasse “suddenly, they sa d, ‘here’s m to do the play-by-play,’ and they pushed a m cron front of my face,” he says w th w a chuckle. phone n d-1950s to the early ’90s, Buff fans from the m d-1950s

great lengths to get to know the players and the r var ous nterests and share that w th h s l steners. “he knew us, so t was almost l ke the fans knew us too,” says Mank n.

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not on video the savior farmer soccer success stories not the first choice . . . or the second volleyball

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not on Video For nine years Don Carthel walked the turn rows that framed his farm rather than the sidelines of Kimbrough Stadium because he loved his children and had learned the hard way, during several successful campaigns at Eastern New Mexico University, that coaching took time. Lots of it. And he missed his children.

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“I was missing all of their games. I just stepped back and decided that I wanted to see them in person and not on video,” Carthel recalled. so after seven years at enMu, n wh ch Carthel had comp led a 44–28–1 record and pulled the Greyhounds out of the doldrums, he took a decadelong h atus from coach ng, stuck h s hands n h s father’s farm near fr ona, and went about ra s ng h s two ch ldren. all the wh le he was look ng over h s shoulder and th nk ng about football. and he kept h s toe d pped n the football flow. he coached n d v s on II all-star games. When he had a chance, he volunteered to help coaches of other teams, even ass st ng h s son, who coached at ab lene Chr st an un vers ty. after gett ng h s ch ldren off and runn ng, he took over the struggl ng WtaMu football team n 2005, comp l ng a 33–5 record and w nn ng three stra ght lsC t tles, and s multaneously resurrect ng a w nn ng trad t on that WtaMu hadn’t seen s nce the Kerbel era. Carthel recru ted speed. found a quarterback n dalton Bell, for whom th rty passes a game was a slow day, and wove together local talent w th jun or college transfers and a few d v s on I recru ts look ng for a second chance. K mbrough stad um was full aga n; cars l ned Interstate 27 north to amar llo and south to Canyon. attendance averaged fourteen thousand and set nat onal d v s on II records. local folks dec ded the Buffs were worth watch ng aga n. Conversat on even started about poss bly construct ng a b gger, more modern stad um fit for a new generat on of players.

In 2005 the Buffs shocked the Lone Star Conference—and even Coach Carthel—with a 10–1 season after the pundits had matter-of-factly added them to the bottom of the conference in preseason polls. “I was surpr sed that we got t turned around as fast as we d d; we won a lot of games that we shouldn’t have won,” sa d Carthel.

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Success brought accolades. Carthel was 2005 Coach of the Year. The first conference championship in nineteen years was followed by two more. no Wt team had ever managed a p ece of three stra ght conference champ onsh ps, much less three unshared t tles n a row. folks started talk ng about Carthel even more fondly than they had remembered Joe Kerbel. In h s first three seasons Kerbel had wracked up e ghteen w ns. Carthelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Buffs amassed th rty-three w ns n the first three years aga nst five losses.

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And while Kerbel was lionized for his iron-fisted coaching, Carthel commingled accountability with an engaging, salesman’s demeanor—only Carthel believed in what he was selling. “Wt was a sleep ng g ant. I felt that way from the t me that they dropped to d v s on II. all of the ngred ents were n place; we had to get them [the players] to bel eve,” Carthel expla ned. But Carthel took a few plays out of Kerbel’s d sc pl ne playbook. “the b ggest key to coach ng s treat ng the k ds well and hold ng them accountable. and that h ll at K mbrough works wonders,” sa d Carthel, referenc ng the pern c ous ncl ne on K mbrough stad um’s north end. Players forced to scale the h ll were usually mak ng amends for some on-the-field transgress on.

the 2000s

“WT was a sleeping giant.”

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The savior farmer Carthel brought a singular philosophy to the football field—“play with passion.” In 2005, dalton Bell sparked Buff aer al appet tes by throw ng for nearly four thousand yards and th rty touchdowns n eleven games and reveal ng the posture of the new Buff team. “fans love to see you sell your body and play w th exc tement. that’s 90 percent of football,” he sa d. Carthel’s early success has also allowed the sav or farmer to bu ld Wt football the way he wanted to from the beg nn ng, but he was forced to take a more exped ent route. the Wt talent pool was so depleted when Carthel arr ved that he mmed ately went to jun or colleges for qu ck help. W th the 2007 recru t ng class, Carthel and h s staff focused almost exclus vely on fill ng ts open ranks w th h gh school recru ts.

“We’re trying to wean ourselves from the transfers. In the first years we didn’t have a choice, but now we’re building a self-sustaining program,” he sa If the Buffs are successful, future sa d. pund pund ts w ll survey the crop of w nn ng W sav or farmer and seasons grown by Wt’s declare t. stalnacker’s prom se to del ver “the best that s n us” as Carthel’s golden harvest.

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Soccer Success Stories Butch Lauffer’s success with the WT women’s team ultimately eclipsed his early start with the men’s team. the men have been no slouches e ther. In add t on to hon ng a str ng of all-lsC talent, lauffer mentored davey arnaud, Wt’s first all-amer can after post ng th rteen goals and three ass sts n 2001. arnaud left Wt for the pro ranks and made the Kansas C ty W zards as a str ker, and eventually earned a spot on the u.s. nat onal team. But the women have won the lsC regular season or tournament t tle s x of the last eleven years, nclud ng three n a row.

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Along the way, Lauffer has orchestrated a string of firsts: · First women’s soccer camp in Trinidad. · Formalization of zoned-style play that Lauffer called “innovation based on survival.” · One of the first to take an intercollegiate team abroad for preseason practice in Ireland and Germany. · First to start bringing in sports psychologists to work with players. “We didn’t always have the best players, so we had to be better prepared,” Lauffer said. · First college team in Texas to scrimmage MLS teams.

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not the first choice . . . or the second Almost sixty years after the storied success of WT’s 1940s teams, men’s basketball coach Rick Cooper inserted a hard-driving, speed-dependent offense and a relentless man-to-man defense to emerge as the most successful coach in WT history. And it almost didn’t happen. “I was not the first cho ce; I don’t th nk I was even the second cho ce,” Cooper remembered. “We rolled the d ce and took a chance.” he was the th rd cho ce, and coach ng a few m les south of Canyon at Wayland un vers ty n Pla nv ew. Wt athlet c d rector M ke Chandler offered h m the job. the Wt athlet c budget was suspect, wh ch m ght have contr buted to the two earl er false starts. nonetheless, Cooper “rolled the d ce.” recru t ng started late, leav ng Cooper w th l ttle t me to ponder the s gn ficance of be ng someth ng other than the “first p ck.” “I was just worr ed s ck about try ng to w n ball games,” he recalled. Beg nn ng w th h s naugural season and nto the 2000s, Cooper’s teams have muscled, passed, and spr nted the r way nto lsC prom nence w th s x nCaa reg onal tournament berths n h s fifteen years n both the Wt f eldhouse and the new $13 m ll on Wt events Center that opened n January of 2002. Wt hasn’t had a los ng season s nce Cooper took over the re ns n 1993. Wt ntroduced ts new mentor w th fifteen stra ght w ns n that season. he was also the first Wt coach to lead a team to the d v s on II el te e ght (1998), and h s teams have made ten postseason appearances.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want our players to produce their best when the best is required.â&#x20AC;?

the 2000s

In stark contrast to his fiery court presence, Cooper is philosophical about his contribution to fifteen successive winning seasons. “We want our players to produce the r best when the best s requ red.” Perhaps some of Cooper’s success revolves around h ss w ll ngness to act as WtaMu salesman to prospects who d p s ts. the r toes nto the texas Panhandle on recru t ng v s ts. unl ke the exchange between legendary uCla coach John ng the Wooden and 1970s Wt coach ron ekker acknowledg ng exas, Cooper has cooked d fficult es of recru t ng nto rural texas, up w nn ng seasons w th a healthy m xx of local and more d stant recru ts, nclud ng one n h s own household. m Cooper enl sted h s own son, tyler, to play for h m through the 2007 season. fe. It’s forced me to look “It’s been the t me of my l fe. ght. It’s made me a better coach,” at t n a d fferent l ght. he expla ned. for more typ cal recru ts, Cooper bel eves just gett ng them on campus s half the battle, and f he can get them to the Wt pres dent, the deal’s almost sealed. Wt pres dent russell long, who served n the top post dur ng much of Cooper’s career, ns sted on meet ng every recru t.

“The campus sells itself, and if it’s important to the president, it’s important to the campus,” Cooper said.

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Brister Soars to Top with Lady Buffs

She’s humble and unassuming, but she aims high and scores.

shed for twenty-five w nn ng seasons and mult ple

the lady Buffs certa nly have a r ch basketball

fans and adm rers can eas ly t ck off Br ster’s mpres-

trad t on, and em ly Br ster s tak ng them to new

s ve tra ts . . . and then keep t ck ng them off. the

he ghts. after just her th rd season at Wt, she has earned

five-foot-n ne guard s a great shooter, s fast, pulls

her place n the pantheon of Wt greats l ke Vanessa

off qu ck, crafty passes for ass sts, and s constantly

Wells, teresa t nner, Pat Mcdonald, natasha taylor,

gather ng rebounds on both ends of the court. the

latr c a spencer, Brand Green, Celeste stevenson, and

amar llo nat ve s also an excellent student and has a

Ke sha Moore.

sunny but low-key personal ty.

On her way to becoming WT’s all-time leading scorer—with 2,106 points (beating Stevenson’s high mark of 1,993) and another season to go—Br ster has been named

champ onsh ps under Coach Bob schne der.

“she’s really got t all,” says Ph l Woodall, longt me play-by-play announcer w th the Buffalo sports network. “Just everyth ng she does, she does a great job on.” W th all the attent on focused on Br ster dur ng her

all-amer can for the th rd year n a row and was named

jun or season, Woodall ma nta ned a “Br ster Watch” to

lone star Conference south d v s on Player of the year

alert the med a to her many progress ve m lestones—

for the th rd stra ght season as she helped to lead the

among them attempted field goals and three-po nters

lady Buffs to a regular-season t tle and the r n nth lsC

made.

Champ onsh p and s xteenth nCaa postseason appear-

When prepar ng for her first season w th the lady

ance n 2008. f tt ngly, she was named the lsC tourna-

Buffs, Coach Kr sta Gerl ch, herself a former star at

ment MVP after averag ng 25.7 po nts per game for the

texas tech, commented on Br ster’s all-around sk lls

lady Buffs n postseason play.

Courtney lee, the lady Buffs cont nue a trad t on of

“She sets the bar in practice every day by her work ethic; then she lifts them up with praises when she is successful,” Gerl ch says. “she s truly a spec al and

greatness that started w th allene stovall and flour-

g fted nd v dual.”

W th Br ster at the guard pos t on and strong support ng players l ke Jam e dre l ng, d x e Bell, and

and leadersh p presence:

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as a freshman n 2005–06, Br ster averaged twentyone po nts a game and won the lone star Conference south d v s on Player of the year award as well be ng ear. In her second named the lsC’s freshman of the year. cked up a bagful of more awards year at Wt, Br ster p cked nts a game. wh le averag ng twenty-three po nts l ngual ngual elemenelemen In 2008, Br ster was major ng n b l ngual ted about work ng ng w th w tary educat on and was exc ted stently earned excellent ch ldren n the future. she cons stently n 2006–07, she was named the lone star s grades at Wt; n ear and was named an south’s academ c Player of the year arthur ashe, Jr., sports scholar.

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Volleyball tony Graystone, follow ng n the footsteps of K m hudson and debb e hendr cks, cont nued as the th rd generat on of Wt volleyball coaches to m x local talent w th the season ng of targeted recru ts from across the un ted states—and cont nued the w nn ng ways too. under Graystone’s stewardsh p the Wt women have won nearly 85 percent of the r games, and n h s n nth year as coach, h s teams

He eclipsed Hendricks’s record of 160 wins to become WT’s all-time winningest coach, and his teams hit the one hundred-win mark faster than any team in NCAA history after only 106 matches, including a 34–4 record in 2007.

have more than 250 w ns.

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Conclusion

As West Texas A&M begins its Centennial Celebration, it is our pleasure to bring you Buffalo Thunder, a celebration of the first one hundred years of athletic achievements at West Texas. Since 1910, WT has been home to incredible triumphs and—as is the very nature of sport—disappointing losses. Each has contributed to the rich history of Buffalo Athletics. Most importantly, our teams have been a common bond for our alumni and community to share a passionate devotion to the Buffs and Lady Buffs. Buffalo Thunder is a tribute to all those who have competed for the Maroon & White and in the process provided the people of our university and our region with countless memories and lifelong friendships. Undoubtedly, the book will stir memories and provoke conversation among you and your family and friends. These pages highlight only a few of the outstanding coaches and athletes who have each played a role in our history. Those featured in Buffalo Thunder would agree that their accomplishments were due in large part to their teammates and coaches. We hope this is the first project of many that will pay proper tribute to the thousands of Buffs and Lady Buffs who have come before us. While Buffalo Thunder celebrates the first one hundred years of athletic accomplishments, the Buffs and Lady Buffs of the next century will no doubt provide more thrills and memories for generations to come. May you enjoy this work, share it with your friends and continue the charge of “On, On Buffaloes!” Go Buffs!

Michael McBroom

Director of Athletics

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