Rocky - Extra Credit

These were the really cool guys at Travis. Rocky having 3 Class Favorite Awards under his belt made him the Ringleader. There were a couple more cool dudes that probably should have been in this picture but for some reason the choosing teacher left them out.  Or, seeing who's included, I'd guess that Rocky might have been asked to pick these accompanying buddies. I was never really cool enough to be in a pic like this but I was in each of these guys orbits, so let me tell you a little bit about each...

Four of these guys are not with us anymore, Rocky being the most recent. Billy John, Harry and Eddie have been gone awhile.

David W lived over by the shopping center at 24^th and Grand.  He and I were a pitcher catcher softball combination for years. I watched my first viewing of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at his house in ~65 or so. David was a good-looking guy in grade school too. He flaunted that long black hair and combed the sides in a swept Elvis style... pretty cool. David was a very good athlete in grade school, but never ‘filled out’ like the rest of us going into Jr Hi. David played football throughout Jr Hi but probably contributed more in basketball. 

I was the size of Billy T.  You can tell in the picture that he’s a pretty big guy. Eddie A was about the same size as us.  Carrol M was a foot taller than us.  Another guy named Dickie H was our size and he was our center in football.  So, the five of us made up our offensive line in football. We were huge by Jr Hi standards.  

The coach told us line men that when we broke huddle, we should not go to the scrimmage line and immediately crouch down into a stance as every other team did.  Instead we should go to the line and stand tall until Marty our QB said ‘READY’. Only then would we get down into our stance.  Standing tall prevented the opposing team from seeing over us into our backfield to learn how our running backs were lining up for the next play.   

Billy T never made it to PD and that was too bad, he was one of our better players at Travis.  His family moved away, however his sister married a PD guy and they still live in Amarillo.  I saw her when the PD class of '69 had their last reunion. 

Harry B was fun.  If it wasn't fun, Harry wasn't interested. Harry and I started a new 'Rap Language' in Jr Hi with it's catch phrase - "Hey Buen", a slur for 'hey how you been'. Harry was a running back in Jr Hi football, even played a little basketball in 7th and 8th but he probably excelled most in track. Harry was sports minded but knew when he entered PD that his better days were behind him.  He still cherished the comradery of sports and joined the PD trainer squad to help with our team administration.  

In Jr and Sr Hi me and Billy L were a pitcher catcher pair.  Over those 6 years we were paired together at least 5 times a year so we started over 30 games together.  He drove a green ‘70 SS El Camino and I drove a red ’70 SS Chevelle. We were sports and car buds.    

 

I remember Eddie A as being the toughest guy on our Travis Jr Hi football team and close to being the toughest at PD too. Eddie and Billy H were two of the toughest line backers I have ever witnessed. On defense I would play tackle, down the outside end of the line.  When the opposing team would try to run the ball up the middle I would look over and see Eddie and Billy meet them square on and just kill those guys.  You never saw a team steadily run the ball up our middle cause they realized Eddie and Billy would shut them down.

OK, I’m going to get brutally honest.  I had some friends that were great athletes in their day.  Marty K was Whittier Elem’s best athlete in our class.  At Travis, Marty was a superb quarterback but while most of us had a growth spurt out of the 9^th grade Marty didn’t.  When Travis and Hoarce Mann merged I have to reluctantly say that the best quarterback between the schools was Bobby N. Bobby would be hard to beat in any sport at any position. 

Rocky was in this category too.  Rocky was a Jr Hi phenom. When your good, you’re fun to watch and Rocky was fun to watch! He was fast and smooth but he hit some pretty stiff competition at PD. To Rocky’s credit, he toughed it out, made varsity, but really didn’t get to play much. And like I’ve said earlier, my fondest memories of Rocky are back at Travis and I’ll never forget the effort he displayed there.

Editors Note - "Marty K was Whittier Elem’s best athlete in our class"... 

Well, there was a time when for about 2 or 3 days a girl beat him out of that title. 

Marty was good at everything.  He played Baseball, Football, Basketball and ran Track.  In the 6th grade he could run faster than any other boy.  

About midway thru that class year a girl registered at Whittier and rumor was she was fast. The rumor spread and grew till one day the PE teachers got her and Marty together for a race. 

Whittier was built so that all the 6th grade was on one wing of the school.  The other grades occupied the other wings.  The 6th grade wing looked out onto the track where the race was being held.  

Word got out.  The teachers began to whisper, then it became audible, in about a half minute everyone in the wing knew about the race.  Everyone in that wing pressed their face and noses up against the North side windows to watch the spectacle. If I remember right, it only lasted for about 2 minutes around less than a quarter mile. Whittier didn't really have a track. They ran around a couple of baseball fields.  

Well to keep it short, she won, not by a whole lot, but she won. Everyone in the wing went wild.  Word spread throughout the school. For 2 or 3 days afterward, the 6th grade girls pranced around school like they owned the place.

Marty took it like a man, he didn't let it defeat him, he went on to have a lustrous school athletic career.