Just when you think you're on the brink of doing something great, reality may intervene (usually does)
Perhaps the worst football season ever for the Refugio Bobcats took place in 1945 when L N. Dyer was the head football coach Soon after his arrival in the Mission city, Dyer clashed with several of the better players, who either quit the team or were expelled from it. Disaster followed, of course, with the Bobcats losing all nine of their games, including a 70-0 walloping at the hands of the Banquete bulldogs and anther embarrassment. 69-0, inflicted upon them by the Ingleside Mustangs.
I was among the happiest of all students when Dyer was fired, but my happiness stemmed not from his being a departed bad coach but from the manner in which he implemented his Board of Education.
It was about 18"inches long with one end having been carved to fit Dyer's hand. To understand how Dyer implemented that Board, you need to know that he had a rule that applied to all his students, of which I was one in his 6th grade PE class. Whenever you said "can't," Dyer's rule was that you got a slap on the behind from the Board.
Coach Dyer taught me not to say, "I can't,"' which is why, whenever I slip up and say it these days. I immediately look around to see if there's anyone
with a Board.
But back to my "almost greatness.""
I made the basketball team for my junior and senior years (didn't play much but had a Class A seat for all the games).
My senior year we played in the Lamar Consolidated tournament over the Christmas holidays. We played well early, defeating Humble on Thursday and Beaumont French High on Friday.
Thus, we advanced to meet Missouri City in the Saturday morning opener. I was among those who had stayed overnight in a nearby hotel; a few of my teammates had been taken in by local residents.
Soon we discovered that starting guard Jim Fagan had come down with the flu and his usual subs were nowhere in sight (they had stayed in a residence). It was warm-up, during which I became ecstatic. With Fagan ill and his subs nowhere in sight, I began to think; I'm going to start this game.
I noted our coach, Paul Gips, looking at me several times as I made warmup shot after warmup shot Finally, Coach motioned for me to "come over."
I got to coach's side. He reached into his pocket, took out his car keys and told me, "Andy, I want you to take my car and go see if you can find Bill and Ray."
As I was about to leave for that purpose, Bill and Ray rushed in.
By the way, and justly so, we lost to Missouri City that Saturday morning. but we rebounded to win two more games and place third in the tournament {Have the Bobcats ever played three games in one day and five games in three days, like they did in the 1951 Lamar Consolidated tournament?}
The Woodsboro Eagles (0-28 against Refugio) perhaps had their best chance of ever beating Refugio in the 1945 Bobcat winless season when the two did not confront one another. But the Eagles had a great opportunity to defeat the Cats in 1950. In fact, Woodsboro was the favorite when they met in Refugio, with the Eagles leading the district after defeating the pre-season district favorite, Ingleside. ,
The first half was tightly fought, with Refugio behind 6-7 as the second quarter ended. The Woodsboro kickoff to start the second half was fielded by Serafin Vela on about the 20 yard line. Serafin immediately began "his thing."
I had "the best seat in the house." which was standing to the left of Coach Gips. We watched with increasing excitement as Serafin worked his magic,
As Serafin was passing before us, however, Woodsboro's awesome lineman, Chester Harrison was about to force Serafin out of bounds.
Then, out of nowhere, Bobcat guard Ron Davis threw a tremendous body block to knock Harrison off the playing field, as Serafin continued on his way into the end zone.
Refugio won the game 19-12, so it was that the Eagles lost a "best chance" opportunity.
The Eagles of 1950 had several very fine players. In addition to Harrison, there were the likes of Aubrey Dean Horner, Keith Hofman and Arhie Zabel.
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