The state championship feeling

Abilene High won a Texas state football championship last night, beating two-time defending state champion Katy High, 28-17, at the Alamodome in San Antonio. I listened to the game on the radio, just like I listened in 1954 when Abilene beat Houston's Austin High, 14-7, in Houston. Only in 2009, I listened to an audio feed over the Internet that could be heard globally by anyone with an Internet connection. With the Internet, there is no more local news.

How does it feel, in the locker room, or on the ride home, after winning a state championship? According to H.P. Hawkins, it's something you never forget . . .

Dec. 18, 1954, Abilene 14, Houston Stephen F. Austin 7

"That morning, at 11 a.m. before the 2 p.m. kickoff, the Eagles had gathered in their hotel for their pre-game meal of dry roast beef, a dry baked potato and dry toast. Now, as state champions, they ate what they wanted in a private room in a restaurant.

"It was all our teammates and coaches alone in one room together,” Hawkins said. “There was a feeling of happiness, of closeness, and of accomplishment that I will never forget.” Twyman Ash had in his possession the game ball. In the locker room he had approached Moser with it. 'Coach,' Ash said, 'you take it.'

" 'No, sir,' said Moser. 'You boys earned it.' So Ash, who had three catches in the winning drive, carried the ball home. At 7:30, the Eagles boarded their chartered Martin 202 for the flight back to Abilene. Waiting for them at the airport that night was a crowd of 3,000 people.

"The crowd started building about 8 p.m. when radio stations said the team plane was due about 9:30 p.m. The crowd overflowed the airport lobby area onto the tarmac and grassy areas around the terminal building. It was cold, but nobody cared.

"The crowd got to cheer twice. A shout went up as an airliner’s lights appeared, on approach. The plane landed and taxied back to the terminal and the crowd roared. But it was a plane chartered by Eagle fans for the Houston trip who nevertheless hugely enjoyed their reception.

"The team plane appeared several minutes later and the crowd roared again as the twin-engine aircraft parked and this time deplaned the players down stairs in the tail of the Martin 202. The players were reserved but all smiles as they waited to collect duffle bags containing their pads, helmets and cleats from the plane’s baggage hold."

Dec. 17, 1955, Abilene 33, Tyler 13

"Milstead, approached after the game by a young Tyler fan wanting an autograph, told the boy he should go get Abilene players to sign instead. 'Everybody on that team was great,' Milstead said, 'simply great.' He said the Lions 'could play Abilene every day in the week and never beat ‘em.'

“ 'They hit hard and never let up,' said Trimble, the Tyler end. 'They’d knock you down, and when you got back up, knock you down again. It was tough.'

"In the Eagle locker room, senior co-captains Caudle and Colwell were blubbering into their coach’s shoulder. They and the other seniors were the first class to play all three years under Moser. 'Coach, I can’t play any more,' said Caudle, a starter on both offense and defense for both the 1954 and ’55 champions, and a two-way all-district selection as a senior. 'Sure you can, son,' Moser said. 'You’ve got college games ahead.'

"But that’s not what Caudle had meant. He couldn’t be an Eagle any more, part of a team that had won 23 straight games and a second state championship. It was a feeling of achievement and of belonging that might be part of this black and gold gang for a long while, with junior players like Gregory, Jimmy Carpenter, Stuart Peake and Rufus King in the room. It was not an easy thing for an 18-year-old to leave behind."

Dec. 22, 1956, Abilene 14, Corpus Christi Ray 0

"At the end of the game Hayseed Stephens was jumping up and down on his crutches. Line coach Hank Watkins, who had a nickname for just about everybody, came up and hugged 'Old Poker Face,' his name for Jimmy Carpenter. 'Hate to lose you, Jim,' Watkins said. 'Hate to leave, Coach,' Carpenter said. 'Wish I could play two more years.'

"The players let the coaches strip to their underwear before throwing them in the showers. Teen music issued from the Eagle bus as it rolled out of a silent Memorial Stadium. Stuart Peake on guitar, singing 'Never Felt More Like Singing the Blues,' a Guy Mitchell radio hit. Peake sat in the back of the bus with the seniors: Rufus and Boyd King, Jim Rose, Kenny Schmidt, Charles Bradshaw, Jimmy Carpenter, Glynn Gregory, Bufford Carr, Hubert Jordan, Ervin Bishop, 21 seniors in all.

“ 'The juniors and sophomores sat in the front and talked about next year’s team,' said Moser of the ride home. 'Those young kids are ready to go. John Young came up to me and asked when spring training would start. I told him I didn’t know, and he answered, ‘I wish it was starting Monday’.”

Now it is Sunday morning, Dec. 20, 2009, in Abilene, and Eagle players have that state championship feeling again. Their winning streak stands at 15, they believe in their coach, and there are lots of juniors in the room. Don't know when spring training starts.