Glynn Gregory

One morning in 2004, the phone rang.

"Mike, this is Glynn Gregory."

I about fell out of my chair. Men in their 60s aren't supposed to do that, but this was, well, Glynn Gregory. Calling me!

He wanted to order a copy of my book, "Warbirds," a history of the 1954-57 Abilene High School Eagles, who were voted the "Team of the Century" in Texas high school football.

When you remember those teams, two names rise first: Chuck Moser, the coach, and Glynn Gregory, a player. He is routinely named the best player/athlete on the Team of the Century, but I don't know. Stuart Peake and Sam Caudle played like hurricanes, but they were guards and didn't get much ink. Jimmy Carpenter, whose program weight was 153 pounds, scored both touchdowns in the 1956 state championship game and gained 227 yards rushing, and he still holds state tournament baseball records for hits (eight in 11 at-bats, a .727 average) and runs scored (nine).

The Team had many great players: Hawkins, Millerman, Ash, Thomas, Bourland, Welch, Colwell, King, Rose, on and on. Still, Gregory's name rises first. My own adulation for him has remained strong for more than 50 years. When I learned last night that he had died of cancer, yesterday, at age 73, it felt like a corner of the firmament had been knocked off.

I was beginning sixth grade in 1954, the September when Glynn, a sophomore, first pulled on an Eagle game jersey, No. 21. The Eagles were No. 1 in state preseason rankings, a big deal, I can tell you, to sixth graders interested in sports. Then they lost the third game of the season.

The following Friday, on Oct. 8, 1954, the Eagles beat Borger, 34-7. It was the beginning of a winning streak that stretched into December, 1957, meaning, from October of the sixth grade to December of the ninth grade, a stretch of 49 games, I never saw the Eagles lose. Glynn was on the field for 37 of those games, from Borger in 1954 to the 1956 state championship game at Austin.

By then, not just the kids, but adult Abilenians, were mesmerized by the glory. Even in the 1950s, cities the size of Abilene, without the natural identity of a Dallas or Houston or Austin, were trying to tag themselves. Abilene was "The Key City of West Texas." Anything to get on the map. The Abilene Eagles were terrific publicity.

Not until I was finishing "Warbirds" did I realize another kind of continuity might have been at work. This is from the last paragraph of the book:

"A feeling emerges, among the players but also among Abilenians of that generation. It is a feeling of being different from people their age who grew up in other cities. They saw for almost four years – almost the length of an entire high school education – what can happen when you live by the rules, know all the plays, and run till the whistle blows. Now they wonder if the message was so strong that they carried it with them, part of their education not available to others. They wonder if their lives have been different, because of a football team, the Abilene High School Eagles, 1954-57."

When I wonder about that message, as I am wondering now, two names rise first. One is Glynn Gregory.