The Eagles and Secretariat

Following up on Glynn's blog, only last summer did I learn something new and significant about Abilene High's "Team of the Century." Last summer at my household we watched "Secretariat," the movie about the racehorse that won the Triple Crown in 1973, and winning the last and toughest race, the Belmont Stakes, by a totally preposterous 31 lengths.

Many of the reporters at the Belmont that day – Pete Axthelm, Heywood Hale Broun, George Plimpton, Furman Bisher, Jack Whitaker, Frank McGee – wrote and told of people crying as Secretariat roared down the stretch, actually accelerating, near the finish line, away from the rest of the field far up the track.

Broun told of Jack Nicklaus, the legendary golfer, telling him, at a tournament later that summer, "I was all alone in my living room, watching, and as he came down the stretch, pulling away, I applauded, and I cried." Broun said to him, "Jack, don't you understand? All of your life, in your game, you've been striving for perfection. At the end of the Belmont, you saw it."

When I heard that, I remembered I had seen perfection somewhere else, as a seventh-grader on Dec. 17, 1955, at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth. That day, Abilene beat Tyler, 33-13, for the AAAA state championship. It was the 23rd game in the Eagles' winning streak, but this game stood apart. In building a 33-0 lead, the Eagles realized their potential. Chuck Moser always taught perfection, but realistically, knowing 75 or 80 percent of perfection would give his team a significant advantage. Against Tyler, though, perfection was achieved. Even Moser said it: "That game was something a coach lives for. Our first team played a perfect game all the way."

As always, when you remember those Eagles, two names rise first: Moser, and Glynn Gregory. That afternoon at Fort Worth, Gregory provided two memorable plays. Well, Moser would get mad at me for putting it that way. The Eagles provided two memorable plays in which Glynn was the ballcarrier.

The first was the second play of the game. The Eagles were in a hole at their own 10, then Gregory carried 48 yards to the Tyler 42. It turned out to be the biggest play of the game. Six plays later, the Eagles scored their first touchdown.

"On either side of the field," I wrote in "Warbirds" 50 years later, "people didn't quite know what to think. After a nerve-rattling start, the Eagles had moved 95 yards in eight plays, all of them rushes inside the tackles, and they did it in three minutes and seven seconds against the unbeaten Tyler Lions, who had allowed only one touchdown in the playoffs, and only 87 points all season."

The second memorable play came in the second quarter, fourth and 25 from the Tyler 40.

"It was the Statue of Liberty play. Gregory took off to the right, his cleats kicking up chalk dust at the 50 as he turned upfield . . . In front of Gregory was left tackle Rufus King. Gregory galloped across the 40, then the 30, with King five yards in front. At the 20, running at full speed, the 185-pound King hit (Charles) Milstead with a block that knocked the 6-2, 190-pound Milstead five yards backward and to the ground at the 15. Behind King's block, Gregory cut back across the field. Of the nine players near him, six wore gold jerseys. (Freddie) Green, racing across in front of Gregory, knocked down one defender who in turn rolled into a second Tyler back. Near the goal line, (Henry) Colwell set up to screen off the last defender, who wasn't going to catch Gregory anyway as he strode into the end zone."

I have been told that Rufus King, rest in peace, cried, when he read these words about that play 50 years later. I think it must be that humanity, as it began to develop on this Earth, started to use performance as an exercise in trying to understand potential. Eventually they learned that performance potential, when realized, reveals a spiritual element, and that element stirs the soul. When the soul is stirred, as most people now well know, it's common for some tears to spill over.

It's happened to me, watching Secretariat, and the films of the first half of the Tyler game, which are available in a DVD set created by the Abilene High video department.