I’ve been very fortunate over the years to have worked for some football coaches who were terribly successful. In fact, in my career, I’ve worked with three who have won State Championships, some of them multiple. Gordon Wood won nine, seven at Brownwood and two at Stanford. Randy Allen won four at Highland Park and he went to the State Finals at Abilene Cooper. Then there was one other, a man named W. T. Stapler.

He came to Brownwood in ’95 and had a one win season, his first, one win, eight losses, and a tie. He stayed another year, I think probably because of the record that first year, and he went nine and one regular season, ten and two overall. Speaking of overall, his overall coaching record, 225 wins, 92 losses and 8 ties. W.T. passed away last Monday at the age of ninety. He was a McMurry University graduate.

He began his coaching career in Winters, Texas in 1956 and then got the opportunity to go to Conroe in 1960. He took over as Head Coach in 1969 and led his team to six District Championships and three Bi-District titles in eleven years. He told me the toughest high school player he ever coached against was Earl Campbell. Stapler’s record at Conroe was 92 wins, 23 losses. Then, he took over at Sweetwater and the Mustangs reached the State Semi-Finals in 1984. The next year, 1985, they won the State title defeating Tomball 17-7 at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth. He also coached at Fort Worth Boswell and coached at Andrews. That took him through the ’93 season and that last year at Andrews he beat Brownwood in the playoffs.

He decided to retire for one year, and he stayed out for that season, then came back and coached a year at Carlsbad, New Mexico. THEN, he took over a struggling Brownwood program in 1995. His first season here, 1 win, 8 losses, 1 tie. The following year, 9 and 1 regular season for a total record of 10 wins and 2 losses and he won District. He won District because he beat Stephenville which was on a roll back then.

I remember the game! I remember screaming on the radio, “Lions win! Lions Win!” but I don’t even remember the score in regulation. I think we scored right at the end of regulation and tied the game, or maybe they did. It was like 29-29 at the end of regulation and for the first time ever we played an overtime game and we won! We won it 42-39. Probably one of the most thrilling and dramatic wins in Brownwood football history! Did we win State – no. Did we win District – yes! Was it a lot of fun? It was! Then we turned around a few weeks later and we lost, but we did lose in the second round of the playoffs to a team from Denison in Amon Carter Stadium.

Denison won State that year and they beat us in W.T.’s last game ever as a head coach. Oh, I think that stadium meant a lot to W.T. and if you’re going to lose one somewhere, it might as well be there because Amon Carter was where W.T. and Sweetwater beat Tomball 17-7 and, he won his only State Title. A special place, a special stadium, and a very, very special man.

Until next time, so long everybody.

***

‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].