Page 30 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2024 - Online Magazine

LOCAL LEGENDS
The 1968
Mighty
Mighty
Matadors
by Jane Bromley (with grateful
acknowledgment to Al Pickett, Coach
Keeling, and members of the team)
he movie Remember the Titans
has become an American
Tclassic. The film is loosely
based on the story of a Virginia high
school football team who overcame
racial tension in 1971 and enjoyed
a great season. However, an even
more dramatic story unfolded here
in Lubbock three years before the
Titans’ story.
In 1967, Lubbock’s schools were still
segregated. Lubbock High School
had almost all white students, and
Dunbar High School was an all
black institution. Racial unrest was
wreaking havoc across the country,
and the LISD school board had to
decide how to comply with the
federal court order to integrate.
Their solution at the time was to
build a new high school that would
incorporate students from both
existing high schools.
The adults in charge knew that
the success of the new school
was uncertain. They hired highly
motivated black, brown, and white
30 Lubbock Senior Link
teachers, and they were especially The book Mighty Mighty Matadors
hopeful about the young by veteran sports writer Al Pickett
football coach LISD-AD Pete provides a detailed account of this
Ragus, recruited for this unique unique group of young men and
assignment. Jimmie Keeling (age 31) the coach who mentored them. It
came to Lubbock after short stints at documents the almost incredible
smaller schools. story of a team without a history,
who had no idea they were
Coach Keeling was enthusiastic but destined to make history. Pickett
later recounted the pressure he felt wrote, “In the fall of ‘67, Lubbock's
when Superintendent Nat Williams integration plan involved just one
told him he was the key to the high school, Estacado, and Keeling's
success of the new high school. The Matadors ... became a rallying point
administration knew the football for Northeast Lubbock, proof that
team could bring people together— black, brown, and white students
not only the 976 students but also could not only go to school together
the equally diverse faculty and but could also become a unifying
families. As it turned out, the young force for the entire school.” Pickett
coach wasn't distracted by the racial tells the story so beautifully that
tension swirling in the country. even people who don’t know a
From the beginning, he treated his linebacker from a tight end find
new charges with respect, despite themselves caught up in the
their color. captivating tale.