Page 31 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2024 - Online Magazine

LOCAL LEGENDS

Coach Keeling had to Judie, James and Bobby Lester, James Mosley, Larry
build a program from Miller, James Lethridge, and many others. Regarding
scratch, and he knew his team leader David Moody, Keeling said, “He played
staff would be crucial, so linebacker, but we could have put him in a hundred
he was extremely careful different places. David had great values, and he really
in choosing assistant helped us to be good because it was so important to
coaches Delbert Wilson, him.”
Wayne Garner, Gene
Murrell, Hollis Gainey, The year 1968 began with the assassinations of Martin
and Trainer E.G. Nunez. Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The Vietnam War
Together, they assessed was still dominating the news, but at Estacado High
each prospective player School, football was the thing that stirred up emotion. In
based on character, one former player’s words, “Something like a bubble”
leadership skills, and enveloped the school as students worked and played
talent. They moved many to positions they’d never together, oblivious to the chaos in the nation.
played and sent a few of the most talented guys packing The Matadors played a 9-1 JV schedule their first
because “they didn't understand the concept of team.” year, 1967, but an unfortunate phenomenon known as
Kenneth Wallace was one of the ones who was moved “white flight” dropped EHS into Class AAA, as several
to another position. Keeling chose him as quarterback. players left. Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine only
He became a dynamic leader on the team and went expected them to place sixth out of 11 teams in District
on to play football at Texas Tech, becoming one of 3-AAA. But in the fall of 1968, something very rare was
the first two black football players to graduate from beginning to take shape. According to Walter Hibbler,
that university. (The other was EHS teammate James “It didn't take long for the team to bond together.
Mosley.) “I never thought I was good, and I didn't want Everyone was like brothers.”
to be a leader, but Coach Keeling had a way of making
guys feel as if they were important.”
The football players themselves had to figure out how
to get along. Joe Rose, who was also the student body
president, said it was a great learning experience. “I
learned a different culture in the Estacado hallways and
being part of the football team.” Fred White who was
the team's defensive leader said, “I think the football
players had great influence on the school. The coaches
tried to teach us to be honorable men.” Walter Hibbler
remembered, “Our parents supported the coaches
and the team wholeheartedly.” Coach Keeling got the
families involved, and many of the moms fed them
regularly. Wallace later credited the team’s success, in
part, to the support of the families, who were “all in,”
too. One more thing the young coach had to do was
call ahead to out-of-town restaurants to make sure the
team would not be turned away when they arrived. “He
didn’t make a big deal about it. He just took care of his
boys.”

Pickett did such a great job of describing the many
personalities of the “boys to men” on the team that his
readers feel as if they know them. Besides Wallace, Rose,
and White, he introduced his readers to standouts Frank

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