As a follow-up to my previous article on Gerald Sandusky, “The Man I First Called Coach.” I wanted to share a bit more about my experience growing up in a small West Texas town and shed more light on my connection with a football program that was pivotal in forming many aspects of my character and identity.
The Bronte Longhorns brandish the colors of the Aggies and the mascot of UT, and in coming to know some of the standouts that came from my small town, it would be fitting if we could have intertwined some guns from the Red Raiders in there as well.
Nevertheless, the Bronte Longhorns began playing football in 1927, winning their first district championship in 1933 under coach H.A. Fitzhugh with an undefeated season of 8-0. Looking back at the early origins of high school football in my hometown, it was interesting to find out that football in West Texas was remarkably similar to what it is today.
Friday nights had farming families from all over the county coming to town to watch their local boys compete. The band still played; the cheerleaders still cheered. However, one main difference was that the ball fields were a bit cruder. I’ve heard stories of marking off a field at the gin in Wingate and running off cows before a game in Hermleigh. Not quite the grandeur of today’s stadiums, but I imagine the game was no less competitive than today’s modern-day football.
I remember when I was in elementary school; I would sneak over to the high school section of our shared building and walk the halls that were lined with our trophy cases. I peered into those trophy cases countless times, studying the early teams and athletes that stood out for our school. The past can hold so much wonder and promise. Mere images of earlier generations can inspire the imagination of our future. No doubt, the impressions of those early Bronte Longhorn teams certainly left their mark on me and played a role in my desire to excel when the time came.
As I was growing up, my dad’s school annuals were of particular interest to me. The black and white photography and the imagery of what a 1950’s version of Bronte High School looked like really intrigued me. While thumbing through the pages for the first time, I went straight to the faces of the football players, and I instantly recognized a man who I knew very well as he was the caretaker of our city park, 9-hole golf course and swimming pool. His name was Dennie Ray Braswell.
He was just one of many men from his generation that returned to Bronte and remained an integral part of our little community. He was even quoted once saying, “He measured a person’s success on how quickly they moved back to Bronte.” I know I am not alone in wondering how life would have turned out if I had made that return to my hometown. A small-town upbringing is truly a special gift in this world.
Sadly, Dennie Ray went to be with our Lord and Savior on October 15th, 2021. However, thanks to his daughter, Shaye Coalson, I was blessed to catch up with Dennie only a month or so before his passing. I wanted to get a little more background for this article about Bronte Longhorn football from his perspective. As we talked, he reflected on his playing days and talked about his teammates, many of whom I was well acquainted with. He remarked on Sandusky’s phenomenal years just ahead of him in the late ’40s and early ’50s while Dennie was in Jr High.
Dennie is the one who told me about that time while playing in Hermleigh, where my uncle, Clarence Spieker, would eventually coach; they all had to get the cows off the field before they could begin the game. I played football with Denny’s sons Blake and Blaine; however, He was particularly proud of his grandson, Creed Coalson, Shaye’s son, who was a Longhorn standout for Bronte’s last team to win a district championship in 2011 under Coach Kevin Burns. Of all that we discussed, there was one thing that Dennie mentioned that really stood out to me. He told me that he carried the chains for Longhorn football home games for 40 years.
40 YEARS!
I remembered that he worked the markers when I was in high school, but hearing him mention that he had dedicated 40 years of his life to the team really made me think. What inspires such commitment? I grew up around men like Dennie, who came to my games and rooted me and my teammates on.
Why were they there? Was it just because there was nothing else to do in a small town on a Friday night? I do not think so. No, it was because this tradition was handed down from generation to generation, and men like Dennie not only wanted to relive their glory days, but they also wanted to support the experience that had shaped the character and identity of their lives as well. Dads passing on to their sons the love of the game.
Men took time to invest themselves in other young men’s lives, some of whom had no fathers, others who had no family at all. It was Texas high school football that accomplished this bond of the generations. It was a small town, it was simple, and it was good.
Our school song, “Hail Bronte High,” was of particular sentiment for me. Louis Thornton, our music director whom I was especially fond of, led us with a tune based on the middle movement of a Ludwig Von Beethoven sonata. (One that I loved and just happened to learn and perform later when I was a music major in college).
The pep rallies were powerful, and the emotion of these school songs and the fight songs that followed. They pumped us up like nothing else to prepare for the game.
I could go on about the familiar sheriff’s car always pulled up at the end zone and halftime games as a kid with a crumpled-up paper cup that would rival the competition of any state championship! The sound of the band, the cheers of the cheerleaders, and those die-hard fans like our own Jimmy Rawlings, who came to every game I can remember in his wheelchair suffering from cerebral palsy to root on the mighty Bronte Longhorns!
Yes, it was Texas High School Football that brought us all these memories. Memories we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. I look forward to continuing my reflection on a small-town upbringing and exploring other football programs that were pivotal in shaping the character and identity of fellow small-town kids like me. Stay tuned. Hook’Em Horns!
CLICK HERE to listen to the Texas HS Football Podcast, with Taylor Arenz
