Friday, December 24, 1999
Abilene has produced more than its share
of stars
Al Pickett
Sports Editor
Abilene’s sports history is simply amazing.
We are a city of only slightly more than 100,000 people —
and much less than that during most of our 118-year existence
— but our sports history is nothing short of remarkable.
From world records to Olympic champions, Masters champions
to great dynasties and more, Abilene’s sports history has
played a role in many of the nation’s top sports stories.
Consider these facts:
 The longest field
goal ever kicked in a football game at any level — high school,
college or professional — was kicked at Shotwell Stadium
when Abilene Christian University’s Ove Johanssen booted
a 69-yarder against East Texas State in 1976.
Bobby Morrow,
still considered by many the greatest sprinter this country ever
produced, was a college sophomore at ACU when he won three gold
medals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. One of several
world records set by Morrow came in the 100-yard dash at the NAIA
national championships at McMurry University’s Indian Stadium.
Jack Mildren,
still considered the greatest wishbone quarterback to ever play
college football, grew up in Abilene and played his high school
football at Cooper. Many of the rushing marks set by Mildren and
the 1971 Oklahoma Sooners still stand as NCAA records.
The winningest
high school football coach in the nation when he retired in 1985,
Brownwood’s Gordon Wood is still the all-time winningest
high school football coach in Texas with 405 victories and nine
state championships. Wood grew up in Abilene, graduating from
Wylie High School and Hardin-Simmons University. He was recently
named the high school football “Coach of the Century”
by the Dallas Morning News.
Abilene High’s
and ACU’s Billy Olson made the 1980 and 1988 U.S. Olympic
teams and still holds the American indoor record in the pole vault.
Considered one
of the greatest players in NFL history, Sammy Baugh grew up in
Sweetwater and at age 85 still lives on his ranch near Rotan.
After a brilliant 16-year career as quarterback of the Washington
Redskins, Baugh was the head coach at Hardin-Simmons before leaving
to become the first head coach of the New York Titans, now known
as the Jets.
Charles Coody
grew up in Stamford but has called Abilene home for most of his
professional golf career on the PGA and Senior PGA Tours. Coody
is best known for his green jacket, the one he received for winning
the 1971 Masters.
Those who own
Super Bowl rings include former Cooper running back Terry Orr
with the Washington Redskins and former ACU defensive back Cle
Montgomery with the Oakland Raiders. Cle’s brother, Wilbert
Montgomery, broke the NCAA scoring record during his football
career at ACU and went on to play in a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia
Eagles.
The 1960 U.S.
Olympic Trials for women’s track and field was held in Abilene.
The meet proved to be the national emergence of sprinter named
Wilma Rudolph, who became one of the greats in American track
history.
ACU has won more
track and field championships than any college in the country.
Texas Monthly recently named the ACU track program its “Dynasty
of the Century.” Just last spring, ACU won four national
championships (men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor
track) in the same year. That’s only happened one other time
— when ACU did it in 1996.
From 1980-88,
Abilene was the smallest city on the PGA Tour. Mark Calcavecchia
and Ryder Cup team member Steve Pate earned their first Tour victories
at Fairway Oaks Country Club at the tournament known as the LaJet
Classic and later the Gatlin Brothers Southwest Classic. In 1989
and ’90, the tournament became a Senior PGA Tour event. George
Archer won in 1989 in his Senior Tour debut.
Abilene has produced numerous high school state champions in
tennis, golf, football, baseball, basketball and track and field,
as well as dozens of professional athletes, including Mildren,
Chuck Harrison, David Johnson, Bill Gilbreth, Glynn Gregory, Ken
Blackman, Ray Berry, Bob Estes, Mike Standly, Rick Meyers and
Andrae Patterson.
But a man who spent just seven years coaching in Abilene —
where high school football is king — was the overwhelming
choice as the outstanding Abilenian in sports.
The late Chuck Moser’s influence in Abilene was so profound
that his coaching tenure is still referred to as “The Glory
Years.”
Moser won 49 games in a row and three consecutive state championships
from 1954-56 at Abilene High. His Eagles’ teams of the 1950s
were recently selected the high school football “Team of
the Century” by the Dallas Morning News.
Those who played for Moser still speak in glowing terms of
the influence he had on their lives. It is for that reason, as
much as for his remarkable record, that Moser was selected by
our Abilenian of the Millennium committee as the outstanding Abilenian
in sports.
Moser was a unanimous selection by the committee. Other nominees
from readers included former Abilene High coaches Pete Shotwell
and Blackie Blackburn, former McMurry and Baylor coach Grant Teaff,
Morrow, Baugh, Coody and Montgomery.
Al Pickett can be reached at 676-6772 or picketta@abinews.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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