Oct. 15, 2003
This is another "B" Line column, a collection of news items of particular interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association. Contribute news about you or your teammates via e-mail to Lee Harrington (leenelaine@281.com), Dutch Schroeder (Dutch_Schroeder@baylor.edu), Reba Cooper (Reba_Cooper@baylor.edu) or Jack Loftis (Jack.Loftis@chron.com). The mailing address is Baylor "B" Association, P. O. Box 8120, Waco, TX 76714.
One never knows what to expect during pre-game visitations in the Baylor "B" Association Room at Floyd Casey Stadium.
It seemed the perfect meeting spot for BU football letterman and former high school coach J. T. Lyday and Joe Ed Ward, one of his former players and the retired city manager of Hillsboro. The two met prior to Baylor's first home game and plans were made for Lyday, a Houston resident, to return to Whitney this fall and speak at the WHS Ex-Students Association's Homecoming -- this year saluting the Class of 1953.
Fifty years ago several members of the honored class composed the nucleus of the 1952 Whitney Wildcats football team that Lyday coached and Ward directed as its quarterback. While the two sat in the "B" Room and sadly reminisced Whitney being eliminated from the state playoffs that year by Valley Mills, they suddenly spotted the player most responsible for their pain. Standing near them was Gerald Meyer, who starred for Valley Mills before coming to Baylor and lettering as an end on the 1957 Sugar Bowl Championship team.
Making things even worse for Lyday and Ward was their joint memory that Meyer had moved out of the Valley Mills line and performed brilliantly as a running back in the Eagles' 7-6 win over the Wildcats.
First coaching job . . .
The Whitney years marked Lyday's first head coaching job, having worked earlier as an assistant to the legendary Gordon Wood in Seminole. Lyday also had played for Wood in Roscoe and earned an invitation to perform in 1946 Texas High School Coaching Association's All-Star Game. He next moved to Baylor where he lettered at tackle for Coach Bob Woodruff. Lyday also was named to several All-Southwest Conference scholastic teams.
After leaving Whitney, where his district championship teams had a 25-4-3 record, Lyday coached as an assistant in Denison before temporarily giving up the profession and becoming a full-time teacher and administrator in the Houston area.
But an unusual set of circumstances brought Lyday back to coaching late in his career as an educator.
"We had an exchange student from Germany attending Clear Creek High School and he became interested in American-style football," Lyday recalls. "In the beginning he was mostly used as a blocking dummy, but he eventually learned the game and did very well."
"Ich bin ein Berlin" . . .
In 1991 Lyday was contacted by the student he had befriended and the young man asked him to come to Germany that summer and coach the Berlin Adlers (Eagles) of the League of American Football.
And why not? Lyday admits he missed coaching and a summer in Germany sounded like fun. Not only did he enjoy his time there, but he also coached the Adlers to the 1991 championship. He repeated the assignment in 1992 and his team was eliminated in the league's semi-final round.
Does Lyday ever regret not remaining an assistant coach with Gordon Wood, who at 89 is the dean of Texas high school coaches with a record of nine state championships and 396 career victories?
"I had my chance to go with him when he left Seminole and went to Winters," Lyday said. "And I had a second chance when he began coaching at Stamford."
But Lyday definitely regrets not being in attendance earlier this year when the city of Brownwood unveiled a life-sized statue of Wood in honor of the great teams he produced in that West Texas city.
"A number of my old teammates were there and they sent me some newspaper clippings, but I was unable to go," Lyday said.
(The "B" Line column is produced by Jack Loftis, editor emeritus of The Houston Chronicle and chairman of the Baylor "B" Association Communications Committee.)
