1966 ALL OVER AGAIN
50-Year Reunion Brings Back Baylor "Cubbies"

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Coming to Baylor in the fall of 1966 as a highly touted blue-chip recruiting class that stacked up with the mighty Texas Longhorns, they were confident that the Bears were going to the Cotton Bowl for the next four years.

"But, it never materialized," says John Mosley, who coach John Bridgers described as "the best player to ever come out of Elkhart, Texas."

From those lofty expectations and high hopes, the Bears won just four games combined in their three years on varsity, finishing with a winless 1969 season under first-year head coach Bill Beall.

"If anything, we built a lot of character together going through those last couple of years at Baylor," said Richard Stevens, an offensive tackle from Dublin, Texas, who played six years with the Philadelphia Eagles. "I'll always cherish that."

Apparently, they all do.

Last weekend, more than 20 players from that original class gathered for a 50-year reunion, going to Baylor's season opener last Friday and then a luncheon on Saturday at the house of 1969-70 letterman Jim Sartain and his wife, Debbie.

"What's amazing is that after 50 years, no one had really changed," said Joel Allison, a Baylor Regent, the longtime CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health and proud member of the '66 Baylor "Cubbies." "We hadn't seen each other for a long period of time. And at an event like that, it's like you never were away. You just get right back to where we were in 1966."

As the ringleader of this circus, Mosley tracked down "pretty much all the guys" and started planning for the 50th reunion about a year ago.

"There's people that will go into Federal Witness Protection just to get away from my emails," said Mosley, an attorney in Dallas, whose son, Matt, does a sports talk show in Dallas. "True story, Joe Kopec got on his motorcycle and went out to Georgetown to see Doug Conner. He had finished up at Sul Ross. We pursued him all over the countryside to finally find him. He was going hunting with his son up in Colorado, so he wasn't able to make it."

But there were plenty that did, including Joe Reed. A Class A all-state quarterback from Lorenzo, Texas, Reed transferred after his sophomore season, finished up at Mississippi State and played nine seasons in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions.

"That speaks to the cohesiveness of this group," Allison said of Reed returning for the reunion.

"When Joe was at San Francisco, we played out there and he invited me to his house for dinner the night before the ballgame," Stevens said. "It was really good to see Joe there, too. There were guys there that I haven't seen since we left school. I never had so much fun in my life. The wives, too, that's all she's talking about."

Also there was Calvin Hunt, an 11th-round draft pick who played as a rookie with Stevens in Philadelphia and then two seasons with the Houston Oilers. Defensive tackle Walter Groth was a 13th-round pick by the New York Jets.

There was obviously some talent in this group, but it didn't translate into success on the field during their Baylor years, for whatever reason.

"It was not a very inspiring four years," Allison said, "but I think because of that, it brought us closer. There's a core group of us that have stayed connected and come back to many games."

Of course, the facilities didn't compare to what Baylor football has now. The weight system "was just a bunch of free weights" Mosley said, that were underneath the stands at Floyd Casey Stadium.

"They were exposed to the elements. I think they called it the San Diego Charger weight system or something like that. But you had to be pretty charged up to go out there to the stadium and use those facilities when it was 32 degrees outside," Mosley said.

The transition from Bridgers to Beall before their senior year was also difficult.

"There were some hard feelings," Mosley said. "Some of them hadn't been back all these years because of the transition that took place. There were really some harsh feelings as how the situation was handled. We went there to play for John Bridgers."

If there were any lingering hard feelings, they were put aside for this day. This was 1966 all over again.

"I'm a firm believer that you make your strongest friends in your college years," Allison said. "And I think the reunion demonstrated that fact. . . . We probably should have done it 30 years ago."