May 22, 2002
This is another "B" Line column, a periodic collection of news items of interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association. Contribute news about you or your teammates via e-mail to 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
THE WAY WE WERE - Once again Don Riddle, the Houston attorney and captain of the 1959 Baylor baseball team, pulled out all the stops while hosting what he called a Tired Bears Reunion - BU athletes and friends from the 1950s - last weekend at his luxurious lake home on Horseshoe Bay west of Austin. Golf, fishing, good eats and tall tales, not necessarily in that order, kept the guests busy for three full days. Dutch Schroeder, Don's old coach, was on hand and even with his famous institutional memory of Baylor athletics had a difficult time separating facts from fantasies . . . Lee Harrington, a baseball-football letterwinner, says Schroeder seems to know everyone who ever went to Baylor, their children and even their grandchildren. When BU graduation exercises necessitated that the Dutchman return to Waco on Saturday, the '50s batting averages, football W-L records and even the basketball three-point stats of those remaining increased dramatically - despite the fact that "threes" were not introduced into college basketball until decades later . . . Temple native Doyle Traylor, probably the most coveted high school quarterback in the nation when he chose to play for Baylor in 1953, came up with a terrific trivia question at the reunion. When future football All-Americans Del Snofner of Baylor and Jim Swink of TCU played in a Texas high school all-star game in the summer of '53, which scored the most touchdowns? The Answer: Neither. They were only invited to participated in the all-star basketball game . . .
THE PROMISED LAND - Shofner, who now lives in the Los Angles area, couldn't make the Riddle party, but his good pal and former teammate Tony DeGrazier, another Californian, came in looking tanned and trim . . . When the conversation turned to presidential politics - and only briefly - Dr. Jerry Marcontell offered his opinion that George W. Bush was a very nice guy when they served together in the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington AFB outside Houston. Bush was a fighter pilot and Marcontell was a flight surgeon . . . The reunion's hot item was a video of the 1957 Sugar Bowl Classic between Baylor and Tennessee. It was shown on a big screen at least twice to both moans and cheers of many who played in the game that saw Baylor beat the undefeated Volunteers 13-7 . . . Larry Hickman, who is still recuperating from a near-fatal highway accident in East Texas several months ago, got ribbed unmercifully for being ejected from the bowl game after place-kicking a Vol who had been demonstrating his own brand of bad sportsmanship for most of the game. Harrington, a Baylor center, said Coach Sam Boyd worked the Bears harder while they prepared for the trip to New Orleans than he had at any other point in Baylor's 8-2 regular-season schedule.
"We watched film after film of Tennessee games and did notice they were capable of playing dirty football," he said in Hickman's defense . . .
SERIOUS MOMENTS - As has occurred at most gatherings of Baylor athletes this year, those present at the Horseshoe Bay reunion remembered L. G. Dupre and Charlie Bradshaw, two of Baylor's finest football players, who both died in recent months. However, one Tired Bear told an amusing story about how Dupre's teammates would get him fired up for games by pretending that Dallas, Houston and Waco sportswriters were saying more positive things about Baylor's SWC rivals than they were about L. G. and the Bears . . . Bobby Traylor, Doyle's brother, also recalled the time on the Baylor campus when he and several other non-athletes were outnumbered and surrounded by a group of Texas A&M Cadets outside one of the women's dorms. "Just when we thought we were going to get beaten up, I spotted Dupre sitting in a nearby car and shouted, 'Hey, L. G.!,' " Traylor said. Dupre came out of the car with fists flying and soon the troublemakers were on their way back to College Station. "L. G. really got mad when he found out he was fighting Aggies," Traylor added . . . Several Houston area guests at the party were talking about attending the twice-postponed appearance of Mike Singletary, the most famous football player in Baylor history, at the Houston City Club on Saturday, June 1. The luncheon begins at noon and Singletary, one of the nation's leading inspirational speakers, will appear to help raise money for the Baylor Black Alumni Scholarship Fund. For more information, call the Baylor Alumni Association at 1-800-Baylor-U (ext. 6) . . .
JACK LOFTIS
CO-CHAIRMAN
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
