The Mule Fan

LOOKING BACK

HEIGHTS DOMINATES--SACKS CLEMENS IN DISTRICT OPENER

A beautiful evening for football awaited the Mules and their fans. After a rainy week, the skies cleared as Alamo Heights opened district play at Lenhoff Stadium. Many of you reading this issue probably attended the game as terrific fan support filled the visitors side well ahead of kickoff. Clemens won the toss and deferred to the second half. The Mules went right to work as Cullen Mills efficiently led his team downfield with passes to Zach Richter and Bryson Marshall, which led to a 45 yard Kristian Stern field goal and a 3-0 Heights lead. The Mules defense then made its first stand on the field....and boy, would they stand out on this evening. A series of possessions included a fumble recovery by Forrest Hagar and a key 3rd and 11 pass was knocked away by Jonathan Barshop. The quarter ended with the Mules driving, but facing a 3rd and 16.

The second quarter started with another Stern field goal and a 6-0 Mules lead. Again, the awesome defense held on the next possession before stops by Mike "I play baseball too" Warren and Little Carter Car-Car Thurmond. The teams exchanged possessions with Hagar and Thomas McSween teaming up for a third down sack. Are you getting this? Notice a lot of defensive names here? That's because to this point, Clemens had about 20 yards total offense due to this defense which was executing under a terrific game plan designed by the Heights defensive coaches. After a Thurmond punt return, the Mules set up shop at the Clemens 37. The Mules had been in the red zone 4 times but had only come away with 6 points. That had to change. And it did. Mills passed to David Cantu, then David Garza before finding Bryson "See Tyler..I did it again" Marshall for a touchdown and a 13-0 lead. As a special report, both of your Mule Fan authors happened to be crossing the field at that time for a halftime radio interview with Dave Parker and Ed Suarez to promote this blog and Homecoming next week (yes, we've quickly become celebrities in demand...in our own minds at least). At about the time we were crossing, Marshall "caught" the touchdown but the Clemens coaching staff was not so certain he"caught" the ball. And with no replay booth, all they could do was scream. And did the head coach scream!! Since this is a "G" rated site, we can not repeat the words...but imagine Coach Norment on steroids with a vocabulary of only four-letter words. Now you've got it...You X(*^*--er &X#!*&--ing son-X)%^@) ! Open your X"?/}+ing eyes. All the screaming for nothing. The Mules still led 13-0 and the coach had a sore throat.

They say, in life, that things can change in an minute. Well, on this night it was actually about two minutes and 15 seconds...and man did things change. After the Mules held, a Clemens punt was almost blocked--but almost didn't count as Clemens kept the ball after a roughing the kicker call against Alamo Heights. Quickly, quarterback McCoy (not Colt, this kid's name was Bryce and he is a sophomore) struck for a 42 yard pass which was followed by a pass to #11 Woodfolk. On the next play, Clemens star Stanley Harris took a pitch and threw a pass to Loscano and suddenly it was 13-7. The Mules had played well but would only lead by 6 at half, it seemed. The Mules coaching staff has confidence in its offense (as they should) and used a 2 minute drill to try to move the ball. But a tipped pass was intercepted and suddenly , Clemens had the ball at the Mules 6. One play later the Mules trailed 14-13 as they went into the locker room. Now we would see what they were made of. A 14 point swing in the last 54 seconds of the half and 25 minutes in the locker room to "discuss" the situation. Makes you glad you're in the stands, huh?

The third quarter started with Clemens receiving the ball. If Clemens rolled, we might be in a pickle. McCoy found a couple receivers and completed a 3rd and 16 where they landed on the Mules 40. Facing a 4th and 2, a game changing play was made by Luke Maloy who lowered his shoulder(much to Mules Baseball Coach T's chagrin) and stopped the drive. The next drive featured running by Justin Rosenthal behind the offensive line that was exceptional again on the night. The drive was capped with a 15 yard Mills touchdown pass to Trevor Lovelady and a 20-14 Mules lead with 4:35 left in the third quarter. Thomas McSween, playing the game of the night, caused a fumble on Clemens next possession. The teams exchanged possession and another McSween sack ended the 3rd quarter with Clemens facing a 4th and 21 from the 5.

To start the fourth quarter, Clemens booted a 70 yard punt. Not to toot our own horn, BUT if you look back at last week's "Looking Forward" about this game, the Mule Fan noted that Clemens 50 yard punting average was an intangible in their last game--this week the punter averaged 47 yards. I'm just saying...this is not a job, it's a career. Again, the parties exchange possessions and another Clemens kick forced the Mules to start at their own 16 with 7:48 left in the game and the Mules clinging to a slim lead (20-14), having outplayed their opponent. Deja vu? Been there, done that? Oh yes..sounds just like the Laredo game. No problem...let's put together a little drive and run some clock. Okay...but make a mistake and have to punt from our end zone and you might have problems. No problem. Mills to Lovelady on a key 3rd and 20 with the Mules at their own 15 (punting from there might've led to a different ending). Mills to Marshall, Mills to Garza--both on key 3rd down plays. Rosenthal, Rosenthal and finally Rosenthal in from the 9, each time behind Cantu, Golden, Wernette, Egger, Cohen, Morton and Martinez(when Wernette went out with an ankle sprain). Perfection...27-14 with under 2 minutes left.

Ball game.

Defensively, the Mules gave up 60 yards on the ground and under 200 yards total. Offensively, the Mules were balanced with 198 yards in the air and 176 on the ground. Two field goals and great coverage by the kickoff team.

Check out the highlights of the victory over Clemens via you tube courtesy of Mike Murphy. Click on the link below. Come back when you're finished watching the highlights! There's a lot more below. We don't want you to miss any of it because all of this material will appear on the final exam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN-1JBLodFc

LOOKING AHEAD

BOERNE HOMECOMING BOERNE CENTENNIAL BOERNE

In case you didn't know, this week's game is against Boerne Champion. It is homecoming and, for those of you who have been living in a cave, it is Alamo Heights Centennial. Seems like we've waited a 100 years for this game. Okay, that was stupid. We'll leave the Centennial non-football matters to others. Let's talk Boerne Champion vs. Alamo Heights football. Remember, this is Boerne Champion, not Boerne. For those of you you have been watching the 3A Boerne go down week after week, thinking we're in business now, you've been following the wrong team. Champion will surely remember the narrow loss to the Mules in Boerne last year...and they would love nothing more than to destroy the party atmosphere that will surround likelythe largest crowd ever to attend a game at Harry B. Orem Stadium.

Boerne is one of the teams predicted to be in the mix for a playoff spot in the tough District 27-4A. Boerne returns 7 starters including their leading receiver from last year James Hurd and three of their four starting defensive linemen. The Champion program now has a steady crop of receivers who will support quarterback Taylor Davis. Champion opened up District play last week with a tough loss against Kerrville, who most predict to be at the top of the district with Steele (let's just worry about ourselves). In the game, Kerrville's quarterback Manziel, was back on track. Boerne actually led 7-0 before Manziel took over. Champion gained more first downs than Kerrville and the yardage was about equal. So, if they can play with Kerrville, they are a solid team. Boerne hurt their chances with turnovers. Boerne was undefeated before the game. In their previous game, Champion beat a talented then-undefeated Del Rio team 17-9 in a defensive struggle. In their second game, Boerne beat 5A East Central 14-12 (Note: East Central scored 52 points this past week, so Boerne can play defense!), holding East Central to 9 first downs and 60 yards rushing. Champion loves its defense, so expect another tight low scoring game like last year.

Biggest Crowd Ever this Week?? Important Ticket Information

The Mule Fan does not wish to jinx it and invite clouds of locusts, a rogue hurricane or something else that interferes, but this week’s Centennial Homecoming game vs. Boerne Champion has the chance to be the biggest crowd to ever watch a Heights game at Harry B. Orem stadium. How cool is that? Game time is 7:30 but this is not the night to show up casually late. Lots of people will be getting there early for the pre-game picnic on the school’s practice field. Lots of folks who might not be regulars are coming just to be a part of it all as well as some reunions mixed in. Don’t forget that Boerne also travels well so they are going to bring heaps of people themselves. In short, we’re betting it’s packed and that is GREAT! Don’t miss this one folks. Just get an earlier start, park somewhere in the neighborhood and walk on in and soak up the excitement of this big night. If you have one of those jet packs that let you fly around (like they used to have on Lost in Space in the 60’s) this is the night to break that thing out of the garage, lube it up and launch it. When you’re sitting around one day with your grandkids or great grandkids, you’ll want to say you were at this game. Have we built it up enough for you?

Very few, if any, Reserved Seats remain.

General Admission tickets will be sold at the following times at the Athletic Office:
Wed 8a-4p
Thur 8a-4p
Fri 8a-3p
Athletic Office will be open during lunch.
Do not wait until game night to buy tickets, if you can avoid it.

A Few Words with the Head Coach of the Mules – Don Byrd
September 29, 2009

Mule Fan: Coach you had to feel good about your first district win over Clemens in a game you only trailed for eight minutes in spite of having a little trouble finishing drives in the first half and the 1 ½ minute trip to the twilight zone just before halftime but you got a smothering defense, another excellent rushing night, timely catches, good kicks and a W. Now that you’ve had a few days to sort it out how did it feel to you?

Coach Byrd: I was real proud. Like you said, the defense had an unbelievable game plan. The kids played hard and played quick. We had a lot of different ways we were covering and blitzing. You worry about mistakes but they did a great job. The defensive coaches had an outstanding plan for them. Kickoffs were unbelievable. That helped our defense so much because we pinned them inside the 20 a lot of times which made a long field. Offensively we were more balanced than we’ve been. We were about 170 something yards both rushing and passing (actually 176 rushing and 198 passing). A lot of great third down conversions. You’ve got some penalties and we didn’t execute at the end of drives so we’re a little worried about that and have to get that straightened out. We got the roughing the kicker penalty. We let some punts go over our head which really made a long field for the offense. So that’s something that we can correct that will really help our offense so they’re not on those longer drives. It’s a stat but if you get the ball farther back than your own 30 then your chances of scoring are one in 30. If you cross the 30 with your first play on the return then it’s one in 15. So when you start making the field that long it hurts your chances of putting points on the board.

Mule Fan: You said previously that you liked this team’s chemistry. How did that play into what happened in the locker room at halftime after letting their crowd back into the game and them back into the lead? What was going on in there that got everybody settled down and ready to come back out in the second half?

Coach Byrd: Well a couple of things. First of all, like you said, the chemistry and everything’s been great with this group. Everybody plays well when it’s going good. True teams play when adversity hits. The thing we preach here is the only important thing is the next play. We got in there and told them that we out-played them for 22 ½ minutes and they had only gotten three or four plays on us. There was no reason to get discouraged. We just had to go back out there and play our game and our tempo and things will swing around right and that’s exactly what happened. They got the ball and got a little drive going and our defense shut them down. We used a lot of clock on offense and got two touchdowns in the second half and did the things we needed to do to get our first district win.

Mule Fan: We don’t know what the difference was in time of possession but your defense was all business on Friday night and really played a marvelous game. It looked like it all really started with the pressure coming off the edges from the defensive ends. How were able to keep Clemens from moving the chains so effectively?

Coach Byrd: It’s a combination of things. Our defensive ends (McSween and Hagar) are very athletic, good-sized, very strong and both have very quick feet. They worked so hard in the off-season in the weight room and running track and it’s showing up in the game. And then being able to bring the quickness out of our linebackers and our secondary. We gave their quarterback and the offensive line a lot of looks and that really worked to our advantage. When you do that you’re gambling and you have to make sure you’ve got everybody covered and everybody knows their responsibilities. The kids worked hard to learn their assignments and it fell in place nicely.

Mule Fan: It looked like a lot more man to man coverage too.

Coach Byrd: Yeah because of their scheme and the way we matched up in some areas and how much better our secondary is coming along. We had the luxury of going into man coverage against them which let us bring one or two extra guys and really give them a lot of different looks.

Mule Fan: In the fourth quarter you had that possession that lasted about six minutes ending with Rosenthal’s touchdown at about two minutes to go to seal it. You mixed pass and run. What was the importance of that drive in relation to the entire dominant performance in the second half?

Coach Byrd: When you’re able to block the way we did with the offensive line it makes two things happen. Number one we’re able to run the ball with the intensity that Justin brings to the position at running back. And we protected so well that even when the game was on the line we could take some throws and do some things that sometimes make you worry about getting sacked. It was a combination of being balanced. We could get a couple of runs in and when we got out of sync we’d throw a little pass to make up the yardage, then go back to running it and run the clock down.

Mule Fan: Boerne Champion comes in here this week having lost their district opener to Kerrville. There will be a lot of people at the stadium this Friday, probably the most that there has ever been at our place to watch a Heights game. And it’s one of our rivals. There are a lot of activities this week and some distractions. How are you dealing with all of that excitement and emotion with the kids as you prepare for this big night? And, what can you tell us about Boerne Champion?

Coach Byrd: Well first of all there is a lot going on. We had family night so we had to shut down practice a little early on Monday. There are dress-up days every day which the kids get excited about. Then we have Howdy Night, the parade and the bonfire on Wednesday and the end of the six weeks. Teachers do an outstanding job here and they push them hard academically and it drains them mentally. So it’s going to be a challenging week. But there are some things against us but we can’t make excuses and are going to have to make the most of it. Boerne is a very talented team. They have a very good offensive and defensive line with good-sized young men that are athletic. They have a dual threat in the back field with their quarterback and running back. Their quarterback throws the ball well so we have to cover all of our bases. They have an attacking type defense. They are going to bring some people and play some man to man coverage against us. They’ll drop into a couple of different zone coverages and a couple of different man coverages so we have to have a plan for all the different defenses they give us. Their kicking game is solid so Alamo Heights is going to have to come out and perform well to get a win against those guys. But we’re playing well right now and we’ve got to keep pluggin’ along and correct the areas where we didn’t do as well last week and make sure we keep emphasizing the things that we are doing well and not let that slip away.

Mule Fan: We know that you and the coaching staff are obviously very focused but this is a big weekend marking an important milestone for the district and you’ve been a big part of this program since 1984 and have seen a lot. What does this Centennial game mean to you as the head coach?

Coach Byrd: It just brings back a lot of memories. I’ve spent 26 ½ years of my life here at Alamo Heights. A lot of kids and a lot of families have come by. There have been a lot of outstanding memories with families. I’m proud to be associated with this community. It brings back to my mind a lot of good things. I think in life every once in a while you need to sit back and look at accomplishments. I’m very proud of our football program and proud of our school. I really hope we come out and shine Friday because a lot of people are going to be there and they need to see what this team is all about.


Concerned Community Member’s Heavy Lifting in Early 80’s Lights Fuse on Mules Winning Tradition (Part 1)

If you’ve moved to the Alamo Heights school district in the last two decades or just started paying attention to AH football since then or more recently than that, you may be of the belief that “Alamo Heights football doesn’t rebuild, it just re-loads.” It is quite possible and understandable that many Mules football fans have developed that sort of pluckiness. That’s what happens when you have the hard-earned reputation of consistent, winning seasons, lots of exciting playoff runs of varying lengths including one storybook year ending in a state title, a ton of quality high school student athletes, excellent coaches and athletic staff, supportive and involved parents, a few college players and the occasional pro.

It’s probably too cliché to say “it wasn’t always this way.” But as we approach this fabulous celebration marking the district’s 100th year, the Mule Fan felt it could suggest that another reaction might justifiably be – “Are you kidding me? How did this all happen??” Because to quote singer/songwriter Carly Simon, "These are the good old days!"

(Editor’s note: Your trusty Mule Fan scribe Cohen has something to admit here so maybe it’s appropriate to shift over to first person for a moment or two. I’m comfortable in my own skin, confident in my masculinity but also in touch with my sentimental side. Like most male Mule Fans, I would list Old Yeller and Rudy as two movies that make the eyes well up. Heck I’ve even eaten in a tea room. During the course of my career, I’ve had the experience of being involved with sporting events and acts of all shapes and sizes, some important ones, some worthless ones and a bunch of ordinary ones in between. I’ve hung out, interviewed, traveled with, done laundry with or borrowed meal money from athletes and entertainers who were stars, everyday players, gonna be’s and wanna be’s and temporary visitors, hall of fame legends, and some dogs (they all put their pants on one leg at a time by the way). None of those previously mentioned experiences can match the pure joy that this member of the class of ‘75 experienced (and I expect a few others did as well) that December night in 2006 as I watched the Alamodome scoreboard clock wink down to :00 and crystallize a state 4A football championship for the Alamo Heights Mules. Who would have ever believed it?? And later that evening as I stood just out in front of Satel’s along Broadway among the AH brethren, cheering those yellow school buses carrying our state champions back to the high school, I had a lump in my throat the size of a hill country peach.)

Fine. We’re through being soppy. How did Alamo Heights even put itself in a position to get to the top of that mountain that night and become accustomed to being in the hunt in just about any given year of the last 20 or so? Mule Head Coach Don Byrd is really the one who put us on to this story and as far as we know, it hasn’t been written down anywhere before now. The details are certainly not as widely known as time has passed. Coach Byrd heaps credit by the wheel-barrow full on Clyde Johnson and other community members who cared, a lot, with doing the hard yards at the start to initiate the process which eventually turned the program 180 degrees. We met up with Clyde J. B. Johnson, III in September of this year. There was familiarity with his name but this reporter had never had the occasion to meet him.

(Editor’s note: Suddenly it clicked and this Mule Fan reporter quickly stitched it all together and realized that our name was on the alumnus roster of Clyde Johnson's mother’s kindergarten called the Little Country School which was located back then on a little spread of property up on San Pedro right about where Benson Chevrolet sits now [loved gluing cotton balls on Peter Rabbit cutouts, liked making hand turkeys at Thanksgiving and learning to count to 100 but terrified of the swimming lessons]. So there was instant rapport.)

Mr. Johnson was born and raised in San Antonio and attended San Antonio Academy right through eighth grade followed by four years at Alamo Heights High School graduating in 1962. He went on to the University of Texas where he got his BBA and followed it up with a law degree from UT. From there he received his Masters of Law in Taxation at New York University, then spent three years living in Houston before moving back to San Antonio with his wife Paula (AHHS class of ’68) in 1974.

We met up with Clyde Johnson at his office the day before our Laredo game this year and asked him to tell us the story from his perspective. Coach Byrd joins in as well and adds in his views although that conversation happened at a different session. It’s a multi-part story because frankly our publishers wouldn’t give us the space we needed and we tore up a couple of typewriter ribbons in the process and needed time to order more.

Clyde Johnson: In 1976 we had a son. When he was about 2-3 years old I told my wife one day that we should go to the football game. I hadn’t even thought about high school football in a long time. We went to the football game. When I was in high school of course we had a lot of spirit. Early on we had some pretty good seasons. We might have been the start to the downfall of the football program in my junior and senior years. Anyway, when we went to the football game after not having been there in a while but remembering a lot of spirit and a lot of coordination between the band and the cheerleaders and the football program and the whole nine yards, we got there to the stadium and sat down. My son was playing on the bleachers in front and we were just having a nice time and finally I said to my wife that I must have gotten the time wrong because nobody was in the stadium. And then all of sudden here they all are lining up to kickoff. I thought, “Oh my goodness, what is the problem here? Where is everybody?” And there was barely anybody there. The band didn’t seem to be very well coordinated with what was going on on the field and neither were the cheerleaders. So we left after the game was over and I told my wife, “I don’t know what’s going on.” We didn’t think too much about it because our son was young. We may have gone back to a ball game or two but it still seemed the same. We have a nephew named Mark Johnson who is a cousin to my son Clyde. I started hearing from all my brother’s friends who were also my friends because there was only two years difference between my brother and I but five years between my nephew and my son. They started getting worried because their sons were getting closer to high school and playing. There was all this complaining going on about the program being terrible and if we wanted our sons to play football what kind of program was this to put them into? So after hearing a lot of this I decided that the thing to do was find out where the problem was and see why it was that way because certainly if you’re going to have a football player you don’t want them to necessarily be in a program like that. You want to send them somewhere where they can have some success. By the way, before getting too far down the line, our nephew’s son, Mark Johnson, Jr., became a really good football player for Alamo Heights and ended up being All State first team. And my son, Clyde Johnson IV ended up All State second team. So there was something there to work for. Plus at that point in time, my father had played football for Alamo Heights in the 30’s and I was there in the late 50’s and early 60’s so there was a pretty good chance that our boys were going to play as they got older.
So we stepped back and took a breath and talked about what to do. And then a group of us decided to go to the horse’s mouth and find out where the problem was and see what we could do to get it straightened out or find out if people wanted to get it straightened out. So the place to start we thought was the school board.

Mule Fan: So there was no “official” committee at this point?

Clyde Johnson: No it was just a group of us. And basically it started out because of football. So we met individually with each school board member. Some wouldn’t meet with us at first because they were nervous that it was some rebel group. But we weren’t there to cause problems. We were just there to find out what the problem was and if they did feel like making some progress in this area and if we could help. Finally all the school board members did meet with us and we all had nice meetings. I don’t think they really had focused on the football program being in such disarray even though if you thought about it and you were into football and you saw all the losing seasons we’d had in the 24 years prior to that with several years not winning a ball game, you realized that there were problems. The last person we met with was the superintendent, Dr. Calvin Gross (AH Superintendent from 1978-1987; died of leukemia in spring of 1987). Dr. Gross was a real fine man. He understood where we were coming from. He asked to think about it and get back with us. Two or three weeks later he called me in and said he wanted to form a competition committee to study all aspects of competition not just football and not just in sports but in academics as well as athletics. He asked me to co-chair it with another individual named Tommy Smith who had been a school board member. I asked to think about it for a day. I went home and thought about and told my wife, “I’m not going to do this. This is studying all kinds of competition and really what we’re interested in is the football program and trying to turn it around. I think we’re just going to waste a lot of time and effort and this may go nowhere.” I went to bed and woke up the next morning and told her I was going to do it. And she asked what the big change was during the night? I told her that I realized that there were a lot of politics involved in this. Dr. Gross was probably pretty smart in including academics in it and all sports. Then it would be hard for people to complain that this is just something for football and get people up in arms about it. Plus I think when the train pulls out, if it works and people do want everything to improve then people either have to get on the train or they’ll be left at the station. I called Dr. Gross and told him that I would do it and went and met with him again. We talked about how to proceed and decided that we would open the competition committee up to anybody that wanted to be part of it. Somehow we got notice to everybody. Community, parents, students, teachers, anybody could be part of the competition committee.

Dr. Gross had actually given us a formal charge and put it in writing. Tommy Smith and I decided that in order to tackle this problem of studying athletic and academic competition that we would have nine subcommittees. So the notice went out and we called for the first meeting to be in the auditorium of the junior school. When we got there 230 to 260 people had shown up for this competition committee! We reviewed the charge and described the subcommittees. By this point we’d already picked our subcommittee chairmen. Anybody could serve on any subcommittee that they wanted. We divided up into classrooms and had our first meeting. That went really well. One of the primary subcommittees was a survey committee. We had polled everybody on the committee as to whether or not they thought academic competition was important, whether or not winning academic competition was important, whether or not athletic competition was important and whether or not winning athletic competition was important. Because obviously if any one of those wasn’t important, there wasn’t any reason to keep pursuing this. The result was that everybody did feel like it was important. We had parents, teachers, students and we had certain people from the community that really didn’t have a tie or wasn’t a parent. The survey committee went to Trinity University to help them with a specialized survey that would go to these various groups in the community. We got the surveys back and summarized them. From that survey you could figure out where the problems were pretty quick.
At that point, if you asked a student if they felt they had a lot of school spirit they would all tell you they did but they really didn’t have any idea of what school spirit was. Parents were very favorable and so was the community. When it came to the teachers and the administration, that’s where we were very fragmented.

Mule Fan: Was there nervousness among the administration and the faculty that if you emphasized one then you would lose something on the other end and it couldn’t be both?

Clyde Johnson: That is exactly right. Again now we’re getting back to football as opposed to some of these other things. They felt that you could not have success in both football and academics. They were so worried about football dominating and taking over a school (and I guess maybe it had happened in certain places) and they didn’t want to see that happen at Alamo Heights that they had pushed football down so far it couldn’t have any success and nobody in the administration would do anything to help promote it and get it up to a successful level. Hopefully by today after all these years with success they realize that one is not going to dominate the other and you can have success in both academics and football and athletics in general.

Mule Fan: So that’s a formidable obstacle that you and the committee had to somehow overcome to convince this important faction that the academic reputation which Alamo Heights had achieved would not suffer. In fact the overall image of the school might in fact even be enhanced by raising the level of attention that the school paid to achieving success on the playing field or the court.

Clyde Johnson: That is exactly right. One of the subcommittees was a committee that studied public schools where they had success in both areas. Schools like Austin Westlake and Dallas Highland Park and several other schools like Churchill in San Antonio. The people on that committee actually looked at those schools and talked to the coaches and administration to find that in those schools they were working hand in hand and did have success in both and one wasn’t suffering because of the other. And like you just said one enhanced the other. They came back with a pretty good report on all that which I think helped open some eyes and help make people realize that you could have both.
From there we did an elaborate written report on our committee activities which we started in 1982 and finished in May of ’83.

Mule Fan: So now you were supported by all of this data and information which was the product of a lot of work and volunteer hours. You had clearly done your homework. What action plan came out of that and who blessed it? Who had the ball? Was it still the committee or was it now in the hands of the administration?

Clyde Johnson: Dr. Gross was really a good man and he realized that it had become pretty obvious what the problems were and what needed to be done to solve the problems. The work of the committee had pretty well summarized it and laid it out. He undertook to get things corrected in the district. And really Dr. Gross got things going on the right track. Now, the committee and all the people who had done the work prior to this were not out to get a coach fired or anything like that. We weren’t out to get anybody’s job. But that in fact is what did happen. They did fire the coach and I think they wanted to make a clean start. There were still a lot of people in the administration that were digging their heels in and had a lot of resentment and really fighting change. Dr. Gross and I talked about needing the exact right person to come in and be the athletic director and football coach. And we should back up here and say that the athletic department was fragmented within itself. There were walls up everywhere. Some coaches had what they wanted in some instances. Some weren’t getting anything. Nobody was pulling together. Nobody was sharing ideas. It was in a state of disarray. We went over the qualities that you’d look for in the person that needed to do this. We had great meetings on this.

Now I had been at the University of Texas and had been on the football team in ’63 when they were national champions. I had a lot of opportunity to watch Coach Darrell Royal and the attributes that he had.
I actually made a list of about eight things that needed to be there in the person that they chose for this job because of how important this job was. And a lot of those I patterned after Coach Royal. He had the uncanny ability to make everybody feel good about themselves and treated everybody with respect. He was a politician first and foremost more so than a coach and that’s what we needed. We needed a politician even more than a coach that could start tearing down these walls, get people to work together, working with the administration and get everyone pulling in the right direction and bring this program around. We asked Dr. Gross if he would like a group of us to go out and help him look for the right person and get money together to help them do it. To his credit he declined, saying that was their job, but that he would certainly take to heart all of our input. He and Harry Orem and some others went out and interviewed different people and went out to different schools and they were the ones who found Gaylard Fenley. I have to say that if you want to give anyone credit for turning this whole thing around besides Dr. Gross you’d have to give it to Gaylard Fenley. Because when he came, he was in the most frustrating situation. And he just patiently worked and worked through it until he tore down these walls and got people working together. He got the support of the teachers and the administration and got everybody pulling in the right direction. Gaylard was here around three years and had gotten this thing somewhat turned around as athletic director and head coach. He was here three years and during that time his mother developed cancer. So he went to Baytown and stayed there to be close to his mother for a couple of years. Then we were lucky enough to get him to come back. He basically had to start again because in the interim some of those walls started to build back up.
He worked for another seven years before he turned it over to Don Byrd. Every time you have a personnel change you could go in the wrong direction but Don’s taken it to even new heights. He’s been super for our program and we are lucky to have him. We need to make sure we take care of him!

Coach Byrd on Gaylard Fenley: We had support in the community but they were very leery back then. There was a huge mindset that if we ever got good in football that it would take away from academics. And Gaylard was a great guy that went in and spent time with the faculty, hired coaches that were also very good teachers in the classroom to win the faculty over and show the community that we also had a commitment to academics. He put in a very sound program. He put in a weight lifting program so kids weren’t getting hurt and were developing their athleticism. Then he put in very sound offensive and defensive schemes with great technique.

NEXT WEEK: PART 2-The TRANSFORMATION OF ALAMO HEIGHTS FOOTBALL BEGINS


Mules Radio: Back on ESPN 1250 The Zone

Follow the Mules on radio this season on ESPN AM 1250 The Zone. Airtime for the pre-game show is at 7:00 p.m. Ed Suarez and Dave Parker will call all the action. Please say thanks and patronize all of the generous sponsors.

Get Punt, Pass and Kick on your Calendars Sunday, October 25th

One of the most important and fun events for future Alamo Heights Mules (kindergarten-6th grade) is the Mule for a Day Punt, Pass and Kick day on Sunday, October 25th brought to us by Jefferson Bank and Vivroux Sports. We’ll talk some more about it as the date gets closer but your younger Mules can hang out and learn from the high school players themselves from 2p-5p.

Must…Have….Reader Feedback

Hey all you Mule Fans, we want your feedback. The Mule Fan editorial staff has often gone out to you for any story ideas you might have. Are we on the money and giving you what you want or so hopeless and need so much help you don’t know where to begin? C’mon-we can take it. We will listen and if it is a good idea, we will fight the urge to take full credit for it but we just might go for it. If it’s a bad idea then we will not publicly humiliate anyone. But we’ll toss it up there on the scrap heap along with some of our beauties. And while we’re at it, if you don’t have a story idea but would rather give some of your well thought out constructive criticism, throttle us unmercifully or tell us about your aunt in Port O’Connor who just got her shrimp boat captain’s license then we’re all ears. We can’t promise a mature or professional response either but give us a try. The e-mail addresses for Bob Cohen and Bobby Rosenthal are bobcohen@sbcglobal.net and brosenthal@trpsalaw.com.