1983:
The Right Stuff

NOTE: Click HERE to view the season record

As I began what would finally be, if all went as planned, my final year in College Station, TAMU followed up the ignominious 1982 season opener, in which Doug Flutie and Boston College "spoiled" Jackie Sherrill’s debut at Kyle Field on ESPN (for the better part of the next three years, the Aggies would seemingly have an ESPN "curse" not at all unlike the so-called "Sports Illustrated curse"), by hosting California in the 1983 opener. California got out to a 17-0 halftime lead on the strength of two bad Aggie snaps on punts, as well as a backfired on-side game-opening kickoff. California, in its previous game the season before, caused John Elway and Stanford to clinch a losing season and lose a Bowl bid with the now-infamous "tip-toe through the tubas" kickoff return to end the game (and hence the season for both teams). TAMU, fully aware of what happened on the Bears’ previous kickoff, didn’t want any similar surprises, especially given that this was the Aggies’ first game using the 12^th Man non-scholarship player kickoff team. California, fully aware of all this, was more than willing to try and embarrass the Aggies and return the kick, if possible. Thus, attempting to play it safe, A&M tried an onside kick. Unfortunately, the Bears recovered and with relatively good field position got a 50-yard scoring play with less than two minutes gone. That was "déjà vu all over again," because BC’s first score the year before likewise occurred from about the same place on the field and with very little time gone. The Aggies would get untracked enough in the 2^nd Half and tie it up with time running down. With less than two minutes left, the Bears attempted a FG. The Aggies were flagged on the play and, in spite of making good on the kick, the Bears decided to take the penalty and continue the drive instead. They fumbled on the next play, and A&M recovered. Then, on the very next play, former Holmes standout Jimmie Hawkins was tackled in the Endzone for a safety. That’s right, here’s one case where someone wins a game on a clutch safety late in the game. Not a good feeling. Safeties, being somewhat "passive" in nature (since you do the "scoring" for the other team), always tend to leave a person in denial momentarily over what just happened. Also not a good feeling was seeing a San Antonio player’s chance to pull the game out "sacked" before it even got started. At least I wasn’t alone in such misery. By shear coincidence, Dan Pollard, an incoming Corps Freshman, who played at Churchill the two seasons before and lined up against both Holmes (and hence Hawkins) and Judson in the two classic match-ups in 1981 and 1982 and who, like I did, knew what Hawkins was truly capable of, was assigned to the seat next to me on the third deck.

In view of the continued ignominy for the Aggies, the one consolation for me at least was the play of, and hence the overall prospects for, the Judson Rockets, who promised to be even stronger than in 1982, provided a few gaps could be filled in time. It was pretty well understood, going in, that this was Judson’s best chance to go for it all. On the other hand, given the perils of such an undertaking, it was quite sobering to realize how improbable, in the larger scheme of things, it would be to actually go straight in and get it, so to speak. For most teams in a similar position, things just don’t work out that way. Not usually, anyway.

Nevertheless, the Rockets sailed along almost machine-like through their first 6 games. Churchill, meanwhile, who was picked to provide a stiff test for Judson once again, was beaten 8-7 by Jefferson to start the season (Jeff would then lose its next two non-District games to some very strong opponents, but then go undefeated in district). Churchill played to a 13-13 tie with Jay the following week before picking up its first win, 19-0, over Highlands. Roosevelt, meanwhile, was improving with each game, and looked to be the favorite going into its meeting with the Chargers. However, some potentially-peculiar calls by the zebra’s helped to quickly turn an early 7-0 lead into a 13-7 deficit that got only larger thereafter once the turnovers hit. Consequently, in spite of out-gaining Churchill by about 100 yards and having 20 First Downs to the Chargers’ 12, Roosevelt went down 37-14. For the next several weeks, people no longer paid much attention to the ‘Riders, having failed one major test and still having to face Judson in Converse.

Churchill, if anything, seemed to have gotten untracked, and was looking to be just as dangerous as ever going into the meeting with the Rockets in Converse, in what would be only their second-ever visit. I had previously come down to see Judson handle Lee at Blossom. Given the chance to see Churchill in Converse, and given that I had not seen the two match-ups the year before, there was no way I was missing this game. The question in everyone’s mind, still, especially for the 14000 on-hand in Converse, was: Could Judson do it again, especially given the manner in which the two (2) wins came the year before? Or, was it all just an illusion and a dream that we would soon be rudely awakened from? Sure enough, Churchill got on top of Judson early and had, by the middle of the 2^nd Quarter, jumped out to a 10-point lead. Judson seemed somewhat tentative, but finally got untracked as Halftime approached, and cut the gap to 10-7 going into the break.

The 3^rd Quarter was scoreless, although it appeared that the Rockets were starting to get the upper hand offensively. Late in the 3^rd Quarter, a Churchill punt rolled dead at the Rockets’ 10-yard line. No problem, that just gave Judson more time to run off the clock in moving in for the kill. Judson took the lead in the 4^th Quarter and then, after shutting Churchill off, initiated another scoring drive that ended with Judson upping the lead to 21-10. Chris Pryor was looking pretty invincible, as were other aspects of the Rockets’ game at this point. And, it wasn’t because the Chargers decided to fold. In fact, it was just the opposite, and they were determined as all get out to regain their advantage over Judson, and re-assert themselves the way they had until just one short year earlier. Perhaps the most telling sign that Judson was one team that had completely passed them by once and for all (or at least for some time to come) was Chris Pryor’s TD play to end the scoring, as he dragged a determined Churchill defender into the Endzone, refusing to be stopped or denied by even this show of tenacity. In beating Churchill for the third straight time, the Rockets had, in only a year’s time, evened their series record with Churchill.

The next week in a Thursday game at Blossom, Churchill, probably still in a funk somewhat, had a miscue on the opening kickoff that gave Madison a 2-0 lead. Churchill would take the lead at 6-2 midway through the 4th Quarter but then, with no timeouts and with time expiring anyway, the Mavericks scored on the final play of the game for an 8-6 win. Suddenly, the Chargers looked like dead meat (or something to that effect). This also suggested that Judson was looking to be in pretty good shape as far as wrapping up the district.

Still reeling from the 37-14 loss to Churchill but still very much in the race, the Roughriders wanted as much of a psychological advantage as possible and therefore did their pre-game warm-ups at Roosevelt, and then arrived in Converse just in time for the kick-off. Either way, Judson still managed to take a 17-0 lead going into Halftime, and then maintained the margin at 24-7 before disaster (that's right) struck. Although Roosevelt also had numerous turnovers, Judson’s were fatal, and all scores thereafter by Roosevelt followed turnovers. That’s not to take anything away from Roosevelt, though. The QB was hot, and most of his tosses were from the Roosevelt end of the field. Roosevelt took a 28-24 lead with two minutes remaining. Judson had one more chance, but was intercepted in short order, and the ball was returned all 15 yards for a score. 35-24. For the game, Judson had ZERO yards passing, and the only passes completed were to Roosevelt. What made this even more ignominious was that Judson, ever since the third week of the season, was ranked first in the State. Well, that was the end of that idea. For the time being, at least. In any event, the loss provided some valuable information for the Rockets, as their "Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) Data" showed precisely where their weaknesses were, both tactically and possibly attitudinally. A "REALITY check," in other words. We (and others) definitely knew that Judson could be beat (and how they could be beat).

Although Churchill seemed to be out of the running, Madison, Judson, and Roosevelt were still fighting for two playoff seeds. And, all of a sudden what looked like a straight trajectory for the Rockets suddenly looked not at all certain. Especially now that the Mavericks issued notice that they weren’t intending to go down as scheduled just because of an untimely loss to a non-contender earlier in district play. On the other hand, the Mavericks had two things going against them going into the meeting with Judson at Blossom the following Saturday evening. They would be missing, due to injuries, several of their key starters, who were directly responsible for the win over the Chargers; AND, they were playing a Rocket crew whom, chastened by a rough "rocket" burn the week before, were ready and willing to apply their "DFI" data from that experience, and to conduct a classic mid-course correction. And, both teams would be playing for survival, perhaps. As it was, Madison was very much dead on arrival for a Rocket attack that featured the best of everything the Rockets had to offer that season, both offensively and defensively, as Judson scored 28 points in the first 17 minutes of 1^st Half, and then went on to win 42-0.

Even with this, things weren't guarranteed. The Rockets still needed to take care of business against Clemens. Also, they needed to stay focussed on the task at hand, given that they would be entering the playoffs as the second seed in District 27-5A, since TR had apparently already charged up the 27-5A Crown Hill to take possession. Or, so it seemed. All the ‘Riders needed to do was beat Madison. And, based on the most recent performances, anyway, how hard could that be? All the more reason to give the Rockets pause because, had this been only two years earlier, when only one team from each district advanced to the playoffs, they could have really bought the farm as a result of the 35-24 debacle in Converse two weeks earlier. Judson took care of business, and beat Clemens 49-20, in what would be the final match-up with Clemens for some time to come, since Clemens was set to move down to 4A the following season, after experiencing several years of shear misery in spite of several gutsy efforts each season. Even so, as a possible pre-figuring of things to come, the Buffaloes had a few spectacular moments of their own in this game, in spite of the score and the fact that Judson QB Cap Watters had some stellar moments through the air, as Judson had more air yardage than ground yardage, and Chris Pryor took it easy, somewhat, in this game.

Meanwhile over at Blossom, in the marquee match-up featured as the Express-News Game of the Week radio coverage (which I got to listen to up in College Station as I continued working on some P-Chem lab write-ups), Madison somehow managed to keep Roosevelt scoreless moving into the 4^th Quarter. Up to that point, I had only been casually following the game, hoping that Madison would maybe surprise the ‘Riders, but still expecting Roosevelt to unleash a barrage of points with their aerial assault. Suddenly, the Mavericks blocked a punt to set up a short Madison scoring drive. Shortly thereafter, they also tackled QB Mike Trigg in the Endzone for a safety. Suddenly, the entire scenario that lay before everyone had been transfigured, as Madison held on for a 9-6 win. This knocked the 'Riders out of the playoffs completely, as they missed out entirely following the all-or-nothing deal. Three teams thus ended up with two losses and as a result of the positive point system used in 27-5A and Churchill’s 37-14 win over TR, the Chargers were resurrected from the dead. And Judson thus entered the post-season as the No. 1 27-5A seed after all. Thus, although many teams had trouble with the Trigg exams in TR's classes that semester, what it boiled down to was the calculus. In this case the differential calculus known as "positive points." All spurred by the integral, presented by Madison, that the 'Riders didn't solve---an integral loss leading to a most peculiar positive point differential equation solved only by Churchill.

Elsewhere, Sam Houston, who had been slipping somewhat in recent seasons but who had improved as the season progressed under a new coach, entered as the second place team to Jefferson. East Central was back in as the champ in Judson’s former district, with McCollum right behind them. Clark, meanwhile, entered their final game of the season with a 9-0 record. Their opponent, Marshall, entered with an 8-1 record after having lost to Holmes earlier (Holmes still had an outside shot at getting into the playoffs, but had lost to Clark 21-7, and likewise had somewhat of a positive-points "issue" to deal with). Clark was ranked in the statewide top ten, and commanded a high degree of respect by season’s end. The Rams, nevertheless, perhaps having developed somewhat of an immunity to cougars, being located as they are in "The Valley of the Lions," (better known in Bexar County vernacular as "Leon Valley") had no fear whatever of the cats from Dezavala Road, and pinned a 23-6 verdict on them, thus winning the district and giving the Cougars another appointment with Judson in Converse, in what would be the first playoff game to be played by the Rockets at their own stadium. The Huskies, on the other hand, were forced to "go lay down" for an earlier than normal winter hibernation, in spite of having beaten Marshall 17-14 earlier.

Semifinals
Midland Lee 35 Plano 14
Judson 29 Yates 19

Final
Judson 25 Midland Lee 21

In view of Clark’s previous experience, it was Judson’s turn to face a good team coming off a somewhat untimely loss. Indeed, the cats were mad, as they gave Judson a fairly tough time. The Rockets grabbed an early 7-0 lead, and went into Halftime leading 10-6. Clark then came out and took an early 13-10 lead. Finally, toward the end of the 3^rd Quarter, Judson managed to gain somewhat of an advantage in field position, and scored two quick TD’s as a result. The Cougars, nevertheless, still scored with less than 3 minutes to go and, following a two-point conversion off the fake, trailed only 24-21. Judson withstood the on-side kick attempt, and held on long enough before punting so that Clark had to go the length of the field to score with under 30 sec. to go. Judson intercepted, however, to end any further notions there were of the Rockets contracting a terminal case of "cat scratch fever." Churchill played Marshall to a 14-14 tie the following evening. Elsewhere in the 1^st Round, Jefferson advanced with a 35-20 win over McCollum, and Sam Houston surprised people (somewhat) by beating East Central.

Dulles would score midway through the 2^nd Quarter. The stadium press box reported this initial score of Dulles’ 7-0 lead, and the various radio stations back in San Antonio soon disseminated this info, along with running progress reports of the other games. But, as the evening wore on, and as the other games wound down and final scores were being issued, the only thing still coming from Fort Bend was Dulles 7 Judson 0, with this score at one point being reported as the score at the Half. Finally, nearly an hour after all games statewide should have concluded, the various San Antonio radio stations were able to get some more information indicating that Judson had won 20-7. Being in College Station and thus having access to Houston area TV stations, I was nevertheless working on a project during game time that didn’t give me access to TV to see if the 10 o’clock news had anything. On the other hand, I’m not even sure they would have reported it, given the large number of other games going on, and what with Judson and Dulles being regarded somewhat as an "out-of-town" game for those closer in to Houston. Furthermore, the Houston radio stations didn’t (and I suppose still don’t) emphasize High School football score reporting the way radio stations do in San Antonio. So, with no more than the final score to go by for the moment, I had to wait until morning to get some idea as to what actually happened down there.

Next up for Judson was Alice, fresh off a 35-0 destruction of Jefferson. Judson, in its second visit to UT, once got some impressive yardage, as they defeated the Coyotes 25-6. On the other hand, QB Cap Watters suffered a cracked rib (he would still be able to play in later games with a flack jacket, and was returned more to the role he played the season before). Allen Dear, who had experienced an injury of his own just before the season and who had played very sparingly ever since, was then sent in. Considering the circumstances surrounding his re-entry, Allen Dear did remarkably well with Alice, as he completed four passes for a total of 98 yards (everyone from that point on was somewhat apprenshive about Deer's ability to come back in. As it turned out, though, Deer's return, and his improving performances in those last three games especially, were actually the reason that the Rockets actually won it all). Meanwhile, at that same time, Churchill was down in the valley, taking care of Edinburg, 33-21, thus setting up an improbable 2^nd rematch between the Rockets and the Chargers. Churchill had the option of locations and time, and decided to stick to habit and play at Blossom on a Friday evening. In spite of how Judson pulled away from Churchill in Converse 7 weeks earlier, quite a number of people were still wondering if Judson truly had Churchill’s number or not. In spite of the fact that this game didn’t have the same level of drama as the one the year before, there was still a high degree of interest area-wide and hence, KSAT Channel 12 announced that it would provide live coverage. Thus, for an unprecedented 2^nd consecutive year, the San Antonio area had a rematch game, and on live television, at that. Even more phenomenal was that KSAT was willing to bump normal prime time ABC programming in order to do so.

By game time, 22840 had packed into Alamo Stadium, which was slightly more than the attendance at the epic showdown with Churchill only 53 weeks earlier. Several factors may have figured into this:

• "Bad Luck" and other circumstances being what they were, it was the first Semi-Final (or higher) game played in San Antonio since the 1940's, so a curiosity factor was maybe somewhat involved
• People felt that this was the first really good chance to put a team from San Antonio into the Finals since the 1976 Churchill team (also considering that Region IV was regarded as historically "weak" w/r at least football, and such an occurrence was regarded as something that happened only once in a second or third "blue moon"--ie, a very speical occasion indeed).
• Judson, just as Holmes and Wheatley had done in 1979 and 1980, had managed to capture the imagination of many people, who were glad to see the Northeast ISD hegemony/stranglehold broken for the first time in more than a decade.
• Others from many of the smaller communities in the surrounding San Antonio/South Texas area probably remembered playing Judson back when they were still 1-A and 2-A, etc, and may have thought it was kind of weird to see what had happened in only 12 years or so.

Judson opened the game by driving down close enough to attempt a FG. The attempt was blocked. Later, Yates would score to make it 6-0 but, unlike the meeting with Westbrook, the Rockets immediately responded with a scoring drive to take the lead. Then, with time running down in the 1^st Half, Yates, aided by some penalties, re-took the lead to go in with a 13-7 advantage. During the drive, the Lions were aided by an inadvertent flag by the zebra’s, which allowed Yates to pick up about 20 yards when the Rockets froze momentarily, expecting the play to be blown dead. In any event, just before time expired, Chris Pryor broke Craig James’ rushing record set in 1978 by Stratford, for whatever that was worth at the time. Everyone, Pryor included, couldn’t have cared less about that at the moment, though. The bigger issue was whether Judson could pull away from Yates and continue the next week.

Judson came out of the dressing room and in fairly short order made it 14-13. However, on the kickoff, Judson attempted an on-side kick that instead gave Yates good field position at mid-field. The Lions immediately capitalized on the field position, and scored on the very next play. That entire scenario had a very ominous look to it. Fortunately for the Rockets, they maintained their composure and, nearing the end of the 3^rd Quarter, forced a 14-yard Yates punt that landed at the Yates 44-yard line. It was at this point that the Lions, used somewhat to playing in air-conditioned surroundings in the Dome at this point of the season when it still may be warm outside (the temps were hovering in the mid-to-upper seventies with slightly higher humidity, and under sunny skies), appeared to be wearing down somewhat against the smaller, quicker Rockets. Sure enough, Judson was in the Endzone only 4 plays later, and Judson led 22-19 after a two-point conversion. On the next series, Yates failed to convert for any substantial gains, and the Rockets then took some time off the clock before closing out the scoring, following a 75-yard drive, with 7:13 remaining. Yates was limited to only 70 yards or so in the 2^nd Half (most of that, of course, coming on the TD sprint), and failed to make a First Down in the final Quarter. Nevertheless, everyone was too intent on finishing the job to notice that Yates was indeed finished, such that the 10-point differential was much closer than the game actually was, in view of the level to which Judson had taken things by game’s end. And so, the 1983 Rockets would get their "moonshot"

Judson's opponents in the Finals would be the Midland Lee Rebels, coached by former Darrel Royal assistant and one-time Alice Coyotes coach Spike Dykes. The Rebels knocked off the Plano Wildcats by scoring 21 points in the 4^th Quarter to take a 35-14 decision in Odessa. Just like Judson, they had to get past a district opponent--in this case the Permian Panthers--twice to reach their Final exam. And, just like Judson, they had improved on their already lethal offensive scheme (the dreaded Wishbone attack, in this case), as well as their defensive play since entering the playoffs. In any event, I had my own "finals" to still worry about before the Final affair the next week, so I returned to College Station to take care of business. On the other hand, somewhat emotionally exhausted from the events of the afternoon, I decided to wait until the morning to head back. As it turned out, I was able to close out my most successful Semester later that week, as the penultimate semester of my stay at TAMU concluded, and I could then make plans to get to Dallas.

Midland Lee:
December 17, 1983: Texas Stadium, Irving
Okay, gang, we've had a good training period, and today we're really going to do it, we're going to land on the moon....this is the final exam
Flight Director Gene Kranz said this to his Flight Controllers while they were waiting to reacquire Apollo 11 from the back side of the moon on the orbit that the landing was to take place that culminated 8 years of preparation after JFK asked Congress to fund a moon program. After slightly less than 7 years of steady preparation beginning with Jerry Sanders and then followed up by Frank Arnold and his Coaching Staff, the Judson Rockets were about to attempt their "moon landing" in the 5A Final Exam

Judson got the kickoff to start the game and moved into Lee territory before stalling out and punting. The Rebels immediately turned the ball over at their 25-yard line, and the Rockets resumed the drive and finished with a 5-yard TD run by Pryor with 2:34 left in the 1^st Quarter. Then, the Judson contingent of the frozen 12126 witnesses at Texas Stadium were shown what the other half of those on-hand already knew, namely, that time of possession meant nothing for those running the sweep. On their third play of the drive, Walter Jones tore around right side for a 51-yard score. Once I saw that, I was kind of reminded of the John Wayne movie "McQ," where the non-certified but very effective killing machine that he borrowed could pump upwards of 100 holes per second (or something like that) into a victim. Maybe a somewhat warped analogy, but what can I say?? I can get some pretty warped thoughts at times,