Posted by Dan Jensen
Bennie Lenox had established a fair sized reputation by his senior year of 1960. Being the best player in the state, regardless of classification, even far away Dickinson had heard of him.
Although Bennie had only scored 18 points in the first round district game in League City, Coach Bernard Callendar and his Gators really geared up to stop him when Clear Creek traveled to Dickinson. Eddie Hall was a very fine all round athlete and he was assigned the task of sticking very close to Bennie and I guess he was somewhat effective.
Somewhat, because Bennie only scored 18 again. He did have 16 at halftime as we raced to a 37-15 lead but he did not even play in the fourth quarter as we led 58-21 after three. The final was 66-33. Checking the scorebook after the game, Coach Callendar mused, "Hmmmm, I guess we should have emphasized offense more in our preparations."
Well, he got another chance later in the district tournament, a one time event instigated by Deer Park coach Cotton Watkins. This time the Gators beat Bennie, outscoring him 37-36 in an 80-37 game. Bennie was 16 of 23 from the field and 4 of 5 from the foul line.
Face it, Coach Callendar. Your Gator offense needed a lot of work that year, as it scored only 31, 33 and 37 in the three games against Clear Creek.
Did Bennie play the whole game that time? Surely not, with a 43 point win, but how sweet it would have been, even today, if he had been "allowed" to outscore the whole Gator team. Never did like that bunch. Guess we'll just have to live with coming up a point shy. Way to go, Ben!
Posted by: Pat Jensen | December 08, 2005 at 09:34 PM
You know Coach always made liberal substitutions in the fourth quarter when we were well ahead. Bennie only averaged playing three quarters that year. His 25 point average would have been over 30--probably well over--with tougher competition.
He hit the only two field goals he attempted in the fourth quarter and folks like Hammer, Martin, Mayfield and Moorhead finished up.
Posted by: Dan Jensen | December 08, 2005 at 11:01 PM
Not only did we rout Dickinson that year but we did every other district opponent too. But, Coach may have played his starters longer than he normally would have because he was miffed that some of the league coaches, headed by Deer Park's Cotton Watkins, had gotten together and voted in a district tournament to be played at the end of the regular season with the winner qualifying for the playoffs.
The reasoning was that they could not beat us in a long regular season but may have a chance in a tournament by getting hot at the right time or us having a key injury, as was the case in Boonie Wilkening's senior year in 1955.
This was 1960 though and the Wildcats didn't even have a close game in district--nor the tournament as it turned out.
As regular season champion, we drew a bye and were matched with the Deer Park-Channelview winner. If was with great joy that I watched Cotton Watkins stomp by the scoring table with a scowl on his face after Deer Park was soundly thrashed by weak Channelview. I think it was by 20 points or more.
We dispatched Channelview, 69-40 before the 80-37 win over Dickinson in the championship game.
Coach must have thought that revenge was indeed sweet.
Posted by: Dan Jensen | December 08, 2005 at 11:42 PM
Did the contrived system ever yield a winner that advanced instead of the season champ? Sometimes teams are much better at the end of the season.
Posted by: Pat Jensen | December 09, 2005 at 12:40 PM
That was just a one year deal. Ol' Cotton must have finally realized he could not beat Coach. He never did in a game that meant anything.
In Oklahoma, every team is in the playoffs in basketball and districts mean nothing. There are several levels and loser's brackets are involved so you need two losses to knock you out.
I guess there was never any danger of Coach Carlisle moving from Clear Creek to Oklahoma.
Posted by: Dan Jensen | December 09, 2005 at 05:15 PM