Our Divine Series with Devine

Posted by Dan Jensen

That Hugh Taylor is a good guy even if he did marry a Trcka.  I have exchanged several e-mails with him and the latest concerned the Devine game that knocked us out of the regional tournament in his senior year and, despite classmate Edward Davis' attempts to obscure the fact, that this was the only time we did not go to the state meet in an eight year period, Hugh was mourning the loss and wanting to play it over.

Well, we did play it over but it was after Hugh had graduated.  In fact, we had three games with Devine and all were for high stakes since they were in the regional tournament in Victoria.  Most of my memories of that series are happy ones.  Let's see if you agree.  I know Sir Edward will.

The first one I have already mentioned in the Memorable Game thread.  I hope you have all read that but it deserves a repeat.

It was in 1957 and we took an all-senior starting lineup and a 30-2 record to the regionals.  We beat Donna, 68-52 in the first game as James Davis and Robert Brown hit 21 each and William Frost scored 14.  Our other starters were Stanley Magee and Tom Goodman.

That set up the championship game with Devine, who had a very good post man named Bill Brown.  He was not so tall but he was a big strong guy that I believe played in the All-Star game that summer.  Unfortunately, he is now deceased along with Magee and Goodman.

We were behind (I don't recall how much) with 5:21 left in the game.  That figure is embedded in my mind because that was what was showing on the clock with all-state James Davis fouled out after scoring 17 points.  But junior Chuck Trcka (actually his family is a mighty good one) came off the bench to fill in for Davis very well while Brown and Frost pumped in the points for a 78-72 win.  Brown finished with 23 points and Frost 19.  I recall Devine's Bill Brown being drenched with sweat at game's end.

So, we made our second trip to Austin for a date with Buna.  I doubt if even Hugh Taylor would want another chance at them.  That was the only time we ever played the then state power and it was quite enough.

Our second battle with Devine was in 1959 when Hugh Taylor, Edward Davis and Charlie Milligan were seniors and junior Bennie Lenox and sophomore Paul Timmins were starters.  Lenox was on his way to his first of two all-state awards.  But, this was not one of his vintage games as he only scored 13 points on six of 20 shooting from the field and one of four free throws.

Guard Tinker Davidson was a star for Devine but he scored only three points.  I'm not sure how we lost but lose we did, 41-38.  We led 10-9 after a quarter but trailed, 23-18 at halftime.  Each scored ten points in the third quarter and I am not sure that we ever lead in the second half.  It was not a good way to end a season despite what Edward Davis says.  Speaking of Sir Edward, he scored six points on atypical two of eight shooting from the floor.  He was usually as good a shooter as he was a talker.

We had beaten Northside San Antonio, 72-57 in the first regional game.  Lenox hit ten straight field goals from late in the first quarter to early in the fourth and led all scorers with 31.  Sir Edward Davis had 16 and Hugh Taylor 9.

We played the same two teams in the regionals next year but had a different script writer this time.  We whipped Northside San Antonio again, 59-38 and led 35-15 at halftime.  Bennie Lenox hit five of his first six field goal attempts and Northside must have thought it was deja vu all all over again as Yogi Berra would say.

Now, we get another shot at Devine and it was indeed divine.  The graduated Tinker Davidson was in the grandstands, waving his arms and firing up the Devine crowd.  I don't know where the graduated Hugh Taylor was.

We led, 46-18 at haltime and I don't know if Tinker Davidson was still in the building or not.  It was 19-11 at the first quarter break and we went on a 27-7 rampage in the second quarter.  We pumped in 28 more in the third quarter for a 74-36 lead (Hugh Taylor, can you believe it?) and turned it over to the reserves for most of the fourth period.  All of our 14 players saw action.  Lenox led scorers with 30, reserve John Rindy scored 11, reserve Bobby Rule had 10 and so did starter Norman Lunday.

I like stories with happy endings.

Comments

[Hugh Taylor]

Nice Dan, However, Who held Davidson to 3 points? Probably Sir Ed from the house of Davis. He was always proud of his defense.
Still, lets play our game over.

[Pat Jensen]

What accounted for such a low score as 41-38? Ten points in a quarter? Great defense? Stalling tactics? Was Clear Creek AAA at the time?

[Dan Jensen]

Hugh, I asked Sir Edward about Davidson and he could not remember if he guarded him or not. I have asked him for permission to repeat his response on a blog thread that I want to author about sterling defensive efforts on other team's stars. Stay tuned.

Pat, good question about the low score and I don't know the answer. Maybe just poor shooting by our guards who hit only 10 of 34 from the field. Post players did fine as Hugh Taylor was 3 of 4 and Charlie Milligan 4 of 8.

A guard trio of Edward Davis, Bennie Lenox and Paul Timmins wouldn't scare anybody. (Bennie must not read this blog or surely he would have responded to some of my jabs.)

[Hugh Taylor]

Pat, Creek was still AA thru 59.

[Dan Jensen]

We moved to 3A for the 1960-61 sports season. Someone else can tell us when we went to 4A.

Of course, most everyone moved up a class one year in a general reorganization. I'm not sure where we were on that.

One need for this site is some younger historians.

[Dan Jensen]

Hugh, as I think about a thread about some of our guys defending an opposing star, I doubt that it would go very far. We have too many of those kind of threads already.

Devine's Tinker Davidson was not some super star but he was a good player. He only shot six times so somebody must have been in his face a lot.

A better example would be another regional matchup, this one against Karnes City in 1958. H. O. Muecke had been averaging in the high 20s as I remember and Chuck Trcka held him to 9 points on 3 of 12 shooting. Chuck scored 25 as we won, 73-51. (By the way, some guy named Edward Davis had 17 points on 6 of 10 from the floor and 5 of 5 from the line.)

I would be glad for some of you to share other good defensive games by individuals.

[Dan Jensen]

Does anyone remember how far we were behind when James Davis fouled out in that first Devine game? Coach? Robert Brown? Lynn Davis? Anyone?