Hoosiers of Texas Came from Prairie Lea

Posted by Ed Davis

This article was written by John Hines and was published in a San Antonio newspaper on February 24, 2006.  Prairie Lea High School is the school which Coach George Carlisle attended and where he was a multi-sport star.  He is mentioned in this article.

For the first 21 years of the Texas boys state basketball tournament, from 1920-21 to 1940-41, there was only one class. As would seem normal, schools that are now in either Class 5A or 4A won most of the championships. Bigger schools won 19 of the 21, including Brackenridge in 1926 and San Marcos in 1940. With the format extended to three classes, the Prairie Lea Indians won consecutive Class B state titles (1943-44 and 1944-45).

In 1944-45, Prairie Lea, which is located between San Marcos and Luling, went 29-0, averaged an unusually high (for the era) 56 points a game and beat the Class A state champion. The Indians not only repeated its Class B title but also beat Class A state champion Lanier late in the regular season. They also beat Class 2A Jefferson.

Perhaps the best of those 29 victories occurred Feb. 28, 1945, in the Jefferson gym. The Indians risked their clean record against once-beaten Lanier in a warm-up game before each went to the regional tournament. Lanier, state champion in 1943 and state semifinalist in 1944, led 35-19 with five minutes left.

But Prairie Lea zipped off an 18-2 run, highlighted by three consecutive baskets off backcourt turnovers, to force overtime, all that with three starters having fouled out. A 4-1 margin in the extra period gave Prairie Lea a 41-38 victory. Lanier went the last eight minutes without a field goal. Guard Vilbry White, a 1944 all-tournament selection, led the way with 14 points.

Earlier in that 1944-45 season Prairie Lea beat Jefferson 42-31 in San Antonio. In the regional tournament, Prairie Lea beat Burnet 36-18, old San Antonio Edgewood 67-28 and Hutto 72-29. In the state tournament, the Indians beat Roscoe Highland 42-24, Nocona Valley 31-16 and Mount Enterprise 35-33.   White again made all-tournament, this time with guard George Carlisle, who led the team in the final with 11 points before fouling out.

In 1944, Prairie Lea won state games over Stratford 33-30, Roscoe Highland 34-31 and Blossom 30-26. White had 17 points in the semifinals and 13 in the finals.

The Indians were unusually tall for that era. Center Robert "Junior" Holcomb, who was on both teams, was the team's tallest player at 6-foot-6. The Indians also had three other players taller than 6-0.

Postscript:

Several renowned small schools around the country captured one-class state championships, among them the 1952 Hebron (Ill.) and Cuba (Ky.) teams, then the famous 1954 Milan (Ind.) team, which was the basis behind the 1980s movie "Hoosiers."

The "us vs. them" attitude was best exemplified by Jerry Shnay's Chicago Tribune article reprinted in the book, "Grass Roots Basketball," edited by Nelson Campbell. The coach of one of Hebron's big-city victims remarked he would like to play the small school five times instead of one, to which a Hebron fan replied, "That would be all right with us just as long as we could play them all in one day."

Texas' best-known small school for basketball is Snook, which set a state boys record of 90 victories in a row from 1964-66.

This article was written by John Hines and was published in a San Antonio newspaper on February 24, 2006:

Comments

[Dan Jensen]

This is quite a story. It's amazing that tiny Prairie Lea could beat some big San Antonio schools.

I wish Coach and/or Peggy would give us some added details and highlights of this golden era in Prairie Lea history.