Our Best Sports Year Ever?

Posted by Dan Jensen

    On another thread, Terry Mathis wonders if his senior season did not produce the best overall sports year ever for Clear Creek.  I think he may very well be right but let's discuss various possibilities.

    He is thinking of just football, basketball and baseball and I think most, maybe all, of us would agree that those are the big three but you may toss in any other sport too if it strengthens your case.

    Terry's senior year was 1966-67 and he was a starter on the basketball and baseball teams.  The football team won district for the first time ever but was bounced from the playoffs by Bridge City and Steve Worster.  The basketball team was 27-4 and finished third in the state tournament.  The baseball team won district and bi-district but lost to Beaumont Forest Park in the regionals.  I don't know the record.  Maybe Terry does.

    The very next year, pitcher Scooter Lenox and catcher Lynn Davis were co-MVP in the district and their baseball team was 16-4 and beaten two straight in bi-district by El Campo.  The basketball team, with Scooter and Richard Huhn as all-staters, won its first 35 games before losing to Conroe in the playoffs.  I don't recall what kind of record the football team had that season after its district championship the year before.

    The 1991 baseball team won a state championship but the basketball team was only 15-18 and the football team likely had a losing record too.  That state title was plumb loverly but the entire sports year was not.

    Our old warhorses have a candidate, the 1956-57 year.  The football team did not win district but it may have been second.  Tom Goodman was a very good lineman and William Frost a good running back.  The basketball team finished 33-3 and third in the state.  The baseball team won our first district championship in that sport and also won bi-district before losing.  Anyone remember the won-loss record?

    Are there are other school years that should be considered?  Let the discussion begin.

Comments

[Terry Mathis]

1996 was a good year for Clear Creek. We were bi-district champs in basketball, and lost in the semi-finals at the state tournament in baseball, but I don't think we won anything in football. Again not up to par with the 1967 year.

[Terry Mathis]

I am going to League City this afternoon, and Maxine Mathis has several annuals from League City, Webster, and Clear Creek. I think one of them was from l957 and I will see if it tells the won-loss record of the baseball team from that year. Maxine who is married to my brother Gerald speaks very highly of Tom Goodman, whom she says was like a brother to her, while she was growing up.

[Terry Mathis]

Maxine's brother Sonny has the 1957 Annual, so she has put in a call to him to see if he will look it up and report back the won-loss record of the baseball team, in 57.

[Dan Jensen]

Terry, Lynn Davis strongly supports your senior year as the best all-round in school history.

He also added some of the minor sports to make it even more plumb sparkling. And, you have been searching for the school that lost to us in bi-district before running into Bridge City and Steve Worster. Lynn says it was Lamar Consolidated.

Add these to your parade of champions for the school year of 1966-67:
*District champions in both boys and girls track. The boys set ten school records. Max Blansit was an outstanding distance coach and John Walker won state that year in both cross country and the mile run.
*The girls basketball team won district.
*The boys tennis team won district. Does anyone know if Ralph Parr was the coach?

Lynn was a senior the next year and added some things to that resume, including a state championship in volleyball and Mike McClendon winning the mile at the state meet.

But he thinks your guys were the best ever--easily.

[Terry Mathis]

I thought we might have won district in both track and tennis but I could not verify it. I remember John Walker now that his name came up, he was some kind of distant runner.

[Terry Mathis]

Per the 1957 Clear Creek year book, the Wildcat baseball team was the 25A Bi-District Champions with a season record of 12-9-2. Tom Goodman was the MVP for the football team also in 57.

[Dan Jensen]

I'm surprised that the 1957 bi-district baseball champions did not have a better record. I wonder if that is accurate? I do not trust school annuals for good data.

Maybe the team got off to a slow start since all five basketball starters that went to the state tournament were starters in baseball too.

And, you left an "A" off the district number. We were AA in those days.

[Alex Kalinowski]

I also gave Gerald and Mac some info on the state basketball team . If they didn't include them let me know and i will post them. This was 57, As u can see i did not excell in english and grammer. i dont waste a lot of time with cap. letters and puncuatation, spelling not a strong point either, Ha Ha!

[Dan Jensen]

Gerald Mathis doesn't post, his brother Terry does. There are four Mathis brothers--all scoundrels.

[Terry Mathis]

Alex, I think the 57 yearbook has the basketball team with a record of 32-3 didn't it? And I think Dan differs with that.

[Dan Jensen]

I'm away from my trusty old record book this week but I know we won 33 games in 1957. I've never considered yearbooks (annuals for the old warhorses) a reliable source for such.

Ralph Parr once printed year by year records and several were wrong. I asked him where he got the information and he said from school annuals.

[Mike Claessens]

I played on that team also and it was one of the best basketball teams as well as one of the best classes to come out of clear creek. I have spoken to Coach Kreuger a while back and he sayed he was trying to maybe get a group of old basketball players together for a reunion.

[Dan Jensen]

Mike, it's good to see you checking in.

I remember your Little League and teenage baseball days and what I prize most is that monster home run to right center that you hit in one of those July all-star games that we played for several years in LaMarque. I am sure Dickie Baker remembers it too as I well remember his glee. "Major league," he said.

[Terry Mathis]

Mike, How long have you been reading this blog. It's good to have someone from 1967 on here. Speak up more often, because I definetly need help on some of these questions, Dan, will ask. Like who we beat in regionals before we went to the state tournament in basketball, and where we played.

[Terry Mathis]

Well maybe I just imagined you were there Mike.

[Shaquille (Shaq) O'Neal]

I don't know who did the post right before this one but it wasn't me.

[Terry Mathis]

The post was from me. I was at work and it didn't automatically install my name like it does on my home coomputer. I guess Mike is still looking for who we beat in regionals in 67.

[Nancy (Hobart) Kacz]

I was going to mention the 67-68 State Volleyball Championship until I saw it mentioned. Phyllis (Hobart) Winn also placed 2nd in both the high jump and triple jump at the State Track Meet in 68 and 3rd in hurdles. 2nd places don't usually get remembered.

[Robert Coe]

I might add about that 1966-1967 school year that not only did John Walker win the State Mile and Cross-country titles, the team won the State Cross-Country championship as well. I remember, because I was our second man (and finished eighth.) John went on to run a 4:06 mile on scholarship at Stephen F. Austin State. In the 1967-68 year, Mike McClendon transferred in from Wisconsin and once again a Creek runner won the state mile championship and the state cross-country title. And once again our team finished number one. Back-to-back State Titles! Although of course in those days nobody cared about distance running in the State of Texas. McClendon went on to train under the legendary University of Oregon Coach (and Nike founder) Bill Bowerman, and as a teammate of the great Steve Prefontaine ran a 4:00.1 mile and a 1:48.0 half-mile. (I went on to Stanford University and ran a 4:07.6 and won some big cross-country races as well.) Blansit worked us hard. I believe a few years later he had the best two-mile relay in the country and some very fast kids.

[Terry Mathis]

Mike Claessens, a member of our 1967 Basketball team, commented June 5, 2006 and hasn't been heard of since. He must be to busy like Lynn Davis.