Great Photo of Coach & Peggy with Grandsons

Submitted by Lynn Davis

Thanks to Lynn Davis for sending along this really great recent photo of Coach and Peggy Carlisle along  with three grandsons.  These red-headed boys are Billy's sons and are named Wilson, Weston, and Wyndon.  Thanks for sending this photo for all of us to enjoy.

 

Comments

[paul hackett]

A STORY ABOUT MY FIRST CONTACT WITH COACH

My first contact with Coach Carlisle actually came through my father during summer baseball season my first year there. If you don't recall or didn't know my father was an immigrant from germany having come to the US in 1930. He still had a pretty heavy accent and since he was at Sea most of the year(merchant seaman) the only sport he really knew anything about was baseball and frankly I think he enjoyed the socialization in the bleachers more than the baseball.

At a game one night Coach Carlisle approached Pop and introduced himself and welcomed my Dad to the area. he then asked my father how tall he thought I would grow to be. It surprised my dad as he did not make the connection with my ultimate height and Coach Carlisle and basketabal. I explained to him later.

I do not think my dad ever answered with anything other than he did not know. Who would have guessed that I would play at 6'7" tall my last two years in college. I say that considering my Dad was 6"0" tall, my older brother is 6'0" tall and my mom was 5'3" on her best day.

And... a Coach Carlisle related anecdote. As I mentioned, my father was german. In the German language, a "v" is pronounced as we all would speak a "w" and the "w" is pronounced as a "v". So Coaches daughter Vicki was condemned for life to be referred to as "Wicki" in the hackett household.

[Ed Davis]

My First Introduction to Coach:

When I was in the 7th grade, which would have been about 1953, our family moved from Kemah to Seabrook. My dad put up a backboard and goal on the back of our house and I would shoot baskets all day it seemed and into the night - my dad had put a big floodlight out there so I could do some night shooting.

Anyway, next door to us was a set of garages big enough to house 3 cars and above it was a garage apartment. Living in that garage apartment was a young Coach Carlise and his wife, Peggy. Coach got very interested in my basketball playing and would often come out and join me. He showed me some shooting techniques and some good moves around the basket and I put them to good use on the Seabrook Jr. High team for several years. Our coach at Seabrook at the time was Bobby Proctor and he was pleased that Coach Carlisle was showing me some things about basketball.

George and Peggy moved after a year or so there so I missed out on some more coaching of his until I reached was a sophomore in 1957 and began playing for the Wildcats. As I look back on those days, I count myself fortunate to have had that great experience with some a great coach.

[Paul Hackett]

After exchanging an email or 2 with Buddy carlisle regarding the current Creek Basketball situation I did a quick google search on his dad. The Great Coach George Carlisle and found the article below that talks about how he landed in Webster instead of Luling. While I never played for him I came close as it was he who recruited me to go to Rice. I also had the good fortune of knowing his family. The boys were pretty young but I went to Jr High and High School with his daughter, Vicki.

HERE IS THE STORY

· The Galveston County Daily News - [Cached Version]
Published on: 12/25/2005 Last Visited: 12/25/2005
George Carlisle and his sons, Buddy and Billy, have left indelible marks in Texas high school basketball history.

George is basically the founder of Clear Creek High School basketball.Buddy followed in his father's footsteps years later and continues to serve as the Wildcats' head coach.Billy is still making his mark as the head basketball coach at Deer Park High School.

Together, they've won more than 1,000 games as coaches.

Yet all three came close to choosing another path.

In fact, George almost chose Luling High School over Clear Creek, then known as Webster High School.

Later, he nearly chose football over basketball.
...
But it likely would have been elsewhere, not Clear Creek and Deer Park, had George followed his heart and not his pocketbook.

+++

George graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1949.He played both basketball and football for the Bobcats.

Just a few months shy of his 20th birthday, George drove his new Chevy down to Webster to interview for a teaching and coaching job. He'd already interviewed at Luling, and he had already made up his mind that he'd take the Luling job.

After all, Luling was just few miles from Prairie Lea - the place where George and his fiance, Peggy McMahon, grew up.
...
It was there at Prairie Lea that George won two state basketball titles - and Peggy's heart - before graduating in 1945. Peggy was a cheerleader at Prairie Lea, cheering on George while he played basketball and football for the Indians.

Webster was a small, unhurried place back then. There was no Baybrook Mall or even NASA.

George was ready to return home and take the Luling job. He made that clear to the Webster superintendent, too.But the superintendent was intent on making his sales pitch.

"He said, ‘Do you want to know what you can make down here?'" George recalled. "I said, ‘Yeah, I guess so.But that's what I'm going to do.'"

Then the superintendent threw out a number that was far more than George was offered at Luling.

"I said, ‘I'll be here,'" George said."I tell you, it was big (money)."

+++

Three days later, George took over as Webster's head basketball coach and assistant football coach. He was with the Wildcats for two seasons, before the Korean War intervened.

With the United States embroiled in a war on the Asia mainland, George knew he had little choice but to get involved.He could either wait to be drafted or volunteer.He volunteered.

He got a sweet deal, too.Instead of dodging bullets in Korea, he spent two years in the Army playing basketball, football and softball at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio. The games helped cheer up the injured soldiers while they recuperated at the medical center.

"It was good for the kids who were coming back," George said.
...
"I thought, ‘My gosh, what have I done?'" George said.
...
But a few years before that, George was forced to make a big decision. The school district decided to split the football and basketball job into two separate jobs.George had to make a choice. He could be either the head football coach or the head basketball coach.

Once again, his first thought was the money.

"There was more money in (football)," George said.
...
"He could just shoot that jump shot," George said. "Nobody else knew it.Boy, he could just shoot it."

George believed Boonie Wilkening, along with a fine cast of returning players, could take the Wildcats places. And George wanted to make that trip with them.

"I told my wife, ‘We could really be good in basketball,'" George said.

[Ed Davis]

An interesting personal sideline to this info is that when Coach and Peggy moved into the area as he began his coaching career, one of their places of residence was in a garage apartment next to our house in Seabrook. I was in the 7th grade so that would have been about 1954.

My dad had put up a backboard on the back of our house and I would spend hours shooting baskets and playing some make-believe games just by myself. I often would do this into the dark of night, illuminated by a light that my dad had rigged up out there as well.

Well, often Coach would come over and watch me as I worked on my basketball skills, would give me some coaching hints, and sometimes even join in my shooting practice. It was a unique experience and one that I did not know at the time would play great dividends as I worked my way up the ladder into the Wildcat basketball program. And both Coach and Peggy became good friends of my entire family during that time that has lasted even into the present day.

I will always remember those days fondly and will always be grateful to Coach for his attention to me and for helping me become a player that could contribute in at least a small way to the great success he would have at Creek.

[Ed Davis]

I want to add another thing or two about my relationship with Coach over the years. I truly feel he is the person who has most influenced my life and I regard him as a mentor in most all areas of my life.

I was fortunate to run across Coach (and Peggy, too, at times) at various places around the state even after I had moved away from the Clear Creek area. Most often, he was following the coaching exploits of his sons as their teams played in tournaments which I also attended. We always had great conversations and shared a lot of memories.

I remember when both my mom and dad passed away not long ago that Coach and Peggy came over to the funeral home and visited with me and my family for a long time. He seemed to enjoy sharing with my two sons stories of the Wildcats and the part I played on some of his teams. He especially enjoyed telling them that I could not jump at all but had a lot of basketball sense that usually put me in the right place at the right time. I actually could jump some but evidently not to Coach's standards.

Anyway, I will always treasure the influence Coach had on my life and I hopefully have passed some of his counseling and wisdom on to my own kids.