SPORTS
Looking back: First Bowie coach
This story and photo ran in the July 24, 1958 edition of the Bowie News. It is about Bowie Independent School District’s first football coach, Percy Stallings. If anyone has any stories about Stallings, we would love to hear about it.
A Bowie business man – Percy Stallings – was the first coach in Bowie High School.
Although he gave much of his time to the job he was not paid. He turned out some mighty fine teams from 1912 to 1917 when he was the coach. Bowie played teams from much bigger towns in those days as they did not have organized play for high schools.
Three members of the famous football teams produced by Mr. Stallings went on to live in Bowie – Bob Burgess of the Burgess Funeral Home, Jess Parrish who went on to play semi-pro baseball and C. A. Wilson who became a football star at Austin College and who owned a the Wilson Drug Store.
Those on the first football team coached by Percy Stallings were: Bob Burgess, Claude Buffalo, Emett Archer of Austin, Floyd Archer of Wichita Falls, Weldon Youree of Arizona, Floyd Springer of Wichita Falls, Jack Younger of Amarillo, Dick Gililland of Lawton, Ben Dearmore of Fort Worth, Tom Stephens of San Antonio, Robert Meyer who gave his life for his country, George Barry of Childress, Carl Hare of Lubbock, James Ayres of Fort Worth Jess Parrish of Bowie.
Percy Stallings was an outstanding player on the University of Texas football team and always has been a sports enthusiast, especially as a booster for the Jackrabbits. His high school team was the first team in North Texas to effectively use the forward pass.
“The Jackrabbits received their name from the Decatur fans when we were playing Decatur one time. The boys were moving so fast over the field that they nicknamed them the Jackrabbits,” Stallings said. “In the fourteen years that we played we were only beat one time and that was by Electra.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Lady Indians beat Saint Jo at home on Saturday morning.
The Lady Indians won 16-1 after four innings due to run-rule against the smaller school.
Nocona was coming off a competitive loss at Collinsville earlier in the week while the Lady Panthers were hoping to compete after a busy week of their athletes doing everything else besides just softball.
The Lady Indians easily won the first matchup between the teams in March, 19-2 and it was more of the same on Saturday.
Saint Jo struck first to start the game off well. Jordyn O’Neal hit a one out single. Krista Reeves followed with a walk after O’Neal had stolen second base and had advanced to third thanks to an error trying to throw her out. A wild pitch then allowed her to score to put the Lady Panthers up 1-0.
The lead did not last long. Nocona’s first two batters drew walks which set up Abby Hill to drive them both in with a single to right field.
Despite giving up a single and a walk later in the inning, Saint Jo’s defense did not allow another run. A line out and groundout to the shortstop while picking off a runner attempting to steal got the Lady Panthers out of the inning unscarred.
The Lady Indians led 2-1.
That was about as competitive as it got. In the second inning, Nocona’s bats got going. Two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases up with no outs.
Reagan Phipps drew a walk that drove in a run. Hill hit another two RBI single. Skye Kirby followed with a two RBI double.
After the first out, Allie Sutton drove in one run with a single. There was a fly out for out two, before a runner came in to score after a passed ball. Finally, an error allowed two more runs to score on the base paths.
Nocona had scored nine runs and led 11-1 to break the game open heading into the third inning.
Taylor Patrick hit a double, with O’Neal and Reeves following with singles. Unfortunately for Saint Jo, Patrick was thrown out before the hits attempting to steal a base so the Lady Panthers scored no runs from this.
The Lady Indians kept pouring on the runs. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases up with no outs. Tinley Cable then hit an RBI single. Shelby Swell was hit by a pitch that drove in another run.
After two strikeouts, Evelyn Marquez drove in two more runs on a double to put Nocona up 15-1, coming up one run short of ending the game early.
The Lady Indians scored that one run in the fourth inning. After Phipps drew a leadoff walk, Hill hit a triple that drove her in to end the game.
Nocona won 16-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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