SPORTS
A Mother’s Day to remember
It was a happy Mother’s Day for Bowie resident Jan Browning and her family.
Her daughter Tiffany Egenbeacher surprised Browning and her mom with the autograph of Browning’s father, Bobbie Brashear, which was collected more than 70 years ago when he played basketball at Rice University.
“When I originally started looking, it’s because I wanted to surprise my own mother. I was disappointed when I couldn’t find it so it was kind of funny when my daughter found it to give to me,” Browning said.
What culminated on May 10 was a couple of months of good fortune and coincidences.
Back in 2005 Browning’s mother, Verna Mae Brashear, gifted her a book about famous University of California, Los Angeles men’s basketball coach John Wooden called, “The Wizard of Westwood.” Her mother gave it to her because it referenced Verna Mae’s brother, Hollis Johnson, who personally knew Wooden.
Browning admits to never reading the book, but its significance would come out during April of this year once she and her mother started going through her father’s things.
Bobbie passed away in 2017. He was a part of the Jackrabbit basketball program’s first state title in 1951 before playing at Arlington State College and Rice University.
That led to him coaching for some time at local schools Bowie, Saint Jo, Montague and Bellevue, as well as Kincaid in Houston.
While at Rice, the 1953-54 team won the South Western Conference tie-breaker against Texas to qualify for the NCAA playoffs, the equivalent of today’s Sweet Sixteen round in the tournament. During his time at Rice, a 16-year-old boy named Dwight Chapin sent Brashear a letter asking to send him his autograph.
Browning was curious what happened to the young Chapin and to see if he still had her father’s autograph. After looking online, she found out Chapin was a prominent autograph collector of that time period. Research also found he co-authored the book Verna Mae had given her 15 years before.
Her family helped her track down Chapin who is still alive and lives in California. He informed her he had to downsize his autograph collection during the years and sold his 1950s’ college collection.
While tickled at the connection they shared, he was not sure where the autograph would be now. Browning looked on eBay, but came up empty.
Thankfully her daughter picked up the search and was able to find it and surprise both her mother and grandmother on Mother’s Day.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
In its first match since last year’s state semifinal appearance, Saint Jo hosted Bryson Aug. 11 and took a 25-13, 25-12, 25-21 win over the Cowgirls.
The Lady Panthers lost some talent to graduation but have five seniors ready to have a successful season. Savannah Hil, one of the five, got Saint Jo rolling offensively with a four-point serving string, including a pair of aces. Abby Carter’s kill and Kamron Skidmore’s block helped put the Lady Panthers up 5-2 in game one.
Hadleigh Moore added a four-point string of her own to extend the lead to 10-3. Tatum Morman’s pair, helped by a Hill kill, gave Saint Jo a 14-5 lead. Bryson got within five before a Hill 3-pointer, with help by a Carter kill, put the lead back at 18-10.
After an Olivia Johnson kill broke serve, Jordyn O’Neal served up the final five points, with Johnson providing a kill to move things along.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Despite being the smallest school in the Brock varsity classic volleyball tournament, the Lady Indians finished 4th out of the eight teams there.
After losing to the host team in its first pool play match Aug. 14 18-25, 14-25 and also to Class 3A Wall 12-25, 8-25, Nocona rebounded to close out pool play with a 20-25, 25-23, 25-20 win over Christoval. Sy Parker had 16 kills and 7 blocks in the three matches. Raylea Bowles had 12 kills, 17 digs and served up three aces. Maddyn Bowles had seven kills and 14 digs while Paige Davis had seven kills and 15 digs. Baylee Thomas added 11 digs.
From the setter spot, Kasi Castro had 20 assists, served up five aces and contributed 14 digs. Leah Meekins added 18 assists and six digs during the three matches.
To open Saturday’s bracket play, the Lady Indians posted a 25-18, 18-25, 26-24, 25-19 win over Fort Worth Christian. Castro staked Nocona to a 2-0 lead in game one. Kills by Parker set up pairs of points from Raylea Bowles and Leah Meekins helped Nocona negate an early deficit and take a 10-9 lead.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
County football teams had their first scrimmage of the season Aug. 14 with mixed results.
Forestburg hosted Azle Christian and Victory Christian. Under a new system with new head coach Cori Hayes, the Longhorns looked pretty good in the coach’s eye.
“The first team looked good,” Hayes explained. “Overall we need to work on our pace and blocking assignments and blocking assignments. Overall we looked good for the new regime.”
Forestburg hits the road to scrimmage Newcastle Aug. 21.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
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