During the next few weeks The Bowie News will be looking back at sports teams that accomplished big things for their communities.
The next team we are looking at is Bowie High School’s 1973-74 boy’s basketball team that would win the program’s fifth state title 20 years after the last one.
The photo was taken from the school’s yearbook from that year. The text is from the March 1974 edition of The Bowie News.
If you have any memories of this team or time in Bowie’s history, we would love to hear from you.
There was never any doubt in the minds of the Bowie Jackrabbits that they would go all the way to the State Tournament in Austin this year and likewise there was no doubt that they would win the tournament which they did Saturday with an impressive 76-66 win over Friona.
And impressive they were. Showing the skill and determination of seasoned pros, the Jackrabbits with only two seniors, David Prater and Bobby Brashear, blew the game wide open in the third quarter of the final game when they popped the bucket with 29 big points to completely wipe out a three-point Friona lead at halftime.
The ‘Rabbits started the game hot as they quickly jumped to a two-point lead and at one time had Friona down 10 to 4 before cooling off and trailed 14 to 18 at the end of the first quarter.
Friona then took over the hot hand in the second quarter and built their lead at one time to 3 points, 22-30, before the tide started changing in favor of the ‘Rabbits.
Coach Gayno Shelton must have fed the ‘Rabbits some nitro during intermission, because they just completely exploded during the third quarter.
It was during this death blow quarter that Darwin McKinley hit on 8 points, Brashear on 8 points, Lee Ray Massey tallied with 9 points and Prater added another 4 points.
Sporting an 18 point lead heading down the final stretch, Bowie slowed the game just enough to maintain their margin and pull foul calls against their opponents.
The ‘Rabbits lost the services of Prater via the foul route late in the fourth quarter and right behind Prater to the bench with five fouls was Darwin McKinley, but the big hurt had been put on Friona and Coach Shelton literally emptied the bench in the final 15 seconds of play.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.