The Bowie community lost one of its most well-known graduates with the passing of Temple Tucker on Dec. 7.
Tucker moved to Bowie in junior high after first living in Mercedes and Corpus Christi. He cut an impressive first impression for his classmates as even back then he was on his way to standing 6 feet 10 inches.
“He was tall,” echoed classmates Gail White and Ben Hill.
At first his height seemed to hinder him more than help on the basketball court as he is described as tripping over himself.
“He couldn’t chew gum and walk down the street at the same time,” White said.
It took good tutoring, first from principal Paul Tover and then Coach Raymond Mattingly to turn Tucker into one of the best basketball players in the state.
Tucker graduated in 1954 and has the distinction of being possibly the most accomplished athlete in program history, no matter the sport. He was a part of four straight state championship basketball teams, where he featured as the team’s center down low back when post play ruled the sport. He was named to the all-state team his last three years.
Playing in an era where more than 10 of his teammates went on to play college basketball and coached by Raymond Mattingly, who was inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame and was a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor, Tucker was far from a one-man show.
His last two seasons saw Bowie go on a 69 game winning streak, only snapped the year after Tucker and his teammates graduated.
He then went to Rice University and played for the Owls. Freshman were not allowed to play back then so when he starred as a sophomore he averaged 22.1 points and 12.7 rebounds and was a third team All-American selection and a second team all-southwest conference selection.
As a junior, he averaged 15.1 points and 10.5 rebounds while earning second team All-SWC again. His senior year he averaged 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds while being picked as Rice’s most valuable player.
He was later inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Honor, the Rice University Athletics Hall of Fame and the Bowie High School Hall of Honor.
Tucker then was drafted in the fourth round of the NBA draft by the Philadelphia Warriors. Instead of pursuing professional sports, which were much less lucrative than they are now, he decided to use his bachelor of arts degree in economics to work for Northwestern National Life Insurances as a financial advisor. He lived in the Houston area and was living in Cypress with his wife of 41 years, Anita, when he passed. He was previously married to Doris Neville.
“He was my gentle my giant,” Anita said. “Everyone knew that is what I called him.”
Described as a humble person, many of his family and friends only learned later from other people and from discovering packed up trophies in boxes the extent of Tucker’s athletic achievements.
He had five children: Kevin, Brian, Carol, Rick and Marva. His oldest, Kevin, described Tucker as the stereotypical Christian-centered father growing up.
“If you had to define a father, he was a great traditional father that grew up in a Christian household,” Kevin said. “Taught us about the great outdoors, sports and how to live life.”
Kevin said the seeds for his faith were planted throughout his life by his dad. When he eventually came to embrace it while in college, his father was there ready to forgive him.
A big part of Tucker’s life was being apart of and then spending time as the president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Greater Houston chapter. His father was a minister and Tucker’s faith was a big part of his life even as a teenager says his classmates.
“I never heard anyone say a derogatory word about Temple Tucker,” 1954 senior class president Gail White said. “He didn’t run around with the guys, but he was always with us when we were in a big group.”
“He was the best of us,” Ben Hill said.
The only time Hill, his teammate and the last surviving starting five member from the 1954 team, said he heard Tucker swear was a funny story.
Several of the key basketball players failed to hide from Coach Mattingly in the gym during track practice and were forced to run the 4×440 yard relay against the varsity track team.
“Temple was running the first leg and I was running the second,” Hill said. “The race started and old Temple come around the first curve. It’s a gravel track and he has on tennis shoes. He dropped the baton and when he turned around to get it he fell down in the gravel. Of course I was just on the ground laughing. He got up and got his baton and he wanted me to keep running. He said run, you SOB, run.”
It was one of several stories the two shared in their last phone call earlier this year.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

Bowie
First team
Rayder Mann, quarterback; Tyler Richey, wide receiver; Hunter Fluitt, offensive lineman; Noah Metzler, defensive lineman; Hunter Rodriguez, free safety
Second team
Justin Clark, running back; Preacher Chambers, defensive lineman; Griffin Richey, linebacker; Moh Azouak, cornerback
Honorable mention
Lane Whitfield, linebacker; Bradley Horton, strong safety; Hayden Rodriguez, offensive lineman; Jorge De Leon, defensive lineman; Zac Harris, tight end; Austin Cheney, outside linebacker; Jett Black, offensive lineman; Braden Rhyne, wide receiver; Boston Farris, cornerback
Academic all-district
Moh Azouk, Austin Cheney, Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Boston Farris, Hunter Fluitt, Simion Givens, Zac Harris, Hayden Rodriguez, Robert Stice, Rayder Mann, Hunter Rodriguez, Bradley Horton, Griffin Richey, Tyler Richey

Nocona
First team
Matthew Johnson, offensive lineman; Jake Pribble, defensive lineman; Kasch Johnson, defensive lineman
Second team
Jax Fuller, running back; McCrae Crossen, linebacker
Honorable mention
Jayce Lehde, defensive back; Matthew Johnson, defensive lineman; Walker Murphey, linebacker

Nocona girls
The Nocona Lady Indians easily won their district home opener on Tuesday night against Electra.
The Lady Indians won 87-26 against the Lady Tigers.
Nocona came in confident after getting an easy win against Archer City to start off district play the previous week.
The Lady Indians dominated from the beginning, going up 28-7 in the first quarter and leading 51-11 at halftime. Coach Kyle Spitzer kept the team’s foot on the pedal in the third quarter before loosening the things a tad as the bench played a lot of the fourth quarter.
In the end the team had five players score in double-figures, with three of them being bench players. Meg Meekins led the team with 19 points and five assists. Aubree Kleinhans scored 10 points. Off the bench, Paige Davis had 13 points, Ayden Patton had 11 points and Bayler Smith had 10 points.

Nocona boys
The Nocona Indians had a tough game against Holliday at home on Tuesday night.
The Eagles won 54-29 against the Indians, having rough second and fourth quarters.
Nocona was coming off an up and down performance at the Poolville tournament and was hoping to give its former district opponent a challenge.
In the first quarter the Indians hung with Holliday, trailing only 13-10. Then the Indians offense failed to score more than single-digits in the next three quarters as the Eagles lead grew more and more.
Nocona scored 19 points in the final three quarters as Holliday won 54-29.
Karson Kleinhans led the team with 10 points and three assists. Zyrus Moreno scored six points and Oscar Salomon-Gomez scored five points.

Saint Jo girls
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers won at Prestonwood Christian Academy on Tuesday night.
The Lady Panthers got the victory 61-40 against the Lady Lions.
It was a team effort as four players finished in double-figures for Saint Jo. Krista Reeves led the team with 15 points.
Payzlie Cervantes scored 14, Jordyn O’Neal scored 13 and Aubrey Morman had 10 points. Taylor Patrick had a team high 13 rebounds and nine assists.

Forestburg boys
The Forestburg Longhorns lost a close game at Victory Christian Academy in Decatur.
The Patriots held on to win 43-40 against the Longhorns.
Forestburg was trailing only 22-21 at halftime, but according to Coach Curtis Enis, the team came out flat in the third quarter and fell behind 34-28. The Longhorns made a charge in the fourth quarter fell short by one basket in the end.
Jesus Sanchez led the team with 16 points and Kyler Willett was second with 11 points.
The Longhorns played Community Christian on Friday.

Gold-Burg boys
The Gold-Burg Bears lost a tough game at Garner on Tuesday night.
The Longhorns won 66-41 against the Bears.
Gold-Burg had a tough start to the game only scoring five points in the first quarter. Even with the Bears bouncing back to have good second and fourth quarters offensively, it was not enough to dig Gold-Burg out of the double-digit hole to start the game.
Camden Dreyer led the team with nine points and three made 3-pointers while Keelyn Case was second with eight points.

Bellevue girls
The Bellevue Lady Eagles beat Windthorst at home on Tuesday night.
The Lady Eagles earned the 46-33 victory against the bigger Lady Trojans thanks to a big fourth quarter performance.
Bellevue struggled to start the game, trailing 13-4 after the first quarter.
The Lady Eagles struck back and cut the lead to one basket 19-17 heading into halftime.
Still Windthorst held on to its lead, growing it to 30-25 heading into the fourth quarter.
From there, Bellevue turned up the intensity and dominated.
The Lady Eagles nearly doubled their three quarter total scoring 21 points. On the flip side, they limited the Lady Trojans to only three points on free throws in the in the final period.
Bellevue won running away with it 46-33.

Missing scores
The Bowie News did not receive scores from the coaches of the Saint Jo boy’s, Forestburg girls, the Prairie Valley boys and the Bellevue boy’s teams. The Bowie boys and Prairie Valley girls teams did not play on Tuesday.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.