UNT-5thDecade

I too would like to get a shirt and have the translation handy for all the folks in the Upper Hudson Valley of New York who will say, "What the heck is that?" The "Mason Fine Story" is such a great story in so many ways!

"If I recall correctly Denton High integrated without incident which was not always the case with other Texas schools who integrated years after Denton" . . . absolutely correct. I don't recall any resistance or incidents on that '63 team that Jimmy Harris joined, or in the high school itself . . . I think we wanted help from any possible place (we ended up 4-5, the last game cancelled because of the JFK assassination). I remember going to FM games (played at Bronco Field) and quite a few othe non-Af-Amers also attended, if I recall correctly. Thanks to Abner Haynes and and the great Odus Mitchell, by early to mid-Sixties, NTSU (remember those days?) had plenty of African-American players I remember well . . .Bobby Smith, Art Perkins, A.D. Whitfield, etc. More big names would come from the later Mitchell years and the Rod Rust years -- lots of pros from the Sixties into the Seventies.

Yes, it was Fred Moore High, coached by the wonderful character C. H. Collins, if my memory is working on 2 of its 4 cylinders now. And it is "Jimmy Harris" I am remembering. Fred Moore did indeed play ball a few more years because as a young sportswriter on the DR-C -- sometime before '69, when I went into the Navy -- I went to Bay City to cover a state championship game between FM and Bay City for what used to be a UIL-type organization for black high schools. FM lost.

Interesting -- I'm glad to see there is this doc film production. I'm snow-bound in the Upper Hudson Valley of NY (like, yards and yards of it piled up) so I'll have to find another way to view it. And this is also interesting, but I'll need the help of some former DHS student/player from mid-Sixties to verify . . . I was a senior on the 1963 Denton High Bronco team, and I remember that we had at least one and maybe more guys who integrated DHS (from Fred Collins HS) at that time and played on the team (I believe there were other African-American students who came over, too) . . . I picture the guy I'm thinking about but don't remember his name, and my yearbooks are buried under decades of stuff. I also remember -- granted, I'm 67, so my memory likes to play jokes on me -- that this guy, a running back, was a cousin of Abner Haynes. Fred Collins HS continued to exist and play its own football for a few more years. Does anyone else around DHS at this time have the same recollections?

Gosh, what a treat -- living in Upstate NY, I didn't get to see this, but I listened to it on Internet radio. Chancellor -- geez, what a "warrior," as someone said, and one who has great eyes as well as running ability. That last punt return should have been an ESPN Top 10. Why wasn't he Conf special teams player of the week?

Where do you live/family: Upstate Hudson Valley, New York (Albany area) for past 30 years; girlfriend; daughter/granddaughter. Degree/Year Attended/Graduated UNT: MA, 1975, but attended then-NTSU 1964-69 before flunking out, getting drafted; returned to NTSU to get MA because I wanted a degree from my beloved NTSU. Favorite NT Memory: hanging out for long hours in the old Journalism Bldg, working on the Chat, being taught by Pop Shuford and many other greats (and if memory serves me right, I think one of my instructors was good ol' Fred Graham). Favorite NT Sports Memory: Impossible to limit it to one -- I started attending Fouts Field/Men's Gym games in 1960, as a ninth-grader, and have memories of those years that will be with me forever -- especially in Men's Gym, seeing the great John Savage and Willie Davis and Lee Winfield and Creston Whitaker and Joe Hamilton . . . playing in the best BB conf of the time, the old MVC. Possible best of all memories: hanging around Odus Mitchell, as a young sportswriter for the DR-C. He was gracious to me, encouraging, made me feel like a professional, although I was really a glorified amateur. I always stood a little taller when I was around him.

Just curious . . . for anyone with easy access to the records -- has there ever been such a 6-year period in our history? And I am assuming that embarrassing streak is now over!!