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"When We Were All Broncos" Documentary


MeanGreenWithEnvy

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There's a documentary titled "When We Were All Broncos" that's screening tonight at 7pm at the Fine Arts (the church/theater on The Square). It's about the segregated history of Denton, desegregation, and integration as told around the story of the 1972 Denton High School football team.

I wanted to plug this here on GMG because the story of North Texas football's integration with Abner Haynes figures prominently into the movie. Bill Carrico, an offensive lineman on that team and later a coach at DHS and AD for DISD, also figures prominently in the film.

I know many of you aren't local, but you can check out more about the film at this address: http://www.broncodocumentary.com/home . They will produce DVDs of the doc later this year.

The producer, a DHS football alum, has a goal of not only paying for the film's production but also making enough money to provide the Denton Schools Foundation with a $10,000 scholarship.

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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?

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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?

Yes, you are correct. I graduated in 1966 from DHS and we did, indeed, have black students and black athletes at DHS. In fact our student-body elected athletic favorite for 1966 was not only a black football player named Jimmy Harris.

Sort of bothered me that this film attempts to make so much out of that 1970's period when integration at DHS both in the student body and in athletics took place years before. But, it is a great film and deserves positive reviews.

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I believe that it was Fred Moore School in Denton...at least it was back in the 40s.

I don't remember when the Denton schools integrated or when the black school closed. Abner Haynes was a freshman in 1956 but that was four years before Little Rock which pretty much was the beginning of integration of public schools in the South.

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Yes, you are correct. I graduated in 1966 from DHS and we did, indeed, have black students and black athletes at DHS. In fact our student-body elected athletic favorite for 1966 was not only a black football player named Jimmy Harris.

Sort of bothered me that this film attempts to make so much out of that 1970's period when integration at DHS both in the student body and in athletics took place years before. But, it is a great film and deserves positive reviews.

Would be interested in watching this one.

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I believe that it was Fred Moore School in Denton...at least it was back in the 40s.

I don't remember when the Denton schools integrated or when the black school closed. Abner Haynes was a freshman in 1956 but that was four years before Little Rock which pretty much was the beginning of integration of public schools in the South.

Little Rock integrated in 1957 under a court order with federal marshals and an army airborne division.(The 101st?)
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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.

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Make that Central High in Little Rock. Interestingly, an attempt was made to integrate Mansfield High a year before Little Rock, but with no enforcement available the students were turned away. If I recall correctly Denton High integrated without incident which was not always the case with other Texas schools who integrated years after Denton. I do recall the Black high school continuing to operate a few years after integration, but at the time many were commending Denton ISD for making integration proceed smoothly. Those were interesting times and if anyone has more details about those years, sharing them would be appreciated.

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"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.

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"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.

I'm proud of my alma mater.

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