When most high schools have put away their football gear and moved to basketball, a few are still slugging it out for region and state honors. It is fun to track these teams and watch who comes out on top. There is NO single state champion. There are, in fact, twelve teams that can end up state champions! What does it take to win? One more point than the opponent. Refugio knows that well as they lost by a single point Friday night. What about Gustine, a little town in central Texas where the high school plays six-man football? They scored 64 points against Woodson and lost! Not only did they lose but by thirty eight points. I wonder when Gustine
stopped chanting, "DEFENSE"? Final score: Woodson 102, Gustine 64.
Grantland Rice was a sports writer for the New York Herald Tribune back in the twenties. He did more than report, he added a flavor and touch rarely seen in a sports writer. One of his more famous quotes came from the Notre Dame-Army game on October 18, 1924. Notre Dame, unlike their team this year, was a powerhouse in football. So was Army. Notre Dame was led by four great football players, Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, a man named Miller and another Layden. Writing about that great game Rice penned, "Outlined against a blue gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again". Wow! Rice also wrote: "A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.". Here is the one from Grantland Rice that goes out to all players. Even players in the game of life: "For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He marks not that you won or lost - but how you played the game." GO GUSTINE! YOU'LL GET 'UM NEXT YEAR!!!