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Edinburg's First football team in 1923 |
Todd Mavreles
Monitor Staff Writer
EDINBURG — Few Rio Grande Valley high school football programs can match the rich tradition of history as the one owned by the Edinburg/Edinburg High Bobcats.
Bobcats football dates back to the early 1920s when complete records were hard to come by as the sport of football in the Valley was just getting started for a handful of schools. Unlike the perennial contender the Bobcats are now, the team struggled throughout the ’20s and into the mid-’30s. Then running back Bob Brumley weaved his magic, leading the Bobcats to an 8-0-1 record in 1936.
Edinburg lost the first postseason game in school history that season and had to wait until 1953 to get its first playoff victory. The ’53 team featured three future All-Millennium Team selections, including first-team wide receiver Jose Benavides.
Many big names have dotted the Edinburg football landscape during the program’s illustrious history. In addition to Brumley and Benavides, future University of Texas Longhorns coach Fred Akers cut his teeth with the Bobcats as coach from 1962 to ’64.
Edinburg made the playoffs just twice from 1953 to ’81 before the "Bobcat Mystique" started to truly take hold. The Bobcats qualified for the postseason 11 of 13 years from 1982 to ’94 before struggling through a three-year playoff drought. But since 1998, Edinburg High has been invited to the postseason party all but one year (2002).
In addition to all the playoff appearances, the Bobcats have a habit of winning at least one game. In 18 bi-district appearances since 1982, the Bobcats have captures 15 bi-district championships.
Of course, Edinburg has experienced deep forays into the playoffs. The 1953 team battled Port Neches to a 7-7 tie in the Class 3A state semifinals, but Port Neches was awarded the victory on penetrations.
More recently, the Bobcats came within a game of playing for the state title in 1999. They overcame the traditional Rio Grande Valley hurdle by defeating a San Antonio school with a 35-32 victory over Taft to win the Class 5A Division I Region IV championship.
After a brief drop to Class 4A in 2002 and ’03, the Bobcats returned to 5A and have qualified for the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
IN THE BEGINNING
1923-1953
According to the tome Rio Grande Valley Football Records, Book One, A.M. Weir was the man responsible for getting the Edinburg football program off the ground. Arriving in deep South Texas in 1923 from San Marcos Teachers College, Weir put his full devotion into building the foundation of Edinburg football.
Future Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame inductee Amador Rodriguez was one of the Bobcats’ first stars. He was a pioneer — one of only two Hispanic players on the team. Rodriguez and the 1927 team went on a four-game winning streak against Valley foes Mission, PSJA, Donna and Weslaco.
Brownsville ISD athletic director Joe Rodriguez is Amador Rodriguez’s son. Joe Rodriguez remembers his late father talking about his days as a Bobcat.
"He learned a lot of lessons that stuck with him through life (from football) that kept him going through the hard times," Joe Rodriguez said. "He went through The Depression and an early marriage with four kids. He was the first four-year letterman to come out of Edinburg. He played four sports and earned 11 letters in high school."
The Bobcats had some lean years until 1936. Bobby Cannon’s squad surprised the Valley with an 8-0-1 record, including a 6-1 mark in Class A. But in the school’s first playoff appearance, the Bobcats were belted 25-0 by Corpus Christi, which also spoiled the postseason party for Edinburg in 1941, this time by a 34-7 score.
Edinburg experienced varying degrees of success during the next 11 years, but could not get over the first postseason hurdle. That ended in 1953.
Led by all-state first-teamers end Jose Benavides and back Carlos Esquivel, prolific quarterback James Wright and tackle Alfonso (Pancho) Iglesias, coach W.W. "Billy" Cooper’s squad went 10-0 during the regular season and 7-0 in District 8-3A.
During one game that season, the oppositions’ goal was to keep the ball out of Esquivel’s hands as much as possible. Edinburg faced Brownsville at Tucker Field — the old high school football stadium that was once situated adjacent where Sams Stadium now sits — in a wild game in 1953. Brownsville’s approach on kickoffs was to keep it away from Esquivel, but that recipe wasn’t carried out on at least two occasions.
Esquivel took the opening kickoff 97 yards for the early score. But the Golden Eagles still couldn’t quite keep the ball away from Esquivel.
To open the second half, Esquivel again received the kick, and took it the length of the field for another Bobcat score. The two TDs provided Edinburg with a 28-27 victory over Brownsville.
The highlight of the district season was a 13-0 victory at Kingsville in a late-season clash of 8-3A unbeatens. The Edinburg defense allowed 135 yards and forced three fumbles in the victory.
Esquivel scored 21 touchdowns to finish second in the Valley in scoring (Lyford’s Corky Crane had 22).
If there was ever a time for the Bobcats to exorcize their postseason demons (0-3, outscored 70-7) this was the year. And it was.
The Bobcats opened with a 20-13 bi-district victory at San Antonio Edison in the battle of the only remaining 3A unbeaten in Texas.
Edinburg entered the game a touchdown underdog and had to rally from a second-half deficit. Wright, who later went on to play for legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at Texas A&M, threw two touchdown passes, and Esquivel, who scored the decisive touchdown 15-yard fourth-quarter burst, also came up with a game-saving interception on Edison’s final drive before more than 10,000 fans at Alamo Stadium.
Esquivel also packed up and went to play for Bryant at Texas A&M after high school. During his time there, Esquivel was a freshman during the Junction Boys days, but freshman weren’t allowed to travel to Junction for the legendary difficult preseason workouts.
Esquivel was on the same Aggies team that played in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 28, 1957, and was second behind Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow on the depth chart.
After losing a second straight coin flip for home field advantage, Edinburg had an epic battle with Port Neches in the state semifinals. Based on their "20-pound per man weight advantage" the Bobcats were favored over Port Neches.
The Bobcats jumped to a 7-0 lead on a 7-yard TD run by Esquivel, which was set up by a 30-yard strike from Wright to Benavides. The Edinburg defense had three goal-line stands, but that would prove to be decisive when Port Neches tied the game with less than two minutes remaining.
The teams finished regulation tied at 7. With no overtime back in those days, the winner was determined by who had more penetrations past the opponent’s 20-yard line. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Port Neches led four penetrations to one.
Of little consolation is the fact Edinburg finished the season as the only Valley squad to go undefeated through 12 games.
THE MIDDLE AGES
1954-1985
Following their magical 1953 season, the Bobcats endured some lean years.
In 1956, they endured a winless district season and broke double figures in scoring in just three games. Their next playoff appearance wouldn’t come until 1971, and one highlight was having a future University of Texas coach in charge of the squad.
Fred Akers, who replaced the legendary Darrell K. Royal as head coach of the Longhorns, cut his teeth on the Edinburg sidelines from 1962 to ’64. The Bobcats posted winning records in two of Akers’ three seasons but never qualified for the postseason.
Akers went 19-9-1 in his three years at Edinburg.
"It was my real start — for coaching and my family," Akers told The Monitor in 1984. "It was my first head coaching job. I was very young, excited and thrilled about it. And I never considered anything but winning. I’ll never forget that bunch. They played their hearts out."
Fast forward to 1971, and former star Carlos Esquivel now roams the sidelines. Esquivel the coach led the Bobcats to a brief postseason return, but Edinburg lost to Alice 21-0 in bi-district.
In 1975, Richard Flores took over the coaching reins. Over the next 15 years, he instilled the "Bobcat Pride" that is so prevalent today.
Flores led the Bobcats to winning records in each season from ’75 through ’89. Edinburg advanced to the state quarterfinals in ’82 and ’84. From ’85 to ’87, the Bobcats were perfect in District 31-5A.
Aside from the spotless district mark in the three-year span, the Bobcats were perfect during the regular season in 1986 and 1987, going 10-0 both years.
"We knew that since Coach Flores had been there so long and he ended up staying on many years after I went off to college and all, you knew there was a cohesiveness and consistency there," said Phillip Money, who played from 1977 to ’79 and was the starting quarterback his final two seasons. "That’s what it takes to be a successful program. It trickles down to your junior highs. They’d say, ‘This is the type of program I’m running, and I want you guys to teach the fundamentals and the system.’ That’s where you breed success, at the junior high level. When players come up to the high school, they’ve been running these plays for two or three years. That makes for a successful team."
There were a number of great Edinburg players during the Flores years, not the least of which are quarterbacks Jack Wallace, Mike Flores, Money, Gilbert Moroles, Rene Arrevelo, John Paul Cantu, Lance Marburger and Mito Perez. But Flores said the key to his success was his assistant coaches, many of whom have gone on to enjoy success as head coaches.
Current Bobcats coach Robert Vela was on Flores’ staff.
"We had a great staff, and people who have great staffs and great continuity have great success," Flores said. "I was fortunate to be in a situation where we did have that."
Although Edinburg earned the nickname of the "Runnin’ Bobcats" because of their preference for a ground attack, that changed with Cantu and future Notre Dame wide receiver Steve Alaniz.
Alaniz was a tight end on the ’83 and ’84 teams that went three games deep in the Class 5A playoffs. When he was moved to split end for his senior season in ’85, Alaniz proved to be arguably the most dangerous receiver in Valley history, catching 64 passes for 929 yards and 13 scores.
"The camaraderie was second to none," Alaniz said. "These were guys you grew up with and sweated with during all of the offseason workouts. You went through the pain of injures and the heartaches of losses. Everyone really cared for each other. There was a common purpose and everybody got behind each other. That was a special team."
The Bobcats rolled to an 8-2 regular season record, then defeated Alice and San Antonio Sam Houston in the playoffs. But they couldn’t make it three in a row. Despite jumping to a 7-0 lead on a 22-yard Cantu-to-Alaniz TD strike, the Bobcats couldn’t pull off the upset, losing to Converse Judson 14-7 in the state quarterfinals.
After the season Alaniz was named to the all-state first team and signed a football scholarship to attend Notre Dame, where he played alongside Raghib "Rocket" Ismail.
"The attitude we had was, ‘We’re going to take it to them, we’re going to win,’" Alaniz said. "It just carried us on through. The good teams at Edinburg didn’t really start with us, I don’t think. But it kind of carried through with us."
Cantu threw for 2,047 yards and 19 TDs to lead District 32-5A in passing.
At this point, Edinburg High School was a South Texas terror on the football field.
PRESENT DAY
1986-current
The Bobcats continued to be a perennial contender through the late ’80s and into the mid-’90s, missing the postseason just once. The Bobcats’ defense was the highlight of the 1986 season, giving up no touchdowns in district play that season.
Flores’ clubs continued the traditions set forth by the teams before them until Flores stepped away from the sidelines, to sit behind a desk as the districts’ athletic director a year before the split in 1991.
Joe Vasquez then took over at EHS in 1990, the last year Edinburg boasted just one high school. Under Vasquez’s tenure, the Bobcats won three bi-district titles and had three winning seasons. But after suffering through a 3-7 campaign in 1995, Vasquez was replaced by E.R. Sanchez.
The Sanchez era, however, lasted just one season, as the Bobcats went 2-8 in that year.
After two straight losing seasons in ’95 and ’96, Robert Vela was tapped to take over the moribund program in ’97.
The Edinburg High graduate’s first season was a difficult 4-6, but since then he’s experienced one losing season and won six bi-district championships.
The highlight of Vela’s reign to date is 1999, when he led the Bobcats to their most successful playoff run in school history.
Quarterback Clarence Cruz directed the attack, passing for over 1,200 yards and a 31-5A best 14 touchdowns during the regular season. He also was the team’s leading rusher with almost 800 yards and five scores. Christian Handy was the leading receiver with 27 receptions for 551 yards and four TDs. Linebacker Bubba Salinas led an Edinburg High defense that allowed 275 yards a game.
Following a tightrope walk into the postseason (Edinburg survived a four-way tie in 31-5A to advance) a magical postseason journey kicked off with a 26-0 pummeling of Brownsville Hanna in the Class 5A Division I bi-district playoffs.
They followed with a wild 43-31 victory over Eagle Pass in the regional semifinals, then edged San Antonio Taft 35-32 to win the Class 5A Region IV Division I championship.
"It feels great to come out and play a tough San Antonio team," Cruz told The Monitor after the game. "We just came out and fought as hard as we could. The defense did the job, and the offense executed the plays that we needed to and we came out victorious."
Cruz threw TD passes of 67 and 44 yards and added a 54-yard run in the victory.
"We knew we had a chance," Cruz said. "The coaches knew we could do it. They knew that we would come out fired up and play the way we could, and we did."
While powerful Aldine Eisenhower ended the Bobcats’ dreams of a state championship the following week, the Bobcats proved they can compete on the grand stage and, perhaps most importantly, that San Antonio teams can be defeated by Valley schools.
"The mystique and the tradition that has been left by the program in the past has come back out," Vela said. "The kids believe they can win any game at any time. We’ve had some great games where we probably didn’t have a chance and came back and won. The reason we did is the kids believe. No matter what the odds may be.
"We’re fighters to the end, no matter what the outcome may be."
Despite a two-year drop to Class 4A, the Bobcats remain one of the pre-eminent Class 5A squads in South Texas. That should continue into the future.
"It’s a testament to Coach Flores and Coach Vela that a lot of their former players, many of the players that have been former players, they live in the Valley and have jobs in McAllen and Harlingen, and their kids are old enough to play and they think they’re going to play, they move back to Edinburg so they can play for these guys," Money said. "People will call (an Edinburg) junior high and say, ‘We’re going to move back to the district so he can play for you.’ That’s saying we had just a great experience playing for them. That says a lot."
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Todd Mavreles covers District 31-5A for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4451.
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