Charles Sterling Remembers 1920 Edinburg

 
 By   CHARLEs   STERLING

 
In the fall of 1920 Edinburg High put together its first football team and in the spring of '21 its first basketball team. There was an annual put out in the year '20-21 that has a record of these first teams, but as fir as I know there is no record of the next two years since no annual was made. 

1920 Edinburg Texas Football Team

In those years there was no class given according to the size of the school, so we played every school in Hidalgo County and the winner in Cameron County. We played what you might call sandlot basketball since there was no such thing as a gym in the Valley.
 
In 1920-21 we had Tom Winningham and Primo Nino as forwards, Charley Sterling as center, Trig Winningham and Bjarne Brager as Guards, and our captain Leonard Johnson for our all-around substitute. We took over South Texas without a loss and went to the state tournament in Austin.  Roxanna Klossner and Lelia Williamson served as a cheering section but with no sand and no wind we lost our first game.   

In 1921-22 Tom Winningham and Primo Nino were forwards, Elmer Kuper was center, and Trig Winningham and Charley Sterling were guards.  This time we won easily until the state tournament, where we lost to the state champions in our second game. This year we had some subs but we seldom used them. Since I don't  remember all of them I will not mention any of them. 

 

In 1922-23 Edinburg again had a winning team with John Lipscomb and Manton Ellis as forwards, Charley Sterling for center and Bill Schupp and Marion Sterling as guards.  We had no trouble until the bi-district game, played in the rain at Falfurrias, which we lost by one point.
 
There are only a few of these boys left in the Valley.  Leonard Johnson lives north of Alamo, Bill Schupp manages McAllen, and Charley Sterling is stuck in the sand northwest of Edinburg.
 
How good these teams were compared to present day teams is impossible to say since the game has changed.  Boys today are better coached, better equipped, and have very fine gyms, so they would have beaten us quite easily.

I do know that for three years no South Texas team ever beat us in  conference  play.   In 1921 Edinburg had a town team that beat us a few times but in 1922 we played Brownsville all stars, Fort Brown and any other team that thought it was good enough. This team played every kind of team the Valley could put together and lost only one game in the year to the state champions. 

 

Charles Sterling at age 85 and remembering Edinburg High School sports

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Frank Reising BBQ

Frank Reising Bar-B-Q

 

July 7, 2016

 

For several years back in the early-1950s, Mr. Frank Reising honored the employees of Reising Construction, Reising Cement Pipe Company, Reising-Sterling Ranch family, friends and family by throwing a huge Bar-B-Q —about once every year. It was a major event that drew Mr. Reising’s business associates from San Antonio — such as those from Alamo Concrete Company and various Texas cattle people — some of which flew in for the event. Cars lined the road in front of the Reising home. 

 

As I remember, a few cases of Old Crow Whiskey were used to sauce up the cooks, participants and as an ingredient in the BBQ sauce too. Of course, there were tubs of iced Lone Star or Pearl Beer for the sissies that could not handle the whiskey. It was an all-male affair. 

 

I snuck my first taste of whisky there and wondered how anyone could drink such horrible stuff. Hmmm. It was the only place where I ever saw my Dad take a drink — and it was just a small one.

 

The event was held among scattered ebony trees, on a side-hill east of Reising’s beautiful, austin stone, home, four and one-half miles west of Edinburg. A trench, maybe 50 feet long, four feet deep and four feet wide, was covered with heavy rebar rods that were tied with wire in a criss-cross pattern supporting a metal screen that held the cooking beef over the coals. This cooking wire structure was built in maybe 5 foot sections that straddled the pit and could be lifted on one side as needed. Mesquite wood was piled in the bottom of the pit and burned to coals during the night before. Another mesquite fire was also burned outside the pit so that coals from it could be shoveled under the meat when additional heat was needed.

 

Hundreds of pounds of prime Reising-Sterling crossbreed beef was cut into about 1.5 inch thick steaks and mops were used to apply the mouth-watering sauce almost constantly throughout the day. The guys that cooked used heavy leather gloves to turn the meat. The meat cooked all day and was served in the evening. It is difficult to remember how many folks attended this feed, but a couple of hundred seems to be a reasonable guess. I don’t remember any kind of entertainment or speeches, but Mr. Reising was a Catholic so there was likely some kind of blessing before eating. But, maybe after we had gone home to bed and the cleanup crew was finishing up the last of the Old Crow, it’s not too difficult to imagine a few slurred songs being sung.

 

OK, these events took place about 65 years ago, so forgive my imperfect memory. But, on the day of the event, I was impatient to arrive at the pit as early as possible. It was an exciting time. Of course, I (maybe 13 yrs old) was not part of the cooking crew or even officially invited but I was allowed to hang around the pit most of the day. At least, nobody ran me off. It was a very happy time listening to the conversations of the adults while they were in the process of being lubricated with Old Crow and Lone Star. There was an abundance of laughter, conversation and joking (in at least two languages) and never a cross word — that I can remember. All day long I was like a dog under the kitchen table waiting for a handout. Yes, the cooks were very generous with the handouts. A few smaller steaks were cooked more rapidly just for snacking. If I could somehow manage to look hungry, a chunk of BBQ would often be offered. By the time the meal was formally served, I ate a little potato salad or something because I was already full of meat — like a lion who had eaten a whole antelope. 

 

When the party was over, there was usually plenty of meat remaining so we took a pile of it home, placed it in the refrigerator and ate it for days. To my boyish palate, it was the food of gods. The marvelous fragrance of BBQ remained around the cold pit for days and the idea that the next BBQ was a whole year away was an absolutely dreadful thought.

 

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