Neighbor Grover sez old daredevils never die, they just get discouraged.
Last Tuesday night’s dedication of a new 30-foot flag pole—donated by the 1962 state-finalist Rockdale American Legion baseball team at the RHS Tiger baseball diamond, prompted some memories.
I became news and sports editor of this weekly endeavor beginning in Jan. 1, 1959, and wrote tons of copy about the RHS athletes of that era, but I missed those “Boys of Summer 1962.”
That summer was part of a hitch I spent working for a favorite uncle over at Fort Polk, La. Didn’t get to cover that remarkable team coached by Ernie Laurence, assisted by John Sonntag, and managed by local real-tor M.R. “Jim” Currey.
I did get back to Rockdale in time to cover the RHS Tigers’ march through the playoffs to the state finals in
SPOILIN’ THE BROTH
BILL COOKE
football in the fall of 1962. Many of those same athletes were involved.
One of those ‘62 Legion baseball team members, Jim Killen of Olympia, Washington, recently sent his recollections of that season.
I remember Jim more as the high-post operator in legendary RHS basketball coach Duane Vincent’s masterful tandem-post “drag” offense that literally dared teams to play man-to-man defense against it.
But Jim’s recollections are about the baseball team and I enjoyed what he had to say. You will too:
“In 1962 my Rockdale American Legion team was runner-up to the Texas state champion team from Austin. That was a pretty big deal for a small Texas town, given that in Legion baseball, teams from towns and cities compete together regardless of size.
“Proud to be part of that team. We were a bunch of home-run-hitting country boys that used to go into bigger Texas cities and take no prisoners, often having been finagled onto fields with no home run fences, given our long-ball reputation.
“I can still remember fans packing into the stadiums just to watch us take batting practice, and especially Ronny Menn, our left-hand hitting left fielder. I never saw anyone at that level who could hit a ball as far as Ronny’s towering shots that would clear the night lights and disappear into the darkness above them—on a good night one after another after another. It was a sight even for his teammates who saw it all the time.
“In the end, however, a great team out of the city of Austin did get to us in the state championship round robin. Great memories nevertheless!”—Jim Killen
Although I missed that summer Legion season, I saw Ronny Menn and Dickie Summers, among others, send a lot of balls out of the RHS park. Old timers will remember Summers as the junior quarterback and Menn, his running back classmate, on that ‘62 state finalist football team. Ronny missed six weeks of that season with a broken leg but played in the championship game.
Dr. L.B. Kubiak, DVM, of our town was the team’s all-state fullback-linebacker. Retired Hutto ISD Supt. Ernie Wayne Laurence was an all-state defensive end.
Summers held all kinds of passing records at RHS for decades, until they were broken by Mark Drake in Coach Jeff Miller’s high-octane offense in which quarterbacks continue to set new records virtually every fall.
And long may it continue.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.