A brother-and-sister duo who enjoyed spectacular athletic success in high school and college, the dominant Tiger baseball standout of the early 1980s and a radio station that’s been backing RHS teams for almost 30 years are the newest inductees in the Rockdale Athletic Hall of Honor.
Briana Bassler, Brooks Bassler, Frank Ramirez Jr. and KRXT-FM will be inducted in a ceremony in the high school cafeteria prior to the Jarrell game Nov 2.
The Hall of Honor does exactly what its name states, honors Rockdale High and Aycock High students for their athletic performances.
Anyone may nominate deserving former athletes for the hall. Presently athletes who completed their high school sports careers up through 2005 are eligible.
There are seven members on the hall of honor committee. It takes five votes for election. This year there were 21 persons on the ballot.
BRIANA BASSLER
A 1999 RHS graduate, Bassler was the school’s Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year in both her junior and senior years.
An all-district basketball performer all four years, she capped off her cage career by being named the District 19AAA MVP as a senior.
That year she also won a ton of post-season accolades including being named one of the top 100 players in the nation by USA Today, fi rstteam all-state and the only Class 3A girl on the Austin American-Statesman
All-Centex team.
In track that senior year, she ran a leg on the Lady Tiger 1,600-relay quartet, which took fourth at state, and was district champion in the long jump and triple jump.
She broke the school’s triple jump record and the 1,600-relay foursome also set a new mark.
Bassler went to the University of Houston on a track scholarship, placed in the Conference USA heptathlon all four years and won the event as a senior.
That year she was also an NCAA Provisional Qualifier.
BROOKS BASSLER
The first of the multi-talented Bassler Bunch to come through Rockdale High School, Bassler graduated in 1997 and was a standout in three sports.
All district for three years in football, he was first team wide receiver and kicker as a senior.
In basketball he was first team all-district twice, All Brazos Valley and was selected to play on the Texas High School Coaches Association All-State Team.
Bassler was a key cog on RHS cage teams which went to the Final Four, won an area and district titles.
Then there’s track. His 7-foot high jump is the school record and it’s still standing.
After his senior year, he was listed as one of the nation’s top eight high jumpers.
He went to the University of Houston on a track scholarship, had a career best 7-1 jump. One year he had UH’s three best high jumps. He was Conference USA’s high jump champ as a freshman and indoor and outdoor silver medalist as a sophomore.
FRANK RAMIREZ JR.
High school baseball seasons don’t come much better than the one Ramirez put together at RHS his senior year in 1984.
The fireballing righty kicked off district with three straight victories in which his ERA was 0.66 with 35 strikeouts.
With the district title on the line he slugged a pair of 3-run homers in the clincher, then tossed a 4-hitter, allowing only one run, in the bi-district victory over Navasota.
A seemingly impossible task loomed ahead, state-ranked, 25-0 Columbus. Ramirez blanked the Cards on one hit. He had a no-hitter until one out in the sixth.
At season’s end, Ramirez had pitched several back-to-back games and was one of Big Blue’s leading hitters. He was named a high school All-American.
He went to Sam Houston State on a baseball scholarship where he compiled a 12-6 record with a 2.39 ERA.
Seven Major League teams came calling. Ramirez signed with the Atlanta Braves and compiled a 7-1 record with Atlanta’s Idaho Falls Minor League squad.
In football he achieved a rare honor being named first-team all-district at three positions, tight end, defensive back and punter. He was later named a first-team all-stater.
Ramirez was the RHS Male Athlete of the Year, Most Athletic Male and Baseball Player of the Year in 1984.
KRXT
Rockdale’s radio station is also Rockdale’s Sports Radio Station.
Almost from the moment KRXT-FM came on the air in 1989 it has worked to provide live coverage of Rockdale sports.
Station owner Charlie McGregor, and sports/ news director Jay Davis, have brought Tiger and Lady Tiger sports to Rock-dale.
The station has not missed airing a Tiger varsity football game in 29 years. It also airs a weekly coach’s show featuring Big Blue’s head football coach.
It has also provided live coverage of RHS basketball, baseball and softball.
KRXT was there for Big Blue’s state football championship in Arlington last year, when the Tiger basketball team reached the Final Four in Austin in 1995 and when the Lady Tiger cagers played in the state championship game in San Antonio in 2015.
And, well before KRXT went on the air, McGregor covered the 1976 Tiger state championship in Irving’s Texas Stadium.
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