SAN ANTONIO—Tall tales from the tournament...
Had the pleasure and privilege of spending some time with two of the best coaches to ever grace the hardwood in living legends Donnie Victorik and Joe Willie Price.
Staying at the same hotel as we were and conveniently located in the parking lot of the Alamodome, Coach Victorik and I went down memory lane, recalling the story I wrote a story on his Snook Blue Jay squad back in 1983 when I was a young pup.
I followed Coach Victorik and the Jays around Austin for the day, observing what they did and where they went. Snook did the same thing every year: they used the exact same bus, stayed at the same hotel and ate at the same restaurant—all at the same time. It obviously worked—they captured a national record seven straight titles from 1978-1984. The Bluejays once won 90 straight games.
The New York Times did a feature story on Snook basketball in 1986.
Coach Victorik was at the tournament with his family and grand kids. Victorik still resides in Snook. “I guess I’ll die there,” he said with a laugh.
Ate supper with another Mount Rushmore coach in Joe Willie Price, who had his greatest successes with Port Arthur Lincoln, guiding the Bumblebees to state championships and national recognition.
Coach Price’s most famous pupil was dynamic point guard B.J. Tyler, who starred for the Texas Longhorns before heading to the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Coach Price and I revisited one of the great one-on-on ematchups in state tournament history when Tyler went head-to-head with Lancaster‘s Thomas Hill in the state semifi nals in 1997.
“Everybody wanted to see that one,” Coach Price said.
Port Arthur prevailed, but Hill recovered and went on to great success with Duke, winning two national championships.
Due to a serious Google mistake, we were forced to eat at the most fu-fu barbecue restaurant in San Antonio that shall remain nameless, where the portions would be more appropriate for a women’s garden club. We were expecting cucumber sandwiches for appetizers.
One in our group ordered rabbit and what was delivered was more like a hot wing with a precisely placed garnish of parsley on top.
Coach Price went with the hanger steak which resembled a hamburger patty you might find on a White Castle burger.
I asked our waitress if they had any tater tots. They did not.
We more than made up for our previous transgression (boy did we ever) the next day by throwing down at Tony G’s Soul Food Buffet. Can you say cornmeal poisoning?
Coach Price’s little brother Dwain “The Iceman” Price scribes for the Fort Worth Star Telegram and covers the Dallas Maverick’s beat nowdays.
When Iceman covered the old Southwest Conference, Ice and I sat at many a press table together and hung out in the wee hours way longer than we should have with those pesky deadlines behind us.
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Also had the opportunity to visit with one of my favorite people, former University Interscholastic League director general Bailey Marshall.
Dr. Marshall—who is from Georgetown—possesses a country boy’s ability to cut through the BS, but is also well educated and very well read and for someone to confuse his country drawl for stupidity would be quickly cut down to size. That dichotomy served him well as leader of the UIL from 1977 to 1995.
Between my time at the Austin American-Statesman and the Associated Press, I probably covered more UIL meetings than anyone in history.
With the recent release of the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary on the notorious football team Dallas Carter, we reminisced about the case in which he was front-and-center.
Dr. Marshall—now 85— gave me one of the greatest scoops of my career when he summoned me into his office one day and cut open a cardboard box which contained Carter’s championship trophy which they were forced to return and vacate the title for using ineligible players.
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Silsbee’s record-breaking 104-101 victory over Dallas Carter to capture the Class 4A title was one of the best games I’ve seen in my 45 years of attending the tournament.
The action was non-stop and Silsbee—with its fi ve guard lineup—was relentless on both offense and defense and forced Carter into their breakneck style of play.
And Carter was up to the task and actually led 93-92 with 2:20 left in the game.
And contrary to what you might think, this was not a trey fest.
Silsbee put up just 17 threes and Carter 18.
The defending champion Tigers were deadly at the free throw stripe, sinking an impressive 30-of-34 shots.
What made this game so special was the shooting accuracy displayed by both squads. Silsbee shot 57 percent from the fl oor, Carter 59 percent.
Wasn’t a fan of Carter coach Lyndon Love’s in-your-face style of coaching and during one timeout, he shoved guard Malek Butler into his chair after he missed a layup.
Anticipation to watch Silsbee was ignited after the Tigers outran high-fl ying Houston Yates 120-103 in the regional fi nals.
They did not disappoint.
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The Miller family was torn when it came to the Thorndale-Muenster matchup.
Gunner Miller is good pals with a lot of the Thorndale players, while Muenster’s head basketball coach Lynn Cook coached under Rockdale Athletic Director Jeff Miller for four years while he was at Jacksboro.
Of course, Thorndale Coach John Kovar was Miller’s offensive coordinator for years at Rockdale.
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Former Rockdale Coach Jamie Boswell just completed his second season at Corpus Christi Flour Bluff after a successful run at San Angelo.
The kicker here is, Boswell replaced former Tiger great P.J. Williams as head basketball coach after a one-year stint.
Williams led Flour Bluff to a 21-13 record.
Boswell said Williams is now in the construction business in the Corpus Christi area.
In six years at San Angelo, Boswell won 325 games and was named the TABC coach of the year in 2012 after leading San Angelo to a school-record 31 wins.
Boswell’s wife is from Corpus Christi.
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