Saturday, April 20, 2024
Looking Back in Sports
LOOKING BACK IN SPORTS
Looking Back in Sports is a column that highlights articles retrieved from local newspaper archives.
81 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1941
A touch of humorous writing highlighted the fact that two Granbury exhibition-type basketball games were set up with the admission costs benefitting the school “lunch room” in an article published in the Feb. 20, 1941, edition of the Hood County Tablet.
“The dignified ladies of the Granbury PTA will shed their dignity when (they) meet the local high school girls in a hard fought basketball game Monday night,” the article stated.
The whopping admission prices of 5 cents and 10 cents were stated — presumably with the student tickets being on the low end of that scale.
“Spectators are promised a real treat. The PTA team is looking for the full bloomers and middies they used to wear, and if they find them, they’ll add black stockings to complete the costume,” the article continued.
“The second game scheduled for the evening will be played when the stars of the Granbury Fire Department meet the high school boys. A cordial invitation is extended all friends of the school to attend the game and help the PTA and have a lot of fun besides.
“Mrs. J.L. Watts will be captain of the women’s team, with Mrs. Roy Tompkins, Mrs. Pres Williams, Mrs. Jimmy Hale, Mrs. Harley Cherry and Miss Ruth Wilson as teammates. The firemen have not announced their players yet.”
102 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1920
A brief note — presumably just a space-filler — in the Friday, April 2, 1920, edition of The Granbury News states: “Eskimo children play football with a bag stuffed with hair.”
So many questions, so few answers.
Did they wash the hair with shampoo before stuffing it into the bag just before the opening kickoff? And if they used 100% curly hair, did that affect the flight of the ball? And if 1920 was before anyone ever used the phrase “hail Mary pass” in connection with a last-minute touchdown toss, could it be that this was where the phrase “hair-raising finish” originated?
There aren’t likely many Eskimos still among the living who used one of those hair-filled footballs 102 years ago, so we may never know the answers to those important questions.
83 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1939
In an announcement about an upcoming boys basketball tournament in the Thursday, Jan. 26 edition of the Hood County Tablet, the Feb. 3-4 event in Granbury stated that it was to include teams from Mambrino, Fall Creek, Acton, Waples and Herring-Hightower.
The brief article also noted that a girls basketball tournament was also scheduled for the following week, and stated that, “Most of these teams will be junior teams.”
58 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1964
Dorothy Berry — most likely a Granbury High School student-athlete, although the article does not mention that — was announced as being named as a member of the North team for the Texas High School Girls Basketball Coaches Association’s all-star girls basketball game to be played in Waco.
That all-star game, mentioned in that April 2, 1964, edition of the Hood County News-Tablet, was to be played July 18, 1964.
“This is the eighth time in the history of girls basketball that an all-star game will be played,” the article stated.
