Editor's note: The Bonham High School Class of 1970 is in town to celebrate their 50-year reunion, so it seems only fitting to look back on the most amazing group of athletes that I have even seen take the field.
Bonham, Texas -- Everyone who ever stepped out onto the field for a Texas high school football game is certainly allowed a few of those Al Bundy moments when they relive the "good old days" while everyone else rolls their eyes. Even sub-mediocre guys like me are no exception...I'd pay a thousand dollars for quality game film of Bonham at Burkburnett in '71.
I got a bit of a shock recently when I was at a local meeting and a couple of gentlemen began to wax poetic about the subject of "the heyday of Bonham football." My first thought was, that was 1969, of course....we all know that.
As it turns out, we don't.
What I'm about to write is the truth as best I can remember. There have been so many teams from Bonham High School that the community could be proud of for a variety of reasons. Some had incredible talent. Some stuck it out through adversity because, well, that's what they signed up for. Whatever the schedule and season record, I know what kind of kids we turn out. The biggest travesty of living here is that we don't get to keep the young men and young women we raise in this community because, quite often, they have to go where the right college is and then where the best job is.
That having been said, to me there is no debate about the finest group of athletes that ever buckled up their helmets in Bonham; the only discussion would be about who might be number 2 or 3.
But in case I've missed something, I tell you what I'd like to do; I'm gonna suggest why, from my perspective, there has never been a football team wear Purple and White that compared with the boys in '69 and I will finish with a couple of objective benchmarks. If anyone from Bonham ever played on a team that sent more guys to major colleges and subsequently the NFL than the 1969 Bonham Warriors, I will place my apology for overlooking you, along with a story about that team, on the front page.
But, for now, I want to tell you another story we have somehow forgotten.
When head football coach Jack McElhannon led the Bonham Warriors out of the locker room in 1969, there were only 26 guys behind him. Ten went on to play major college football. Three made it to the NFL.
Marsh White played for the New York Giants, Durwood Keeton played for New England and Preston Anderson played for Cleveland.
Marsh, Durwood and Preston... and, guys, that's not even counting Lonnie Bennett. You remember Lonnie. Perhaps you don't. A halfback at UT, Lonnie sprinted 49 yards to pay dirt in a 24-10 win over the Miami Hurricanes in 1972. Lonnie was the first African American to score a touchdown for the Texas Longhorns. What a shame that, in the little town where he grew up, we don't even know our own history.
In the heyday of Bonham football, Darrell Royal, the legendary head football coach for the Longhorns, didn't need a map to find Bonham, Texas. I heard Coach Royal doing commentary during a college football game and Mitchell Bennett caught a pass.
Royal said, "Bennett....he's from Bonham. I recruited his brother there."
Boys, does the name Marsh White even faintly ring a bell anymore? How could anybody forget a man as fast, powerful and kind-hearted as Marsh White. He could do everything except stay on my horse, but that's another story for another day. After an incredible career at Bonham, he went on to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks in an era when there wasn't five black guys on the entire campus. I think they needed Marsh for two equally important reasons; he was an outstanding young athlete and he was an outstanding young man.
These guys weren't just breaking through athletic barriers; they were breaking down racial barriers that were all too palpable in the South in the '60s, and unfortunately still are at times.
Seems like Marsh was named Sophomore of the Year in the Southwest Conference when the Southwest Conference was really the Southwest Conference. I know...you have to be a geezer to get it.
A few years later, I remember watching an NFL game on TV from the barracks while I was serving in the armed forces and watching Marsh run for just over 100 yards for the New York Giants. Am I the only guy from Bonham old enough to remember watching a running back from Ravenna chew up yardage in the NFL? That's a shame.
What about Alvin "Bang" Brown? A cornerback/wide receiver in '69, Bang went on to set interception records in the Big Eight Conference while playing for Oklahoma State University and eventually earn Second Team All-America honors.
Maybe you've never heard of the Big Eight, but odds are you've heard of a couple of little schools from that conference...namely, Nebraska and Oklahoma University.
You may not have had a chance to see Bob Jenkins pump-fake a down-and-out to Preston Anderson against Fort Worth Burleson and then throw deep to a point predetermined by a million down-out-and-go patterns during the summer. But I can assure that somewhere there is a 69-year-old ex-cornerback from Fort Worth who won't ever forget it. A couple of perfectly timed down-and-outs to set it up... then a down-out-and-go...then here come the double outs.
Imagine how that cornerback felt...biggest game of his life...out there on an island going one-on-one with Preston Anderson while an incredibly intuitive coach, Roland Rainey, calls the pass patterns.
Now that I think of it, I guess we should all pitch in to help pay that poor cornerback's therapist.
Maybe you didn't see Marsh with the lead block over the left side behind Maxwell and Steward and suddenly there's Lonnie Bennett exploding into the open for the winning touchdown in Plano. IN PLANO. That's the way things happened in the heyday, boys. Or, at least that's the way I remember it.
Now, I will support every Bonham team as long as I can drag this old, fat body up and down the sidelines...but I see no reason to deny just how special this group was. Gosh, it was almost as much fun to watch the boys of '69 haul hay as it was to watch them play football. And maybe summers spent hauling hay is one reason they were that good. The 1969 Bonham Warriors only had a few guys over 200 pounds, but nothing jiggled when they walked by.
If I remember right -- it's been more than 50 years now -- I watched Marsh White and Marshall Perry load a truck with hay and, buddy, it didn't take long...if you blinked, you missed it. I remember thinking that whichever farmer hired those two guys should be recruiting for USC.
And I have this memory of a flatbed hay truck, possibly going a little faster than the law would allow, as it passed in front of what was then Bonham State Bank. Loose hay was swirling off of the truck and there was a guy standing on the back, leaning over the cab, with the thickest mutton-chop sideburns I had ever seen. At first, I thought it was Elvis. Looking back, I'm guessing it was Durwood.
Now, this wasn't my team, these boys in '69, although I admit I've often felt they are. We all felt that way as we sat in the sleet and rain and watched 'em whip Ennis in the playoffs.
This was our team.
Nothing's changed for me.
And even if no one else remembers, I won't ever forget.
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Now for the aforementioned benchmarks:
College Scholarships
Alvin Brown - Oklahoma State University
Lonnie Bennett - University of Texas
Bob Jenkins - Rice University
Durwood Keeton - Oklahoma University
Preston Anderson - Rice University
Hawk Shaw - SMU
Marsh White - University of Arkansas
Mike Howard - Stephen F. Austin
Charles Butler - Rice University
John Burtner - Rice University
National Football League
Marsh White
Durwood Keeton
Preston Anderson
Not bad for 26 guys, huh? But evidently not good enough for us to remember.
Class of '69 epilogue
With the help of several other local sports enthusiasts, a lot of stories came swirling out of the archives with the story of the '69 Bonham Warriors
Dave Craddock reminded me how much fun it was to fill the stands at B.P. Weaks Field and watch Alf Robardy, Teb Baker, Roland Rainey, Larry Frair, and Bruce and Steve Sutherland get after 'em.
The first football game I ever saw was there in '63, if memory serves me correctly, which brings up an interesting trivia item regarding the featured running back that evening. My guess is that Ronnie Roth is the only Bonham guy who can say he had 100-yard rushing game AND opened a concert for Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Jason Leatherwood reminded me of the exploits of an underrated '87 team. Perhaps that was the year Dale Trompler connected with David Fairchild for the first TD anyone had scored all year against a freaky-fast Daingerfield team.
Speaking of Daingerfield, Bonham football lore has to include the time Daingerfield, coached by '73 BHS grad Randy McFarlin, broke Celina's 68-game winning streak. As much as I hate driving into the city, I ventured into the metromess that night because I had a feeling the Bobcats were gonna leave town 68-1.
Another team that I think gets overlooked too much is the '64 semifinalist team. Here's something to remember -- the only thing that stopped this bunch was future 2-time All-Pro Bill Bradley, quarterback for eventual state champion Palestine that year. Bradley was ambidextrous and could roll out passing right-handed or left-handed. He was Darrell Royal's heralded recruit that year and, by his sophomore year, Bradley was UT's starting quarterback and punter. But along came a guy named James Street and a little thing called the Wishbone and the rest is history. Street led UT to a 10-0 season and a national title in '69, with Bradley playing split end. The versatile Bradley would move to cornerback in the NFL where he was a 2-time All-Pro for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Please forgive me if I don't remember more details of the Bonham-Palestine game accurately...that was in an era before we even had a TV out here at cow camp. Mom and I listened to it on the radio.
The Bonham brand has been a lot of places over the years. I spent a few years in Upstate New York in the mid-70s. At that time, the fullback for the New York Giants was '71 BHS grad Marsh White, and, at the same time, Bonham native Roy McMillan, a 3-time Golden Glove shortstop, was managing the New York Mets.
Speaking of the Bonham brand, several years ago I was on a trout fishing trip in Lake City, Colorado. During a lunch break, there were two couples in the restaurant and the chef came out and asked where we were from. One couple was from Oklahoma, and we said we were from a little town called Bonham, Texas.
The gentleman from Oklahoma, a big, stout-looking fellow in his 70s, slowly turned to me and began to nod, as if it was all coming back to him -- Charles Smithey was the first Bonham boy I can recall getting recruited by OU and then Durwood Keeton started at safety for the Sooners during a time when Lonnie Bennett was playing halfback for the Texas Longhorns and Marsh White was fullback for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
"Bonham...." the gentleman from north of Red River said softly. "Y'all play some football down there dontcha?"
"Yes sir...been known to," I replied.