By the Numbers: Border Bandits
Valley Morning Star
The 1963 Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Bears, the last Valley football team to reach the state finals.
Posted July 15, 2008
45 years ago, the PSJA Bears reached the state finals
By Paul Conatzer
Valley Morning Star
From: RGVSports.com
In 1963, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School reached the Class 3A football state finals for the second straight season. In the 45 years since, no Valley high school has reached a state championship game.
Those Bears, which put together arguably the best back-to-back seasons by a Valley team, are No. 45 in the Star's "By The Numbers" series.
"We were overachievers," said Poppy Rodriguez, currently McAllen ISD athletic director and a senior running back on the 1962 PSJA team which reached the state final where it lost to Dumas, 14-3.
"It was an incredible time," said Rick Diaz, well-known news anchor on KRGV-TV and a senior defensive lineman on the 1962 squad. "We called ourselves the Border Bandits. Nobody thought we would do much, nobody gave us a chance."
The 1962 squad had to battle to make the playoffs out of District 16-3A. The Bears finished tied for first in the league with San Benito, which reached the state semifinals in 1961. In the regular season, the Bears went 8-1-1 and outscored opponents 146-46.
PSJA earned the league's only playoff spot by having more first downs than San Benito in their 0-0 tie in the last game of the season.
"Some people called it the game of the century," said Rodriguez. "Nobody had any penetrations and we won the game because we had 10 first downs and San Benito had six. Our defense did an incredible job. We held Jim Helms (San Benito's all-state running back) to 29 yards."
The game was played at PSJA's stadium and it might have been the greatest game played in the Valley. The Bears beat South San Antonio 29-22, Austin Johnson 26-0 and Orange 20-13 to reach the state finals. "Orange was a brutal game, they outweighed us by about 55 pounds, but we never worried about size," Rodriguez said.
The state championship game was played in Fort Worth at TCU's stadium and the change in climate conditions was a shock for the Bears. "When we left the Valley, it was 79 degrees and when we got to Fort Worth it was 29 degrees. We didn't like the cold," Rodriguez said.
Dumas outweighed the Bears by about 60 pounds on the line and, in fact, Rodriguez said, Dumas outweighed the University of Texas' offensive line by three pounds. Despite the disadvantage, the Bears took a 3-0 edge into the final quarter."Then they started going to their 6-foot-5 split end Kelly Baker," Rodriguez said. "Our defensive backs were 5-7 and that's how they won."
While Diaz and Rodriguez were mainstays on the 1962 team, they were a number of players who played on both squads.Julio Ayala played on both squads and was a second-team all-stater as a defensive back in 1963. Phil Hetrick was a first-team offensive tackle on both squads. Ernest Nagy was a guard on both squads. Ayala also later coached his alma mater.
Other standouts were kicker Bucho Gomez, who Diaz said was called "The Golden Toe" on the 1962 team. Linebackers Manuel Garcia and Danny Cantu were among the Bears' first team all-district picks in 1963. Head coach Charlie Williams was the lynchpin for both squads.
"They made believers out of us," said Rodriguez. "They gave us confidence."
Over the two-season span of 1962 and 1963, the Bears went 21-3-4 under Williams, who is the all-time winningest coach at PSJA with a 96-34-7 mark. In 1963, the Bears went 8-0-2 in district play and outscored their opponents 220-27. They beat South San Antonio 27-0 in the first round of the playoffs. Tied 20-20 with Gonzales in the quarterfinals, advancing on more first downs. Then they edged LaMarque 9-7 in the semifinals before losing to Corsicana 7-0 in the state title game.
"You look back at it and remember and it doesn't seem so long ago," Diaz said.
By the Numbers is a periodic series that corresponds the number of days until the start of the 2008 Valley high school football season with a memorable athlete or moment. Today marks 45 days until kickoff.
