Coach Max Goldsmith
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1960 AHS State Champion Track TeamThis submission for the Andrews High School Hall of Greatness is to support the inclusion of the 1960 State Championship track team. Younger generations who did not live during the 1960 season will not know nor recognize the impact of the 57-year old achievement in shaping Andrews High School unless it is preserved in a place where the greatness of Andrews High School’s special successes are gathered, the Hall of Greatness. |
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The 1960 Mustang track team was led by coach and mentor, Max Goldsmith, and his long-time assistant coach, J. D. Partridge. Coach Goldsmith always said, “even though every team member did not qualify for the state meet, each one was equally important.” His reasoning was based on the dedication and individual team member’s understanding of the importance of team effort. Even when their season was over team members showed their loyalty to the school and the team by going to workouts every day and to compete with and push the state qualifiers to remarkable achievements. |
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● Two National High School Relay Records in the 440 yard relay: The first in Andrews at the Mustang Relay, April 1960, in the time of 41.9, and the second a month later at the State High School Meet in Austin, Texas in the time of 41.5. Team members: Larry Shoemaker, Ted Nelson, Darvis Cormier, R. E. Merritt ● National High School Record in the one mile relay at the Mustang Relays, April 1960 in the time of 3:15.2. Team members: Johnny Landrum, Larry shoemaker, R. E.Merritt, and Ted Nelson ● Best national high school time by an individual in the 220 yard dash, 20.5 by Ted Nelson ● Track Coach of the Year honors for Coach Goldsmith ● Third consecutive State Championship track and field title and the fourth overall for AHS. 1960 team member’s scoring individual points, in addition to the points from the 440 and mile relays, to contribute to the fourth title include: Discus and shot – Robert Sandlin 440 yard dash – R. E. Merritt 880 yard run – Ronnie Broam 100 yard dash – Larry Shoemaker Mile Run – Jack Nelson 220 yard dash – Ted Nelson |
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Raymond Adams – Mile run Larry Bagley – High jump Leslie Blackburn – 440 yard dash, mile and 440 yard relays Ronnie Broam – 880 yard run Zane Carroll – Pole vault Sammy Clarey – Shot put and discus Loyd Carruth – Shot put and discus Darvis Cormier – 440 yard relay, 100 and 220 yard dashes Tommy Drake – 100 yard dash Waymond Fleming – Shot put and discus Ronnie Green – 880 yard run Johnny Landrum – 440 yard dash Coker Lassiter – Shot put and discus Joe McKissick - Hurdles, substitute on 440 relay Jerry McCowan – Mile run James Martin – Shot put and discus R. E. Merritt – 440 yard dash, mile relay, 440 yard relay Dudley Mitchell – Pole Vault Jack Nelson – Mile run, 880 yard run Ted Nelson – 100, 200, and 440 yard dashes, 440 and mile relays Gary Overcash – High jump Gary Parnell – 880 yard run Robert Sandlin – Shot put and discuss Larry Shoemaker – 100 yard dash, 440 and mile relays Jerry Wilkerson – Mile run Bill Yardon – Pole vault Gerald Horn – Team manager Butch Seay – Team manager |
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Track is not the kind of sport where you automatically achieve great heights immediately. It is a sport where you build your strength, competitiveness, and skills over years and years of hard work. Every personal choice to do better and get better pushes the athlete on. Every workout and every meet is a building block toward and the difference between what might be and what is achieved. The ultimate goal is being the best you can be and thereby contributing to the team. So is the legacy of the 1960 Andrews High School Track and Field Team. Your attention to considering the 1960 Andrews High School Track and Field Team to be collectively recognized by the Andrews High School Hall of Greatness will be appreciated. ********************************************************************* |
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Submitted By Wayne Waits - Class of 1955 It is my pleasure to submit for recognition in the Hall of Greatness Doyle Parker, an AHS graduate with the Class of 1955. I've known Doyle since we were 11 years old and know him to be a fine man in every respect. He is kind, considerate and a good husband, father, grandfather and loyal friend. Doyle graduated from Andrews High School in 1955. As a senior he lettered in three sports: Football, Basketball and Track, and played trombone in the Mustang Band. Doyle was a member of the 1954 State Championship Track Team, the first ever State Championship for AHS. He was elected Best All Around Boy by his classmates in 1955. After his AHS graduation Doyle went to Hardin Simmons University with the long range aspiration of becoming a dentist. However, a short time later he realized that while dentistry was a good and well paying profession, many of the lessons he learned from some AHS coaches in his early years were more important than money. He decided that he wanted to become a coach so he could perhaps make a difference in young kids lives and help them become successful and good citizens as adults. Doyle's first Assistant Coaching job was in the small West Texas town of Hale Center. He had four other assistant coaching jobs over the years before being named the Head Coach of Devine High School in 1969. After three winning seasons he accepted the Head Coaching job at Bellville, Texas. In 1977 he guided them to a 14 win and 1 loss record. The one loss was in the State finals to a powerhouse Wylie team. Doyle's son, Rusty, was the Quarterback for that team. In 2000, Rusty was named to the Bellville High School Hall of Honor. In 2007 Doyle was also inducted into the same Hall of Honor. In 1978 Doyle became the Head Coach and Athletic Director at Pearland High School. After winning seasons at Pearland he moved into the college coaching ranks at Rice University as the Quarterback Coach. In 1986 he became the Defensive Coordinator at Lamar University. In 1987 his long-time friend, Spike Dykes, was named the Head Coach at Texas Tech University. Doyle joined Spike as his Linebacker and Tight End Coach, Director of Football Operations/Recruiting Coordinator. While at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders went to six bowl games. Doyle retired from Texas Tech in 1999. After retiring from Tech, Doyle coached in the Division II Cactus Bowl in Kingsville for five years. In May of 2011, Doyle received the most prestigious award that can be bestowed upon a Texas high school football coach; he was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Honor. Rudy Diaz, Sports Editor of the Andrews County News, said that he had interviewed Doyle after his induction and was so impressed, not just by his accomplishments, but by a strong, dedicated man who mirrored the traits of his early coaches at AHS. Doyle said that he believes you have to be in coaching for the right reasons: the love of kids and the desire to see them succeed. Doyle and his wife of 61 years, Shirley Latham Parker, who was an AHS cheerleader, now reside in Lubbock, Texas. ************************************************************* |
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AHS Band Director 1947-1959 As remembered by: Walter L. Winters, Jr. Class of ‘55 It is a privilege and honor to submit Dr. Everett Maxwell for induction to the Andrews High School “Hall of Greatness.” His reputation, accomplishments and legacy are provided below. He is most deserving of this honor and represents what is truly “great” about Andrews High School. Dr. Everett Maxwell was a rare combination of leadership, humility, creativity, and goal-oriented, diligent work ethic. He demonstrated these characteristics daily in the conduct of his duties as band director. These life traits were observed and absorbed by his students because they believed, respected and admired him. To their great benefit, many applied these traits to their daily lives and found that they apply equally to pursuits beyond music. It may best be described as a “culture” that was created in the Andrews High School Band. This culture told us that we can win, that we can continually improve, that we can succeed at all we attempt, and that we can do it with class. This “Everett Maxwell culture” took a very poor band program in 1947, (the program was so bad that they had to invent a new lower score to give it for concert playing at the competition!) to a “sweepstakes” winner: first in concert playing, first in sight reading, and first in marching. This began in 1949, and each year thereafter for a decade! This is more than impressive; it is sheer dominance. Beyond the band competition as a group, individual wins were also remarkable. (This I can attest to personally, as a band member, playing trumpet from 1950 to 1955. Even I, under his excellent leadership, won 4-silver medals and 4-gold medals. This was not unusual; ,many other students had similar or greater individual successes. This is mentioned to demonstrate the depth of his “culture” impact.) Dr. Maxwell’s leadership had a time-tested method of “Praise in public, and criticize in private." Dr Maxwell praised often and it was great! However, a private meeting was to be avoided at all costs, but when experienced, was effective on two levels. First, you knew you had failed to meet expectations and received instructions on how to correct the situation. Secondly, and perhaps the most painful, you knew you had disappointed Dr. Maxwell. (You are asking, “How does he know this?” Fortunately, I only had one of these meetings and I immediately applied the corrective action - problem solved!) Looking back , I cannot imagine the difficulty of taking a group of 90 to 110 teenagers and teaching them to play complicated instruments in tune and in time and pay attention to the director while doing it. Then, as if that was not hard enough, add to this taking this same group out to the football field and getting them to do all this while marching inline, in step, while doing a complicated formation. Oh yes, the wind and sand do blow in West Texas, even during marching practice, and it does get freezing cold also - just so you don’t get bored! He was a leader, a great leader. Dr. Maxwell was a humble man. Thoughtful, quiet, dedicated. He was always willing to learn and always willing to teach. He never, to my knowledge, took any credit for the band’s or individual’s accomplishments. Rather, he always gave credit to the band members. Credit was given to the band members often and very publicly. One could not possibly get him to take personal credit for the many successes. Deep down we knew who really deserved the credit, and we admired him immensely for giving it to us. This was also true when something went wrong, which was rare; but when it happened. He would say, ”That was my fault; we tried a formation for which we did not have adequate time to practice. We won’t speak of it again.” This was true when a particular half-time formation fell apart and barely got back together before ending. A big, public embarrassment. But he took it in stride and with no blame given, public or private. Dr. Maxwell was very creative. He composed and published several band marches and wrote the Andrews High School school song, sung to the melody of “The Roses of Picardy." He also created some of the most impressive marching band formations ever attempted by high school bands. He was way ahead of his time. Many times his creativity took the avenue of cleverly combining " existing items" into a new grander ”whole." He quickly recognized quality and innovation. Many of the annual concerts used this method to combine and juxtapose individual tunes into a meaningful story. (Very subtle, entertaining, and effective.) I will never forget one day he demonstrated a remarkable accomplishment on the clarinet. The Lawrence Welk show was popular in those days and most band members watched it regularly. A great clarinetist by the name of Pete Fountain was in that band at the time. (This was before he became famous and got his own club in New Orleans.) He could “slur” one continuous note from the lowest to the highest without hearing it actually change—very impressive. The next day, Dr Maxwell demonstrated this exactly. He said , “It is simple, really. Simply move the fingers to the next note before reaching the note." Really? Simple? Yes, simply amazing! Just one example of his ability to observe, discern, and duplicate or alter as desired. Dr. Maxwell had a goal -oriented, diligent work ethic. He was tireless, consistent, and highly effective. I often think of his plan as “Pop Warner Music” similar to the "Pop Warner football league." He started kids out on the “Tonette”, a small flute-like instrument, in the 6th or 7th grade. (This was my experience.) He was able to spot musical talent and attributes. He would also teach some music reading of scales and tunes. He also taught timing and cadence. The individuals that stayed with the program got to try several instruments and see what they liked. (People always get better doing things they like— no need to force fit an instrument!) These kids were usually able to “make” senior band in junior high. Again, this was my experience. I was not an effective member, but a member nonetheless, and as such, was exposed to the “culture” and in time began to contribute. This was repeated over and over—Dr. Maxwell always had his eye on the goal. This work ethic produced over a decade of Sweepstakes winners, numerous awards, a PhD, and induction into the Texas Bandmasters Hall Of Fame in 1991. Following is a brief Biography : Dr. Everett Maxwell was born January 1, 1912 in Ennis, Texas. He attended public school in Marlin, Texas where he started band in the third grade. He graduated from Marlin High School in 1929 and enrolled in Abilene Christian College (ACC.) the same year. In 1933 , he received his B.A. in Chemistry from ACC. He received his Master’s degree from Texas Tech in 1942 and his Doctorate from Texas Tech in 1970. Everett’s first teaching job was at Bronte, Texas in 1934, where he taught elementary subjects and band. He moved to Anthony, New Mexico in 1936 and taught science and band. Two years later he moved to Lovington, N.M. and taught only band. He started the band program in Denver City, Texas in 1940. During World War II, he worked for General Dynamics in Ft. Worth, Texas. After the war ended Everett moved to Cordell, Oklahoma in 1946 to teach band again. In 1947 he moved to Andrews, Texas, and taught band in the high school for 12 years, During this time, under his leadership, the Andrews High School Band won 10 “sweepstakes,” a remarkable achievement. Everett moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1959 and taught one year at Lubbock Christian College before going to Abernathy, Texas, where he taught high school band for 9 years. He returned to Lubbock Christian College in 1969 and retired from the college in 1975. Everett tried to retire several times, but Lubbock Christian High School kept calling him back to teach either science or band or both. Finally, in 1985, he retired permanently. During his teaching career, Everett wrote many arrangements for his bands. He also composed 17 marches, which were published by Southern Music Co. of San Antonio, Texas. Marcho Vivo was his first published march, written in the mid 50’s while at Andrews, Texas. The balance of his marches were written and published while he was at Abernathy, Texas, except for March Differente, which was written as part of his doctoral work at Texas Tech. The most played of his marches has been Ojo de Aquila. In conclusion, this submittal has attempted to provide you with a oversight of the accomplishments of a very sincere, honorable man who dedicated his life to education, music, and enlightenment for numerous students and peers. His time at Andrews provided artistic balance to the highly successful curriculum at Andrews High School. In addition, under his excellent leadership, the accomplishments of the band brought great pride and esteem to Andrews High School. Dr. Maxwell left the Andrews High School band much better than he found it, and he had a profoundly positive effect on each and every student that was privileged to know him and be a part of the incredible journey for the band from 1947 to 1959. Respectfully, Walter L. Winters, Jr. Class of ‘55 **************************************************************** |
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TED NELSON
AHS CLASS OF 1961 As Remembered by Larry Bradford
As a part of "Remember Andrews" I would like to share with those who may not know it, what a remarkable athlete the Mustangs had in Ted Nelson - class of '61. Most of you may know Ted's story, but I think it is appropriate to summarize it in this section. It was no coincidence that Andrews won the Texas State Championship in Track and Field every year that Ted participated. In the 100 yard dash he ran a 9.6 three times in 1959, including the Mustang Relays in Andrews. He posted a 20.5 in the 220 in Odessa in 1960. In 1961 in Odessa he ran the fastest 440 that a high school athlete had ever run in the United States - a 46.5 National Record. In 1960 he and his teammates set National Records - on the same day! - in the 440 relay (41.5) and the mile relay (3.15.2) . He ran with Shoemaker, Cormier and Merritt in the 440 and Shoemaker, Merritt and Landrum in the mile. Remarkable accomplishments for a high schooler! Ted went to Texas A & M and continued his dominance. He held 13 school records as an Aggie and held the Southwest Conference record in the 440. As icing on the cake, he lettered in football as an Aggie in 1965.He became an assistant coach at A & M in 1966 and continued to coach there as an assistant until 1990 when he bacame the head coach. He was Big 12 Coach of the Year twice in the Big 12 Conference before he retired in 2004. He started out in Andrews as a remarkable teenager and remained remarkable throughout his career. Legendary coach Max Goldsmith was his coach in Andrews and it proved to be an unbeatable combination.....Ted has a son named Max.
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RONNY HORN
After college, on December 12, 1962, Ronny enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was an extreme patriot and loved his country and felt all citizens needed to do their duty. He was proud of his accomplishments. After basic and artillery training, he completed airborne training and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He married his wife Barbara in May 1965 and they had two daughters, Angela and Catherine. Ronny separated from active duty in June 1966 after 3 1/2 years active duty. Ronny had an overwelming desire to serve his country in Vietnam and at the end of his enlistment that desire had not been fulfilled. He took his separation and moved his family to Eunice, New Mexico, where he took a job with Shell Oil Company. As time passed, he could not repress his desire and when he found that his old division, the 101st, had deployed to Vietnam, he felt he needed to serve in Vietnam. As Ronny was still in the in active Army Reserve until December 1968, he volunteered to return to active duty in order to volunteer for Vietnam and the chance to return to his unit. On October 3rd, 1968, Ronny's unit was awakened by the sound of enemy fire and were soon being attacked by a superior NVA regiment. As a helicopter came in to bring in ammunition and supplies, the helicopter was shot down. In the wreckage of this helicopter was much needed ammunition. Ronny exposed himself to enemy fire and ran to the wreckage and retrieved much of the ammunition. After he had gathered ammo belts from the wreckage and returned to his men, as he was attempting to distribute them, he was mortally wounded by small arms fire. For these actions, Ronny was awarded a posthumous Silver Star. Ronny is remembered by Andrews, the City of Eunice, New Mexico and on the Permian Basin Vietnam Memorial, located at Midland International Airport, Midland, Texas. May Ronny's sacrifice never be forgotten. |
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The Late Great John Hogue
Special Letter from Dennis Elam:
John Hogue
Speech Coach Extraordinaire
Note to readers – in the course of this essay I will make references to my accomplishments, this is in no way intended to draw attention to me but rather to emphasize what a change John Hogue brought about in myself in just a few weeks. I spent my last year of High School at AHS.
Actually back then, even as teenagers, we wondered the same thing. We talked about it among ourselves as well. What was it that made john Hogue such a great speech coach? My senior year either AHS or Midland Lee won all the speech tournaments in West Texas. In 1965 his boys debate team won the state champion ship, ditto for 1966.
Mr. Hogue, it was always Mr. Hogue, was not a particularly outstanding speaker himself, not bad but 3-4 on a likert 5 scale. He was not physically impressive, about five foot five. He did not possess sterling academic credentials. Like many West Texas high school teachers he was a graduate of Sul Ross. Nestled in tiny Alpine, it was the choice for many West Texas educators of that era.
But then Mr. Hogue did not have to be any of those things. What he did was produce winners, and he did that better than anyone else in West Texas.
The answer to the question, what made John Hogue great as a speech coach, is that he simply set the bar high. He established a tone, an atmosphere of expected accomplishment. Doing your best was not good enough, you were expected to win.
For starters, he had not one but two separate classes devoted to UIL contests. (Gee it just occurred to me, did he have regular speech classes the rest of the day? I don’t remember) Second period was for the debate class. Fourth period after lunch was devoted to Extemperaneous and Persuasive Speaking, Prose and Poetry Interpretation, and One Act Play. It is written that one has to practice as one will play and that is just what we did in those classes. Each student performed before the entire class. John Hogue as far as I know also championed the use of the ‘ah bell.’ He had one of those ring by hand bells like you find at the dry cleaners. If a student made the error of saying uh or ah, the bell would sound. While this sometimes corrected the problem, at other times the student panicked and fell further into gibberish. A string of bells would follow often with the student unable to continue, but the point was made. Mr. Hogue was a lot more interested in accomplishment than self-empathy.
Attention to detail is another hallmark of great coaching. One of the toughest jobs in debate is the first negative speaker. He or she had to be prepared with ten minutes on why the status quo was not only acceptable but preferable to whatever plan the first affirmative speaker had advanced. Back then the time allotted was ten minutes for each of the first four speakers in a debate. Therefore Mr. Hogue assigned an eighteen minute first negative speech. That way when the big day came, the speaker would be pressed for time, rather than wondering how to fill the time.
While other teachers went home for the weekend, Mr. Hogue not only spent weekends with us in glorious spots like Snyder, TX, he drove the bus as well! Talk about service beyond the cause!
Did I mention that he also directed the school plays? Whatever his salary, it must have been minimum wage on a by the hour basis.
It is important to understand that John Hogue was a fractal of the overall objective of the Andrews School District. I had transferred to Andrews from Kermit, TX. Kermit School District was dominated by Board members who were more interested in paying low property taxes than in winning state championships. Andrews never made that error.
Andrews intended to establish a school district of the first order. Then unlike Louisiana, oil companies would easily be able to transfer employees to Andrews County. The sons and daughters of those engineers and professionals would only swell the ranks with a greater chance of winning such championships. And that is exactly what happened.
If you want to win, you have to play everyone, period. We did. I recall being gone six weekends in a row to speech tournaments, and that was just one stretch.
I had never done better than 50/50 before arriving at AHS. That means I won two and lost two debates, never advancing to the later elimination rounds. After six weeks around John Hogue’s group of winners, Shelton Smith and I won the Seminole first of the season tournament with a 4-0 shut out. I had learned that to win you study the topic every day. One reads current events every day. One eats, lives, breathes the debate topic and current events to stay competitive in the other contests as well. I did mention that he had us all entered in multiple contests at each tournament? No coasting allowed. I repeat this story to hopefully give the reader an idea of just what a transformational experience John Hogue’s program provided.
What was it like to be a member of the John Hogue Debate Team? One anecdote sums up the sort of fear and or respect that the AHS debate team put into potential opponents. At any tournament we were labeled as the A, B, or C team. At the Texas Tech tournament, Martha don Carlos and I were the ‘C’ team. Prior to one round, our opponents gingerly approached, wanting to know if we were the Andrews ‘A’ team, and they asked, believe me, in respectful, mousey tones. No, we were the ‘C’ team came the reply, Visibly relieved, wiping imaginary sweat from their foreheads, they confessed worry we might have been the A team. Martha and I did not exchange a single word, just a glance, these clowns were going to learn something about just how deep talent ran on the AHS teams. And so they did.
Years later John Hogue retired from teaching, drove a truck for Andrews County, and was elected County Commissioner for Precinct Four.
What more can be said of a human being, than he crafted students into winners, team after team, year after year. He taught us we could be more than we were. Thanks John Hogue.
Dennis Elam Phd CPa is an Associate Professor in the College of Business at Texas A & M University – San Antonio. His is a graduate of the Class of 1966, Andrews High School.
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