Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Time Leaving Behind Ghost teams of Central Texas Past
by Tim Waits - Telegram Sports Correspondent
Temple Daily Telegram - October 26, 2014
As the landscape of Central Texas has evolved over the last century, the communities and
the schools have adapted to the change.
What was once docile is now bustling. What was once thriving is now shriveling. It’s the
ebb and flow of what some would consider progress.
Schools that were once modest in size in the mid-20th century now can’t build facilities
fast enough to accommodate a burgeoning student body while others level off and even
decline a bit. Who would have predicted 30 years ago that Temple would one day square off
with Hutto — it seems like only yesterday since Hippoland was little more than a few
grain silos — in a vital district game?
And then there were those schools that disappeared many years ago.
Some of the schools that went into extinction had, for a time, enjoyed some of the spoils
of the nearby larger schools, such as football.
Those are now ghost schools and the teams they fielded are virtually forgotten remnants
of another era, with scant bits of history from a time gone by. Those schools dried up
and consolidated with the nearest larger school. All that may be left of some of those
places is a historical marker or a community center.
Yet when they played, it mattered to those players as much as it did to the guys playing
for the more established programs around.
The advent of six-man football in the 1930s gave rise to the ability of rural schools to
participate without requiring a large enrollment to play the game. It allowed a gateway
into the sport and if the school grew — as was the case with long-time six-man programs
such as Copperas Cove and Jarrell — it could transition into the 11-man game. Some, such
as Buckholts, have remained rock solid six-man devotees for decades.
It’s not the simplest research to track ghost teams of the past. Coverage and recordings
of their games were spotty at best, which means the historical data is sporadic. And,
after all, they are ghosts.
Joseph Wooten, who grew up in the rural West Texas town of Garden City and now resides in
Illinois, has done extensive research on extinct high school football teams in Texas by
compiling scores and as much information as possible on the website
Gathering history like that is always a work in progress, but a few teams did reside in
our section of Central Texas between the 1930s and 1960s before extinction, some of the
most prominent being those in Flat, Sharp, Turnersville and Pearl. Even Seaton and
Oenaville, both just east of Temple, fielded football teams during the Depression Era.
“The main driver for the disappearance of the rural schools was the increased
mechanization of farm and ranch life that eliminated the need for the farmer to employ
help to operate the farm,” Wooten said. “Places like Flat and Seaton had marginal
farmland at best, and the increased productivity (and the boll weevil and root rot) of
the newly mechanized farms in good soil areas made them unviable.”
Flat, a farming community on Highway 36 in Coryell County about 10 miles east of
Gatesville, was the home to Yellow Jacket football from 1940-62, all of which as a six-
man team. Because of the lack of score gathering, it is difficult to determine what may
have been good, bad or so-so seasons except for those who were there and experienced it.
One of the Yellow Jackets’ first victories came in 1940 in a 40-30 decision over Oglesby,
which is still a six-man staple.
Perhaps their best season, or at least best documented season, was in 1958 when the
Yellow Jackets went 5-4 by winning their last three games over Strawn, Turnersville and
Fairy to get on the positive side of the win-loss ledger.
In 1962, their final season before the school district consolidated with Gatesville, the
Yellow Jackets were at least 4-5 with one unknown result against Star. The Yellow
Jackets, who were coached by J.T. McFarlin in their best days, ended their history with
victories over Sidney and Jonesboro before going silent and turning into Hornets.
Gatesville absorbed a few of the ghost teams over the years with the most successful
being Turnersville, which sits 12 miles northeast of Gatesville. The Buffaloes fielded a
six-man team most years from 1938-66 with some being very good in the era of coach Bruce
Jones, who led the Buffaloes in their final 13 seasons of existence. They went 19-2 in
the 1955-56 seasons with a pair of playoff berths. The 1966 campaign was not only their
last but their best as they ran off 11 straight wins before tying Tolar 44-44 in a
regional title game, the deepest a six-man team could go at the time. The school closed a
year later.
At Pearl, 22 miles northwest of Gatesville, the Dragons played sporadically between 1940
and 1954 before closing shop with some students going to Gatesville and others to Evant.
Technically, Rosebud and Lott fall into the category of ghost teams before the two
schools merged in 1970 to become Rosebud-Lott. The Rosebud Panthers fielded teams between
1916 and 1969 with a great run in the 1960s under Bobby Pollard and later Rodney Hudson
that boasted five seasons with nine-plus wins in the decade. The Lott Lions started
playing football in 1921 and didn’t enjoy the same success as nearby Rosebud but had
district titles in 1954 and ’57 under James Ward.
Sharp, situated 12 miles northwest of Rockdale, suited out players most years from 1934-
57 and is the longest surviving rural Milam County ghost school that fielded a team. It
started as an 11-man squad, playing the likes of Rogers, Troy, Bartlett, Thrall and
Holland with limited success. As the enrollment numbers dwindled, Sharp dipped into the
six-man game for its final years with long-time Rogers farmer and rancher Sherman
Mayfield serving as its last coach in 1957 before the school district merged with
Rockdale.
The community of Ad Hall had a few teams in the 1930s before sending students to
Cameron, as did San Gabriel before consolidating with Thorndale.
Seaton and Oenaville had short-lived stints in football for Bell County ghost schools.
Seaton is believed to have played at least five games in 1938, splitting with Ad Hall
and losing twice to San Gabriel with an unknown result against Oenaville, potentially a
hot country rivalry of the day had it lasted more than one day. Seaton lost to Buckholts
52-13 in 1940 in a six-man contest and the last known game it played.
Oenaville had at least one game in 1934 and ’37, losing to Bartlett the first year and
pounding Troy 34-6 in ’37, according to Wooten’s research. It had a good 11-man team in
1938, winning at least three of six games with solid victories over Salado, Copperas Cove
and Rogers before losing to Academy and unknown outcomes against Seaton and Ad Hall.
Oenaville football, like all of the other ghost teams of the past, was never heard from
again.
twaits@tdtnews.com
.
All Credit for this article
goes to Tim Waits
and the
Temple Daily Telegram
goes to Tim Waits
and the
Temple Daily Telegram