by James Greenwood III, '54

When two-a-day drills began in September, 1953, the St. John’s School (“SJS”) “Rebels” and the Kinkaid “Falcons” football teams trained with a vengeance. Both had something to prove. On November 6 they would meet in a game described 55 years later as “…the most exciting and publicized game ever played between the schools.” [October 31, 2008 Kinkaid Falcons vs. St. John’s Mavericks game program, subtitled “58 Years of Tradition.”] In the week before their meeting, all three Houston newspapers, the Press, Chronicle and the Post wrote stories about the teams and the coaches, with pictures of some of the star players. The Post sportswriter was 20 year old Mickey Herskowitz, who later became an award winning sports reporter and author of many books—his three pieces about these 1953 teams and their epic game provided a foretaste of his reportorial originality and skill, and did justice to the significance of the game for both schools.

The Teams and Coaches—Saint John’s

Coach Phil Richards’ predominantly senior Saint John’s School team, captained by guard-turned-running-back Fallon Gordon, was dedicated to proving that the two victories with which they had closed out the 1952 season better represented St. John’s football than the six (often one-sided) losses that began that worst season in the fledgling school’s short three-year interscholastic varsity football history. The varsity eleven of the first senior class (1950 season), captained by Jesse Dickson, finished its seven game season undefeated and untied. The 1951 team, led by Keane Ferguson, finished 5-2. Last year’s squad, captained by Junior, Fallon Gordon, with only one senior, finished a disappointing 2-6, but had gained valuable experience playing together as a unit while they grew a year, gaining size and speed and skill—and they had won the Kinkaid game (6 to 0).

Mr. Phillip Wells Richards had been a three sport letterman at the University of New Hampshire and an Ensign aboard the destroyer, U.S.S. George E. Davis in the Pacific theater during World War II. He had three brothers who also served in the war. At St. John’s he taught 10th grade Biology and coached football and girls basketball with a Maine accent and a passion for excellence. Workouts were spirited with vigorous conditioning and repetitious drilling on fundamentals, scrimmages to perfect timing, and a commitment to “teamwork first.” He taught self-discipline, good sportsmanship and the concept of always giving your best. He was ably assisted by Princeton graduates Robert E. Cowan (who had played with and blocked for Heisman Trophy winner Dick Kazmaier just two years earlier) and James Ten Broeck.

The Teams and Coaches--Kinkaid

Coach Thurman Horney’s Falcons were beginning only their third season of eleven-man football [due to a the small number of boys the school had fielded successful 6-man teams during the 1940s], after two winless seasons that included three ties and galling (38-6 and 6-0) losses to St. John’s. Galling, particularly, because St. John’s was founded some 40 years after Kinkaid and the Falcons had scored only one touchdown in the teams’ first two meetings. To end the “upstarts’ domination, the Falcons, eight returning lettermen would be joined not only by their new coach, but by a fresh batch of scholarship athletes led by last year’s Lamar JV star, triple-threat speedster Don Reichle (pronounced “Rackly”), two large swift receivers (Charlie Brown and Bob Burgdorff), two huge linemen (George Clarabut and Eddy Robinson, each weighing over 220 pounds) and others.

Mr. Thurman A. “Bo” Horney had attended Duke University and graduated from High Point College with an intervening stint in the Army Air Corps. Before coming to Kinkaid, he’d been an assistant coach at Houston’s Pershing Junior High School where he’d helped tutor the 1951 and 1952 City Championship teams, some of whose members would wear Falcon purple and gold in 1953. He was assisted by Howard Clapp, an All-Missouri Valley Conference player at the University of Houston.

Kinkaid sends a message

Early in September Kinkaid sent the clear message that no-win seasons were a thing of the past. In fact leading up to the St. John’s game it was a “no-loss” season for the purple and gold clad Falcons who roared to decisive victories by scores of 45, 62, 20, 53, 27, 38 and 40 to zero, over Alta Loma, Oglesby, Waller, Orchard, St. Stephens, Danbury and Lutheran. Seven wins, no losses, no ties, and no opponent scored. It was an awesome team with speed and size, running a single-wing formation that featured the multiple talents and on-the field leadership of tailback Don Reichle. Through seven games Reichle had scored 143 points; Burgdorff 54, Co-Captain Jack Elliott 25.

Saint John’s sends a message

The scarlet and black clad Rebels were similarly impressive with Gordon (66 points), Don Ruthven (48), Fisher Reynolds (30 plus passing for 18 more) and Bob Fleming (42) grinding out touchdowns, mostly on the ground in their Princeton-style single-wing offense, behind the jarring blocks of signal caller Radford Byerly and strong line play of Leavens Allen, Jimmy Greenwood, Lafayette Herring, Peter Brown, Bob Harris, Henry Adams and Carl Vogt. They won by scores of 47-0 (Concordia), 41-0 (Missouri City), 53-6 (Pearland), 34-6 (St. Stephens), 33-7 (Oklahoma City Casady, ending that school’s 13 game winning streak), and 52-6 (Lutheran). The Defense only gave up three touchdowns in six games, and was only challenged in the first half of the Casady game (13-6). Led by Harris, Gordon, Adams, and Brown, supported by George Canfield, Sid Shlenker, Jerry Green, Jim Sterling, Bob Fleming, Jan Mares, Joe Mayhew and Bill Bagby, this was a quick, well conditioned, determined, veteran unit most of whom had been playing together since the 7th grade.

Getting ready for THE GAME

Kinkaid had an open date after its 40-0 October 23 victory over Lutheran, a week to rest and prepare, while St. John’s would meet the same Lutheran Pioneers in a home game on the 30th. The week of the Lutheran game Coach Richards had done something totally out of character for him. At the team meeting on the Monday after the Casady game you could have heard a pin drop when Mr. Richards quietly said that “while we aren’t going to take Lutheran lightly, we are going to begin our preparation for the Kinkaid game, right now.” Chills went up and down players’ spines when he proclaimed that he was going to install a brand new defense, designed to stop the Falcon’s high powered Reichle-led single wing offense.

He had consulted with nationally know Rice Institute coach Jess Neely, one of the most successful coaches in the country, whose daughter Mary was a senior at St. John’s (and a superb student and athlete since the 9th grade). The Rebels would use the same 7-1-3 defensive scheme that Rice had used to beat the University of North Carolina and its All-American multi-talented single wing tailback, “Choo-Choo” Charlie Justice in the 1950 Cotton Bowl. Specific players, Fleming and Gordon were assigned to “contain” Reichle and “bird-dog” high-scoring receiver, Burgdorff. The Rebels discarded their successful but well-scouted 6-2-2-1 or 5-2-2-2 defenses that had produced earlier victories. The team practiced this new scheme until every player was ready to react instinctively to whatever Kinkaid might try to throw or run at them.

Using the old schemes the Rebels beat overmatched Lutheran 52-6. So the November 6 meeting would be between two undefeated and untied St. John’s and Kinkaid football teams for the first time. It would happen once more, 23 years later, and as of this writing (2009), never again.

The “Hype”

Spirits were high at both schools. Kinkaid was confident this was the year they would beat St. John’s. There was pride and bragging by the dads of both teams and the rumor was that sizable (friendly) bets were placed on the outcome in the locker rooms of the River Oaks and Houston Country Clubs where many of them socialized.

Early in week, Post writer Mickey Herskowitz captured the spirit of the moment: “Kinkaid and Saint John’s yanked from football obscurity by the simple system of being perfect, swap pennant schemes Friday in a scuffle that will furnish the Texas Prep School Conference its 1953 champion.” He highlighted the Kinkaid quest: “For Kinkaid incentive comes cheap. The Falcons…will be seeking their first victory over Saint John’s, their first unblemished season and their first state football crown.” In two separate articles he forecast a Rebel victory: “On the strength of their respective showing against two common opponents, Saint John’s rates about a touchdown edge over the Falcons (based on Saint John’s larger margins of victory over St. Stephens and Lutheran).” Another paper’s writer predicted Falcons 21, Rebels 6, based on Don Reichle’s passing prowess.

Neither school’s football programs had ever received such attention. The crowd was predicted to exceed 2,000, far more than the Rebel Stadium capacity. There was a pep rally Thursday night. By game time Friday the 50 degree sunrise temperature had warmed to a “perfect” 68 degrees. The sky was clear.

THE GAME

It was Dad’s Day at St. John’s and each player’s dad had a sideline seat and wore his son’s number on his back. Well before 3:00 p.m. there were more than 3,000 (!) fans in the stands and along both sidelines, the largest crowd for either team all year. Cheerleaders on both sides of the field led cheers and songs.

Both squads looked elegant, warm-ups were brisk. St. John’s wore white pants and jerseys with red numerals, red Riddell helmets. Kinkaid wore white pants, purple jerseys with gold numerals, white helmets. Both teams wore high-top black football shoes with hard rubber cleats. Gordon wore number 63, a holdover from his two years in the line. Reichle wore 14. Both numbers would be much seen this fall afternoon. St. John’s Captain, Fallon Gordon met Kinkaid’s Tri-Captains, Jack Elliott, Tommy Davis and George Clarabut at mid-field and following the coin toss and kickoff St. John’s had the ball defending the south goal.

First Quarter

The first quarter found the teams testing one another with conservative running attacks. Fisher Reynolds punted away from the always dangerous Reichle, and the Kinkaid punter mostly kept his kicks away from the Rebel’s slashing safety, Bill Bagby. Kinkaid’s vaunted defense stopped everything the Rebel offense threw at them. For the twenty-ninth quarter in a row the Falcon goal line remained uncrossed. But the Rebel defense didn’t give in, either. The first twelve minutes had proved one thing. This was going to be a great football game! The scoreless first quarter ended with St. John’s controlling the ball deep in Kinkaid territory.

Second Quarter

Shouting out the offensive signals, Byerly began the second quarter the same way he had ended the first—Beginning at the Kinkaid four yard line, he called power-running Don Ruthven’s number four straight plays. Each play called for the entire offensive line to form a wedge, blocking toward the middle and forward toward the Kinkaid goal line. Brown, Harris, Adams and Vogt, along with Gordon from the wing-back position were at the forward point of the wedge as they drove toward the goal line. They were met each time by Falcon giants Robinson, French, Kelley, Howard and Clarabut. Each play gained yardage. On third down Ruthven got right to the goal line but the officials arms did not go up.

Fourth down, less than a yard to go. Fans going berserk. Byerly was not about to try anything new on this series. Once more the play was “one-two,” Ruthven into the line behind wedge blocking, into the heart of the un-scored on Falcon defense. Herring centered the ball perfectly, as he always did. The Rebel line surged with all its might. Ruthven clutched the ball and drove forward one more time with all his might. TOUCHDOWN!!! The St. John’s crowd leaped joyously. The Kinkaid fans were stunned. This had not happened all year. But in their 30th quarter of amazing football, Kinkaid’s immovable object of a defense had finally encountered a Rebel force that refused to be resisted.

Frank Herzog’s usually automatic left toe failed to nail the extra point so the score remained 6-0 as Gordon kicked off. With a slight north breeze to his back, the ball floated into the waiting arms of the Falcon’s triple threat, Don Reichle. Reichle headed up field and was blasted by a host of white-clad tacklers. He fumbled. The Rebel’s Peter Brown recovered the fumble on the Kinkaid 23 yard line. Two plays gained 8 yards. St. John’s lined up in left formation, with its captain in the tailback position, then, quoting writer Herskowitz, “…on third down Gordon whittled through four Falcons for 15 yards and a TD.” This time Herzog’s kick was sure. Half-time score, St. John’s 13—Kinkaid 0.

Half-time

This had been the best half of football this Rebel team had played all year. Every play had been “all out” whether on offense, defense, kicking or receiving. The players’ excellent conditioning was paying off. The new defense had shut out the Falcon’s high powered offense. The balanced attack of Ruthven, Reynolds and Gordon spread around the running, not allowing the Kinkaid defense to focus on any single back (as St. John’s had been able to focus on Riechle), assuring fresh, strong, powerful and speedy attacking on every offensive play. The line play, both offense and defense had been solid. But every boy on the team and all the coaches knew that there was still 24 minutes of football left to be played and no one believed for a second that Kinkaid was even close to giving up. When the Rebel team ran onto the field to begin the second half many players felt a hint of fatigue in their legs for the first time all year, the result of having played the entire half against the toughest opponent of the year.

Third Quarter

The third quarter was scoreless, though St. John’s drove the ball deep into Kinkaid territory on several occasions, being thwarted twice by untimely penalties and the always stout Kinkaid defense.

Fourth Quarter

The final quarter would find the teams aligned as in the second, Kinkaid heading north, the Rebels south.

Kinkaid secured the ball on its own 29 yard-line and finally figured out the Rebel defense. Nine plays combining runs and passes, highlighted by a 32 yard pass from Reichle to Elliott, ate up all but the last eight yards. From that point the relentless Reichle was not to be denied. Reichle, as usual, lined up at tailback. The wingback (probably Elliott) was lined up left and Reichle headed left, squarely at Carl Vogt, the Rebels’ strong side defensive end who the Kinkaid coach had said “spent all afternoon in our backfield.” Reichle faked a reverse handoff to the wingback, hid the ball, planted his left foot, darted inside eluding Vogt’s lunge, and danced into the end zone. Touchdown! Kinkaid stands, relieved, went wild. Rebels supporters held their collective breaths.

After a little more than three quarters of football the Falcons were on the board, still trailing 13 to 6, with the all-important try for point to come. Reichle (who else) lined up for the extra point that could narrow the margin to 6 points, with much time left on the clock. Rebel linebacker Bob Harris told defensive guard Peter Brown to drive the Kinkaid lineman facing him to the side. The ball was snapped. Brown lunged, moving the would-be blocker half a foot, creating a gap that was just wide enough—Harris drove through the crease, Reichle saw him coming but it was too late. Reichle place kicked the ball and Harris’s body caught it full on—try for point “No Good!” Score still 13-6. In those days the two point conversion had not been instituted, so the best the Falcons could get with one more touchdown was a tie score, not a lead. Some comfort for Rebel supporters.

After the kickoff the Rebels were not able to mount a sustained time-eating drive, and the Falcons got the ball back. They’d done it once, could they do it again? With a drive reminiscent of what they had been doing all season and had done just minutes earlier, with Reichle running and passing, the Falcons crossed the fifty yard line. Then, dramatically, out of nowhere, Rebels safety Bill Bagby leaped and intercepted a Reichle pass at the St. John’s 35 yard line. Rebels ball!

With nothing in mind so much as to hang onto the ball and let time expire, Byerly called a conservative set of plays but the Rebels continued to block fiercely and Reynolds and Ruthven ate up the ground. Three plays gained the 49 yard-line. Then out of a strong-side left formation with Gordon deep, he took the perfect Herring snap, ran left, off tackle, broke into the secondary, found running room back to the right, using a back judge as a screen, and. freed by a Byerly-Allen-Greenwood triple team block on Reichle, the Rebel captain set sail for the goal line—as Mickey Herskowitz described it, “Gordon’s knee-flashing sprint of 51 yards up the middle clinched it,…with three minutes left.” Herzog’s kick was good again. Rebels 20—Falcons 6.

The final drama followed the ensuing kickoff. Reichle fielded the ball but was ground under by the fierce oncoming Rebel tide. He could not get up. Injured and unconscious he was carried from the field as the shadows lengthened. He received “a deserved ovation from both stands,” said scribe Herskowitz in the next day’s Post. “Until his departure, he had rushed, passed or punted an unbelievable 42 of 51 Kinkaid plays, made the only touchdown and gained 64 of 95 yards aground and 62 of 72 yards passing.” A gallant performance to be sure, but Herskowitz’s lead sentence captured it better: “Those jaunty Johnny Rebs of Saint John’s, wired for ground by line-grinding Fallon Gordon , littered Rebel Field Friday with the fragments of Kinkaid’s all-winning dream, and planted instead a 20-6 victory that meant the Texas Prep School Football crown.” Herskowitz reported that Gordon had gained 133 yards on 13 carries including two of the Rebels’ touchdowns.

Houston Press writer Bob Rule noted: “St. John’s won convincingly, 20-6, because Capt. Fallon Gordon and Fisher Reynolds and Don Ruthven ran like lads possessed, and because huge Henry Adams and Robert Harris and a lot of other hard-nosed linemen wouldn’t give an inch.” Rule continued: “St. John’s won graciously, for in the final moments they accidentally inflicted serious injury to Kinkaid’s gritty little speedster, Don Reichle, and one of the last to leave him before the ambulance came was St. John’s fine leader, Fallon Gordon.”

Conclusion—Wrap-up

St. John’s had one game left, St. Mark’s in Dallas. The Rebels won, 53-0, the second undefeated, untied team in the school’s short history. There wouldn’t be another for 23 years (then there were two in a row with the 1976 and 1977 teams winning 16 games in a row). There hasn’t been one since, a tribute to the parity within the SPC and the quality of private school athletics in Texas.

In only its fourth varsity season St. John’s set many team records, including 333 points in a season, most points in a single game (53 against St. Mark’s and Pearland), most yards rushing in a single game (473 vs. Missouri City), biggest winning margin (53), most combined points in a game (59—Pearland), Most yards rushing in a season (2,408), average yards rushing per game in a season (301), most games played in by every member of the squad (6—a much strived for goal and part of what St. John’s stood for). It is likely that all of these records have been broken with the possible exception of the last.

Eight members of the team made All-conference: Ruthven, Gordon, Reynolds, Vogt, Adams, Brown, Allen and Harris.

Perhaps believing that its team had been outcoached, the Falcons announced early in 1954 that Thurman Horney was “dismissed,” to be replaced by former Rice Institute football player, Dan Hart.

The 1954 season found Kinkaid gaining the victory for which it had yearned, beating St. John’s behind the brilliant play of tailback Philip Logan by the score of 32-7. After three years the Falcons and Rebels were tied in their “series,” 3 to 3. The Falcons threatened to have their first undefeated untied football team in 1961, falling to the Rebels, 14-12 in their final game. In 1974 Kinkaid had its first undefeated untied season in the era of eleven-man football. It duplicated the feat in 1997 and 1998.

Since 1953 only the 1976 varsity football game between St. John’s and Kinkaid has featured two undefeated and untied teams. St. John’s won that one, too, 13-7, at Kinkaid’s west-side San Felipe campus stadium. For whatever reason there was not nearly the pre-game publicity for that later contest that had accompanied the 1953 contest.

In the 1954 yearbook, The Rebel, Coach Richards summed it up this way: “This superlative football team was the result of day to day hard work, intelligent play, outstanding courage, determination, the magnificent attitude on the part of the substitutes, the absolutely top-drawer leadership of its captain, and a will to win.”

These are the players listed in the game program for the 1953 Saint John’s vs. Kinkaid game: A. Greenwood, T. Risser, L. Youens, T. Mares, R. Byerly, F. Herzog, R. Fleming, N. Bland, J. Sherar, D. Ruthven, W. LauBach, J. Mares, D. Johnson, W. Bagby, J. Mayhew, R. Reynolds, T. Ray, R. Levy, L. Herring, J. Williams, D. Blatchford, L. Allen, J. Patrick, P. Brown, F. Gordon (Captain), R. Green, R. Harris, J. Hill, F. DuPuy, J. Green, R. Sakowitz, H. Adams, S. Shlenker, G. Canfield, J. Greenwood, J. Sterling, L. Fuqua, and C. Vogt.

Respectfully submitted

James Greenwood III

Saint John’s School Class of 1954

Number 82

Post Script: Teams from St. John’s School and The Kinkaid School have played a varsity football game every year since 1951. Since 1979 the game has been played in 70,000 seat Rice Stadium drawing crowds of 10,000 or more, most years. As of November 2010, after 60 such clashes, some extremely close and decided by last minute heroics, some blowouts, Kinkaid leads in the series, 36 games to 24. Each game of the series has had its special qualities and significance, and the members of each team have special memories they will cherish or try to forget.

For the St. John’s Rebels who played in that 1953 game, the commitment we brought to that Autumn of football, the challenge of size, speed, athletic talent and overall excellence that Kinkaid placed in our path, the dedication, drive and creativeness of our coach, Phil Richards, our collective unwillingness to consider defeat to be an option, and the shared joy of the victory after giving everything we had to the team effort that November day so long ago, are never far from our thoughts, particularly when we are in one another’s company. Those memories have served us at times of other challenges, not just in athletic competition but in other aspects of life, as well.

That 1953 game and the dedication and fight and excellence that both teams brought to the match, the good sportsmanship and sincere mutual respect that accompanied it, set the tone and laid a foundation for the next 56 games that followed. And for hundreds of St. John’s-Kinkaid contests in all grades, in all sports, that have taken place in the more than half-century that has passed since that cool November afternoon just past the half-way point of the 20th century. Succeeding generations of headmasters, coaches, players, students and parents have carried on the tradition that began with that game. They have demonstrated the educational and character building virtue of athletic competition conducted as these two schools conducted it then and as they continue to carry on now. As they continue to live into the legacy of that first titanic clash of undefeated and untied St. John’s and Kinkaid football teams. So may it ever be.