San Angelo Central High Alum Remember 1966 State Football Championship

The year 1966 was a special one for San Angelo, and its Central High School. It was the second and last time that San Angelo’s largest high school won a state championship in football. It was the era of The Big Angry Orange, a time when school spirit and mutual accomplishment of winning a state football championship forged a shared experience never seen again in these parts.

Celebrating with friends, family, and old acquaintances, members of the classes involved with the football championship gathered this weekend to relive the old days at the reunion for classes 1966 through 1968.

At San Angelo Stadium last night, Friday night, Central High played Odessa Permian, an old rivalry in a 4A district (what would today be 5A) that was once called the “Little Southwest Conference” because of the high level of talent and discipline of the teams from Midland, Odessa, and Abilene. The Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) broke up the Little SWC in the late 1980s just before the real SWC went to the dustbin of history in the mid-1990s.  Last night, Permian lost 43-7.  

Back in 1966, however, Emory Bellard, the legendary Texas football coach who led the team then, saw his undefeated Central Bobcats lose to Permian.  The loss stung the seniors of 1966, and they upped their effort thereafter. The 13-1 Bobcat team then went on to win the state football champions in Texas for 1966.

Don Aylor, one of four of the captains of the 1966 football team remembers the loss well.  The other captains of the team were Alan Sykes, Gary Mullins (the All American quarterback who, after graduation, played for the University of Houston), Randy Stout, (who after graduation was on the University of Texas 1969 national championship team).  “I played right end of defensive tackle. Back then, you didn’t play just defense. You played both ways [offense and defense],” Aylor said.  “After Permian, we decided that we were going to go all the way. It woke us up,” Aylor said.

In the playoffs to the state championship, Aylor said that the most memorable game was the first playoff against Amarillo Tascosa. “It was like 19 degrees, and we went up there, our parents had to buy us long handles [warm underwear]. It was cold!” Aylor said.

“Someone up there at Amarillo sent us a huge, black funeral wreath, because the four previous years when we’d make the playoffs, we never made it past Amarillo Tascosa. They beat us every time,” Aylor continued.

“This time, all us football players got madder than hell. We just wanted to kill them. And so when we went up there with extra effort, we beat them 37-6,” said Aylor.

“We found out later, after we were long gone from high school, that [our own coach] Emory Bellard sent the wreath to motivate us.”

 “Most of the games leading up to the Carrollton Turner game, we were beating them 40 to 50 points to 0. It was Carrollton where we found our match.”

“Killer Six to the right, Killer Seven to the left. We had Mike Ford at tackle. Gary Heflin was the center. I was the right end. We’d just sweep to the right, then sweep to the left.”

“We were playing Carrollton and we were down 10-0 at the half. And [Team Captain] Gary Mullins came into the locker room at halftime and told the coaches to get out. He wanted to talk to us. So he gave us a talkin’ to, and went back out and beat them 41-15.”

“Spring Branch [Houston] was the opponent in the state final. We played that at Memorial Stadium [now Darryl Royal Stadium] at the University of Texas.”

Spring Branch on the west side of Houston opened only nine years before, in 1957. It schooled the children of parents working in the oil boom in Houston in the 1960s. Growing to over 3,500 students. The school had a large population from which it assembled its football team. “They were big… A formidable foe,” Aylor said.  Central beat them 21-14 to win the state championship.

Central’s 1966 championship coach Emory Bellard was the most successful high school football coach Central ever had. Altogether, Bellard amassed a 59-19-2 record and one state championship here.

After Central, Bellard served as the offensive coordinator at the national champions at the University of Texas where he is credited with inventing the Wishbone Offense.

Bellard then served as the head coach of Texas A&M during the 1970s, and then Mississippi State in the 1980s.  Bellard died in 2011 of ALS.

Aylor choked up remembering Bellard. “He was like a father. He’d chew you out, and then grab you and hug you. He changed a lot of lives,” Aylor said.

In 1960s San Angelo, every young boy’s dream was to show the world they were winners on the football field on Friday night.  Bellard tapped into that desire to make men out of boys.

“I remember when I was in the ninth grade, Emory Bellard came down and talked to us over at Edison Junior High.  He said, ‘You guys don’t understand and don’t realize now, but you guys will be the next Texas state champions when you’re seniors’,” Aylor recalls. “His football program extended all the way down into the junior high to develop talent,” Aylor said.

Bellard also recognized that the spirit of the school could affect the outcome of the games. Alumnus Anita Brown recalls Bellard at pep rallies encouraging the “Angry Orange Spirit.”

“Coach Bellard said at more than one of our pep rallies that it takes more than the guys on the field to win football games,” she said.  “You were on pins and needles. Every student felt that they made next touchdown. The player played the game, the coaches coached. But it was that Angry Orange spirit that brought our 1966 championship,” she said.

Reflecting of his time under Bellard on the football field, Aylor said that Bellard taught his players more than just how to win football games.

“He taught us honesty and to face up to whatever decision you make,” Aylor said. “He was one of those guys who could just see through you. He made you tell the truth in such a kind a gentle way,” Aylor said.

San Angelo Central High School Reunion for the Classes of 1966, 1967, and 1968 continues through this weekend.