Corpus Christi Ray finished a mediocre season in 1958 but put together a great class that won the 4A football state championship in 1959. Remember that was an era where 4A was the highest classification and only district winners advanced into the playoffs. Only twice that year did they give up over 10 points and never scored fewer than 20 points and beat defending state champion Wichita Falls 20 - 6 in the title game. They had great coaching and facilities. One player Jim Reeves who went to SMU said that Ray had better coaching and better training facilities than SMU. Next year in 1960 the other Corpus Christi School Miller won state against Wichita Falls 13 - 6. Wichita Falls was to win it all in 1961. Those two years were the last times a Corpus Christi school was to win state even though in 1963 Miller lost to Garland 17 - 0 in the title game. What does this have to do with UT? Pleanty because one of the good Ray players went to UT and played great football on the the great 1961, 1962 and 1963. Remember freshmen couldn't play on the varsity then. His name was Ben House and he was a good receiver for us those years including our first NC in 1963. Thanks for coming to UT Ben and enjoy your reunion with your old high school teammates.
Not to pick nits, but back then 4A was the highest level across the state. I think that the 5A designation came along during the 70s, but could have been the 60s.
The opening of the other high school, Carroll, had to have a negative effect on both Ray and Miller by taking players away.
Tuloso-Midway HS, Calallen HS, and Flour Bluff HS, while not being in CCISD, are in the Corpus Christi city limits, so they've gone from 2 high schools in the city to at least 8. I too went to Ray and heard my parents talk about how good Corpus Christi football was back in the late 50s when I was yet to be a fan. Del Mar College (JUCO at the time) had a football team and won the Pioneer Conference championship in 1959 and 1960, so Corpus was a hotbed of football on the state level during that era. The best we did while I was there was make it to a regional game one year when Carrol had to forfeit some games due to an inelligble player.
Back in the 50's and 60's, the University of Corpus Christi had a football team as well. It was a small private school back then, but football was indeed king.
I remember that the Witchita Falls-Miller game was played in Waco. Corpus Christi Ray used to wear unique jersys. The top part where the shoulder pads fit had diagonal stripes much like the original Dallas Cowboy jerseys had a pattern of stars which incidentally was copied from the College All Stars jerserys if any of you remember the annual College All-Star game.
In the late 1960s Corpus Christi Academy (I think it is now called Incarnate Word) had a football team (it doesn't now) and they won the high school Catholic School State championship one year.
Ray still had a unique jersey design last time I saw them with red and white candy stripes across the shoulder pads running fore and aft. I think the Ray football team would have kept that winning tradition if they hadn't of been distracted by the apprearance of Farrah Fawcett on campus in 1961...
One of my favorite players of all time was from CC. In the mid 60's, Henderson County JC had a QB named Inez Perez. He was about 5 foot 3 or 4 and led HCJC to the JC national championship. He was also their punter. From there he went to SMU where he was the back up QB. The SMU qb got knocked out against aggy and Perez came in and won the game. I cant remember which of the CC schools he was from
Billy W he went to High School at MIller in Corpus Christi. He was also the QB that led Miller to the State Championship game in 1963 where they lost to Garland. I don't think he was on the 1960 Miller State Championship team where he might have been a freshman then and I don't think HS freshman at that time could play on varsity but I could be wrong. Mr. Ines Perez was AD at Lubbock ISD for several years and may still be there. He has had a succesful career in AD and Coaching.
I've heard the Ray H.S. unofficial nickname was the "Candystripers", which I don't think sounds as good as the "Texans". (I went to King H.S.) BTW, somewhere nearby the Ray campus was a shopping center called Saxet Center. Before "Texass" and "Horns Down" became so popular with the OU people, I think their main derogatory nickname for UT was "Saxet".
Thanks, Bill. I didnt know where Perez ended up. Its great to know there are others that remember the little general
I think you are right about the "candy striper" thing based on the red and white stipes on the shoulder pads. One of my year books "The Silver Spur" had an odd thing going on where all the black and white photos of the football team had the stipes colorized, and maybe the cheerleader outfits the same way with this eerie red overlay going on. It was just sureal, but I'm sure someone thought it would be a great idea back then. Saxet Shopping Center is on Up River Road near Tuloso-Midway HS, not Ray HS. The area is named after the Saxet fault and oil field running along the fault on the side where you can drill a row of wells down from above into the traps caused by the missmatch in formations. The name does indeed come from Texas spelled backwards though, and it is one of the most active faults in the US, much more so than many of the much better known ones like San Andreas. IH-37 crossed it and is constantly having to be re-paved where one side is being thrust up and apart from the other and thus a perpetual bump in the road because of it. The Tuloso-Midway HS built a gym right acroos it against the geologists advice. It took a few years to get cracked in two and had to be rebuilt nearby. I've never been in the football stadium, but heard that the fault runs right through the field, which would make for an interesting home field advantage making sure you didn't trip over the bump... If you are thinking there should be a lot of earthquakes in the Corpus area because this movement, you'd be wrong since the ground is so soft there from millenia of river bottom mud accumulation that the surrounding ground just flows instead of allowing pressure to be built up along the fault until it releases in a violent quake. As long as you don't build a firm foundation on top of the two opposing sides of it, it will never do damage to anything.
5A didn't come along until the late 70s, or maybe even 1980...Class B went away at that time, right, or maybe a little earlier??
