I live in Sinton now but Freer is my alma mater. It is a small oil industry town located on Hwy 44 60 miles east of Laredo. Several UT athletes have come from there. 1. Jim Allen - this is one most of you never heard of. He was my brother in law and was on a great Freer football team that made the quarter finals that year. He went to UT on scholarship but suffered a leg injury his freshman year. He tried again his sophomore year and was going good making it up to second string but unfortunately another leg injury ended his career. The doctor said he could play but advised against it. It is too bad because he could have played on the great 1961 to 1963 teams but injuries happen. He would study with some of the star football players including Scott Appleton a great DL. He married my sister and she worked to support him through college and he did the same thing after he graduated and went to work. 2. Steve McMichael - he is being inducted into the college football hall of fame so most of you already know about him or will. 3. Bill Acker - he played at UT when Steve played there and he also played six years in pro football. He currently lives in Alice. 4. Jim Acker - he played baseball at UT and pro baseball. He currently lives in Freer. I saw him at a volleyball tournament in Sinton and he brought me up to date where Bill lived. He was the best athlete to come from Freer. As a freshmen he lettered in football, baseball, basketball, track and field and tennis. Plus he maintained a B+ grade average. And these were varsity teams not JVs or freshmen teams. Besides being a great baseball player he also played QB and won second place in the discus and shot put his senior year in high school. 5. Marty Akins - Ok. I admit this is pushing it since he came to UT from Gregory-Portland but he did live in Freer until he was 12. His father was head coach at Freer until he went to Gregory-Portland where he has had great success not that he didn't have good teams at Freer. Still Marty was a Buckaroo for 5 years. There is a possibility of a sixth one but she is only a sophomore at Freer High School. She is Jim's youngest child Avery Acker and she already is an outstanding volleyball player and the team is 5 - 0 in district. She is great and is bound to get better. I am sure our volleyball coach will be aware of her and give her consideration. She still has 2 years after this one in Freer and she will no doubt be a good college volleyball for someone. I hope it will be at UT. GO BUCKAROOS!
Bill, not doubting you, but how do you letter in baseball, track and field, and tennis all in the same year? All spring sports. Did he practice tennis before school, track and field during school and baseball after school?
My wife's family has some ranch land just south and west of Freer; it's a small town, but is a deer hunting capital of south Texas, with the "Muy Grande" competetions each year. Hunting in the area is featured regularly on such television shows as the Bucks of Tecomate, etc.
arieshorn the last estimated population of Freer was about 3,177 which is about the same as when I was living there. It is a quiet town basically. orangecat that is a good question and I don't know how he did all three. I know some who did two at the same time but Jim was just a natural athllete and may not have needed much practice time. The way some did it was they would practice track and field and then go practice baseball after an hour. The Coaches would agree to the times they would practice.
I was a big Freer Buckaroo fan when I was in elementary school and hated it when they lost but even then I had my priorities straight and was focused. One of my mother's friends were visiting her one time and my mother remarked "Bill would rather see the Freer Buckaroos lose than Texas." She was right.
I always liked Freer because it was halfway between my hometown and Papagallos. LIFE magazine did a photo story on Freer back in the '30s and painted it as this modern day Dodge City boomtown down in the brush country. If I am not mistaken they also produced one of the great rodeo stars of all time named Altheiser or something like that.
