This one certainly does. It looks like just another football game in
just another small town newspaper, doesn’t it? But man is there so much
more to this photo.
The newspaper is the Panola County Watchman,
the paper of choice for the citizens of Carthage, TX. You might be
familiar with the Carthage Bulldogs as one of the top football programs
in the state of Texas. Carthage has won six state championships since
2008.
This December 1, 1985 edition of the Panola County Watchman
reported a playoff loss for Carthage. The Bulldogs advanced all the
way to the quarterfinals, but fell to the Austin Westlake Chaparrals at
Kyle Field on Friday, November 29th. As a College Station kid, it’s a
game I could have easily attended. But I did not. I’m still kicking
myself.
In fact, I WAS at Kyle Field the day before. On
Thursday, November 28th, the Aggies beat the Longhorns to earn their
first trip to the Cotton Bowl since 1968. That Thursday game was a big
one in my 15 years of life at the time, but the Friday game the next day
would eventually loom larger.
See that #30 making the tackle?
That’s my fraternity Pledge Captain. That’s Carthage Bulldog Chris
Medlin. After the loss to Westlake, Medlin’s next football game would
be in Kangaroo Crimson & Gold. He was a linebacker, a member of the
redshirt defense. He was also a big influence on me and all of my
pledge brothers in the year 1989. Well, ok, two guys were a big
influence actually. Medlin, and our fraternity President Bill Didlake.
Bill Didlake was also a member of the Kangaroo redshirt defense during
my time at AC, and was a pledge brother of Medlin. Before AC, Didlake
was a safety for the Austin Westlake Chaparrals. His last high school
win was the game in the Panola Watchman photo: a 17-0 victory over his
future pledge brother and future Roo teammate at Kyle Field, where
Austin College faced Texas A&M way back in 1909. See? I told you
I’m still kicking myself for not making the short trip from my house to
Kyle.
The success of Roo football during the late 1980s was due to many factors, including the recruiting efforts of Vance Morris in East Texas and West Louisiana. The number of Roos from Carthage specifically were impressive. Otis Amy was the most famous, but there were others. A Longview newspaper reported on the “Carthage Pipeline” to AC in 1988, mentioning Amy, Byron Roberts, Kenneth Tatum, Scott Brown, and Medlin. I know there were others like Carthage native Billy Kuykendall who came both before and since.
Amazing, you’re probably thinking. And that’s likely the end of the
tale, right? I mean, the Carthage-Westlake game at Kyle is the only
article on this Panola County Watchman front page, so that’s it. No
additional Roo ties.
Nope. A picture tells a thousand words. There’s more.
The Panola County Watchman was purchased in 1951 by a man named U.O.
“Clemo” Clements. After college, Clements decided to get into the
newspaper business. He was originally from Dallas, but eventually made
Carthage, TX his home. For decades, Clements presided over the sale,
production, & distribution of his beloved Panola County Watchman
newspaper. Year after year, the Watchman would report on Carthage
football. Clements was retired but still in the business in 1985, when
Medlin & Carthage fell to Didlake and Westlake.
U.O. “Clemo”
Clements was an Austin College Kangaroo. He played Roo football in 1933
and 1934, winning the Pete Cawthon Award for outstanding athlete. His
AC coach in 1933 was Ray Morehart, a Roo who had played with Ruth &
Gehrig on the 1927 New York Yankees. Clemo Clements helped to engineer a
turnaround of Roo football that was similar to the country itself.
1932, the year before his arrival, was the trough of the Great
Depression and one of the worst AC football seasons in history. 1935,
the year after his departure, brought a U.S. economic recovery and an AC
conference championship.
In 1983, just two years before that Kyle Field meeting between Chris Medlin and Bill Didlake, Clemo Clements was inducted into the Austin College Hall of Honor. Clements went into the Hall alongside Coach Don Newsom.
On Friday December 20th, Chris Medlin’s Carthage Bulldogs will play for
a 4A D1 state title at Cowboys Stadium. On Saturday December 21st,
Bill Didlake’s Austin Westlake Chaparrals will play for a 6A D2 state
title at Cowboys Stadium. I can never go back in time to that
Carthage-Westlake game in 1985 at Kyle, but I’ll certainly be trying to
make up for that by rooting for the Chaps and Bulldogs this weekend.
And if Carthage wins state title #7, I’ll be headed to the Panola Watchman of Roo “Clemo” Clements to read the good news.
