Still basking in the glow of a Class 2A state baseball title won in the spring of 1950, the athletes at Odessa High returned to school in the fall of the year with confidence, unaware of impending changes.
Little did the Bronchos know that Joe Coleman was at the helm of his final football team at the school, the mastermind of the 1946 state championship squad soon to be lured away by college football.
Just once in the 1950s would Odessa High qualify for the playoffs (1953) as the balance of power had shifted east toward Abilene.
That’s not to say that the Bronchos wouldn’t be successful on the statewide stage as the boys track team raced to three consecutive titles to open the decade.
Still, it wasn’t until the final year of the decade that an event happened that would completely reshape the athletic landscape of not only the Ector County Independent School District and Permian Basin, but the state as well.
From 1921 through 1947, Odessa High was the only high school in town.
Blackshear opened in 1948. Ector High School in 1957.
Now, in September, 1959, there was a new kid on the block — Permian.
Here are a few of the athletic highlights from the decade:
>> SEPTEMBER 14, 1951: The Odessa High football team begins its first season since 1945 without Joe Coleman at the helm. Coleman, the winningest coach in school history, had been lured away to coach New Mexico State, where he coached for just two seasons before retiring and returning to Odessa.
So, the Bronchos were under the leadership of Julius Johnson.
Odessa High was set to face Houston John Reagan in Houston, flying out for the game and then flying back home after the finish. It was a solid opening effort for the Bronchos, who earned a 21-10 victory.
Johnson, however, was one of five coaches that Odessa High would have throughout the decade, including Hayden Fry (1956-58), the quarterback of the 1946 state title team who would later go on to big things in Iowa.
>> MAY 3, 1952: The Odessa High track team made state history as it ran away to a third straight crown at the University of Texas in Austin.
It was the first time a school had won three titles.
The Bronchos finished with 76.37 points, with Houston San Jacinto a distant second with 34, followed by Houston Lamar at 30.311.
Joe Childress won the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes, the latter for the third straight year.
Odessa High’s Weldon Holley won the low hurdles and the mile relay team of Dave Gober, Wiley Burk, Rogers Berggren and Tory Moody broke the tape first.
>> SEPT. 10, 1959: Permian football coach Ted Dawson announced his roster for the Panthers’ first team in school history.
Permian was preparing to open its inaugural season with a trip to the Houston area to face Pasadena and Dawson tabbed 30 players to represent the school.
Gary Crain was tabbed to guide the offense at quarterback, with Larry Tatum, Frankie McCoy and Carroll Golden slated to join him as running backs.
>> SEPT. 11, 1959: The Panthers play their first football game, losing to Pasadena, 7-0. Permian flew to the game Friday morning, played at 8 p.m. and then flew back to the Permian Basin after the contest.
Pasadena was coming off a run to the state championship game in 1958, but the Panthers held their own in front of an announced crowd of 10,000.
Crain rushed for 48 yards and passed for 99 in the loss, which saw Permian have the ball inside Pasadena’s 10 on three separate occasions, only to come up empty-handed each time … once on a fumble and twice on downs.
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