Mexico High School - Mascot Yearbook (Mexico, MO)

Page 153 text:

Bulldogs Balance '69 Season 5-5 Beginning the 1968 football season, the Bulldogs lacked depth with only three returning lettermen, jerry Black, Lyle Hamilton, and Randy Means. This lack, combined with a five-game losing streak which included conference rivals such as jefferson City, Sedalia, Hickman, and Hannibal, made a pre- season prediction of only three wins for the Bulldogs a definite possibility. But the fighting Bulldogs, under head coach jim Inlow, rebounded from their slump and roared on to consecutive victories over Rolla, Moberly, Boon- ville, and Fulton to balance their season at five and five, including the first game of the season with Marceline. In addition to Coach Inlow, the Bulldogs were instructed by back coach jerry McFarland and line coach Bob Gooch. They were responsible for such standouts as linemen Lyle Hamilton, Tom McCor- mack, and Topper Pfeifer, and backs Steve Sayers, Greg Watson, and jerry Black. In his first year at MHS end coach jim Valentik worked with Keith Laws and Dale Hunthausen to perfect the passing plays. Despite the inexperience of the team, the Bulldogs gave a good account of themselves. For the first time in MHS history, a field goal was scored, an 18-yard kick by Randy Means. Hustle became the Bulldogs' by-word as they adopted Coach C,ooch's favorite saying, lf you give up, boys, it's Katie bar the door. fFrom Top! In practice and through the soap scrimmage the Bulldogs work hard to prepare for the opening game of the season with Marceline

Page 152 text:

Greg Watson C102 returns a 42-yard punt, only to be knocked out ofbounds by a determined Boonville defender. VARSITY FOOTBALL SQUAD: BOTTOM ROWS Tracy Wright, john DiBlasi, lim Palmer, Paul Friedburg, Bruce Loyd, jerry Black, Steve Sayers, Greg Watson, Greg Thomas, ROW TWO: Steve Spradlin, Topper Pfeifer, Rodger Lewis, Tim Baker, Rohn Koste- lecky, Gayle Hase, Philbert Davenport, Mike Lankford, ROW THREE: Keith Laws, Frank DiBlasi, Keith Aussieker, jim Worstell, Clyde Williams, Robert Miller, Charles Fountain, Randy Means, Lyle Hamilton, Tom McCormack, Fred Shocks, Not Pictured: john Means,john Recob. 148 Athletics

Page 154 text:

Freshmen Find CEMO Difficult CEMO conference teams proved extremely difficult to handle for this year's freshman basketball squad. The team compiled a recorc of 13-5 with all five losses coming at the hands of conference members. However, it should -be pointed out that two of those five were lost by only three points while in another, Mexico took Jefferson City into three overtime pe- riods before being defeated by a mere two-point margin. Again this year, defense was the name of the game as the Frosh had only two consistent scorers. Dennis White led the team with a dazzling 21.1 points-per- game average, followed by lohn Reaves who averaged 14.0 points per game. After that, the closest scorer was Chuck johnson, who contributed a 3.9 average. With this scoring handicap, Coach Bob Farrah de- pended heavily on defense. Everett Trabue and Den- nis White headed the defensive attack and jointly received the Big D award for their outstanding efforts. ln tournament play, the freshmen saw both sides of the fence, so to speak, as they took first place in the new Mexico Freshman Tourney and fourth in the Columbia Optimist Tourney. fabove right! Warren Williams KSOJ and joe Myers 1341 wait tensely under the net for a high rebound. Charles Fountain shows his char- acteristic aggressive determination as he pulls the ball from the backboard. 150 Athletics