People often think of brothers only in terms of biology, but a brother can be so much more. A brother can be anyone who embodies love, friendship and teamwork. These are all brotherly ties. To me, the 1966 Granbury High School Football Team is a perfect example of a brotherhood: the athletes, coaches and community demonstrated a unique spirit of service, kinship and love. The movie It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed is one of my favorites. Just as every person’s life in the movie was affected by other characters, each player in the 1966 Granbury High School Football Team affected each other and the people in our community.

The Granbury High School Class of 1967 “Turning Sixty” Party gave evidence of the special bond the players shared. A joyful conference of laughter, sparkling eyes, and athletic gestures was displayed down the rows of each dinner table. As I watched this, a door opened to the past and I could see the players demonstrating their teamwork to accomplish a touchdown. The hint the starting tackle gave as to how close these football brothers were was a story of how any one of them could order meals for the others without the need to ask what their favorite food was or how the food was to be seasoned. The tackle’s face lit up as he described a scene of how the players demonstrated their bond. He would pull the jersey over the quarterback’s shoulder pads, and then the quarterback would pull the jersey for the next teammate and so on until it got back to the tackle. Each teammate was being responsible for the other. The running back confirmed the tackle’s story by adding that “you pulled the same person’s jersey each game.”

Earlier the team’s end – who had kept his youthful features – and I had visited about his talent for telling stories. When I suggested he start writing these stories, the obstacle he complained about was forgetting exactly how he tells them. To be supportive, I reminded him he could use a tape recorder and tell the story like a fish tale, then the story could be edited. As I got in line for the meal, the end and a classmate got behind me. He then asked if I recognized the person beside him, and I had to be honest and say no. He told me who it was, and I’m sure my eyes doubled in size when I was informed this was his older brother, the star athlete and Granbury High School Favorite in 1965-66 who later became a football coach. The end’s brother provided a story about how my brother, Tom, improved the high school favorite’s running technique. Tom recommended he relax his shoulders just like a college coach had suggested my brothers E.H. and Tom do to improve their mile relay time to win state. The story touched my heart because I was reminded of the brotherly ties between younger and older athletes and fellow coaches. The 1966 star athlete also mentioned he and Tom had visited each year at the Coaching School. I shared with him the meetings the coaches had attended meant a great deal to Tom and I would relay his message to Tom. Since Tom has retired, he has truly missed seeing and communicating with his fellow coaches. When Tom spoke of the meetings the joy in his voice and the sparkle in his eyes exhibited his intense love for sports and his brothers. I was reminded of the great chain of kinship between athletes and how an older athlete can inspire a younger one.

Being a former coach, I still possess a great love for sports and the comradery, which is why these brotherly ties touched my heart so deeply.  Having four older athletic brothers and a “gung-ho” sports-loving father, the love of sports was always a part of my life. The athletes and coaches reminded me of a unique spirit of service, kinship and love. By watching the joyous conversations, I knew their bonds would never be broken but just grow stronger with each meeting. This also reminded me of the scene in the movie Any Given Sunday where the coach (Al Pacino) tells the quarterback (Jamie Foxx) about a former quarterback who worked hard to get every yard: “You know what he misses the most about the games – not the cheers, not the touchdowns, but those other guys looking at him in the huddle. Eleven guys seeing things the same way looking down field together.”

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