Coach Leschber responds to recent posts on early Rohawk history

Fellow Rohawks, 

I am excited to be able to include the following e-mails from Coach Leschber.  He saw the recent posts on early Rohawk history and sent me his perspectives on those beginning years at Randolph High School.  I told him they were too good for me to keep just to myself so I asked if he would be willing to let them be posted on Gloria's Rohawk blog.  He gave me his blessing.  I think you will enjoy Coach's stories.  I did.

Jerry Ball
RHS '65

In a message dated 7/5/2015 12:56:30 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ivanrleschber@yahoo.com writes:

Jerry, thanks for all the kind words you have written about your old basketball coach. I was blessed with a good memory so I can recall a lot about the first four years of RHS. We were able to enjoy lots of success in athletics, especially basketball.

I first give credit to the parents of the athletes and other students at RHS during those years. I spend 42 years as an educator.

Educators are blessed to have players-students who are intelligent, mature, and responsible. I learned this my first day of practice and class.

I do not know if it was destiny or something else that put us all at RHS at the same period of time. Thanks to Mr. Claude Hearne, Superintendent I was the first coach hired. I had the utmost respect for the gentleman. The high school was scheduled to open in 1961-62. Our first year was spent in the elementary school and nearby buildings. The football team was allowed only to participate in JV football the first year by the UIL. The team practiced at the base baseball diamond and played all games away from home. One day Coach was walking to the baseball field and some players gave me a ride in a VW bug. By the time we got to the diamond they gave rides to other players. When we got there it took several minutes to unload.

The basketball team was allowed to play a complete district schedule as well as non-district games.

We did not have a gym. We practiced in the elementary school small cafeteria and played away from home. We did get to play the last half of the district games at the base gym because the high school gym was not completed at the time.

Coach was fortunate in starting with a talented group of young men. As I recall we got Borellis, Dodgion, and McDougall from one of the Northeast high schools. They were joined by Wysong, Hartig, Bianchi, Flame and others.

We played in our first tournament at South San Antonio High School. A basketball power who had previously won several state championships. They put us in their bracket for our first game. Instead of an easy victory, the young Ro-Hawks came very close to winning the game. That game gave us the confidence to continue our winning ways.  A few weeks later we won the Burnet Tournament.

That team went on to win district, bi-district, and advanced to the regional tournament in Kingsville. We lost a close game to a very experienced and mature team from the Houston area.

My wife told me e-mails need to be short so I will definitely write more later.  Since she taught "Career and Technology" I believe her.

One last story. Principal was very open concerning his hatred of the game of basketball. Coach Mickler was not much of a fan either. The athletes had a nickname for Mr. Hall because of his body language when he watched sports. They will have to tell you what it was. After numerous basketball victories we got a "victory flag" which was to be flown the day after the victory.

When Mr. Hall refused to fly it, John H.’s mom was in the outer office waiting to see him. Mr. Hall drank at least 10 or more cups every morning. He could not get to the coffee pot in the lounge without being seen by John's mom. I felt sorry for him one morning and brought him a cup. He kind of liked the old basketball coach then.

More later

 

In a message dated 7/13/2015 7:17:01 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ivanrleschber@yahoo.com writes:

The team you played on had an interesting history. The season looked very promising before the first game. We had several starters returning from perhaps one of the strongest teams the year before. The J.V. team that I also coached finished undefeated with an 18-0 season record. We had some very good players including a transfer by the name of "Bradewater." He had a great stroke from the corner baseline. He would have loved the 3 point shot.

The UIL allowed the BB teams to start practice in mid-October during the last few weeks of football. John Hartig broke his foot/ankle playing football at the time. He was a starter. We were very fortunate in having Bill Kem and you join the team.

During the Christmas Holiday's tournament we lost Floyd Harvey who was also in the starting lineup. He had a lung that collapsed while sitting on the bench. His dad recognized he was in trouble and took him to RAFB clinic and later to Wilford-Hall Hospital.

Needless to say I was very concerned that the rest of the season was going to be quite a challenge. We also lost Bradewater who transferred to New Braunfels High School.

We circled the wagons and got to work. I spent a lot of practice time working with you and Bob White. We did some competitive rebounding on a side basket that I placed a small ring inside the rim just barely enough to allow a soft shot to go through.

I depended on our veteran guard who was like a coach on the court. I really did not know how much I depended on Tom McDougall until he graduated. Bill Kem came in and filled one of the guard spots. Charles Pitzer worked hard and filled a vital role.

Old coach got you into the saddle and the rest was history. The team you were on had no 'I' ON IT.

 

The following are a couple of stories some of your RHS friends might enjoy. Unfortunately some were at my expense.

Mr. Marvin Porter, math teacher was an interesting guy. He was a bachelor who lived with his sister and helped raise nephews and nieces. He was a heavy smoker. He had a fairly new car and never changed the oil - washed it, just added oil.

He purchased his cigarettes from a drive-through window.  He would toss the old pack, which still had one or two, into the back seat along with the change.

He decided to sell the car. So he had some of his students clean out the inside. They found over $20 in change and enough cigarettes that were more than a carton. Needless to say he did not get much money for the car.

I used the library a lot for my world history classes. The librarian was a great help. She read every new book she purchased for the library during the summer months while her teacher husband worked for the National Forest Service.

The side door was across the hall from the cafeteria entrance. Down the hall one of the teachers would allow his/her students to leave a few seconds prior to the lunch bell. I was standing next to the door with my hand on the door knob. When the bell rang I quickly opened the door to let my students out when the bell rang. A young male student ran into the door and almost knocked himself out.

The other incident that was quite embarrassing to me occurred while supervising a junior class. The classroom was the homeroom of a teacher by the name of Charlotte Woods. A very attractive young  blonde. I had trouble keeping a pen or pencil. I was looked for one in her desk, but did not find one. Next to the desk was a two-drawer filing cabinet. I was talking to my self and said "I wonder if Miss Woods minds if I get into her drawers?"  The male clowns on the front row started laughing and the rest of the class started in. I had no clue what they were laughing at until one of the students told me.

I had to leave the classroom. Every time I returned they laughed harder. I went over and told the principal what happened. He told me to return, but stand in the hallway next to the door.

One of the things I remember about the young ladies at RHS. They were attractive with very little makeup. I was very surprised when I attended the Junior/Senior Prom. I did not recognize half the girls there. I was shocked when many of them were in my classes. I had to ask one of the female teachers to identify most of them.  With the beautiful dresses and makeup they seemed more like 21 instead of 17.

 

I will try to write more later. Take Care!

 

In a message dated 7/15/2015 11:59:43 A.M. Central Daylight Time, ivanrleschber@yahoo.com writes:

One year during the Christmas Holidays we were practicing getting ready for the district race. We were the only people on the campus at the time. We were competing on dribbling the ball the length of the court in teams. A player had to maintain a legal dribble the length of the court, touch the wall with one hand. Then return and hand off to a teammate.  One player who touched the wall hands came down over the fire alarm. It broke the glass so we could not get it to stop. I went outside due to the noise and the team joined me. I was also concerned that it might have gone to the base fire department.

Sure enough, down the perimeter road came a truck loaded with young A. P.'s followed by a fire truck. We waved our hands to try to let them know it was a false alarm. The truck ran over the curb and almost turned over. The fire truck struck the grass area curb before coming to a stop. We had a tough time to keep from laughing. It must have been their first experience answering a fire alarm. I recall the students singing a little tune teasing the young A. P.’s. "I wish I had a low IQ so I could be an AP too. . .”

 

When you guys won the regional tournament and advanced to state, my plans for the trip to Austin were changed by Coach Mickler. I always believed players could better prepare for a big game by sleeping in their own bed the night before. It cuts out all the distractions sleeping away presents. Coach M took it upon himself and made arrangements for us to stay at the S. F. Hotel in downtown Austin. (We stayed in a outskirts hotel when I was in high school playing in the regional tournament. It was isolated so we spent the time sleeping and playing cards.)

I was highly disappointed to say the least. During those days we could have traveled to Austin in 90 minutes or less and slept in our own beds. I later learned that some of the players left the hotel either the night before the first game or the 3rd place game the next day. I blame myself for not going to Mr. Hearne and seeing if we could commute to Austin instead of staying in a hotel. I did not want to make wave in the athletic department so I kept my mouth shut. I did tell Coach M that I believed it was a poor decision on his part.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ON RHS HISTORY.