Jenni Carlson: Healing in the heart of Little Dixie
Idabel Booker T. Washington's title team from 1953 will be celebrated on Friday
Jenni Carlson
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Published: November 6, 2009
IDABEL — Raymond Hooks slowly ran his fingertips over the golden football, feeling what his eyes could not see.
Raymond Hooks, left, and Reuben Butler were on the 1953 Idabel Booker T. Washington AA state champion football team. Surviving members of the state championship team will be honored during Idabel High School’s football game tonight. Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman
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Running as many laps as plays
Neither Raymond Hooks nor Reuben Butler played much football before starting high school at Booker T.
None of the players had. Oh, they’d tossed around the football every now and again, but there were no youth football leagues then, no organized teams in the middle schools either.
Booker T. coach Albert Scott not only taught them the game but also molded them into a team.
"He was good,” Butler said, "but he meant business.”
There was no drinking, no smoking and no sweet treats during the season. One player had to put his cigarette in his pocket to keep Scott from catching him, and he nearly caught his pants on fire.
"He didn’t want us to fool with too many girls either,” Butler said.
"That’s right,” Hooks said. "In high school, you know some of these guys are active participants in illicit activities in terms of horizontal refreshments? ‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘Cut that out.’”
Since Scott’s team was playing against schools from bigger towns — Lawton and Muskogee among them — the coach preached hustle and instilled toughness. His teams ran as many laps and sprints during practice as plays.
Hard work was nothing new for Hooks and Butler. Their families lived in the country and worked on the farm.
"Plowing with the mule, no tractors or anything like that,” Hooks said. "Pickin’ cotton. Choppin’ cotton. Pullin’ corn.”
Butler said, "I had to milk 11 or 12 cows every morning before I caught the bus. I’d go to the pasture to get ’em and bring ’em back up to the lot to milk them and then take them back, then go get ready for school.”
Even though they were used to long, tough hours, football was a different animal. Hooks played linebacker, and one day in practice, tailback E.J. McClain busted through the line. Hooks stepped in the hole and met him.
Even now, there’s an area of his neck that still hurts when he thinks about that collision.
"I didn’t cry,” Hooks said, "but that hurt bad.”
By the time Hooks and Butler were seniors in the fall of 1953, Booker T. had one of its better squads. The Wildcats suffered an early season loss to Tulsa Washington, but as they started through their Class AA schedule against schools more their size, they began rolling.
Hugo Washington went down. So did Okmulgee Dunbar and McAlester L’Ouverture, Ardmore Douglass and Muskogee Manual Training.
The only thing that stood between Booker T. and the title was Lawton Douglass.
Points were difficult to come by, and late in the game, Scott called for a special play. Usually, the coach allowed quarterback George Richards to call the plays, but this time, he wanted Split T 76.
"The tackle pulls out just like he’s going to the bathroom,” Hooks remembered of the misdirection play. "He crosses around behind the quarterback and picks up the ball and goes right through the right tackle.”
"The play made yards every time,” Butler said.
"That was the play ... ” Hooks said, "that beat Lawton.”
Scott called the play for right tackle Travis Myrks. A fake handoff pulled the defense to the right, leaving the left side wide open.
"And ol’ Travis Myrks walked right in just like a raccoon,” Hooks said. "Wasn’t no fast runner, but nobody was in the way.”
Booker T. celebrated a championship that night.
Then slowly in Idabel, it faded from memory.
Finally, a community celebrates
Walter Hamilton was born and raised in Idabel, then returned to the McCurtain County town after law school and eventually served as the district attorney.
Through all those years, he never heard about the ’53 Wildcats.
Then a few months ago, a friend mentioned that Idabel had a Golden Gloves national boxing champion once upon a time. Hamilton knew nothing of that history and decided to do some research at the McCurtain Daily Gazette. As he scrolled the microfilm, he noticed a small article on Booker T.’s state football championship.
"Which I also had never heard of,” Hamilton said.
Perhaps that was because the school closed in the late ’60s. Booker T. students were integrated into Gray High School across town, and much of the school’s history was left behind. Pictures and trophies were stored in the basement. The school eventually burned and was demolished, and all of those relics were lost.
Also, the history of the black community was not widely celebrated in this southeastern corner of Oklahoma. Racial tensions flared as recently as 1980, when the beating death of a black teenage boy sparked a riot. More than a hundred lawmen were called in, but by the time peace was restored, three people were dead, several more were injured and thousands of dollars in property was damaged.
Idabel continues to heal.
But drive around town, and you see a difference. Almost completely gone are the Confederate flags that used to dot everything from car bumpers to store fronts.
Ask some of the surviving Booker T. players what they remember about those segregated days in Idabel, and none of them remember it being any big deal. Hooks and Butler remember blacks and whites living near each other in the country, even providing needed refreshment during the summer.
"You go get the dipper and bring them a drink of water,” Hooks said.
But when they came to town and wanted a drink, they had to use the water fountain labeled "colored,” not "white.”
"It didn’t bother me, faze me one way or another,” Hooks said. "I figured that’s just the way it was.”
Maybe that was the naivety of youth. Then again, maybe time has a way of softening bad memories and sharpening good ones.
Maybe that’s why so many of the surviving Booker T. players from that ’53 team are returning to Idabel today. Willard Braggs, who was the captain of the team, is driving up from Fort Worth. George Gafford and James Clay are coming in, too.
They’ll have a reception this afternoon, much of which will be dedicated to Scott and his three-plus decades of coaching at Booker T.
Then this evening comes the halftime ceremony.
The former players will be given replica jerseys as well as that trophy with the golden football. It is a replacement, by the way, for the one that was lost somewhere over the years.
But more than anything, they will receive the community celebration that long eluded them.
"It’s something I didn’t expect,” Hooks said, "something I didn’t expect under no circumstances.”
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Jason, when that generation is gone, you probably won't hear anything more about it. But for now, we need to honor them, both black and white, because they brought the change that your seeing today.
P.C. is rampant and you are a promoter.
The rest of you: Just ignore Jason's pleas for more political correctness.
Jason, well... if you're tired of reading these stories, yet continue to read them, you're an idiot.