Profitable the District 27-4A soccer championship got here with a bonus for the 1974 Carroll Tigers, the most effective CCISD groups of the Nineteen Seventies.
The Tigers not solely earned a playoff berth that 12 months, they made historical past as the primary Carroll group to win a soccer district title because the college opened in 1957.
Solely league champions certified for the postseason in these days, when Carroll and the opposite CCISD faculties competed within the UIL’s largest classification.
Fifty years after cementing their legacy, the ’74 Tigers stay a close-knit group.
“It’s like a brotherhood,” mentioned Richard Guerra, a senior linebacker and captain that season. “We’ve saved up with one another. The unhappy factor is that there was lots of prejudice occurring then, however we by no means noticed it on the group.
“I get emotional simply speaking concerning the guys I performed with. We have been all actual tight. After we have been in junior excessive, we have been all rivals. However by the point we have been seniors, our purpose was to take all of it, to win district.”
Carroll completed 9-2 in 1974, profitable 9 straight video games after dropping to La Marque in its season opener. The Tigers bounced again from their solely regular-season defeat with a 53-7 rout of Gregory-Portland, avenging a 34-0 shellacking the earlier 12 months, and went 8-0 in 27-4A play.
However the season ended abruptly with a 39-28 loss to a 7-3 McAllen group within the first spherical of the playoffs on a windy evening at Buccaneer Stadium. Carroll was bedeviled by six turnovers – 5 fumbles and one interception – and the Bulldogs capitalized on 4 of them for touchdowns.
“The most effective group didn’t win that evening,” mentioned former King head coach Joey Allen, whose Mustangs misplaced to Carroll 28-14 that season. “However that occurs typically.”
In any case these years, the early playoff loss nonetheless gnaws on the Tigers.
“Coach Hamrick modified our entire offense earlier than that final recreation,” mentioned Paul Hagerty, a junior offensive sort out who earned All-State honors in 1974. “We have been in shock when he did it. The snap counts have been totally different. We have been misplaced for the primary half of the sport.
“All season, we have been punishing folks on the bottom. They couldn’t sustain with us, and we modified the offense and misplaced that recreation. Why would you wish to try this? There are lots of exhausting emotions to at the present time about that.”
Nonetheless, the defeat did little to detract from what Carroll achieved that season. Whereas failing to increase their season with a playoff victory, the ’74 Tigers already had secured a particular place at school historical past earlier than enjoying a down in opposition to McAllen.
“From my perspective, I don’t give it some thought that approach that a lot,” mentioned Felder, a senior working again. “We simply beloved the sport and having fun with enjoying with one another. I simply needed to play.
“There was some speak concerning the historical past, and there was some motivation, however I didn’t suppose a lot about it that approach. However to suppose again on that, I feel it was a extremely nice accomplishment, extra so than we realized on the time.”
Senior security/kicker Mark Reeves was requested if the Tigers have been pushed to win their college’s first soccer district title.
“Oh, by all means,” he mentioned. “We labored our tail ends off. We had two years to get to know one another, since we have been from 4 totally different junior highs (Tom Browne, South Park, Baker and Hamlin). We discovered all of us had the identical purpose.”
CCISD excessive faculties had solely three grades again then.
Carroll dominated its district with a ground-eating veer offense keyed by regular senior quarterback Bobby Mandel and fueled by 1,000-yard rushers Felder and Bobby Finley, a senior.
The Tigers’ protection additionally was spectacular, permitting solely 11 factors per recreation in the course of the common season. Headed by Reeves and junior nostril guard Carl Tillman, each All-South Texas first-team picks, the protection featured eight gamers who earned postseason honors.
“You should utilize clichés all day lengthy, however the backside line is simply exhausting work,” Reeves mentioned. “Our protection simply labored exhausting to get higher because the season went alongside. We are able to exit to that follow discipline proper now and we’d in all probability discover some blood, sweat and tears on the market.”
Now of their late 60s, many of the ’74 Tigers have retired and are grandfathers. However the recollections of that particular season have crystallized with the passage of time.
“We have been considering district championship after we have been within the ninth grade,” mentioned Mandel, who was a group captain with Guerra, Felder and senior defensive sort out David Pack.
“I keep in mind we had lots of camaraderie,” mentioned Ernest Tasby, a senior working again and kick returner.
Invoice Hamrick, now deceased, was head coach of the ’74 Tigers. His high assistant was offensive line coach Kenneth “Butch” Gilliam, who succeeded Hamrick as head coach in 1978.
Now 81, Gilliam made the journey to Corpus Christi from his Gonzales house in November for the induction of the 1974 group into the Carroll Athletic Corridor of Fame.
“It was an excellent group of youngsters, and it was due to their mother and father,” Gilliam mentioned. “I see them 50 years later, and they’re nice folks. To me, that’s a praise to not the teaching workers, however to the mother and father. They’re distinctive in life now, they usually have been distinctive in 1974.”
Operating behind an excellent offensive line, Felder and Finley gave the Tigers one of the prolific tandems in Corpus Christi historical past. Nicknamed the “F&F Boys,” Finley and Felder rekindled recollections of Miller legends Bobby Smith and Johnny Roland, who lined up in the identical backfield in 1959 and went on to play within the NFL.
“Brent was extra of an influence runner, and I used to be extra of a scat again,” Finley recalled. “However Brent might take it outdoors, too. We additionally had a fairly good offensive line. I’d inform these guys, ‘As soon as I get previous the road, allow them to (defensive gamers) go.’ I didn’t need them to get a holding name. All I wanted was for them to offer me a bit area, and I’d do the remainder.”
Finley was named South Texas Participant of the Yr by the Caller-Instances after dashing for 1,817 yards and scoring 108 factors. His scoring whole broke the CCISD document of 104 factors, set by Smith in 1959.
Like his working mate, Felder additionally earned All-South Texas honors. He rushed for 1,246 dashing yards and scored 102 factors.
Mandel accomplished 42 of 74 passes for 594 yards and 4 touchdowns within the Tigers’ run-oriented offense. Whereas he completed the common season with the most effective passing proportion within the district, it was Mandel’s deft execution of Carroll’s possibility offense that earned him All-South Texas honors.
“Bobby was not an enormous man, and never an actual robust man,” Felder mentioned. “However he was very savvy. He was additionally very assured. You by no means noticed any concern in him. I simply appreciated him for being the chief that he was.”
The Tigers’ offense averaged 406 yards and 34 factors in 10 regular-season video games, setting metropolis information in each statistical classes. Whereas the Tigers had a subpar offensive recreation within the loss to McAllen, they have been outgained by solely 4 yards (359-355). Finley led all rushers with 155 yards on 19 carries, and Felder ran for 119 yards on 12 makes an attempt.
Hagerty recalled what it was like blocking for the F&F Boys.
“They beloved working behind us,” he mentioned. “There’s no higher feeling for a lineman than once you see your working again making a play downfield. Whether or not he went over you or by you, he’s gone. No person goes to the touch them.”
Hagerty was joined on the offensive line by senior middle Gary Livingston, senior left guard Marc McCarthy, senior left sort out Jim Hoy and senior proper guard Mark Campbell. Campbell, Livingston and McCarthy have been all named to the all-district and All-South Texas groups.
Gilliam was effusive in his reward of Hagerty, a two-time All-State choice earlier than enjoying 4 seasons at Texas A&M.
“Paul was in all probability the most effective offensive lineman I ever coached,” Gilliam mentioned, “and I coached at another faculties that had nice athletes, too. He was an important one-on-one blocker, however that wasn’t the one factor that made him nice. It was the kind of individual that he was. Paul was an excellent particular person.”
Hagerty credited Gilliam for serving to him develop right into a extremely recruited faculty prospect.
“Of all my coaches, and that features at A&M, he was the most effective coach I ever had,” mentioned Hagerty, who earned All-America honors as a senior at Carroll.
The offense was rounded out by senior tight finish David Gonzalez, junior tight finish Scott Reynolds, junior broad receivers Brian Smolik and Rick Mandel (Bobby’s brother), and senior broad receiver Pete Prescott.
Different defensive starters in addition to Guerra, Pack, Reeves and Tillman have been senior finish Jim Fox, senior cornerback John Holcomb, senior sort out Charles Kelley, senior finish John Lucas, junior linebacker Sid Lawrence, junior cornerback Greg Myers and senior safeties William Tilley and Clay Whites.
Tom Almond (offensive backs), Ron Arbogast (line of defense), Jim Creech (linebackers), Blair Farrar (defensive backs), Floyd “Punk” Rodgers (broad receivers), Willie Gawlik (particular groups), Mike Kunstadt (particular groups) and Gary McAtee (particular groups) have been the opposite assistant coaches on Hamrick’s workers. Almond and Rodgers are deceased.
Ten gamers from the 1974 group are deceased – Hoy, McCarthy, Pack, offensive sort out Mark Brown, defensive sort out Willie Collins, defensive finish John Lucas, cornerback Greg Myers, security William Tilley, nostril guard Carl Tillman and defensive finish Jimmy Zamora.
David Flores is a San Antonio-based freelance author who writes about Coastal Bend sports activities historical past.
This text initially appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Instances: Carroll soccer made historical past with 1974 district title
