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Thursday
March 18, 2010 Since 1922 |
New book profiles REL glory days
By Doyle Barlow
Baytown Sun Published March 26, 2006 Baytown native Allen Rice is an award-winning architect, whose designs include the M.D. Anderson Medical Facility, the Warwick Towers in Houston, the Corps of Engineers headquarters in Galveston, and the Southwest Airlines headquarters in Dallas.
In the last couple of years, Rice has turned his talents to writing. First, short stories, until he progressed to full-blown manuscripts.
Rice’s first book to be published is titled “Ganders” and details the exploits of the Gander football teams of the early 1950s, when Rice was in high school. The Ganders finished with two state runner-up finishes and a state semifinal appearance over the three-year span.
Baytown lost both state championship appearances to Lubbock — 14-12 in 1951 and 12-7 in 1952. Those teams were coached by Pete Sultis.
There were also three high school All-Americans from Baytown in that era. Tom “Swede” Stolhandke in 1949, David “Kosse” Johnson in 1950, and Herb Gray in 1953.
Among other players on the 1953 squad were Gerald Orton, Norman Adams, Gordon Kellogg, Mickey Pillow, Jim Walmsley, James Carnes, James Hollister, Fred Ernest, Tom Gentry and Eddie Gray.
But as remarkable as the Gander football teams were that are chronicled in Rice’s book, the author might be even more remarkable.
You see, Allen Rice, who has a master’s degree from Harvard and taught at Cambridge for a year, can barely read.
Rice was the victim of a severe stroke a couple of years ago. An insidious, unseen attack that left his eyesight limited in his right eye and took away his ability to read. The stroke also robbed Rice of one of the things he loved the most — his career as an architect.
“The stroke killed architecture for me,” Rice said from his home in Salado in South Texas. “It makes you want to slit your wrists. You take for granted your ability to read and see.
“When I was in the hospital after the stroke, the doctors would come in and say ‘What time is it, Mr. Rice? What day?’ I’d say I can’t tell you. I can’t read. Therapy has eased that burden.”
After a year-and-a-half of rehab, Rice has regained a lot of his faculties. He suffered no memory loss, except for the two weeks immediately following his stroke, and his speech shows no signs of slurring. He can read, although he admits it is very labored and slow.
One of the things Rice was encouraged to do during his rehabilitation in order to help his mental acuity was to write short stories, something he had never done.
“It’s funny,” Rice said. “Even though I have difficulty reading, I can write like a banshee. It didn’t affect my writing.
“Writing and design are the same kind of creative process. With design you start with a blank sheet of paper and generate ideas. You go through miles of paper until you ultimately come to a conclusion. They’re amazingly similar.”
So when Rice did decide to pen his first book, there was only one subject that came to mind, his beloved Ganders. Rice didn’t play football himself in high school, although he was on the school’s first golf team and earned a golf scholarship to Texas A&M.
Rice’s father had played football for the Ganders in 1929-30, and the book touches on this time briefly, before skipping ahead to 1950, when Rice started high school.
“I begin with a dedication to my father,” Rice said. “I went through the players on those teams and what they accomplished. They were tough guys.”
The portion of the book about the 1950s centers around the 1952 squad. The team produced numerous All-Americans who went on to stellar college and professional careers.
For instance, Herbie Gray was on the All-American High School football team and would eventually be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The book also details the other high school sports programs in Baytown at the time.
For instance, the 1953 track team was state runner-up and missed the championship by a quarter of a point.
“That was a huge disappointment,” Rice said.
The tennis team boasted a two-time state champion doubles team in Rob Middleton and Rollin Russell.
“One of those guys ended up as the tennis pro at Pebble Beach,” Rice said.
Rice’s accounts of things from those days is a unique mixture of fact and fiction. The people are real but some of the events have been embellished.
“We had some interesting adventures,” Rice said. “Life was pretty good to us for a bunch of refinery town kids.”
• • • •
The Baytown Historical Museum will host a reception and book signing for Rice on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Rice will be on hand to sign copies of his book “Ganders” recalling the glory days of the Baytown Lee football team in the early 1950s.
Baytown Sun Published March 26, 2006 Baytown native Allen Rice is an award-winning architect, whose designs include the M.D. Anderson Medical Facility, the Warwick Towers in Houston, the Corps of Engineers headquarters in Galveston, and the Southwest Airlines headquarters in Dallas.
In the last couple of years, Rice has turned his talents to writing. First, short stories, until he progressed to full-blown manuscripts.
Rice’s first book to be published is titled “Ganders” and details the exploits of the Gander football teams of the early 1950s, when Rice was in high school. The Ganders finished with two state runner-up finishes and a state semifinal appearance over the three-year span.
Baytown lost both state championship appearances to Lubbock — 14-12 in 1951 and 12-7 in 1952. Those teams were coached by Pete Sultis.
There were also three high school All-Americans from Baytown in that era. Tom “Swede” Stolhandke in 1949, David “Kosse” Johnson in 1950, and Herb Gray in 1953.
Among other players on the 1953 squad were Gerald Orton, Norman Adams, Gordon Kellogg, Mickey Pillow, Jim Walmsley, James Carnes, James Hollister, Fred Ernest, Tom Gentry and Eddie Gray.
But as remarkable as the Gander football teams were that are chronicled in Rice’s book, the author might be even more remarkable.
You see, Allen Rice, who has a master’s degree from Harvard and taught at Cambridge for a year, can barely read.
Rice was the victim of a severe stroke a couple of years ago. An insidious, unseen attack that left his eyesight limited in his right eye and took away his ability to read. The stroke also robbed Rice of one of the things he loved the most — his career as an architect.
“The stroke killed architecture for me,” Rice said from his home in Salado in South Texas. “It makes you want to slit your wrists. You take for granted your ability to read and see.
“When I was in the hospital after the stroke, the doctors would come in and say ‘What time is it, Mr. Rice? What day?’ I’d say I can’t tell you. I can’t read. Therapy has eased that burden.”
After a year-and-a-half of rehab, Rice has regained a lot of his faculties. He suffered no memory loss, except for the two weeks immediately following his stroke, and his speech shows no signs of slurring. He can read, although he admits it is very labored and slow.
One of the things Rice was encouraged to do during his rehabilitation in order to help his mental acuity was to write short stories, something he had never done.
“It’s funny,” Rice said. “Even though I have difficulty reading, I can write like a banshee. It didn’t affect my writing.
“Writing and design are the same kind of creative process. With design you start with a blank sheet of paper and generate ideas. You go through miles of paper until you ultimately come to a conclusion. They’re amazingly similar.”
So when Rice did decide to pen his first book, there was only one subject that came to mind, his beloved Ganders. Rice didn’t play football himself in high school, although he was on the school’s first golf team and earned a golf scholarship to Texas A&M.
Rice’s father had played football for the Ganders in 1929-30, and the book touches on this time briefly, before skipping ahead to 1950, when Rice started high school.
“I begin with a dedication to my father,” Rice said. “I went through the players on those teams and what they accomplished. They were tough guys.”
The portion of the book about the 1950s centers around the 1952 squad. The team produced numerous All-Americans who went on to stellar college and professional careers.
For instance, Herbie Gray was on the All-American High School football team and would eventually be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The book also details the other high school sports programs in Baytown at the time.
For instance, the 1953 track team was state runner-up and missed the championship by a quarter of a point.
“That was a huge disappointment,” Rice said.
The tennis team boasted a two-time state champion doubles team in Rob Middleton and Rollin Russell.
“One of those guys ended up as the tennis pro at Pebble Beach,” Rice said.
Rice’s accounts of things from those days is a unique mixture of fact and fiction. The people are real but some of the events have been embellished.
“We had some interesting adventures,” Rice said. “Life was pretty good to us for a bunch of refinery town kids.”
• • • •
The Baytown Historical Museum will host a reception and book signing for Rice on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Rice will be on hand to sign copies of his book “Ganders” recalling the glory days of the Baytown Lee football team in the early 1950s.