Saturday’s pre-season game featuring Cleburne vs Houston Heights will have major historic undertones as 100 years ago the Yellow Jackets and the Bulldogs faced off to determine the winner of the first Texas High School Football Championship.

Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. at Waco ISD Stadium. Tickets may be ordered online using this link: https://www.wacoisd.org/Page/12176.

Cleburne, as the state-qualifying north Texas champions, and Houston Heights, representing the south, met in Austin on January 8, 1921 in the first state championship contest organized and sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League. The game ended in a scoreless tie.

                “This game has been in the planning since the fall of 2019,” CISD Athletic Director Jeri Larrison-Hall said. “We wanted to play last year, to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of that championship season, but couldn’t make it happen due to COVID.”

                “I’m excited for our kids,” Larrison-Hall said. “There’s so much history associated with this and we wanted our kids to compete in a game played in memory of a very special milestone in Cleburne Football. It’s great that it’s finally happening and it’s a big deal for both schools. Working with the Heights athletic director, we will have a commemorative trophy to go to the winner of the game.”

                In that history-making 1920 season, the Jackets were 10-0 going into the state championship contest. Among Cleburne’s challengers were Fort Worth Polytechnic, Masonic Home, Meridian, Oak Cliff, Itasca, Grandview, North Side, Comanche, Bryan and Abilene.

Cleburne won the Championship of North Texas in its defeat of Bryan and earned its ticket to the state championship in a 28-20 win over West Texas Champion Abilene. That game, according to Cleburne’s “Santa Fe Trail” yearbook, attracted the largest crowd in CHS football history with nearly 4000 in attendance.

Cleburne’s football fans secured a special train for the trip to Austin to attend the championship game. More than 500 filled the stands at Clark Field to cheer for the Black and Gold, and players Clarence “Blue” Smith, Curtis “Squirts” Poindexter, Luther “Snag” Hill and Frank “Slats” McClendon, to name a few. Fullback Joe “Jo-Jo” Rhome, would later become the namesake of the first home of Jackets football—Rhome Field--in memory of the player and team captain who died from rheumatic fever only months after that golden season.

The Santa Fe Trail Yearbook described the game against Heights as the “hardest fought of the season,” played in a downpour that never let up.              

“We were outweighed practically ten pounds to the man,” states the yearbook. “Their backfield, used to playing on a muddy field, was equipped with mud cleats and yet CHS held them to a scoreless tie.”

An excerpt from University Interscholastic League: An Illustrated History of 100 Years of Service, by Bobby Hawthorne, states Heights was unsuccessful in its attempt to score from the one-yard line in the second quarter, and missed two field goal opportunities in the fourth.

Hawthorne’s book indicates Cleburne challenged Heights to play again on any football field outside the Houston city limits. Texas A & M Coach D.X. Bible had even offered Kyle Field for the game, but Heights declined, as their players needed to prepare for final semester exams. 

While George “Albert” Sowell, who was a member of the 1920 team, counted Rhome among his best friends according to his daughter-in-law, Meredith Sowell.

“My father-in-law didn’t talk a whole lot about being on the team, but he kept his team picture on display in his office,” Meredith Sowell said. “He was a defensive end. He wasn’t really one to brag, but he did say that was a special time in his life. The 1920 team even took the train to Florida that season to play a high school team there. His sisters were attending The University of Texas when the state championship game was played in Austin, so they could have easily been in the stands to cheer for their brother—and Cleburne.”

“My husband, George, helped identify each of the players in the team photo,” she said. “It’s on display in our home now. Our son, who really likes football, would often comment to his grandfather about how little protective gear they wore back then.”

 A member of a pioneer Cleburne family, Albert Sowell’s father was the founder of Cleburne Oil, and he eventually joined the company. From his time of graduation from CHS in 1921, three generations of Jackets would follow.

Cleburne’s 1920 state championship trophy has held up well through the years. In 2011 it was placed on temporary loan to The Bullock State History Museum in Austin for an exhibit showcasing high school football in Texas—from the fans to the bands. It is now on prominent display in the trophy case located in the lobby of the Jeff D. Cody Arena at CHS, sharing space with the 1959 state championship football trophy and other state athletic awards won by Cleburne Yellow Jackets.  

Head Football Coach Casey Walraven is committed to keeping the heritage of Jacket Football alive in the hearts of his players and his program. Within the Cleburne C on the sides of the varsity’s black football helmets are two gold stars, representing the 1920 and 1959 state titles.

“I think it’s important to remember your traditions—not in looking back----but in continuing to honor them,” Walraven said. “I’d like to know if we won a state championship, 100 years from now this community would still remember and honor that achievement.”

“I’m thankful both our schools are able to make the game happen this year, in celebrating something that happened 100 years ago,” he said. “This definitely adds a little luster to a pre-season game. With the trophy involved, it has that ‘extra,’ like a rivalry game. As with any game we play, we’ll be giving everything we’ve got.”