Print
E-mail
Comment
Kaiser remembers ’69 football season
 |
| Tommy Kaiser, the current football coach for Tomball High School, was an intricate part of the 1969 State Finalists Klein High School football team. |
By MICHAEL SUDHALTER
Tommy Kaiser has accomplished a great deal in his life, but the former Klein High School quarterback and defensive back won’t ever forget the memories of the Bearkats’ 1969 football season.
Kaiser, 57, now is entering his third season as the head football coach at Tomball High School.
He was the class valedictorian at Klein in 1970, played on the state runner-up basketball team as a junior, and played college baseball and football at the University of Houston. His coaching career has taken him to several high schools, Houston, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
Klein was much a different community 40 years ago.
Farms, not subdivisions, were the heart of the community. High school football players competed on both sides of the ball.
And there was just one high school, and it had about 600 students; Klein ISD currently has four – Klein, Klein Collins, Klein Forest and Klein Oak; KHS didn’t even have a baseball program at the time.
Klein swept through district competition with no problem, and that district included Katy and Spring (both were one-high school districts), Waller, and Tomball.
No other Klein ISD football team - before or since the 1969 Bearkats – has played in a state championship game.
Klein was inspired by a 21-18 state semifinal loss in 1968 to Lufkin Dunbar High School.
“We’d gotten behind and I remember kicking a 41-yard field goal and they drove the length of the field and scored with 30 seconds left and beat us -- it weighed on all of us,” said Kaiser, who ran the option for Klein.
The Bearkats defeated Dunbar in the ’69 semifinals, but it took 5-to-10 minutes to determine a winner.
The teams tied, and the UIL didn’t have overtime in those days. The tiebreakers were penetrations (how many teams each team crossed the 20-yard-line). When that statistic came up in a tie, the next tiebreaker was first downs – in which Klein had the edge.
They traveled to UT Arlington field where they lost to Iowa Park, 31-14, in the Class AA State Championship Game and finished with a 13-1-1 record.
“(Our running back) George Smith had close to 2,000 yards that year and he got hurt midway through the first quarter,” Kaiser said. “He was our main threat to take it the distance. And he played defense, too.”
A few players went on to play at the next level, including the late Harold Bridges, a high school All-American who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gary Eiland, a 1969 Klein graduate, played on the 1968 state semifinal team and said the Class of 1969 will welcome and honor the 1969 football team at its 40-year reunion on Aug. 8 at the Oak Lynn Farm and Ranch in Klein. Senior members of the 1969 football team graduated from KHS in 1970.
Former Houston Oilers running back Bob Brezina was just 26 years old when he became the Bearkats’ head football coach in 1967.
Brezina, 68, left Klein after the 1969 season to coach at Smiley High and went on to become a school superintendent; he’s now retired and living in Friendswood.
“We worked hard but enjoyed every minute of it,” Brezina said. “You love your work and you work twice as hard and twice as long. I had a good group. They were solid as a rock.”
He called the Bearkats’ 1968 loss to Dunbar, “the most physical game I’ve seen in my life.”
Brezina said he learned a great deal about coaching from Vince Lombardi; he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers out of UH and spent a few months training with the team.
The Bearkats were inspired to have an excellent season in 1969 after Ronnie Johnson, an assistant coach and college teammate of Brezina’s at UH, died of cancer in January 1969, in his late 20s.
“You didn’t have to play football to love Coach Johnson,” said Otis LaGrande Davis, an offensive lineman on the 1969 team. “Coach Johnson was probably one of the best motivators I ever knew – a heck of a football coach, super guy. I often wondered how someone who meant so much to the youth of America could pass away at such a young age.”
Davis, 57, now is retired after 35 years as a lineman for Centerpoint Energy and works for the Spring-Klein Sports Association and lives in The Woodlands.
He became a Bearkat fan as a young child and dreamed of starring for the football team.
“I knew all of the coaches from all of the previous years,” Davis said. “I was kind of their sidekick. To this day, Bob Brezina means as much to me as anybody on this earth. He taught you more about life than football.”
One of Brezina’s assistants was Bob Sitton, a native of tiny Cushing, Texas.
“Those guys created some lifetime memories for the community and the school,” said Sitton, 70, who lives in Nacodogches. “It was just an unbelievable experience.”
Kaiser, 57, now is entering his third season as the head football coach at Tomball High School.
He was the class valedictorian at Klein in 1970, played on the state runner-up basketball team as a junior, and played college baseball and football at the University of Houston. His coaching career has taken him to several high schools, Houston, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
Klein was much a different community 40 years ago.
Farms, not subdivisions, were the heart of the community. High school football players competed on both sides of the ball.
And there was just one high school, and it had about 600 students; Klein ISD currently has four – Klein, Klein Collins, Klein Forest and Klein Oak; KHS didn’t even have a baseball program at the time.
Klein swept through district competition with no problem, and that district included Katy and Spring (both were one-high school districts), Waller, and Tomball.
No other Klein ISD football team - before or since the 1969 Bearkats – has played in a state championship game.
Klein was inspired by a 21-18 state semifinal loss in 1968 to Lufkin Dunbar High School.
“We’d gotten behind and I remember kicking a 41-yard field goal and they drove the length of the field and scored with 30 seconds left and beat us -- it weighed on all of us,” said Kaiser, who ran the option for Klein.
The Bearkats defeated Dunbar in the ’69 semifinals, but it took 5-to-10 minutes to determine a winner.
The teams tied, and the UIL didn’t have overtime in those days. The tiebreakers were penetrations (how many teams each team crossed the 20-yard-line). When that statistic came up in a tie, the next tiebreaker was first downs – in which Klein had the edge.
They traveled to UT Arlington field where they lost to Iowa Park, 31-14, in the Class AA State Championship Game and finished with a 13-1-1 record.
“(Our running back) George Smith had close to 2,000 yards that year and he got hurt midway through the first quarter,” Kaiser said. “He was our main threat to take it the distance. And he played defense, too.”
A few players went on to play at the next level, including the late Harold Bridges, a high school All-American who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gary Eiland, a 1969 Klein graduate, played on the 1968 state semifinal team and said the Class of 1969 will welcome and honor the 1969 football team at its 40-year reunion on Aug. 8 at the Oak Lynn Farm and Ranch in Klein. Senior members of the 1969 football team graduated from KHS in 1970.
Former Houston Oilers running back Bob Brezina was just 26 years old when he became the Bearkats’ head football coach in 1967.
Brezina, 68, left Klein after the 1969 season to coach at Smiley High and went on to become a school superintendent; he’s now retired and living in Friendswood.
“We worked hard but enjoyed every minute of it,” Brezina said. “You love your work and you work twice as hard and twice as long. I had a good group. They were solid as a rock.”
He called the Bearkats’ 1968 loss to Dunbar, “the most physical game I’ve seen in my life.”
Brezina said he learned a great deal about coaching from Vince Lombardi; he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers out of UH and spent a few months training with the team.
The Bearkats were inspired to have an excellent season in 1969 after Ronnie Johnson, an assistant coach and college teammate of Brezina’s at UH, died of cancer in January 1969, in his late 20s.
“You didn’t have to play football to love Coach Johnson,” said Otis LaGrande Davis, an offensive lineman on the 1969 team. “Coach Johnson was probably one of the best motivators I ever knew – a heck of a football coach, super guy. I often wondered how someone who meant so much to the youth of America could pass away at such a young age.”
Davis, 57, now is retired after 35 years as a lineman for Centerpoint Energy and works for the Spring-Klein Sports Association and lives in The Woodlands.
He became a Bearkat fan as a young child and dreamed of starring for the football team.
“I knew all of the coaches from all of the previous years,” Davis said. “I was kind of their sidekick. To this day, Bob Brezina means as much to me as anybody on this earth. He taught you more about life than football.”
One of Brezina’s assistants was Bob Sitton, a native of tiny Cushing, Texas.
“Those guys created some lifetime memories for the community and the school,” said Sitton, 70, who lives in Nacodogches. “It was just an unbelievable experience.”
Submit a Comment
|
You must be logged in to post a comment.
|
Not yet a registered member?
Click here to become one. Comments to stories and articles on the Web site are not edited or pre-approved before appearing online. Readers posting comments are solely responsible for those comments. Comments must be germane to the story to which they apply. Online comments that are libelous, profane or personally attack another site participant can be reported as abuse using the link provided on each comment. Comments reported as abusive will be reviewed and may be removed from view, as will off-topic comments. BE CIVIL. Individuals continually posting abusive comments to the site may have their registrations revoked. |
