Chances are you are you wearing something that is the product of a crop that millions of Americans in the South and the United States have picked, harvested, and planted for over 300 years. Cotton. Many songs have been written about it, especially if it was by a person who picked cotton as a kid.…
Basketball changes, that is just the nature of the game. Even if the game itself does not change, because after all, the whole point is to put a leather ball in a round hoop and do it more times than the other team, things still change, and in the 1974-1975 season, things were changing more…
It is hard to believe that East Texas A&M University has completed it’s transition to being a full fledged of NCAA Division I’s athletic establishment. Last night on The Call The Roll Podcast I discussed Men’s Basketball and scheduling big names came up during the podcast. It also got me thinking that now that our…
When Norman Pilgrim left Commerce after a decade at the helm with two LSC titles and two NAIA appearances, one of Pilgrim’s players, Phil Andrews took over for one season and the results was a 9-18 season. It was a time for the ET athletic department to look for a coach who was seasoned and…
Back in 2016, something happened that really showed me some of us Lions have a lot to learn when it comes to “fansmanship.” After a 5-0 start, the Lions faced the always tough Bill Maskill coached Midwestern State Mustangs. It was a game in Commerce on a beautiful fall evening and it was another big…
Norman Pilgrim’s time as Head Basketball Coach at East Texas State can be described in one word: challenging. He had success, won conference championships, took his teams to the NAIA postseason and posted winning records. He was also in inadvertent party to some historical moments in not just program history, but college basketball history. After…
After 5 seasons, 4 conference championships, 3 trips to the NAIA basketball tournament, and a national title, Bob Rogers’ stock had risen in the coaching universe. He had become a hot commodity, and this led him to being named head basketball coach at Texas A&M University at the end of the 1957 season. The Lions…
Every Coach, regardless of how good they are, has difficult or rough seasons. Sometimes they even happen after Championship seasons. For Lion Coach Bob Rogers, he was no exception to this happening. In his first three seasons, Rogers had won three straight Conference Championships, three straight NAIA District 4 Championships, and had gone to the…
Have you been on Interstate 30 lately? Chances are you have been. I haven’t and for good reason. How about Highway 380 between Denton and Greenville? Yep, sure have, and I have seen all I need to see. So, what does traffic have to do with our transition to being a Division I institution? Well,…
It takes a lot to be a Champion. A lot of games played, a lot of miles traveled, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Then, and only then, comes the treasure. For the East Texas State Lions, the 1950’s midpoint saw them make serious back to back runs in the NAIA National Tournament. Two…
Today it was announced that the late Mike Leach, the former head football coach at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State, an innovator in college football and character persona number one in college football, would now be eligible to be in the College Football Hall of Fame. As someone who still is in absolute…
Bob Rogers first season in Commerce saw the Lions go the furthest they ever had as the reached the NAIA Final four, the first of 3 appearances in school history. After countless conference titles and NAIA tournament appearances, it was as ever a time to make another run at a national championship. It would hard…
In the early 1950’s Lion Basketball hit a bit of a rut. Milburn Smith, who would coach arguably the greatest Lion Football team ever in 1952, coached the Lion Basketball team to a 13-9 record in 1950, before taking over a Lion football program that would be dominant from 1951-1953 and then Jack Woodruff came…
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