Columns
This Week in Texas History: Boy from cotton patch sure could coach
By Bartee Haile
Stamford won the battle of the Bulldogs on Dec. 21, 1956, beating Brady 26-13 for their thirty-second victory in a row and second straight Class 2A state championship.
Forty-two-year-old Gordon Lenear Wood had accomplished what most high-school football coaches achieve only in their dreams. But he would prowl the sidelines for 29 more seasons and collect a record nine state titles.
The youngest of eight children was born into cotton-patch poverty in 1914 and grew up on hardscrabbl...