Forest Park High School, Beaumont, Texas 1962 - 1982
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[edit] SOUTH PARK ISD AND WEST BROOK
Forest Park High School in Beaumont, Texas, was in the South Park Independent School District [1] along with South Park High School and Hebert High School. [1] Junior Highs which fed into Forest Park were Vincent (until 1973 known as Memorial Junior High) and Marshall. The original campus of Forest Park is now Vincent Middle School.[2]
Efforts for integration of schools [3] ultimately resulted in Forest Park being combined with Hebert in 1982 to become West Brook High School. and (http://www.beaumont.k12.tx.us/westbrook/ Later in the 1980s, South Park was merged with West Brook. West Brook is located at the former Forest Park campus. [4]
All three former schools of the South Park District had storied histories, especially South Park and Hebert, as they opened in 1891 and 1914, respectively, and produced many decades of outstanding graduates. [5] Websites about South Park and Hebert inspired the initial creation of this article about Forest Park. [6][7] An interactive website established by members of the Forest Park Class of 1981 can be found at their website. [8]
The first year West Brook existed, 1982, the football team won the Texas state championship in the largest classification in Texas, 5A,[9] under the direction of the legendary head coach Alex Durley, formerly the head coach at Hebert and member of the Texas Coaches Hall of Honor. [10] The football / track stadium on the West Brook campus is named in honor of Coach Durley. [11] Among the many excellent athletes on that team was Jerry Ball, originally from Hebert, and he went on to dominate in the NFL with the Detroit Lions. [12] Other important members of that team were Terence McCarty and Layne Walker, both originally from Forest Park, and in 2002 Layne was elected as Judge of the 252nd Criminal District Court of Jefferson County, Texas in Beaumont. [13]
[edit] FOREST PARK TRADITIONS & TEACHERS
[edit] TRADITIONS
The school colors of Forest Park were Blue and Grey and the Mascot was The Trojans. The life-size Trojan figure carried around to rally fans was named Egor. The dance team was called the Trojanns. The Trojan Band, the Cheerleaders, the Twirlers, and the Flags performed during sport events. Other traditions included Junior-Senior Prom, Senior Prom, Twirp Week & Dance, the Winter Ball, the Powder Puff football game, the Annual Play, Homecoming bonfire & dance, Trojan Games Day, and Skip Day. The school paper was called Populi Verbum. Ninth-grade students were called Fish and were said to be adept at rolling peas across the cafeteria floor with their noses.[2]
In the 1970s "The Field" was a large open area behind the main building and bordered on three sides by the industrial arts buildings, the baseball field, and rice fields. A sizeable number of students gathered there during both lunch periods and conversed, and also smoked cigarettes and other substances. For many years, any adminsitratiive efforts to police the activities in the field were fairly rare, and most students took this to mean they had the tacit approval of the administration to do what they wanted.
Forest Park was located on the (then) farthest western edge of Beaumont, and was rather isolated. There were few nearby businesses or eating places, and the predominant view from practically anywhere on campus was open land and fallow rice fields. The campus at the time was "closed" - students were not allowed to leave for lunch as they were at other Beaumont high schools which were situated in more developed areas. Many students left the Forest Park campus at lunch time anyway, again with apparent tacit approval.
A new administration was installed in 1976-1977. Long-time principal William Hawthorne was replaced by Jerry Mallett, later superintendent of the Beaumont Independent School District. The Mallett regime cracked down on The Field, and hired a security officer to try and reduce the number of student vehicles exiting the parking lots at lunch time. They eventually succeeded at both.
It was fairly popular for a time in the mid-1970s for students to call in bomb threats to the school. This would result in all students being evacuated to the large area in front of the school while emergency officials canvassed the buildings for explosives. These bomb threats often interrupted classes for 2 hours or more. Some were called in by students who had illegally left the campus for lunch. Others were called in from the pay phone mounted in a school hallway, just outsides the main offices.
[edit] TEACHERS
The teachers or staff at Forest Park included Edith Emmons (Latin), Margaret Kirkindall (Director of Student Activities), James Craig (Math), Robert Edwards (Government), and Walter La Forge (Choir). Ms. Emmons taught Latin, and her teams at the state Latin conventions regularly finished in the top 3 in state.[3]
[edit] FOREST PARK ATHLETICS
[edit] FOOTBALL
In the 1970s, the Trojans played in District 22-4A. Member schools in the 1970s were Beaumont-Charlton Pollard High, Beaumont French, Forest Park, Nederland High, Port Arthur Lincoln, Port Arthur Thomas Jefferson, Port Neches-Groves High, Vidor High, and West Orange-Stark High. [4] From 1920 to the present, teams from the schools which made up this district in the 1970s played in 15 state championship games and won 7 times, including the 1975 Port Neches-Groves Indians and the 1984 Beaumont French Buffaloes. In 1980 the Port Arthur Thomas Jefferson Yellow Jackets (now Port Arthur Memorial Titans) suffered a hard-fought loss in the State Championship game. All three of these games were against the Odessa Permian Panthers, another school from the Oil Patch.[14]
Forest Park never won a district championship in football but came close in 1979 with a record of 7 and 3. 1979 was the first year the Trojans defeated the legendary Texas powerhouse program of the Port Neches - Groves Indians. [5] The last graduating class of Forest Park, the Class of 1982, recorded the second, and final, victory of Forest Park over PNG. [6] Paul Carswell, the head coach at Forest Park since the 1976 season, had been an assistant coach at PNG from the 1965 season through the 1975 season when the Indians won the Texas state championship under legendary coach Doug Ethridge.[7] [15]
[edit] BASEBALL
Forest Park graduates who were drafted in Major League Baseball include Pitcher Billy Swope, 15th, by the Oakland Raiders in 1969 [16], Pitcher John Binks, 12th, by the Boston Red Socks in 1970 [17], and Pitcher Michael Barrett, 19th, by the Cincinnati Reds in 1976 [18].
The 1976 team Mike Barrett pitched for won District 22-4A and beat District 21-4A Port Arthur Thomas Jefferson in the bi-district playoffs. They lost to Texas City in the regional playoffs, two games to one.
The Forest Park Baseball team went to the Texas State 3A (at that time, the second largest classification) Finals in 1967 but lost to South San Antonio 3 to 0.[19]
[edit] GOLF
The Forest Park boys golf teams produced Texas State Champions Bruce Lietzke [20] in 1967 (3A) and Britt Harrison in 1975 (4A) and the Texas State Team Champions in 1968.]http://www.uil.utexas.edu/athletics/archives/golf/boys_champions.html]
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[edit] References
- ^ 1980 Trojan (school year book) pages 198 199
- ^ 1980 Trojan (school year book) pages 8 through 35, 40 through 51, pages 54, 55, 60, 61, 64, 65 and 75
- ^ 1980 Trojan (school year book) pages 202 through 204, page 66
- ^ 1980 Trojan (school year book) page 101
- ^ 1980 Trojan (school year book) page 99
- ^ Down Trails of Victory, The Story of Port Neches-Groves High School Football, page 336; Jon Buck Ford, Ed.D; Wrinkle-Ford Creative Arts.
- ^ Down Trails of Victory, The Story of Port Neches-Groves High School Football, pages 223, 298; Jon Buck Ford, Ed.D; Wrinkle-Ford Creative Arts.
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