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| LONGVIEW - Following a heartbreaking last-second 17-16 loss to Killeen Ellison at the conclusion of the 1996 season, the Longview Lobos greeted 1997 with new-found desire and a drive that would make for one of the more memorable runs in Lobo lore.
Longview reached the state quarterfinals and appeared primed to oust Ellison and move on to the semifinals. Clinging to a precarious 16-14 lead late, the Lobos watched in dismay as the Eagles drove down the field for a 19-yard game-winning field goal. With 40 returning lettermen and the lingering bad taste of disappointment from the season before, there was good reason to believe the 1997 Lobos could make a serious push for the Class 5A DI state title. "All our coaches felt we had the chance to be a pretty good football team. We'd got knocked out the year before by one point to Killeen Ellison in the last seconds," recalled Robert Bero, who was entering his 10th year as head coach of Lobos. "So many of our players had gotten the playoff experience and many of them were three-year starters. With all that experience and the little intangibles that you have to have to be a championship team we felt we had." The road wouldn't be easy as Longview was stuck in a district loaded with unbelievable talent. The Lobos brought their fair share to the party, but it would be a white-knuckler each Friday night. "We were gonna have to play the season out and grow as a football team just as every football team does and go through all the ups and downs that a football team goes through," Bero said. "I felt like we had a chance to be pretty good. The problem will all that, we had John Tyler, Lufkin and Marshall all ranked in the state. We knew it'd be a tough task just in the district race." Another reason the 1997 Lobos' march to the Astrodome was so special is that it came on the 60th anniversary of the revered 1937 state title run. "We couldn't really look at the playoffs. We just had to take it one week at a time. Looking back on that team, I thought they did that real well. They played it one week at a time and didn't get too high or too low," said the coach. "That team really cared about each other and were unselfish. It was more about the team than it was individuals. We had a chance to go through a tough, tough district which prepared us for the playoffs." The Lobos would eventually win 14 straight games on their way to a Class 5A DI showdown with tradition-rich Katy. What made the playoff push more impressive was that it was done using a two-man rotation at quarterback the entire season with Jay Hurst and Lee Nix. "Preparing two kids is not easy to do," Bero admitted. "We were able to get the reps in practice with both of them. Lee Nix was actually our starter as a sophomore and Jay started as a junior and ended up starting his senior year. We'd still bring Lee in and try to play him in crucial situations." In Bero's estimation, the two-platoon quarterback marriage was successful because of the unselfishness of that entire 1997 unit. "Both those guys, even though they came from different junior highs, became close friends and were very unselfish. The biggest characteristic about that team is they just didn't care who got the credit. Of course everybody wanted to play and be starters. But everybody understood their roles and those two guys understood as well as anybody," said Bero. Nix, coming off the bench, sparked Longview's 41-14 season-opening win over Waco with a 70-yard strike to Lee Jackson. Fred Talley, arguably the Lobos' most talented player, had a rushing TD and returned a kickoff 89 yards for a score. Jackson eventually became one of the first recruits signed by Mack Brown's inaugural 1998 class at the University of Texas and Talley, only a junior at the time, eventually went to his stardom at the University of Arkansas. Wins followed over Killeen (12-7), Lake Highlands (27-16) and Bryan (43-0) before the Lobos took their show across state lines to face Louisiana heavyweight Ruston to close out the non-district slate. Talley tallied a couple TDs as the Lobos doubled up the No. 11 Bearcats, 28-14. Lufkin's Abe Martin Stadium was packed to the hilt for a good ol' East Texas rivalry between Longview and John Outlaw's fifth-ranked Panthers. It was an outstanding Lobo defensive effort coupled with a pair of Hurst TD tosses to Jamie Brown, paving the way to a hard-fought 28-17 win. "If you're worried about kids that care only about their success, you have too many ups and downs. That just wasn't case with this group. What separated this team wasn't the desire to win. Everybody wants to win," Bero explained. "There has to be a little something more. If you're dealing with 60 different personalities it doesn't work. The guys have to buy in. And that's what they did." After Lufkin, Longview handled Tyler Lee (42-25) and Nacogdoches (42-3), a Halloween night showdown awaited at Rose Stadium with John Tyler. The Lobos had ascended to the No. 1 ranking in state and needed a late TD from Talley to hold off the Lions, 20-14. A falling behind 14-0 the next week, the Lobos rallied for a 40-21 win over the Marshall Mavericks to complete a perfect 10-0 regular season and send them into postseason on a roll. Longview dispatched Dallas Skyline and Plano East to start the party, setting stage for a rematch with Killeen Ellison in the quarterfinals. The Lobos answered the call as Hurst scored both TDs in a 14-0 nail-biter before 14,000 fans at Pennington Field. Three pass thefts from Dexter Harris and 167 yards rushing from Talley enabled Longview to dump Duncanville, 36-21, and punch its ticket to the state championship for the first time in six decades. "We knew we had our hands full with Katy. They were a good football team. They prided themselves in being physical and that's what they were," remembered Bero. "I think our team felt confident. John Tyler played the same style football as Katy. We had played from behind against John Tyler, Lufkin and Marshall and came back to beat all of them." Katy and its ground-and-pound put Longview in a 14-3 hole at the break. Turns out Erin Roerecke's 27-yard field goal would be the Lobos' only points that afternoon in the Astrodome. The Katy Tigers garnered the golden football and notched a 24-3 victory. The Lobo train came to a halt after a incredible 14-1 title push. "It was a big hurt for sure. When I look back on that week leading up to Katy, it's amazing how fast that whole week went by. We tried to keep as a close as we could to the regular season, but your time is squeezed with people wanting to do things like public pep rally," said Bero. "The game itself, give all the credit to Katy. They outplayed us that day. In my heart, I feel like if we got to play Katy five times we could've beat them three games to two, or they could have beat us three games to two. We'll never know, but that 1997 Lobo team one special group of young men." |