William P. Watson,  Class of 1955

Pat played right tackle and was the biggest player on the team at
215 according to Coach Doherty's weigh ins for the football program...
which as after a long and hot summer practice. Everyone on the team was
probably 10 to 12 pounds heavier in their normal weight...but to the coach...
lower weights in the program was to our advantage. This was a bad idea for
some of our backs like Doyle Walker, Bennie Irby and Jim McCabe. Pat was
also one of the fastest players on the team. He was blessed with lots of natural
talent. Coach Doherty would from time to time challenge Pat to motivate him to
reach his full potential. Pat had a lovable laid back personality...if he had the
"Killer" instinct" of Kenneth Beck, he probably would have been as good. Pat
was selected to the 55 all star team and was a starter for George Doherty's
North team. I remember his main passion was ham radio in those days.

Submitted by Jerry Frasier, Class of 1955

Coach George Doherty wanted Pat Watson Pat to be more aggressive so he
kicked him with the side of his foot in the behind and told him "Git in there
Pat and be mean."

Pat was and electronic computer whiz but woe be unto you if you asked him
for help on your computer because your computer would never be able to work
again.

Some of you may already know that Pat also rolled his own cigarettes.

Submitted by Charlie Hennigan, Class of 1952

Listen to this: The football team won 2-A State Championship, the Basket team won 2-A
State Championship, the baseball team won 2-A State Championship and the girl's swimming team won State Championship. Local merchants downtown began calling us
"The Class of Champions" early-on in the year. And by the year's fourth quarter, our Grig (school's yearbook) hit the classrooms in full black and white inside print, and outside thick red covers bound over in red see-through plastic material, while the Tide Talk (school's news paper) proclaimed contemporary announcements, having echoed multiple stories from commercial newspapers printed throughout Louisiana.

Perhaps sixty full leather, dyed yellow pig skin school jackets with a big red "M" outlines in white and tightly sewed to the left breast, had been issued to each participating, athletic, coach, athletic director and principal by final graduation. On the left shoulder of each garment was another patch displaying the entire State of Louisiana. Inside the state emblem, the particular sport of each individual owning the award exposed itself, as if they were an elite group holding knighthood muster, inside highly guarded walls of armored steel!

The 1954 football scoreboard looked like this on the last day of the season in December:

 

Minden 39                        Bossier        19

Minden 14                        Vivian         13

Minden 06                        Neville        14

Minden 32                        Jonesboro  19

Minden 48                        Homer          00

Minden 32                        St Johns       07

Minden 49                        Mansfield      25                                  

Minden 06                        Ruston         13

Minden 07                        Haynesville  00

Minden 25                    Natchitoches   19

Minden 14                        Springhill     06

Minden 14                        Ruston         00

Minden 42                        Eunice         06

Minden 14                        Behrman     00

 

There is a reliable estimate that approximately 9,000 to 10,000 attended the state championship play-off and approximately 7,000 spectators attended the North Louisiana play-off; both games played at Crimson Tide stadium.

Naturally, the state championship victory over the Behrman Bees was the climax of the season. Jerry Frasier (fullback) scored the first touchdown as he went over the two yard line to climax an 84 yard drive in the first quarter.

The second touchdown occurred during the fourth quarter as James McCabe (quarterback)
ran a Behrman punt 41 yards for the touchdown.

Although the Tide's backfield were unreeling steady gainer's, they did not outshine the brilliant playing of the line. Clifford Taylor (left end) kicked his eleventh and twelfth consecutive extra points to top off a sparkling performance 14-0.

William Pat Watson #11
Center

 

1954 MINDEN HIGH SCHOOL STATE CHAMPIONS

Back row, L to R: Jimmy Fitzgerald, Bill Slay, Billy Don Adams, Roy Baggett, Richard Yates, Tommy Searles, Clifford Taylor, Bobby Hudson, Pat Watson, Douglas Skinner, Robert Miller, Danny Cheney, Johnny Lee.

Middle row, L to R: Paul Robinson, Drew Simmons, Benton Irby, Jerry Frasier, James McCabe, Edwin Leachman,  Huey Clement, Rogers Reeves, Ronny Pearson, Phillip Ford, Douglas Burt, Max Pevy, James Liner,  Don Jenkins.

Front row, L to R: Kenneth McMichael, Bill Terrill, Jimmy Campbell, Jerry Grigsby, Jimmy Marcus, Jerry Wayne Day, Doyle Walker, Meredith Nicholson, Jimmy Johnson, David Nadrchal, Ronald Bryan, Larry Miles

Thanksgiving  Day -  November  1955

Because we always played Springhill on Thanksgiving Day, we usually had Crowe for dinner and Jeter for dessert The cheerleaders would prepare a big bonfire the night before the football game. We would burn a dummy of John David Crowe during the pep rally in front of the Minden High School gym.

I first took notice of the importance of winning the Thanksgiving game when I first moved to Minden at the age of thirteen. Springhill was the team to beat. No one wanted to lose this game.

The star of the Springhill team -- was John David Crowe, a big blond guy who needed a crying towel after Minden beat Springhill that Thanksgiving day in 1954 when Minden beat Springhill.