| Graduation Year | Class of 1957 |
| Date of Passing | Sep 03, 2014 |
| About | A Teammate Named Ken Some years ago a movie came out entitled, “Rudy”; about a young fellow who, despite being undersized for a college football player, still had lots of heart and worked hard all his college career as a “scrub” trying to play football for the Notre Dame “Fighting Irish”. Finally, near the end of his last season Rudy was reluctantly “substituted” by the Coach into a game with him making some great plays resulting in him being one of the game’s heros. When I was in high school in East Texas during the 1950’s I had a football teammate that could very well have been a model character for the hero in that movie. “Ken” and I started out as high school freshmen in 1953, aspiring to play football for the local high school Tigers. And, like Rudy in the movie, Ken was light and slender, but with lots of heart. And, I was also “small”, but was somewhat “beefy” with more speed. Ken and I still, year after year stayed with the team and made every practice, often being literally “brutalized” during scrimmages with the “first string”, but rarely getting to play in games. In our 3rd year (junior) season I did get to play in enough games to earn a letter jacket, while my teammate, Ken, did not. Finally, during our 4th year (senior) season in 1956, I was named as a starting halfback in our T-formation offense, with my friend, Ken, being named to replace me on the defense as a defensive back. Ken was also named as the back-up quarterback on offense, as he was a pretty good ball-handler and a so-so passer, and was always near the top in the class, academically. Ken and I endured that 4th year season with an undermanned team, being soundly “thrashed” by larger teams in the area, in many games, since our squad had been decimated by the graduation of many outstanding players from the year before, including a player by the name of Don Meredith. But, with our senior year of football beginning to wind-down there was a game with one of our long-time rivals, in which our regular quarterback was unavailable for some reason, and Ken was named as the starting quarterback. And, the game did go well with Ken leading us for the first half, or so, and us winning the game. Thus, Ken and I, along with our whole football squad proudly accepted letter jackets from our Head and Assistant Coaches, one afternoon before Christmas that year, in front of the entire high school student body in the big “study-hall” contained in the old high school building we had at the time. EPILOGUE: The little town was Mount Vernon, Texas, with the Head and Assistant Coaches being Jack Gray and John Torbett of Arkansas. The high school building was located on South Holbrook Street of Mount Vernon at the time. Ken is #10 in the picture. And, imagine my sadness in hearing a couple of years ago that my old high school friend and teammate, Kenneth Rex (Ken) Raley, had been found apparently murdered in his home in Mount Vernon. Subsequently, a warrant for the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Ken was issued, with the suspect being apprehended shortly thereafter. This suspect was recently found guilty in the State district court in Mount Vernon and has been sentenced to life imprisonment. (Published by the Clarksville (Texas) Times newspaper, 5 Jan 2017) |
