The 1961 ’Hounds

By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic campaign of the 1961 San Benito Greyhound football team, an unforgettable squad of savvy go-getters who came a game shy of reaching the state championship game.

That year, the team set the bar for generations of Greyhound football as the epitome San Benito sports. In 1961, among the ’Hounds star players were halfback Ray Saldaña and All-State halfback Jim Helms.

The latter of who has seen his fair share of success on the football field since. “Back in that time, it was more of a power running game, so you had to be more of a power back. That kind of transformed into being more of a scatback. It was kind of a combination of a powerback and a scatback,” said Helms, recalling San Benito’s glory days. “(Greyhound football) hasn’t really changed, as far as the enthusiasm. I think the town is still as enthused about it as it’s always been. Obviously the players change, they get bigger, stronger and faster than what they used to be. As far as the town and the enthusiasm, I think it’s still there.”

Working odd jobs in the summer was the way most teenagers spent their summer vacations back in those days, but it came time to get ready for football season, the boys who would make up the team were more than ready.

“When we were ready to get rolling, as far as practicing for football for the upcoming season, we came in and we did our training,” said Saldaña. “The first thing that Coach Jake Helms said was that he wanted to play 4A teams, which were the Corpus Christi teams and Kingsville. We were 3A and they were all 4A. What really got us going was when we went up there to scrimmage, we beat all of them.”

Following a season in which the Greyhounds had only lost one game, expectations were high going into ’61, and beating high caliber teams only fueled the fire.

“We knew that we had a good team, but we didn’t know how good it was. It’s just like everything else, you don’t know until you get to the battlefield,” Saldaña said. “We beat them all, and then we were ready to come back home. We had some cokes and some hotdogs that they had given us when the other head coach came over to talk to Coach Helms. He wanted another quarter or two because the other team didn’t score at all in the scrimmage. We all said, ‘Let’s go for it,’ and we beat them again.”

“We had a feeling that we were going to be pretty good because the year before, we had only lost one game,” Helms said. “It was a good senior and junior ball club that had a lot of success the year before. So we knew when we were going in that we were going to be pretty good. After we had the scrimmages, we felt that it was going to be a good year.”

That season would forever be etched in stone as the Greyhounds went on to demolish any team that stood in their way of a state title.

“We also had a scrimmage with Donna that year,” said Saldaña. “Donna had gone all the way to state and won the state title as a 3A. We scrimmaged them, and believe it or not, they said that they had never been beaten that bad. We got some of their players hurt because we were just hitting solid. When we came back from all those scrimmages, we played Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen, and Edinburg, we wiped them out. As far as the town, you would have to see it to believe it. Everyone would shut down, all the businesses, and go to the game. It was incredible.”

Their first and only loss of the season came against Nederland in the state semifinals, but it wasn’t without drama. The Greyhounds managed to maintain a one-point lead throughout the game until late in the fourth quarter when a Greyhound fumble was returned all the way for a Nederland touchdown.

The costly error sealed the game for a 22-15 win for Nederland and ended San Benito’s dream season.

Still, players and fans take pride in that unforgettable season just as much now as they did then.

“It was a season that we could always look back on. We went undefeated in probably 12 straight games, and that’s hard to do. It’s just something that I think everyone who was on the team looks back and has a lot of pride in. It was something that might never be accomplished again,” said Helms.

When asked what he remembers most about that season, he said it was beating the Harlingen Cardinals.

“That was something that we took pride in. I still get upset when the Greyhounds lose to the Cardinals,” said Helms, whose graduating class never lost to the Cardinals. “I never lost to them, and I just don’t see why San Benito should ever lose to them. That’s just the way I feel, and that’s just the way that all people I played with felt. When we played Harlingen, we were going to win the game. Somehow, someway, we’d find a way to win.”