(Courtesy photo)
By ALBERT VILLEGAS
Special to the NEWS
hen the San Benito High School Mighty Greyhound Band takes the field at Bobby Morrow Stadium during the annual Pigskin Jubilee, spectators will likely not consider the event’s long history.
The marching contest had its humble beginnings in neighboring Harlingen during the 1940s.
So in the 80 years the musical event has taken place, there have been thousands of young musicians marching and hundreds of drum majors leading on the field of competition – all in hopes of “superior” ratings from judges.
Much has changed for San Benito High School’s band – from its musical selection, style of marching, uniforms, and in some instances, its personnel.
Today, the band is led on the field by a majority of Hispanics, including its drum majors, color guard, and directors. Seven games into the Greyhounds’ football season, halftime shows at home and away games are full of loud and precise musical sounds and pageantry.
SBHS will look to once again earn sweepstakes at the 82nd annual Pigskin. However, over 60 years ago, SBHS accomplished this feat of a top rating led by its first Hispanic drum majorette. Her name was Mary Lou Saldana, a 1963 SBHS grad.
Saldana earned her place at the top of the order when she was elected during the spring of her junior year of high school.
What she accomplished was a springboard to the 1962 Greyhounds’ football season. To try out, a band student was required to have passing grades. Saldana’s longtime friend, Ray Gonzales, 80, remembers that she had to compete against two other students who were both Anglo.
“The students who tried out did so at the stadium, and they all did a routine in front of the rest of the band members,” Gonzales said. “Then afterwards, we all voted and it turned out that Mary Lou would be our drum major(ette).”
To be a drum majorette leading the SBHS marching band was not uncommon, but to be of Hispanic origin, that was a first.
“Mom found a niche that provided her an opportunity for success,” her son, Ray Saldana, Jr., said. “My mother was musically inclined, which led to many in our family to go on to play music, too.”
Her eldest child, Laura Ann Soliz, said her mother spoke highly of the SBHS band during her time and then decades later when she was an educator.
“She took a lot of pride about the band, had always spoken highly about the program, and they were and are the best band around, but she was humble about it,” Soliz said. “She continued to go to Greyhound games with our father, organize class reunions, and be involved with her students.”
Mary Lou, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Pan American University in Edinburg, went on to be a San Benito CISD educator for 35 years.
An aged newspaper clip from the 1960s that her third child, Lurae Caldwell, has kept for years, shows Mary Lou posing in the middle surrounded by band twirlers.
Like today’s band, it’s apparent there was diversity when Saldana led the group for the 1962-63 school year. It included twirlers Margaret Floyd, Charlotte Oyama, Annette Wright, and Rose Anes – all of them dressed in band uniforms.
“I knew her since sixth grade. We went to the same middle school, and she was always a leader,” Bobby Cantu, 79, said. “She was well-liked by even the Anglo students because she was very humble, and very likable.”
Cantu started band playing trumpet and eventually tuba.
At that time, success was commonplace for San Benito High School. In fact, Mary Lou had previously been a marching band twirler during an era of Greyhounds football that saw the team play well into the winter. The ‘Hounds competed in a Class 3A semifinal game against Nederland at old Greyhound Stadium. It was a game played in front of 10,000 spectators that saw the ‘Hounds lose, 22-15. Saldana was a junior at the time.
“I remember our band, and it was less than 100 members, was always seated on the field; we weren’t in the stands like they do these days,” said Gonzales, who played saxophone, and graduated the same year as Mary Lou. “It was a great time to be raised in San Benito. Those are some great memories.”
Gonzales and Cantu said every year in high school, the football teams’ successes in the winter time saw marching intertwined with concert season. It proved challenging, but they adapted to the different styles of music.
Mary Lou played drums.
She passed away Feb. 11, 2023 at the age of 78. She was preceded in death by her high school sweetheart, Reynaldo Saldana, Sr., who died Aug. 15, 2022.
Ray said his father graduated a year (1962) before “his love of his life” did. Father attended Dr. C.M. Cash Elementary School, and mother Fred Booth Elementary School.
The children were told dad took a liking to mom when they were small and that dad remembers first spotting her at a football game. By the time Mary Lou and Reynaldo attended junior high school, his feelings became more serious towards her. They eventually went steady at SBHS where Mary Lou also was in the Girls Athletics Association and a member of Future Teachers of America. Mary Lou would also be elected duchess of her junior class in preparation for that year’s homecoming.
The couple eventually married two years later on Jan. 31, 1965, three days after his 21st birthday.
The three children, who graduated from SBHS in the 1980s, said their father was a migrant, and continued to travel north to seek work in Hereford, Texas and New Mexico working in potato and onion fields. He would travel with family members, too, and many times sent money to Mary Lou back in San Benito.
“Dad told us mom was his queen, and did what he could to make sure she was taken care of back home during her senior year of high school,” Ray said.
The children announced there will be two separate scholarships, each for $1,000 presented to a SBHS graduate beginning in 2025. Each will bear the Saldana name.
To qualify for the Mary Lou Saldana Band Scholarship a student must be a:
* Graduating senior and a current member of the Mighty Greyhound Marching Band
* Must have at least a GPA of 3.0 or higher
* Have two letters of recommendations from teachers and/or counselors
* Write a person a personal profile on your future goals, why the scholarship is needed, and include how being a member of the band contributed to your educational success
* Must have an acceptance letter from an accredited college or university.
To qualify for the Ray Saldana, Sr. Scholarship, a student must be:
* A graduating senior and a current athlete planning on enrolling in a two- or four-year college
* Must have at least a GPA of 3.0 or higher
* Must have two letters of recommendation – one from a career technical education teacher and one from a teacher or counselor
* Write a person a personal profile on your future goals, why the scholarship is needed, and include how being part of vocational classes has contributed to your educational success
* Must have an acceptance letter from an accredited college or university.
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