By RENE TORRES
The year was 1929, only three years after the new El Jardin school building (located five miles east of Brownsville) was erected, that its football 11, the Comets, were fighting for their lives on the gridiron.
The rural school football title was on the line with Stuart Place and El Jardin having two games remaining against each other for the crown.
El Jardin had a formable starting line-up that included: H. Vicars, left end; Frazier, left tackle; Carl Vicars, left guard; Underwood, center; Kemper, right guard; Gendenning, right tackle; Adams right end; Coy Vicars, quarterback; Lawrence, left halfback; Mathias, right halfback; and Triplett, fullback.
In their first encounter, Stuart Place gained an advantage on the Cameron County Rural title by defeating the Comets in Brownsville 13-12. The Herald described it as a nip-and-tuck affair, with neither team holding a decided advantage.
El Jardin’s inability to score points after touchdowns and a called-back score for being offsides was the downfall for the Comets.
The second game was played at Stuart Place— where El Jardin was embarrassed. Coach Ryle’s team ended the season with undefeated record and the Rural Championship Title.
But wait a minute. According to Bruce Underwood, those three points that the Comets scored, “were the greatest three points in Rio Grande Valley Football.” The following is a reprint of Underwood’s story of that November afternoon game of 1929:
Eleven spirited but rather scrawny El Jardin High School football players were taking the most awful drubbing of their lives on that mild afternoon at Stuart Place High School in November of 1929.
The host team, it was proved later, had brought in five huge, over-aged, ineligible players to help insure a victory in this second of the three-game series against El Jardin. Such a victory would enable Stuart Place to win the Cameron County Class “B” Championship.
Stuart Place’s power was evident in the first play from scrimmage. El Jardin guard-center Bruce Underwood was knocked out for this only time in sports competition which would eventually cover 16 years of his life.
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