Joe Bill Fox had no idea where he was headed that
steamy summer night in 1961 when he hopped into Virgil T. Blossom's
blue-and-white Buick Electra.
Fox, 28 at the time, was in from Abilene to interview with the
North East School District superintendent for the
football-coaching job at MacArthur High School.
"After we drove around in the dark for awhile on an old
two-lane road with the air-conditioning going full blast," Fox said, "Dr.
Blossom stopped the car and pointed to this field of nothing but
dirt and weeds and said, 'That's where I envision the stadium being built.
This is the center of the district. The best place for it.'"
That field of "dirt and weeds" now contains a multimillion-dollar,
56-acre athletic complex that bears Blossom's name. Its centerpiece
is an 11,000-seat football stadium that opened one year after
Blossom told Fox of his plans.
Such was the vision of the man credited with setting into motion a
transformation that resulted in a small, rural district with two
high schools - MacArthur and Lee - becoming one celebrating 50 years as an
independent district that has grown to include six Class 5A high
schools, 57,000 students and some of the state's finest facilities.
A revered figure to many who worked with him, Blossom was
the driving force in establishing a commitment to excellence in athletics
that's a big reason NESD has won 36 state team championships in 10 sports.
"Virgil Blossom set the tone for the district
just like a good general, and the troops all got behind him," said Kelly
Horn, NESD's first athletic director. "He was the kind of fellow you'd
want in your foxhole. You wanted him as your leader."
As former and current administrators, athletes and coaches gather
at Littleton Gym on Thursday night to celebrate "50 Years of North East
Athletics," some will remember that this year also marks the 40th
anniversary of Blossom's death.
"It's hard to forget him because the district wouldn't have
been as successful in athletics without Virgil Blossom," said Tom
Mosely, a longtime San Antonio educator who gave NESD its first state
champion when he guided Lee's boys golf team to the title in 1966. "He had
high expectations, and those expectations brought out the best in people.
He did not like to finish second in anything."
NESD began as the North East Rural School District in 1949.
It became an independent district operating under the jurisdiction
of the State Education Agency in 1955. As superintendent from 1959-65,
Blossom oversaw NESD's greatest period of growth, one in which
enrollment shot from 4,467 to 20,751.
"The district owes Dr. Blossom a lot," said Fox,
NESD's athletic director from 1968-75 after seven years at MacArthur.
"People started talking about how good the North East School
District was because of him."
Athletics were never far from Blossom's thoughts. A high
school and college football player in Missouri, Blossom believed a
well-rounded education should include athletics.
"He believed meeting physical challenges and learning teamwork made
for a strong person," said Blossom's daughter, Susie Streng,
who lives in Golden, Colo. "Reaching his own goals in sports transferred
to him reaching goals later in life. He liked the good feeling he had from
being successful and wanted his students to feel that way."
Blossom put those beliefs into practice in 12 years as a
teacher, coach and athletic director in such small Midwest towns as
Okmulgee, Okla. In 1942, he became superintendent of schools in
Fayetteville, Ark., where he gained recognition as a progressive, dynamic
leader and for a stint as public-address announcer at Arkansas
football games.
But whatever prominence Blossom achieved in Fayetteville
paled in comparison to the notice he attained while superintendent of
schools in Little Rock, Ark. In 1955, he devised a plan to gradually
integrate Little Rock's Central High after the Supreme Court ruled
segregation unconstitutional. For his work on desegregation, the
Arkansas Democrat named Blossom "Man of the Year."
"My father believed it was important to follow the law of the
land," Streng said, adding that Blossom often used this quote from
Abraham Lincoln to support his stance: "Let every man remember that to
violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear that
charter of his own and his children's liberty."
But after Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called in the National Guard
in September 1957 to prevent nine black teen-agers from entering the
school, the "Blossom Plan" was discarded. Although President
Eisenhower eventually forced Central to accept the black students,
Blossom was removed as superintendent in 1958. NESD hired him the
next year.
"He did what he could, and then he looked forward," Streng said.
"He was excited about coming to San Antonio."
The city's Northeast Side in 1959 was a far cry from the bustling
residential and commercial area that exists today. Deer, small farms, wild
oaks and industrial parks occupied most of the land north of Loop 410.
That would soon change as young families moved into fledgling subdivisions
with such names as Castle Hills, Regency Place and Shearer Hills.
"We had a few kids on our early (MacArthur) teams that were from a
long line of Bexar County people," Fox said. "We had kids from German
stock that would go hunting before school on the first day of deer season
and second- and third-generation kids whose parents had gone to
Jefferson."
Blossom wanted all of his schools to win - in every sport.
Finishing second was something he would not tolerate.
"Jefferson had the city's best football program back then, and he
wanted to know how long it would take us to beat them," said Fox, now 73.
Kirk Drew, Lee's first football coach, said Blossom wanted
more than just outstanding football teams.
"He would say, 'You've got your football and basketball programs
going, but I don't want you to forget baseball or track or anything
else,'" said Drew, now 75. "He said, 'It's not enough to just win in
football. I want to win in every sport.'"
Blossom supported his coaches by regularly attending
booster-club meetings. He also often met Fox and Drew for breakfast
at Jim's Restaurant at Broadway and Loop 410, which was known as
Blossom's second office.
"He was a man's man, but he was also a very tender person who loved
people," Fox said. "You would do anything you could for him."
It wasn't just his coaches who fell under Blossom's spell.
He convinced taxpayers in 1960 to pass a bond issue that paid for
much of the athletic complex and two high schools, Churchill and
Roosevelt, which opened in 1966.
"He sold taxpayers on what a great district this was when,
at that time, it really wasn't," Mosely said. "He would meet with people
in the district every night, and you couldn't pick up a paper
without seeing North East mentioned. He was a super salesman."
Said Streng: "He built incredibly strong alliances, and that was
one of his gifts to North East. He could get different constituencies -
everyone from (blue-collar) workers to the community power base - to pull
together to meet common goals."
Blossom's drive paid off when Lee reached the state
championship game in football in 1965. Although the Volunteers lost 11-6
to Odessa Permian, it was the beginning of a brilliant run that included a
state title in 1971 and appearances in the state semifinals in 1975 and
1977.
NESD gained its second state crown in football when Churchill won
in 1976.
But Blossom didn't live to see the Volunteers or Chargers
win the title. He died Jan. 15, 1965, at 58 from heart disease.
Fittingly, he's buried at Sunset Memorial Park within the NESD.
torsborn@express-news.net
Famous firsts in NESD history
Facilities
-First high school: MacArthur - opened in 1951 as North East High
School; renamed MacArthur in 1958.
-First centralized athletic complex: Construction for North
East Stadium (at 12002 Jones-Maltsberger) was funded from a 1960 bond
issue that also provided funding for two high schools - Churchill
and Roosevelt - that opened in 1966.
-First football game at North East Stadium: 1962 - Lee beat Fort
Worth Pascal 21-14.
-First athletic complex additions: A bond issue provided funding
for an aquatics center, which opened in 1964. NESD teams starting
playing basketball in a new field house at the complex in 1966. The
complex was named Blossom Athletic Center in 1967 for the
late Virgil T. Blossom, the district's first superintendent.
A baseball stadium was built in 1969-70, and eight tennis courts opened at
Blossom in 1973. The soccer field opened in 1998, the stadium was
renamed Comalander Stadium in 2000, and the Davis Natatorium was added in
2001 as part of a 1998 bond issue.
Administration
-First athletic director: Kelly Horn - from 1958 to 1968.
-First superintendent: Virgil T. Blossom - took office July
1, 1959, and held the position until his death in 1965.
Athletes
-First All-State selection: Linus Baer, Lee football, 1963
-First individual state championships:
Cross country: Kathy Smith, Churchill, 1982
Golf: Steve Holmsley, Lee, 1966
Swimming and diving: Jamie Weiss, MacArthur, 1966
Tennis: Susan Mainz and Jenny Mainz, Churchill girls doubles, 1985
Track and field: Relay - Lee boys, mile relay, 1962. Individual -
Maxwell Turner, MacArthur, shot put, 1965.
Wrestling: Brock Stratton, Roosevelt, 1999
Teams
-First team state championships:
Boys basketball: Lee, 1967
Boys golf: Lee, 1966
Girls golf: Churchill, 1996
Football: Lee, 1971
Boys soccer: Churchill, 1989
Girls soccer: Madison, 1991
Boys swimming: Churchill, 1987
Girls swimming: MacArthur, 1967
Team tennis: Churchill, 1985
Volleyball: Churchill, 1978
-The district has not had a school win a team state title in
girls basketball, baseball, cross country, softball, track and field, and
wrestling.
From NESD Web site and Express-News research
50 Years of North East Athletics
-When: 7 p.m. Thursday
-Where: Littleton Gymnasium |
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