Twenty years ago tonight, me and my teammates gave north Texas a dose of "Know Howe." We pulled off something only a small circle within the decrepit confines of the Bulldog Stadium Field House thought could. That night we overcame being 17 point underdogs and knocked the 8th ranked District Champion Celina Bobcats out of the playoffs in the first round. We believed, and we achieved, together, undivided, as one.
We had lost Howe's most successful head coach in Howe history in Jim Fryar who left for a similar position in Jacksboro. We had a second-year head coach in Joey McQueen. I was a slot receiver the previous year as a sophomore on a team chalked with more talent than anyone could imagine. We shattered every passing record Howe had seen. We finally lost in the regional championship and carried our District, Bi-District and Area championship trophies with us to the football banquet. All of that was gone.
Our new head coach wanted to symbolically get a head start to the 1990 season. So we started at midnight of the first day eligible to practice 2-a-days. Coach McQueen was at Howe two years prior for one year before taking a head coaching position at Bells. I knew Coach McQueen pretty well since he ran the offense on JV my freshman year and I was the starting fullback and carried the ball 20+ times per game. He knew what I could do running the football so when Coach Fryar left, I wanted Coach McQueen. I even called him at Bells and tried to lure him back to Howe. My teammate Jon Norwood who was at Bells High for some academic contest even left a letter on his desk from what I recall trying to lure him back. And when I heard he was going to come back, it was a tremendous feeling. It was nearly the same feeling I had when the Rangers signed Nolan Ryan. However, I had no idea that the Coach McQueen we were getting was totally different than the one we had two years prior.Coach McQueen demanded us to be gentlemen. He demanded us to say Yes Sir and No Sir. He demanded us to do things the "right way." Everything changed when Coach McQueen showed up. We ran sprints before and after every practice. Coach McQueen laid out the ground rules that we would be running 25 40's after every practice. It was exhausting. It was what we thought, cruel and unusual punishment. Even our offensive scheme changed to what I likened to going from a Corvette to at Corsica. I had been a starter in the high-flying runnin'-shoot the year before. It truly was one of the first if not the first spread offenses in high school. We were electric. Now we're going to a wing-T. Uughh.
We had a steep learning curve with our new roles and new coach and we didn't execute very well at first. We had lost 3 of the first four games to Leonard, arch rival Van Alstyne, and Pilot Point. But our defense was really good. It kept us in every game.Things shifted in week 6 that rocked our season. We lost at Aubrey 14-7 in a game we had no business losing. Before that game, in practice that week, I had gone to Coach McQueen and stated my case to get more carries. I wanted to carry the load just as I did on J.V. my freshman year and we had success. So Coach McQueen gave me that opportunity in Aubrey and I was to get the majority of the carries. In the first quarter, I got just that...and I fumbled twice and didn't hustle on another play and was ripped at the film session on Saturday morning. We had major changes coming, and I was sick to my stomach.
We were built on defense, so we didn't have to make changes on that side of the ball. We were good and we we knew we were good. It was the offense that we had to change. The coaches made those changes and I was moved to tight-end. Domingo Rivera was our new fullback and the move that punched our ticket to the playoffs was the one that moved Michael Bailey into the lead running back role. Michael Bailey was a microcosm of our entire team. He was about 5'5, 155 pounds and he never quit. He never took a play off. He never stopped until the whistle had blown. Coach McQueen once said in a team meeting, "Michael Bailey can cut on a dime, spin on a nickle, and twist on a penny." At Van Alstyne early in the year, the P.A. announcer didn't have a jersey number that matched up on the roster for Bailey, so when Bailey would run, the announcer would say, "He has moves like Elvis so we'll just call him Elvis." From that point on, for about another quarter, people around town could hear, "Elvis on the carry." When Bailey got tackled, he would pop up on his feet from laying on his back. And the harder he was hit, the faster he popped up to his feet. It was almost as if he was telling the defense, "I'll always be here no matter how hard you hit me." His heart was an inspiration to all of us. And it kind of gave us the same mentality. We weren't going to take a play off, we weren't going to stop until the whistle blew, and we would never quit. Michael Bailey as our lead Dawg gave this team mouth-to-mouth. I am so thankful that I fumbled twice in Aubrey and was a big reason we lost that game. Because it was the last time we'd lose that season until we were three games away from the state championship.In order to secure a spot in the playoffs, we had to outright beat a very talented Bells team in the last game of the season at Bulldog Stadium. Coach McQueen had come to us from Bells in which he took them to the regional finals the year before by virtue of tying everyone winning via penetrations or first downs.
We quickly found ourselves down 11-0 at the half. Three big plays won the game for us (outside of our shutdown defense). Joey McMillion caught a 64-yard TD from Wade Carson in the 3rd quarter. Then in the 4th quarter, Carson threw a tight-end throwback that I was able to catch and take it deep into their side of the field for 47 yards to their 29. The very next play, Michael Ross scored. That come from behind 12-11 win propelled us into the playoffs.
11/17/1990
That's where we get to 20 years ago tonight. Our motto all year had been "Bulldog Magic." It seemed a little quirky at first, but it became a staple before it was all said and done. We felt after coming from behind so often, that we had a little of that magic. Since we were runners up in the district to Pilot Point, we had to take on the district champion Celina Bobcats and their head coach G.A. Moore in the first round. The year before, on our ultra-talented team, we manhandled them in their own backyard in route to our very own district championship. But most of our guys from that team were now in college and most of their guys were still playing. Celina, as I mentioned earlier were ranked 8th in state. They were better than we were. Everyone said so. Even they would tell you so. As a matter of fact, it was pointed out to us by our head coach that he heard Celina had already printed some t-shirts that read Bi-District Champions. Assistant coach Steve Simmons showed up at the pep rally with a white shirt that read in orange type, "Celina Bobcats - 1990 Bi-District Champs." We saw that shirt and destroyed it. Each player wore a strip of that shirt on our uniform that night. I had mine tied to my belt at the hip pad dangling down. 
Once we got to John Clark Stadium, we entered the dressing room as we always did....very quietly...very business-like. And as soon as the game started, we found ourselves in a hole again early. This was the theme of our team. We were behind with a 2-4 record at one time and came back to save our season. We were down 11-0 to Bells and we came back to save our season. And here we find ourselves down 14-0 going into halftime. But, when you have an attitude like we did...when we got knocked down, we popped back on our feet from our back like our little running back. We didn't know how to quit. We didn't know what it felt like to give in. We didn't have one standout player, but we had a ton of players that played together and we all played as one. Desire beats talent everytime. And we had desire.
Thanks to our little "Elvis", we churned all the way down the field in the 3rd quarter. Bailey carried the ball and put us on his shoulders. We had a first and goal at the 9 yard line, which ironically turned into a 4th and goal do-or-die situation. Our quarterback Wade Carson had heavy pressure and literally just heaved the ball up in the air as he was being thrown to the ground. The ball in the air hung for what seemed like forever. Then out of the sky came Damion Horton on what looked like a Dennis Rodman post-up reboundand and came down for the touchdown. I kicked the extra point and now it's 14-7 Celina. We are back.We go to the 4th quarter and we realize that we are dominating them. They had only 4 first downs the entire 1st half and none so far in the 2nd half. Our defense was led by coordinator Billy Hill who we believed so much in. We knew that if we listened to him, we'd give our offense a chance to win the game. And we held them to punt after punt after punt. Michael Bailey took over again as he cut and cut and flipped and churned for every last inch he could muster. Late in the game, Carson connected with Shawn Stephenson and Micahel Ross scampered around and made a great cut himself and scored the tying TD. Everyone of us went crazy. Everyone except me. I had to kick the extra point to actually tie the game. We were on the net side of John Clark Stadium and before the game I was easily kicking them over the net and into the parking lot. I just wanted to do the same thing here. And in "this" particular game, I did just that. And we were tied 14-14.
In those final moments of the game, much chaos occurred. Coach McQueen and Coach Hill were explaining the rules to us in this situation because there were no overtime in high school football at the time. We had never been in a tie game, muchless one in the playoffs that had so much riding on it. We understood that we were tied in penetrations (getting to the opponents 20 yard line) and we were ahead on first downs (the next tie-breaker). We had a large lead in first downs thanks to our defense that held Celina to 14 total yards of offense in the 2nd half and one first down. I remember our defensive captain and fellow linebacker Jon Norwood screaming out as we're lining up, "THEY DON'T GET TO OUR 20!" And they didn't. We took over possession and by virtue of the stats, we were going to be Bi-District Champions!. All we had to do was run out the clock.
This is where what was to be a joyous post-game celebration turned a bit grim. We rotated plays in and out with our wingbacks Shawn Stephenson and James Fulenchek. We had just taken a knee and only needed to run one more play to win. Everyone in the stadium knew what was coming. We were going to take a knee right? Well, that was the plan.... Coach McQueen told Shawn Stephenson the play of, "Tell Wade to drop back and take a knee." I guess with all of the excitement and commotion and loudness of the crowd, Shawn heard, "Tell Wade to drop back and throw it deep." When Shawn said that in our huddle, Wade made him repeat it. And he looked at me and said, "be ready." I ran a short flag pattern and Wade hit me in stride and I nearly scored on it. We definitely caught Celina off-guard...because it looked horrible to the eyes of Celina I'm sure. We had taken a knee the play before and then come out and try and score? Yeah, that could be perceived as bad sportsmanship. That's where the post-game went south. Coach McQueen showed extreme displeasure for Wade and even though he told Coach about Shawn's interpretation, Coach McQueen was furious...which made everyone a little sour. 
But in the end, we had done something no one in North Texas thought we could do. We overcame the odds and started the 8th ranked football team in the state's basketball program just a little earlier than they anticipated. And they had some shirts to throw away. That night put the reinforcement stamp on my life of positive thinking and never say die. Never quit and when people tell you something can't be achieved, try me.
We lost Shawn Stephenson and Chris Hartwell to season-ending injuries the week before and when we played Mart for the regional championship, we were just too banged up. We even lost our quarterback Wade Carson to a torn ACL early in the game. The headlines in the paper were "Mart Beats Howe on Points."
I'll never forget 20 years ago night when we gave everyone a little "KNOW HOWE." We were a story of a group of guys that didn't accept losing. We had a lot of individuals with heart and it spread like a cancer. We were accountable to each other. Coach McQueen told us everyday that he loved us. I can still hear him as plain as day saying, "I love each and everyone one of you." We thought that it was a little strange for him to tell us that everyday, but tomorrow, I sit 36 years, 6 months, and 2 days old...I tell my son everyday that I love him. Thank GOD for 1990 and that team and those guys. Thank GOD for the heart of Michael Bailey who symbolized our character by flipping up when knocked down. Thank GOD for Coach McQueen who made us do things we didn't want to do in order for us to achieve things we wanted to achieve.
Radio: Howe vs. Celina 11/17/1990 on KMKT-FM
Video: 1990 Howe Bulldog Highlights Part 4
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