The Victoria College, 1925-2000: A Tradition of Excellence

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Patti Welder High School was
separated from the Victoria Junior
College by the “arches.”
With the advent of the football season, some
students began to bemoan the lack of the sport at
the college and revisited the decision to drop
football. A popular co-ed, Grace Leggett, commented:
“A football team is the life and making of
the school.” “A college team,” opined fellow classmate
Lucille Steele, “would provide more pep
and school spirit for the student body as a
whole.” Despite the misgivings and vocal exercise
by these disgruntled students, the administration
took the position that the college was too small to
properly finance the football program. In January
1938, basketball was axed, largely for the same
reason that football was scrapped—finances. 27
After a year’s absence, basketball, albeit nonscholarship,
was resumed at the college. School
officials found sufficient funds in the budget to
purchase twelve uniforms and three basketballs.
Coach Aubrey Reece assumed the responsibility
of “developing a team from whatever material he
could gather from the college and from boys
in high school who had already played out
their high school eligibility.” Virtually every
member of the squad worked off-campus, causing
Coach Reece some anxious moments. In the
first game of the year, the contest was delayed
thirty minutes “in order that two of the boys
who didn’t get off from work until game time
would be there for the opening.” In what proved
to be a laughable exercise for the Pirates, the
college won, defeating Corpus Christi Junior
College 47 to 11. Alfred Fernandez led the local
hoopsters with twenty-four points. 28
The nonscholarship basketball team enjoyed
a winning season. Apparently a sufficient number
of players were able to get away from their
jobs to participate in the games. Their success
on the court earned them the right to play
Temple Junior College for the regional title in
Victoria. The local hoopsters emerged victorious,
capturing two out of three games. Their
basketball fortunes came to an end at the state
tournament in Gainesville. Coach Reece’s squad
was humiliated in the first game of the double
elimination tournament by falling to
Jacksonville Junior College 65 to 25. In the
32 ✦ THE VICTORIA COLLEGE, 1925-2000