Remembering ‘The Game’

SAN ANTONIO — “That I will faithfully execute the office of President Of The United States,” said then newly elected John Fitzgerald Kennedy. “So help me God.”

“It appears something has happened in the motorcade route,” said an area Dallas radio reporter on November 22nd 1963. “Something, I repeat, has happened in the motorcade route.”

“President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time,” said legendary CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite.

Most of us remember the sad day in American history, November 22, 1963, the day that JFK was assassinated in Dallas. The President had also been in San Antonio as part of his Texas swing before Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the President in downtown Dallas. 

It was one week later that two San Antonio High Schools matched up in the state playoffs, Lee vs Brackenridge, in one that is still remembered to this day as simply ‘The Game.’ The country was still healing from the assassination, and it was also the early 1960s, a tumultuous in our nation’s history. The game that night, on the 29 of November in 1963 was epic on the field. Lee outlasted the 4A defending champion Eagles 55-48. 

“The city of San Antonio needed emotional relief,” said legendary Lee running back Linus Bear. “I think this game provided that. It took everybody’s mind off the assassination and let everybody focus on the game which turned out to be historical.”

The game sold out the day before in a matter of hours. Alamo Stadium would be sold out with more than 20,000 fans in the stands. And it also became, due to growing interest, the first Texas High School Football game to broadcast on television around the state. “I think Dan Cook once said that if everybody was at the game that said they were at the game there would have been 200,000 people there,” said Baer. “It was an impactful part of my life. It made an impact. I just didn’t realize it at the time.”

Given the racial climate of the day, and the national sorrow surrounding the presidential assassination, San Antonio football fans from opposite parts of town were able to come together to celebrate the game and to also from the week’s before events, together. The power of sports like never before at that time. “It can help heal the relationships with players, coaches and fans,” Baer said. “It just kind of brings everything together.” Star running back from Brackenridge Warren McVea offered his perspective some years ago looking back at the game. “There was lots of scoring going on, but I didn’t think about the significance it had throughout the state.”

The Dallas Morning News voted the showdown between the Vols and Eagles as the top High School Football Game played in 100 years in the 20th century. “None have been talked about like the 55-48 game,” said legendary University Of Texas Longhorns Head Coach Darrell Royal. “The ‘Big Game’ was my senior year,” said longtime KENS news anchor Chris Marrou. “Lots of people ask me if I was at the game, and yes I was,” he added. “The press built it up to be this super game and it lived up to all the expectations that were out there,” said Baer. “That was one week after President John Kennedy was assassinated,” said Marrou. “Joy was in short supply those days,” he added. “The game impacted my life and it is important to me,” said Baer.