John Lackey, a three-sport standout at Abilene High, pitched in the major leagues for the Los Angeles Angels, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs from 2002-2017. He compiled a career record of 188-147 with 2,294 strikeouts and a career earned run average of 3.92. Lackey, who helped Grayson College to the National […]
Steve Warren led Abilene High to the Class 5A Division II 2009 state football championship. He compiled a record of 175-68 in 19 seasons at AHS from 1996-2014 as the school’s all-time leader in wins. His career coaching record is 190-82, which included stints at Wall and Rotan. Abilene High hadn’t been to the state playoffs […]
Julie Roewe Goodenough, a native of Haskell, played on a Western Texas College team that went to the National Junior College Athletic Association national basketball tournament. She then played at Texas-Arlington, becoming one of the first Big Country girls to receive a Division I basketball scholarship. She has won more than 425 games in 25 […]
Jackie Ramsey-Cox, 1970 graduate of Abilene Cooper, was an All-American skeet shooter and a seven-time world champion. She was a member of the young, upstart Texas Whiz Kids who won the 5-man team 12 gauge World Championship in 1972 at Rochester, New York with a score of 1242×1250. She once held a women’s world record […]
Mark Oates, a 1981 graduate of Abilene High, is the most decorated gymnast in Abilene history and is the first gymnast selected to the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame. He won the Class 5A state all-around championship in 1981. He was then a three-time all-American in gymnastics at the University of Oklahoma. He won […]
Stanley Whisenhunt was the long-time girls basketball coach at Abilene Wylie where he was known as just Stanley by his students and players in the 1960s and ‘70s. His teams won 15 consecutive district championships and two regional championships. His team captured third place in the Class A girls basketball state tournament and then won the […]
Elijah Childers (deceased) graduated from Woodson High School in Abilene before integration where he was a three-year letterman in football, basketball and track. He started at tackle on offense and defense at Prairie View A&M, where he was all-SWAC in 1954-55. Prairie View won four consecutive SWAC titles and was crowned national champions of the Negro […]
Ellis Jones (deceased) played football at Abilene High from 1939-41. He then played guard and linebacker at Tulsa where he was a first-team all-American and played for the College All-Stars in their annual game against the defending NFL champion Chicago Bears in 1944. He then played one year for the Boston Yankees in the NFL, accomplishing […]
Lance Kitchens, who has been in the broadcasting industry for 38 years, has been the “Voice of Buckaroo Sports” since 1984 in Breckenridge. When he was dismissed from the broadcasts by Palo Pinto Communications, the community of Breckenridge created such as uproar that he returned to the airwaves for the 2017-18 basketball season under the […]
The Davis brothers (Ernie, Charlie and Donald) from Stamford will receive the Legacy Award. All three are in the McMurry University Athletic Hall of Honor. Ernie graduated from Stamford in 1955, where he played football and ran track. He was a Little All-American at McMurry where he scored 104 points in 1958 (ranked fifth best in the […]
