Aldridge, Cory

Cory Aldridge was a standout outfielder for the Abilene Cooper baseball team and a tight end on the Cougars’ state runner-up football team in 1996. Aldridge enjoyed a remarkable 18-year professional baseball career playing  from 1997-2014 for the...

Hess, Jay

Jay Hess threw for a state record 3,154 yards and 37 touchdowns to lead the Eastland High School Mavericks to an unbeaten season and the Class 2A state title in 1982. He was voted the Texas High School Player of the Year for all classifications, a first-team all-state...

Biggers, Frank

Frank Biggers, a 6’3” forward, played basketball for the Wallace Wildcats, a small segregated African American school in Colorado City before integration. Wallace won five state championships from 1959 to 1966. Biggers was named all-state as a sophomore in 1962,...

McKinney, Jim

Jim McKinney was the Head Gymnastics Coach at Cooper for 25 years. His Cougars gymnastics teams won three state championships while McKinney was at the helm of the program. He was named the Texas High School Gymnastics Coach of the Year five times and was twice named...

Sanderson, Bob

Bob Sanderson was the Head Gymnastics Coach at Abilene High for 16 years (1983-99) and has amassed a coaching career that spans 24 years between Abilene and Lebanon, KY. His teams at Marion County High School (KY) qualified for the state meet 7 times and won state...

Hudgens, Harold

HAROLD HUDGENS  graduated from Ballinger High School in 1957. He then went to Texas Tech on a basketball scholarship and was an all-Southwest Conference selection while with the Red Raiders. The 6’10” Hudgens was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Honor in 2006...