DAVID TOLLISON was perhaps the best all-around player on Abilene Cooper 1987 state championship baseball team. He was 11-1 as a pitcher and batted .417 with seven home runs, 45 RBIs and 19 stolen bases as a senior. He was the winning pitcher in the state championship game and was named the state’s outstanding baseball player. […]
KATHRYN GILREATH helped Cooper High School to a three-year record of 57-0 and three consecutive 5A team tennis state championships. She played No.1 singles all four years. In the spring, she was a state quarterfinalist in doubles in 1993, a state semifinalist in doubles in 1994 and a state finalist in doubles in 1995 and […]
MERRILL GREEN was a star running back and punt returner at the University of Oklahoma in the early 1950s under coach Bud Wilkinson. He coached in college at Texas Tech and Arkansas before becoming the head coach at Abilene Cooper in 1965. He led the Cougars to the state title game in 1967. Green was the […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mike Morris, a graduate of Abilene Cooper, is the seventh official to be a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement for Officiating in the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame and the first baseball umpire. He has reached the pinnacle of collegiate baseball umpiring by calling games in the College World Series. To date, he was […]
The late Powell Berry was an all-district quarterback at Snyder. He is a member of the Snyder Hall of Honor and was a three-year letterman for Bear Bryant at Texas A&M where he was a team co-captain as a senior. All three sons played football at Abilene Cooper. Middle son Ray is already member of […]
Leanne Scott coached tennis for 20 years at Cooper High School in Abilene. She led the Cougars to three straight Class 5A state team tennis titles and 14 district championships. During her career at Cooper, her teams were ranked No. 1 in the state three years in a row, No. 2 in the state three […]
Tom Stanton is a member of the Hall of Honor at Cooper High School where he played basketball and baseball and set the school record with 50 points in a game. He earned five varsity letters at Baylor, three in basketball and two in baseball. After a 23-year executive management career, Stanton became the first […]
Ann Schroeder is perhaps the most honored tennis player in Abilene history. As a junior player she was ranked No. 2 in singles in Texas and No.1 in doubles. At Cooper, she won district and regional championships in doubles and was runner-up in the state tournament in both 1972 and 1973. She also led Cooper […]
