First Row: James Wasleben, P.D. Wallace, Tek Outlaw, Rex Turner, Bob Lane, John P. Gilliam, Gid Smith, Bobby Tankersley
Second Row: Don Humphries, Charles Phillips, Harry Cash, James O. Womack, Sterling Smith, Claude Gustafson, Billy Dowdy, Milton Dahl, Jack Kanz, Dan Jameson
Third Row: Fred Henkelman, John Jones, Richard Holt, Charles Sessums, Gene Ashcraft, Jerry Cash, Anton Stacha, Ronny Thomas, Ronny Roetschke, J. Stanford, Hugh Trotter
Fourth Row: Morris Outlaw, Paul Larson, Joe Enochs, Leon Stacha, Kennard Dahl, Tom Parks, Bobby Conrad, Jerry Belcher, Charles Mickelson, Eddie Cromer, Kenneth Larson
About
Carol Sue Turner Carpenter was statistician for the Clifton High School Cubs Football Team in Clifton, Texas during the 1953 and 1954 football seasons. She was also Valedictorian of the Clifton High School Class of 1955. Her scrapbooks from those years provide the photographs and newspaper articles on this website and the words written in the 1953 and 1954 Highlights sections are hers.
With paper and colored pencils, Carol Sue charted the details of the plays of each possession and marked the number of the player who carried the ball. The dots, dashes, and colors of her diagrams helped the coaches with their postgame analysis. While not all games were recorded as movies, she remembers sitting in with the team to watch some very grainy films.
Carol Sue called five papers collect after every game from a phone booth to report the score. These papers were the Waco Tribune-Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Press, Dallas Morning News, and Dallas Times-Herald. She wrote an article on the Sunday following each game and mailed it on Monday. Her articles were often printed the week after the game in various papers but she was never given credit for writing them.
At a playoff game in Abilene, Carol Sue walked into the press box and took a seat to do her part for the Cubs. While there may have been an offhand comment about her being there, she remained and was likely the first female to be in that press box.
This website was created in honor of Carol Sue Turner Carpenter and her schoolmates. It is slow to load due to the size of the photographs, which can be opened, enlarged, right clicked and saved, so please be patient. If this proves too problematic the photos can be resized (but quality will suffer.) Right click and view in a new tab to more easily enlarge and scroll the articles.
If you played on these teams or have stories of the Clifton Cubs from this time, please send a message through the Contact form at the bottom of this page so that your recollections can be included here. Additional pages will be uploaded to this site which will contain the full pages from Carol Sue’s scrapbooks as they are run through Adobe programs for editing.
1953 Highlights
The 1953 football season was long and exciting, beginning in September and ending in the middle of December. Fourteen games in all. Most of the schools Clifton played back then are still classified AA and AAA as is Clifton. Some we played – Richardson, Mansfield, Burleson — now have multiple high schools.
Clifton won 10 games with no losses in the regular season. The new electric scoreboard was dedicated. Clifton won playoff games over Richardson, Paducah, and Whitewright. This game was memorable because it was wet and cold and the mud was ankle-deep on the Waxahachie field. You could not make out the numbers on the uniforms of the players by halftime.
Clifton lost the State semi-final game to Ranger on December 18th, ending the season with a 13-1 record.
Clifton players on the 1953 All-District team:
Brothers Jerry and Harry Cash, John Beaver, Tek Outlaw, and Bobby Conrad.
Second team members were John Jones and James Humphries.
Bobby Conrad was the leading scorer in Central Texas until the final game. He was named to the 1st team All-State and signed to play with Texas A&M.
Guard John Beaver received Honorable Mention. Clifton was ranked 4th in the state at the end of the season.
1953 Clifton Cubs Junior High Football Team
Bottom row: Bobby Rester, Merle Belcher, Don Kanz, Tom Ralph, Frankie Brandon, Gary Josey
Second row: George Tenant, Maxie Wallace, Cliff Jenson, Bobby Struempler, Rodney Moncrief, Larry Wilkerson, Lloyd Turner
Third row: Johnny Guy Lockhart, Waymon Culp, Larry Colwick, Donald Hennig, Frank Smith, Gary Cash, Billy Toten, Leonard Turner
Fourth row: Robert Larson, George Davis, Larry Wallace, Robert Rierson, James Bean, Kenneth Terrell
Back row: Coach Aubrey Roberts, Jerry Reesing, Kenneth Patterson, Jerry Myers, Joe White, Carl Swenson, Clarence (Butch) Hefner, Frederick Henkelman (Gary Westley, Jamie Zander)
Back row: Line Coach Roger Oliver, Lloyd Aulie, Head Coach Julian Kuehl, Morris Outlaw, Bill Cody, John Amundson, Joe Walker Enochs, Kent Wesley, John Jones, Anton Stacha, Valjean Polk, Jimmy Stanford, Charles Mickelson, Jim White, Dick Holt, Bobby Conrad, John Beaver, Fred Ludwig, Jerry Belcher, Dan Jameson, A. T. Roberts (scout and junior high coach)
Middle row: Edward Kettler, Roland Anderson, Gene Ashcraft, Rex Turner, Tommy Roetschke, Bob Lane, P. D. Wallace, James Humphries, Sterling Smith, Harry Cash, Charles Philipp, Tek Outlaw, Glen Thomas, Jerry Cash
Front row: Eugene Dietiker, R. C. Spitzer, Joe Richards, Benny Turner, Pat Erickson, Glen Gaustad, Hal Denton, Jackie Brandon, John Phil Gilliam, James Womack, Bill Dowdy
Not in the picture: Jack Kanz, Philip Hansen, Von Kleibrink, Hal Case, Floyd Denton
1954 Highlights
The season started off with a “bang,” winning over Kemp 81-7. P. D. Wallace scored four touchdowns and was named to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Honor Roll. Clifton was ranked 6th in their state rankings. After three weeks, Clifton was the state’s highest scoring team and Wallace was on the Star-Telegram Honor Roll again.
Wallace, Bob Lane, and James Womack were among the Waco Tribune-Herald Centex top scorers.
Lane was on the Star-Telegram Honor Roll after scoring 7 touchdowns and 4 extra points against Alvarado.
Wallace was on the Tribune-Herald Honor Roll after the Itasca game, having gained 189 yards. Clifton ended the regular season unbeaten 10-0. Wallace and Lane were among the top 5 scorers in Centex and John Phil Gilliam passed for over 1,000 yards. Tek Outlaw scored numerous touchdowns on punt returns, most over 50 yards.
The Clifton Line: Anton Stacha, Jack Kanz, Sterling Smith, Dan Jameson, Harry Cash, Fred Ludwig, and Jerry Cash, 6 of them seniors, did an excellent job all season blocking and protecting their backs. Clifton won its Bi-District game over Richardson, but lost the Regional game to Paducah. Final Record 11-1. Jerry Cash, Lane, and Wallace were 1st team All-District with Wallace named Best Back and MVP. Coach J. B. Kuehl was Coach of the Year. The 2nd team All-District included F. Ludwig, H. Cash, and D. Jameson. Wallace was named 2nd team All-State.
Coach J. B. Kuehl came to Clifton as an assistant coach in 1950. He was head football coach from 1951 through 1954, winning 3 consecutive Bi-District championships. Kuehl was named “Coach of the Year” at least once by the Waco Tribune-Herald. He accepted an offer from a much larger school after the ’54 season. Coach Kuehl was one of the most successful coaches in Clifton High School history.
Writers who covered and wrote about Clifton Cub Football for the Waco Tribune-Herald included Dave Campbell (founder of “Dave Campbell’s Texas Football” magazine), Al Ward, who became an executive with a New York pro team, and Hollis Biddle, a longtime journalist for the Waco paper.
Various writers from the Fort Worth and Dallas papers also covered Cub football games.
Front row: James Otis Womack, R. C. Spitzer, Pat Erickson, P. D. Wallace, Harry Cash, Bob Lane, Gid Smith, Joe Richards, Lloyd Aulie, Sterling Smith, Bill Cody, John Phil Gilliam
Back row: Coach J. B. Kuehl, Tek Outlaw, Johnny Lockhart, Johhny Amundson, Jerry Cash, Kenneth Larson, Roland Anderson, Jack Kanz, Fred Ludwig, Dan Jameson, Anton Stacha, Gene Ashcraft, Valjean Polk, Coach Roger Oliver
Contact Us
If you have stories of the Clifton Cubs during the early 1950s please send us a message.