Firebird65

Thanks, Filio, but that was me who had posted that on the other thread (which was the Amusement Park thread - go figure). That lead to the creation of this thread. But I had stated that Aldine (Marrs) High was built in 1936, which is what I got from the Aldine school district. Either they were wrong or... The Marrs High School that opened in 1936 replaced an earlier version. As that book above clearly stated, one of the polling places for the May 1935 election was Marrs High School. So something is definitely amiss... or at least we are missing a piece of information. According to Aldine ISD, the school district came into being in 1935, which that book above bears out. Common School District 29, the county-run predecessor of AISD, was formed in 1932. So it is possible they had a school building of some sort, named it Marrs High, then transferred the name to a new school built by AISD.

An appropriately named book!

Wow! Where in the world did you find that? Haven't had time to read it all, but I will. I like how it gives the location of Frank Lorino's store. That mist have been a popular community gathering place back in the day as I've seen it listed even in Chronicle and Post news stories as a polling place for Aldine elections. I had thought it was also known as the Fairview Food Market/Lucky Seven store at Gulf Bank and Airline, but as that book says it is close to the Brubaker school, that rules that out. I've been meaning to ask if you've found out anything about the Brubaker school. I believe the focus of my report on the Aldine High/Northline Terrace area should actually be on the Brubaker community near Aldine Mail Route/Hambrick and Airline rather than the Aldine one. Brubaker's the closer and thus would have had more impact on the residents of the future Northline Terrace area. If you come across anything on the Brubaker or the Brubaker school, I'd love to see it. All I've seen is a map in the Texas Room that gives its approximate location. Also, having read a little more, it says one of the polling places for this election is to be the Marrs High School building in the town of Aldine. As this election is in 1935, then how was Marrs High School built in 1936??? Was it actually built before and I've just been wrong or was there another Marrs High School that took the place of the one mentioned? I could have sworn on a stack of Bibles that I read on Aldine's own web site that Marrs High was built in 1936. If they don't know when their own place was built, what does that mean?!? LOL! Thanks!

Duchos is closed? The place had been there forever.

Agreed.

Yes, it well could have been a first name rather than a last name. Just by accident I came across some photos on the web of gravestones where the person's first name was Aldine. Or it also could have been someone with the first name of Aldus. Given the pronunciation of Aldine as "AHL-deen" rather than "AHL-dyne" I still think the name idea is more possible than the hokey legend. I'd be more inclined to go towards the popular lore if the pronunciation were the other way. I think it's either a probably name (probably a first name) or it was named after another town someone lived in before.

Do you know exactly when MacArthur opened? The fielded their first varsity team in 1967, but I think the school opened in 1965. Do you know? BTW, the first game in MacArthur history was on September 8, 1967 against Baytown Sterling, also playing the first game in its history. The Rangers won 20-12. MacArthur's first win was on October 27, 1967 - a 14-0 triumph over Westchester, yet another first year school. Anyone wanting to do a history of MacArthur's football team would have a lot easier time than I've had with Aldine. After all, they could skip 31 years from 1936 to 1966. And reporting in the 1960s was much better than of the 1930s and 1940s. If the Post or Chronicle covered a game at all (and there were a lot fewer teams then), sometimes all you would get was a score and one or two lines. And the layout (if you could even call it a layout) of those old papers was awful at best, non-existant at worst.

I now live on the west side, so it's not at all easy to just drop on in during business hours. However, earlier this year I did write and call the athletic director a few times and got no reply. That was pretty disappointing. If you drop by, please share whatever you find on the board. I've found 99.3% of the games (scores on 727 of 732) and quite a few of the major milestones. But there's lots other stuff I'd love to have that you can't get in a newspaper. In answer to your earlier question, Aldine was called Prairie Switch in the 1870s until about 1888. Why exactly the name was changed remains a bit of a mystery. Local lore suggests the hokey conductor yelling "All dine!" story, but a poster named isuredid has suggested several more likely possibilities.

The Cornwell brothers were definitely two of the greatest players to ever wear a Mustang uniform. To paraphrase Denzel Washington from "Training Day": They did some real damage. Wendell had a 65-yard TD run in 1939 against Webster. He blocked a Pasadena punt and returned it 54 yards for a TD in Aldine's first postseason game in history - the 1940 District 29-1A Championship game. He scored the only points in Aldine's first big ever big upset - a 7-0 shocker of Class AA Houston Milby in 1941. Sam scored 19 of Aldine's 21 points in a 21-19 win over Cedar Bayou in 1944. He had three TDs andan extra point. He returned a punt 90 yards for a TD and threw for two scores against over Tomball that same year. Aldine was consecutive district champs from 1941 to 1944 (they weren't always the same district). They won a team-record 21 straight district games from 1940 to 1944 and, including ties, were unbeaten in 34 straight district games from 1939 to 1945. If the 1980s and early 1990s were Aldine's Golden Age, then this period from 1940 to 1948 was their Silver Age. By all means, if you have any stories or photos, please do share them. I'm essentially finished with my football history. Now I just have to wait for them to complete this season. no reason to include it now that it's started. An interesting tidbit: This weekend's 17-14 last-second win over MacArthur was the first Mustang game decided on the final play with no time left since 1982. That was the wacky 35-35 tie with MacArthur where we initially missed the extra point, giving the win to the Generals... until their fans rushed the field, prompting a penaly and giving Aldine new life, as no game can end on a defensive penalty. Steve Kennard made good on his second chance and with the tie, Aldine advanced to the playoffs, no doubt much to the chagrin of MacArthur.

Cyclone Anaya's was absolutely GREAT. They had a location on Richmond between Fondren and Gessner that I loved to go to. What a shame it closed. There is a site on on Studemont near Washington that supposedly is owned by someone involved in the old Cyclone anaya's. I've been there once, it wasn't the same.

I enjoyed that book thread, especially the link to the 1941 book on Houston history. Another problem with history text is that... well... history gets longer. So, if you have a 300 page book on Houston history and you update it 10 years later, you either have to add pages to cover the previous decade or delete something to be able to include the latest developements. So since the 1941 book was unburdened with covering the rest of the 1940s to today, it has more room for the early stuff. It doesn't have to give short shrift to Houston's participation in the Civil War or during the 1890s. Plus it was written from the perpective of someone in the 1940s, which is different than our perspective of today. An old history book is a double bonus...

I was just about to post the same thing! LOL! They just have next to no pictures. Click on a "Decade in Photos" icon and one, maybe two, pictures show up. It's an interesting site, but it reads like it was written by the Chamber of Commerce with all the references to building permits and port receipts. That's certainly good information, but it's cold and dry. There's needs to be a lot more about people. That's the problem with a lot of history texts: they focus too much on facts and not enough on stories. They tell you this war was fought between these dates and this guy was king from then to then or this disaster took place on this date but they don't weave it together into a story. And to be fair, that's a hard thing to do. Anybody remember Walter Cronkite's old series, "You Were There"? Now that made history come alive.

I always thought that if I ended up on death row, I'd want to be served my last meal from Panchos, that way I could just keep raising the flag and they could never execute me! Maybe I could eat myself to death with the soapapillas...

Apparently, Riviana Foods has moved out of its building as workings have taken down the sign of the ediface snd by the elevators. It now simply reads "2777 Allen Parkway" by the elevators and the numbers 2777 are the only things on the building. As for renovating Woodson, I think they've done a pretty good job. The completed floors are open and airy as opposed to dark and dingy as they were before.

Yeah, they resemble the Titans threads, only the numbers are in a bizarre typeface with a huge round serif I've never seen on a uniform, so they're probably the same ones you had already seen. You should have seen some of the ones from way back. When I get home, I'll see if I can post a pic or two I took at the library of some of the 1940s uniforms. They're from the Houston Chronicle of that era, so who knows if the mods will let it stay since the Chronicle is so *ahem* let's just say retentitive about their stuff. Not like I'm trying to make a profit or even a single penny. But who knows. I guess I can try. Apparently the current helmet with the "rocking A" logo appeared around 1977 or 1978. Before that, they wore what looked like a solid blue helmet in the mid 1970s and a solid white one in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It was solid blue again in the mid 1960s. In the early 1960s Aldine had the same helmets as the Baltimore Colts, only the colors were reversed. In other words, it was solid blue with a white horseshoe. I never found any photos from the 1950s, so I have no idea what they wore then. I do know that plastic helmets were introduced in the mid 1950s and prior to that it was leather helmets. Whether the leather helmets were brown or blue I can't tell from a black and white photo. Aldine's colors have always been some type of blue and white. There are stories from the 1940s mentioning their colors being such. I wish I could include the photos and stories too, but as I mentioned, the Chronicle is quite squemish and then the file would be too big to send to anyone. It's about three MBs as it is with just text and a photo or two I took.

No, it's close to being the worst, but not quite. However, yesterday's 50-0 loss was the worst opening day defeat in Aldine history. The previous worst opening day loss was was a 45-0 shellacking by Texas City in 1937, the Mustangs' second season. The worst defeat in Aldine history was a 58-0 pounding by Spring Branch in 1966. The 58 points is the largest margin of defeat all-time for the Mustangs. (Coincidentally, Spring Branch went to the State Finals that year, losing to San Angelo Central.) Yesterday's loss was the worst since that defeat 40 years ago. Aldine also lost a 1942 bidistrict playoff game to Galena Park 53-0. That's the second worst loss by margin of defeat. Yesterday's 50-point loss would be the third worst, margin-wise, all-time. As far as points, the most points Aldine has ever given up in a game all-time is 72 to South Houston in 1964. Aldine lost that game 72-31. South Houston amassed 735 total yards (635 on the ground) and 30 first downs, all records against the Mustangs. The good news was that our QB had a great day - one of the best ever for a Pony QB - throwing for 217 yards and four TDs. Don't see that happening too often in an Aldine game. I'm almost finished with my report. I've gotten all the information I can glean from newspapers and web sites, so it's just a matter of getting the remaining info typed. That should take a few days and then I'll need to proofread it. As news coverage was spotty in the 1930s to about the early 50s, I won't have all the records because not all games were reported on and if they were, the stories often didn't mention individual or team stats for smaller schools until about 1955. Still, I'd imagine I got the vast majority of the big ones. I've had no luck with any official channels so I'm still missing five games. But out of more than 700 total games, I guess I can live with that. If anyone is interested in getting a report, please drop me a line and I'll be happy to share it. The total final report will be about 116 pages, so it will be a big file. I'll have scores, highlights and standings from 1936 to 2005. Eventually I'll add more Aldine area and school history for an enhanced Version 2, but that's awhile off. BTW... what's up with the uniforms??? Saw the highlights... er, make that "highlights"... on Channel 11 and man, those were some nasty threads. Yuck-o!!!

Yes, that is the old Beaumonnt Road and before it was U.S. 90 it was Texas 3. Highways frequently changed designations back then. The present Texas Highway 3 (aka Old Galveston Road) was known as Texas Highway 2 at the time of this map. I have no idea why it was changed, but you can find the history of state road designations at TxDOT's website. That's where I got a lot of the information I posted much earlier int his thread. As those highways weren't in the Aldine area, I didn't mention them in that earlier post.

I should have mentioned this opn the other Aldine thread and maybe I will, but whe I initially came across that Texas Handbookl entry, I noticed (and maybe you did too) that there were two entries for Aldine. I clicked on the other and found out there is (or actually was) another Aldine, Texas between Concan and Garner State Park on some side road in Uvalde County. Driven by there that general area on Hwy 83 several times and never knew that.

Interesting. i didn't know that. Thanks for sharing. By all means, don't just be a lurker. Join on in the discussion. The more the merrier.

I'm starting to think you are right... it wasn't a last name, it was a first name. However, perhaps Aldus rather than Aldine?

All I can say to that is... WOW! I remember getting into an argument with a person who kept saying the Vietnam War killed more Americans than all other wars combined. Didn't know whether to shout or laugh...

Thanks. vicman. I was going to pull up that article and attach it, but you beat me to it.

You're too late... it's already happened... political correctness has sadly already reared it's intolerant head. HISD's Robert E. Lee High School is no more. It's simply Lee High School, no Robert E. Some cowardly bureaucrat no doubt thought this would stave off the laughingly hypocritical PC crowd and it has for at least awhile. That may be because Lee's enrollment isn't majority Black (don't believe in the silly African American phrase) but more Asian and they apparently have better things to do than protest. Like learning.

Wow, that map has to be from the early 1920s as it denotes Hwys 19 and 3. Mt Houston is about where I always expected it to be... along or near the Eastex Freeway. Sorta looks like its in the general area of MacArthur High School. Maybe a little south, but not much. But it also appears out of the Aldine ISD zone, which would be those railorad tracks. The original name of North Forest ISD was East and Mount Houston. But now that map opens a whole new mystery... what's District No. 1? If it's a school district, that's not the future North Forest school district, at least not all of it.