I grew up going to his games in Breckenridge from 1957 through 1959 including the state championships in 1958 and 1959 (home games). You talk about a guy who could pack the house and win. The whole county only had 10,000 population, but when Abilene High came to town there were over 10,000 at the game, and you couldn’t move to go for a coke or to pee. It was almost the same when Wichita Falls High came to town. Abilene and Wichita Falls were the winners in 4A during that period. He was in the early stages of inventing the wishbone there. He took all comers and beat most of them. He certainly got me hooked on football.

The heaviest guy on those teams weighed 200 pounds. Everything was conditioning and speed. Kingsville came to town in 1958 for the title game outweighing by 20 pounds across the team but left losing by 42-14.

You may remember that Wilkinson was on his record win streak at OU during that time. From Jerry Tubbs on there was a stream of players from Breckenridge on those OU teams. Wilkinson kept a room reserved in Breckenridge all winter to make recruiting trips. As many as five of Bellard’s players were on those OU rosters per year.

RIP coach.

and a bench-warmer at that, I remember Coach Bellard and his San Angelo teams quite well, very tough and hard hitting. Coach Wally Bullington (Abilene High) certainly had great respect for those teams under Bellard. I don’t think San Angelo Central has ever been the same after he left.