Remembering two more ex-Yoemen basketball coaches

Everybody knows Cameron is known for being a football town, but every once in awhile, a great coach would lead the Yoemen to some memories on the hardwood court. Like to remember a couple of them now.

The first is Bill Krueger, who started his career here at Yoe High in 1957-58. He came here straight out of Southwest Texas State, where he was a star player for the Bobcats. He had an abundance of great athletes to work with. They had just completed a tremendous 7-3 season, losing only to Killeen (10-1) Brenham (11-1), and a hard fought game in Stephenville (6-0), which I have said before was the coldest game I ever attended.

The team managed only a 9-16 record and were led by Ray Green (SMU football), Gene Hillman (Baylor football), Bobby Elliott, Warren Rinn (Del Mar junior college football) and Arthur (Monk) Marek.

Krueger stayed one more year (58-59), before he moved on to a great career. The Yoemen had another mediocre record that year and were led by John Wayne Josey, Jesse Kirk, Allen (Dit) Dodson, Charles Baring, and Rodney Folschinsky. He would return to San Marcos to coach the Rattlers to some successful seasons, before moving to the League City area, where he would have great success at Clear Creek and Clear Lake high schools, with many state tourney teams and numerous championship trophies.

The next great roundball coach came to Yoe High for a four-year stay in 1968. His name was Ron Murdock and he would lead the Yoemen to a 61-51 record with one district championship, regional finalist in 1969-70. He was blessed to have a young player named Robert Brashear for three years. Brashear is arguably the best player in Yoe history. His statistics speak for themselves. Starting 85 straight games, scoring 1,357 points for an (18.4) average, three-time all-district, and combined with Ken McLerran in the final 10 seconds to beat the district favored Round Rock Dragons 53-52 and win the district championship. More on this later.

Murdock’s first year (68-69) was 15-12 with a second place finish in district to Hearne. That was no slouch since Hearne made the final four state tourney. They lost the opener to Klein 53-52 before taking third place 74-71 over Crane. Fort Worth Kirkpatrick edged Crane 78-77 before taking state over Klein 63-54.

In his second season (69-70), which was his best season at Yoe High, going 19-12 and defeating district favorite Round Rock in perhaps the best game ever in the old Yoe High Gym. The final seconds, trailing Round Rock 52-49, saw Brashear sink one of his patented long jumpers to cut the lead to 52-51. With only five seconds left, the Dragons star player (Reinhardt) could have held the ball on the end bounds play, but he panicked and threw an errant end bounds pass to the right of the circle. Little Kenneth McLerran was there, but there was no time to catch the ball and shoot or pass it, so he caught it and in one motion whipped it to Brashear to the left of the circle, who sank another jumper to score as the buzzer sounded. The final was Yoe 53, Round Rock 52 and the district championship.

Their bi-district opponent was the Luling Eagles, who had destroyed the Yoemen 61-40 in the opening round of the Round Rock tourney earlier in the year. The game was in Brenham, which would be the sight of the regional tourney. Robert said he could tell when they entered the gym that the Luling players seemed cocky and overconfident. The Yoemen took advantage and advanced to the regionals with a 51-49 victory.

At regionals, the Yoemen ran into a tough Diboll Lumberjack team and fell 60-40. That would bring us to Murdock’s and Brashear’s third season.

The 70-71 season would be another 15-12 year with a 6-4 district record. Round Rock would defeat the Yoemen twice while the Yoemen would split with Caldwell and Westlake.

Other significant players over those three years were Tommy Terrell, Johnny Steamer, Jerry Richardson and Bobby Whitehead. The next year was Willie White, Ken McLerran, Will Turner and John Barron.

Murdock’s final season 71-72 was 12-15 with only a 3-7 district record. The three wins were over Elgin twice and Georgetown once. They lost to Georgetown once and were swept by Round Rock, Westlake and Caldwell.

All-district players were Jackie Chubb, Dean Prokisch, Will Turner, and John Barron. Others were Rock Thweatt and Sammy Ellison.

Murdock was also a drivers ed instructor, while his wife Sonny was an excellent math teacher. They would move north to Hurst Bell and stay in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex the remainder of his career.