olddawggreen
11-23-2006, 02:19 PM
LONGHORNS FOOTBALL
'Horn or Aggie, Always a Bulldog'
Jordan Shipley and Stephen McGee, who thrilled Burnet as high school football stars, meet Friday in the Texas-Texas A&M game.
By Kevin Robbins
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, November 23, 2006
BURNET — Tom Hullum, barber, has been snipping at sideburns for 58 seasons of football.
Were a man to attend, discuss, hear, read about or actually compete in a Burnet High School football game, chances are good that Hullum knows his cowlicks. After all, a country town of 6,171 doesn't require a lot of barbershops to give a proper haircut to its boys.
But every municipality needs a place with decent chairs. Hullum's has three, and from each of them neighbors have been going on for months about this particular Friday morning in November, and not just because Texas and Texas A&M are playing for the 113th time.
This year is Burnet's year.
This game is theirs.
Jordan Shipley and Stephen McGee — friends, hunting partners and teammates on two of the finest teams in Burnet history — will be on the field at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
McGee, the Aggies' quarterback, and Shipley, a receiver for the Longhorns, have been in college for three years. But they redshirted as freshmen. And last year in College Station, when McGee started his first game for Texas A&M, Shipley merely watched from the bench on a bad knee that kept him from playing at Kyle Field.
"We've had an awful lot to talk about over the years," said Hullum, noting the 1991 Burnet team that played for a state championship and the two years that McGee and Shipley led the Bulldogs to the title game. Yet nothing compares to Friday.
"Oh," Hullum sighed happily. "Good gracious alive."
It's not just that Shipley and McGee will be in uniform for a college football game. Everyone expected that to happen.
It's that two Burnet Bulldogs, players who connected so many times in three years that McGee-to-Shipley often meant six points on the scoreboard and another victory for the boys in green, will be playing for the Longhorns and the Aggies.
"There will be a lot of emotion in my heart," said Rodney McGee, Stephen's father and a pastor at a Burnet church. "I'm just so very proud of both of them."
"This town is incredibly proud," added Bob Shipley. "The Longhorn fans here all pull for Stephen. The Aggie fans pull for Jordan."
Shipley is Jordan's father. He also was his and McGee's coach for the teams that marched to the Class 3A state title games when the two friends were juniors and seniors. Both teams lost, which is the only speck of regret that anyone in Burnet remembers about those Friday nights in the fall when McGee wore No. 7 for the Bulldogs and Shipley wore No. 8.
The two kept their jersey numbers in college. Coach Shipley owns a hat with an 8 and a 7 stitched right on the crown.
Horn or Aggie, the hat proclaims.
Always a Bulldog.
"I'm so danged proud of them," the coach said, "I'm going to wear it to the game."
Texas is favored to win Friday. That would satisfy the majority of Burnet, which regards itself solidly as Longhorn country occupied in pockets by folks who hum the "Aggie War Hymn" while they work. Austin is closer, an hour's drive from town. And Texas is Texas.
When Shipley and McGee go home, they do not talk about football. They get their rifles and wait for deer or head to the McGee family cabin on Lake LBJ.
"We try to concentrate on other things," Shipley said.
But people don't necessarily let them. For instance, at a recent middle school game that Shipley and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy attended, the announcer greeted them over the loudspeaker. Fans flocked to them like grackles to cracker crumbs. The two players signed autographs and shook hands until someone remembered the game.
It took 35 minutes to get the crowd settled.
"It's such a blessing, the people here," McGee said. "They're going to be happy for us no matter what. In their hearts, they're going to be rooting for Jordan and me."
Down the highway from the space in the square where Tom Hullum cuts hair for $9 a sitting, the regulars at Delaware Springs Golf Course like to point to the hat display behind the counter in the pro shop. Count them, they declare: Five hats come in orange; one comes in maroon.
B.J. Strong has been playing Delaware Springs for years. Strong is retired, which gives him all kinds of time to work on his pitch shots and list the various reasons why Texas is superior to Texas A&M.
"We want McGee to have a good day," Strong said. Then his eyes narrowed. "But we want Texas to win."
The Burnet Bulldogs were 36-5 with McGee and Shipley on the field. They won 28 games and lost two in their last two years, when 10,000 people shimmed into a stadium built for 5,000 after waiting for hours for the gates to swing open. For away games, Burnet fans often arrived before the home-team school dismissed for the day.
Nothing can replace the seasons of 2002 and 2003. Two undefeated regular seasons. Two romps to the title game. Two appearances there and two losses.
The two friends.
McGee finished his high school career with 8,256 passing yards and a Class 3A-record 101 passing touchdowns. His favorite target was Shipley.
Shipley caught 264 passes for Burnet. His 5,424 yards as a receiver rank second in the all-time national record book. So do his 73 touchdowns.
College coaches from other states paid many visits to Burnet. But Shipley and McGee stayed in Texas.
"It's humbling to think that kids can come from a little country town like that and play for the two flagship universities," said Burnet High principal Craig Spinn.
At Texas, Shipley has played in all 11 games this year. He's caught 14 passes for 202 yards and four touchdowns. He's run six times for 96 yards.
At Texas A&M, McGee has started all 11 games. He's completed 170 of 274 passes, 11 for touchdowns. He's rushed for 540 yards.
"You don't want either of those boys to lose," said Robin Willson, a member of the booster club for the Burnet band and dance team, the Highlandettes.
"They still come home. They still visit. A lot of the younger kids, they have someone to look up to.
"Oh yeah," Willson admitted. "There's divided loyalties."
Willson sold raffle tickets Saturday at Burger Center, where Bob Shipley's small but feisty Bulldogs played Schertz Clemens in the playoffs. Burnet lost — another season without a state championship — but the green-clad fans in the bleachers had something to look forward to.
"A lot of people already have tickets," Willson said of the Texas-Texas A&M game.
"We root for the Aggies to lose." She smiled. "But for Stephen to play well."
Chris Levens, a senior at Texas State, drove to Austin for the playoff game. The scene brought back special memories for Levens, who was a running back on the McGee-Shipley teams. Now, he said, he simply stares at the television when his old friends are on and tells himself, "I played with them. And now they're playing with all these amazing athletes."
And then he thinks of Burnet. How, for two immeasurable years, a town became a team, and a team reflected a town.
"That's the best memory," Levens said under the bleachers at Burger Center. "The whole town, coming together."
A lot like Friday, when Burnet will bask in the same kind of light again, only brighter.
And the gang over at Hullum's will get something else to talk about for the next 58 years.
krobbins@statesman.com; 445-3602
Rodolfo Gonzalez
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/469/sbarbershipbj1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
At Hullum's Barber Shop in Burnet, where Jerry Graves gives Arnold Burton a trim as Dudley Holland waits his turn, the buzz is all about how former Bulldog teammates Stephen McGee and Jordan Shipley will meet on the field in Austin on Friday.
Alex Jones
2003 FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/4428/shiplemcgee2003staterecav9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In 2003, wide receiver Jordan Shipley, left, was awarded a ball by Burnet Principal Craig Spinn for breaking the state receiving record. Stephen McGee, who threw him those passes, was there to congratulate him. More photos on statesman.com.
Rodolfo Gonzalez
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/3571/rodneymcgeebobshipleyhg8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Stephen McGee's father, Rodney, and Jordan Shipley's dad, Bob, who is also head coach of the Burnet Bulldogs, are looking forward to Friday's game. McGee is the Aggies' quarterback, and Shipley is a receiver for the Longhorns. Much of the town of Burnet will be rooting for both players.
'Horn or Aggie, Always a Bulldog'
Jordan Shipley and Stephen McGee, who thrilled Burnet as high school football stars, meet Friday in the Texas-Texas A&M game.
By Kevin Robbins
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, November 23, 2006
BURNET — Tom Hullum, barber, has been snipping at sideburns for 58 seasons of football.
Were a man to attend, discuss, hear, read about or actually compete in a Burnet High School football game, chances are good that Hullum knows his cowlicks. After all, a country town of 6,171 doesn't require a lot of barbershops to give a proper haircut to its boys.
But every municipality needs a place with decent chairs. Hullum's has three, and from each of them neighbors have been going on for months about this particular Friday morning in November, and not just because Texas and Texas A&M are playing for the 113th time.
This year is Burnet's year.
This game is theirs.
Jordan Shipley and Stephen McGee — friends, hunting partners and teammates on two of the finest teams in Burnet history — will be on the field at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
McGee, the Aggies' quarterback, and Shipley, a receiver for the Longhorns, have been in college for three years. But they redshirted as freshmen. And last year in College Station, when McGee started his first game for Texas A&M, Shipley merely watched from the bench on a bad knee that kept him from playing at Kyle Field.
"We've had an awful lot to talk about over the years," said Hullum, noting the 1991 Burnet team that played for a state championship and the two years that McGee and Shipley led the Bulldogs to the title game. Yet nothing compares to Friday.
"Oh," Hullum sighed happily. "Good gracious alive."
It's not just that Shipley and McGee will be in uniform for a college football game. Everyone expected that to happen.
It's that two Burnet Bulldogs, players who connected so many times in three years that McGee-to-Shipley often meant six points on the scoreboard and another victory for the boys in green, will be playing for the Longhorns and the Aggies.
"There will be a lot of emotion in my heart," said Rodney McGee, Stephen's father and a pastor at a Burnet church. "I'm just so very proud of both of them."
"This town is incredibly proud," added Bob Shipley. "The Longhorn fans here all pull for Stephen. The Aggie fans pull for Jordan."
Shipley is Jordan's father. He also was his and McGee's coach for the teams that marched to the Class 3A state title games when the two friends were juniors and seniors. Both teams lost, which is the only speck of regret that anyone in Burnet remembers about those Friday nights in the fall when McGee wore No. 7 for the Bulldogs and Shipley wore No. 8.
The two kept their jersey numbers in college. Coach Shipley owns a hat with an 8 and a 7 stitched right on the crown.
Horn or Aggie, the hat proclaims.
Always a Bulldog.
"I'm so danged proud of them," the coach said, "I'm going to wear it to the game."
Texas is favored to win Friday. That would satisfy the majority of Burnet, which regards itself solidly as Longhorn country occupied in pockets by folks who hum the "Aggie War Hymn" while they work. Austin is closer, an hour's drive from town. And Texas is Texas.
When Shipley and McGee go home, they do not talk about football. They get their rifles and wait for deer or head to the McGee family cabin on Lake LBJ.
"We try to concentrate on other things," Shipley said.
But people don't necessarily let them. For instance, at a recent middle school game that Shipley and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy attended, the announcer greeted them over the loudspeaker. Fans flocked to them like grackles to cracker crumbs. The two players signed autographs and shook hands until someone remembered the game.
It took 35 minutes to get the crowd settled.
"It's such a blessing, the people here," McGee said. "They're going to be happy for us no matter what. In their hearts, they're going to be rooting for Jordan and me."
Down the highway from the space in the square where Tom Hullum cuts hair for $9 a sitting, the regulars at Delaware Springs Golf Course like to point to the hat display behind the counter in the pro shop. Count them, they declare: Five hats come in orange; one comes in maroon.
B.J. Strong has been playing Delaware Springs for years. Strong is retired, which gives him all kinds of time to work on his pitch shots and list the various reasons why Texas is superior to Texas A&M.
"We want McGee to have a good day," Strong said. Then his eyes narrowed. "But we want Texas to win."
The Burnet Bulldogs were 36-5 with McGee and Shipley on the field. They won 28 games and lost two in their last two years, when 10,000 people shimmed into a stadium built for 5,000 after waiting for hours for the gates to swing open. For away games, Burnet fans often arrived before the home-team school dismissed for the day.
Nothing can replace the seasons of 2002 and 2003. Two undefeated regular seasons. Two romps to the title game. Two appearances there and two losses.
The two friends.
McGee finished his high school career with 8,256 passing yards and a Class 3A-record 101 passing touchdowns. His favorite target was Shipley.
Shipley caught 264 passes for Burnet. His 5,424 yards as a receiver rank second in the all-time national record book. So do his 73 touchdowns.
College coaches from other states paid many visits to Burnet. But Shipley and McGee stayed in Texas.
"It's humbling to think that kids can come from a little country town like that and play for the two flagship universities," said Burnet High principal Craig Spinn.
At Texas, Shipley has played in all 11 games this year. He's caught 14 passes for 202 yards and four touchdowns. He's run six times for 96 yards.
At Texas A&M, McGee has started all 11 games. He's completed 170 of 274 passes, 11 for touchdowns. He's rushed for 540 yards.
"You don't want either of those boys to lose," said Robin Willson, a member of the booster club for the Burnet band and dance team, the Highlandettes.
"They still come home. They still visit. A lot of the younger kids, they have someone to look up to.
"Oh yeah," Willson admitted. "There's divided loyalties."
Willson sold raffle tickets Saturday at Burger Center, where Bob Shipley's small but feisty Bulldogs played Schertz Clemens in the playoffs. Burnet lost — another season without a state championship — but the green-clad fans in the bleachers had something to look forward to.
"A lot of people already have tickets," Willson said of the Texas-Texas A&M game.
"We root for the Aggies to lose." She smiled. "But for Stephen to play well."
Chris Levens, a senior at Texas State, drove to Austin for the playoff game. The scene brought back special memories for Levens, who was a running back on the McGee-Shipley teams. Now, he said, he simply stares at the television when his old friends are on and tells himself, "I played with them. And now they're playing with all these amazing athletes."
And then he thinks of Burnet. How, for two immeasurable years, a town became a team, and a team reflected a town.
"That's the best memory," Levens said under the bleachers at Burger Center. "The whole town, coming together."
A lot like Friday, when Burnet will bask in the same kind of light again, only brighter.
And the gang over at Hullum's will get something else to talk about for the next 58 years.
krobbins@statesman.com; 445-3602
Rodolfo Gonzalez
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/469/sbarbershipbj1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
At Hullum's Barber Shop in Burnet, where Jerry Graves gives Arnold Burton a trim as Dudley Holland waits his turn, the buzz is all about how former Bulldog teammates Stephen McGee and Jordan Shipley will meet on the field in Austin on Friday.
Alex Jones
2003 FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/4428/shiplemcgee2003staterecav9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In 2003, wide receiver Jordan Shipley, left, was awarded a ball by Burnet Principal Craig Spinn for breaking the state receiving record. Stephen McGee, who threw him those passes, was there to congratulate him. More photos on statesman.com.
Rodolfo Gonzalez
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/3571/rodneymcgeebobshipleyhg8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Stephen McGee's father, Rodney, and Jordan Shipley's dad, Bob, who is also head coach of the Burnet Bulldogs, are looking forward to Friday's game. McGee is the Aggies' quarterback, and Shipley is a receiver for the Longhorns. Much of the town of Burnet will be rooting for both players.