(Courtesy photos/Albert Villegas)
By ALBERT VILLEGAS
Special to the NEWS
MCALLEN, TX—If and when a San Benito Hall of Honor is established to recognize former San Benito High School athletes who wore the Purple and Gold, it will undoubtedly include former athletic standout Francisco “Brady” Garcia.
It will highlight that the athletic efforts and achievements of people born a century ago are just as important as those of half their age.
The effort to make it a reality is definitely in progress. It became clear when another SBHS star basketball player, Tony de la Rosa, visited Garcia at his home one February weekend.
The love for San Benito High School and basketball, in general, was clearly on display when these two started talking sports despite their obvious 30-year age gap.
De la Rosa, who graduated from SBHS in 1984 and was a star player for the ‘Hounds, is leading a local effort with others like Ray Saldana to create a San Benito Athletic Hall of Honor.
“This is a great beginning,” De La Rosa said, speaking to Garcia, with his adult daughter, Diana, and son, Jaime, present.
Garcia played for the Greyhounds’ basketball team nearly 80 years ago, earning a spot on the varsity as a freshman in the 1940s. By his senior year, he was the team captain for the 1949-50 season.
In the team photo, Garcia, who wore the No. 17 jersey, wasn’t the tallest Greyhound. He clearly wasn’t blessed with height, which would have suited someone of enormous size and strength. However, San Benito Head Coach Jim Barnes’ fast-paced style of play made forward Garcia a key part of the game plan.
We had two big men and a guard, and I was a rover; the coaches kept me moving back and forth so I could find open space to receive the ball and shoot. He can still provide the names of past and current teammates, along with their playing positions.
As an athlete, Garcia played for San Benito, which competed in District 16-2A against towns that still had only one high school. These towns included Brownsville, McAllen, Harlingen, Edinburg, and San Benito, making up the small five-team district.
Ironically, San Benito and its competitors in a small district still dominate today.
Back then, towns such as Mercedes, Weslaco, Donna, Raymondville, Rio Grande City, and PSJA were all part of a smaller District 30-A.
Nevertheless, opponents during Garcia’s era couldn’t stop the forward from scoring in district games, and even more so in matches against teams from other towns in the Rio Grande Valley or outside of it.
In fact, Garcia scored 100 points during eight district games in his final year. Even more impressive, he totaled 238 points for the entire season.
Garcia said one of his fondest memories was a 47-40 loss to Sidney Lanier High School from San Antonio, a formidable athletic powerhouse at that time.
It was the San Antonio Invitational Class AA Tournament, and fellow Valley schools lost in the first round: Harlingen to Houston Reagan (66-26), and Brownsville to Corpus Christi (33-22), the latter renamed Roy Miller High School a year later.
According to a newspaper game recap, Garcia scored 25 points, providing a “pulsating rally in the fourth quarter.”
A newspaper story described it this way: “San Benito’s Brady Garcia gave the Alamo Street Gym a terrific scorching when he whipped the ball through the hoop in a heroic effort…”
His production would land him on the All-District team, a notable achievement given that the varsity squad at the time was mostly composed of Anglos.
In fact, that’s how he became known as “Brady Garcia.” He adopted the name “Brady” to mimic two brothers who excelled as SBHS athletes in different sports.
With his athletic abilities never in question, it appears the name stuck.
As a result, daughter Diana said all the laminated newspaper clippings and mementos the family still has shown her father being identified as Brady Garcia, not Francisco.
On the court, San Benito didn’t have the top team in the district, as it kept finishing as a runner-up or in the middle of the pack for decades.
The ‘Hounds have won district titles three times — 1952, 1961, and 2023.
Garcia said Harlingen was the most disliked foe. Even then, the Cardinals were the ‘Hounds’ biggest nemesis. “They always beat us by three points; they got us in the end,” Garcia said.
SBHS alum De la Rosa said he will soon retire from his longtime federal government job. Even with those responsibilities, De la Rosa formulated data about possible Hall of Honor recipients, with Garcia a premier choice.
He is still with us, and I was told he is still sharp as a tack; I don’t know why I am nervous about meeting him,” De la Rosa said as he was driving to Garcia’s house in his pickup truck. “Imagine all the information he has to share about his experiences playing for San Benito so long ago. We are so blessed to have him here, to recall all of those memories.
De la Rosa said this Hall of Honor won’t depend on district standings, but on one’s own credibility.
“During that time, I am sure there have been some very great basketball players,” De la Rosa said, as Garcia’s children stood in the dining area of their father’s home. “Over the past 50 years, there have been individuals who brought great honor to San Benito.”
Garcia even went along with De la Rosa’s quip about how these experiences need to be documented while individuals are “still six feet above ground.”
Garcia said he was born on June 4, 1933, and attended Fred Booth Elementary School.
He was honest about a life where his father left his family of six children. He had three brothers and two sisters, and financial struggles followed, as expected, along with growing up quickly during the aftermath of the Great Depression and the start of World War II.
But San Benito was his sanctuary, and everything she had to offer a young person to forget hardships — parks, an empty baseball field, an existing school gymnasium — were part of his childhood.
Garcia said this was the way of life for many San Benito teenagers, whether they were Hispanic or Anglo boys. Not so for San Benito’s female population, or Blacks, for that matter.
African-American youth were, at the time, segregated into different schools through Jim Crow, which ended in 1965. And girls weren’t allowed to play high school sports until Title IX was passed in 1972.
Many times, a young boy’s humble living led him to learn the game by watching older SBHS athletes and hoping that God-given abilities would develop, as organized sports were limited.
Garcia said San Benito helped shape athletic stars like Tommy Brady from the 1940s, Bobby Morrow from the 1950s, and Jim Helms from the 1960s.
Many locals see this as the “Golden Era” of San Benito sports.
Garcia also excelled in football, relishing the victory of a district title and All-District honors. He recalls SBHS facing an Austin Maroons team that was several years removed from a state title.
SBHS didn’t have a baseball team, but he still pitched. He briefly played for the San Benito Merchants in the Citrus League. He also played basketball for Edinburg Regional Junior College.
His playing days didn’t extend into his early 20s because he had to attend to his family’s needs and joined the military within a year of graduation, serving during the Korean War, which lasted until 1953.
Garcia and De la Rosa concluded the meeting with a video of themselves sitting side by side, reminiscing about the playing days that earned them individual awards.
Their connection is SBHS basketball.