By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Joe Rodriguez truly was a coach for all seasons at Brownsville High back in the 1960s.
At various times he coached baseball, basketball and football for the Eagles, sometimes directing two sports during the same school year. He started at Brownsville High as an unpaid assistant during the late 1950s “because I had to prove myself first,” the Edinburg native said.
Rodriguez worked his way up from assistant to coach in all three sports. His last year of coaching the Eagles was 1973 in football.
One of Rodriguez’s shining moments as a coach came in 1965, when he guided the Brownsville High baseball team to the Class 4A state final. It was a feat that hadn’t happened before and hasn’t been achieved since by any of Brownsville’s six current public high schools in that sport.
After coaching, Rodriguez served as a Brownsville ISD school board member for 15 years during the 1970s and ’80s, and he was the BISD athletic director from 1991 to 2009. He became a school board member again in 2014, and has accumulated a combined half century of service to BISD as a coach, AD and school board member.
“I wasn’t from Brownsville, but I decided early on that I wanted to spend my career here because of the kids we have,” said Rodriguez, 79, who has been inducted into four halls of fame. “We have kids (in Brownsville) who may not be the biggest in size, but they’ve got the biggest hearts. They give it everything they have. I truly believe that, and that’s why I stayed.”
Fifty years ago, the Eagles personified that sentiment on the baseball diamond. Their historic 30-8 season came to an end with a 14-0 loss to Dallas Samuell in the 4A state final in Austin on June 16, 1965.
No team from the Rio Grande Valley has won a UIL state title in baseball. The only other Valley teams to reach the UIL state championship game in baseball are Mercedes twice (1974 and 1986) and Harlingen South (2007).
In 1965, the Eagles were led by the stellar left-handed pitching duo of Tony Barbosa and Charlie Vaughan. Barbosa, a junior that season, went 12-1 and threw three no-hitters with 139 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.01, and Vaughan, a senior, went 13-3 with two no-hitters and recorded 203 strikeouts with an ERA of 0.39.
While Brownsville High boasted plenty of baseball talent that season, particularly on the mound with its pair of left-handed pitchers, it took the guiding presence of Rodriguez and his assistant, the late Ramon Rodriguez (no relation), to bring out the best in the Eagles.
“‘Coach Joe’ always had our backs,” Vaughan said. “It was a huge benefit to have him as our coach because he was a strong leader for us.
“Some coaches would cuss, but not him,’” Vaughan added. “He wanted to set a good example. If he got upset, he’d just say ‘Aw, shucks.’”
One time that “Coach Joe” almost lost it came during a district game April 20, 1965 at McAllen High.
As the story goes, Vaughan was pitching and working on a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts. A McHi batter hit a popup into foul territory off the first-base line. The Eagles’ catcher and first baseman both went after the ball, but wound up letting it fall harmlessly to the ground without making a play on it because Vaughan had called them off.
“Coach Joe” was momentarily steamed that his players didn’t try to catch the ball. Vaughan proceeded to strike out the batter and end the inning. Sensing his coach was upset, Vaughan came off the field and told Rodriguez, “That’s 15, coach.”
Rodriguez responded, “Fifteen what?”
“Fifteen strikeouts,” the ace pitcher answered.
“Oh, OK,” said “Coach Joe,” realizing then why the foul ball had been allowed to drop so that another strikeout could be added to the senior lefty’s total.
Vaughan finished with 20 strikeouts and a no-hitter that day in a 3-0 victory.
Barbosa remembers how Rodriguez supported him and stayed with him as a shaky sophomore in 1964, even after he gave up three home runs in one game. It happened during a predistrict doubleheader at Monterrey Tech in Mexico. After giving up the second homer, Barbosa recalls that Rodriguez came out to the mound to calm him down and reassure him that things would be OK.
However, apparently not everyone shared Rodriguez’s confidence at the time in the sophomore pitcher, who turned things around in a big way and shined for the Eagles just one season later. As a junior and senior, Barbosa went a combined 29-2 with five no-hitters and took the Eagles to the regional final round in 1966, one series win shy of a return trip to state.
“I got back to the dugout (after talking with Barbosa on the mound), and Ramon told me, ‘Look at where (center fielder Art) Galvan is,’” Rodriguez said. “Art had jumped the (waist-high outfield) fence and was on the other side. We told him to get back in the playing field, and he did.”
Sure enough, Monterrey Tech hit a third homer off Barbosa, and when the inning was over and Galvan returned to the dugout, Rodriguez remembers that the then-junior outfielder, regarded as the one who kept the team loose, told him, “See, Coach, I could have caught it (outside the fence).”
Barbosa said the players appreciated the way Rodriguez handled the team.
“It’s a tribute to Joe that he detected what our skills were and placed us in positions that allowed us to do what we did,” said Barbosa, who later coached baseball at Pace, Porter and Brownsville Veterans Memorial. “He turned it over to us, and we produced. Everyone knew their role, and everyone contributed. It was because of Joe.”
Rodriguez said his former assistant coach, who also later served as assistant athletic director under him, deserved much of the credit as well. Ramon Rodriguez, an athletic standout for the Eagles during the late 1930s who played football in college, died in 1995 at age 73.
“Ramon was a good man and a good coach,” Rodriguez said of his former assistant.
“Coach Joe” also credits his late wife, Emma, for being an understanding and supportive companion throughout his years of involvement with BISD activities, particularly during his time as a coach. She died May 5, 2014.
“I always told her that she was a big part of it, and she appreciated that,” Rodriguez said.
Now “Coach Joe’s” involvement with BISD is as a school board member. He remains an ardent supporter of BISD athletics. He was one of the first to congratulate Rivera soccer coach Salvador Garcia on April 18 when the Raiders won the Class 6A championship at the UIL state tournament in Georgetown.
“Yes, I’m 79, and the lights are still on at the stadium,” said Rodriguez, referring to his stable health and his eagerness to continue making a contribution to BISD.
The 1965 Eagles are scheduled to be honored at Saturday’s 28th annual RGV Sports Hall of Fame banquet at the Port Isabel Events Center.
For ticket information regarding the banquet, call (956) 227-6563 or (956) 495-4687.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected] . On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.