With other Brownsville High players filling the pews around him, Johnny Olvera sat in a local church and begged God to prevent him from letting down not only his football teammates, but more importantly, his head coach: Joe Rodriguez.
“Please, Lord, please don’t let me fumble, don’t let me miss a block,” Olvera recalled of his desperate prayer before a road game in 1969. “Please, Lord, don’t let me be the one the guys look at and say, ‘Don’t you know we were 0-9 a couple seasons ago? What are you doing?’”
Nearly 50 years later, Olvera’s recollection of his youthful plea drew a few laughs from the former Brownsville High star running back. But for Olvera, it was indicative of how important it was to make good on the faith Rodriguez had bestowed on him prior to what became one of the best football seasons in Brownsville prep football history.
Rodriguez, an 81-year-old Edinburg native, has grounded himself in his faith, both in athletes on the field and students in the classroom. His decision to start the then-sophomore Olvera on a senior-laden ’69 Eagles team was just one of a laundry list of decisions that have positively affected not only Brownsville athletics, but also its youths beyond the field.
Prior to having his legacy cemented with inductions into the Texas Coaches Hall of Fame, the Texas Hall of Honor as both a coach and athletic director, the Baseball Hall of Fame of South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame, Rodriguez made a name for himself as a standout RGV-bred athlete, coach and educational pioneer.
After graduating from Edinburg High, where he starred in baseball and basketball, Rodriguez went on to play both sports for the University of Texas-Pan American during the early 1950s. Following his graduation, he soon returned to Brownsville in 1957, where he found a job as an eighth-grade football coach at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville.
He did so in good faith.
“They didn’t pay me anything to coach that first year,” Rodriguez said. “I remember Bob Martin, the athletic director at the time, told me ‘You have to prove yourself first.’ So I did.”
In his lone year at Cummings, Rodriguez’s eighth-graders won a district football title. He then moved on to Stell Middle School, where he coached baseball and basketball before getting his foot in the door as junior varsity baseball, basketball and football coach at Brownsville High.
As Brownsville’s varsity Eagles sputtered to a 32-29 record on the gridiron between 1960-66, Rodriguez’s JV program soared to a 65-4-1 mark during that span, opening the door for Rodriguez to replace then-head coach Jack Schultz in ’67.
And yet, despite a shining performance in the lower ranks, Rodriguez’s arrival at the varsity level was not met with enthusiasm from those whom he needed it most: his players.
“Heading into the 1967 season, we had 13 returning lettermen — 12 quit,” Rodriguez said. “I think a lot of them were mad Schultz left. Or, they didn’t like how I ran my practices. I was tough. Our practices were long. Whatever it was, I had 24 sophomores on my ’67 team. And let me tell you how that went …”
Not very well.
The fledgling Eagles suffered through an 0-9 season in which they scored just 37 points. Brownsville endured five shutouts, including three straight in which it was outscored 107-0.
“It was bad … real bad,” Rodriguez emphasized, but then added with a laugh: “The only reason we didn’t lose 10 games that year is because a hurricane came through and canceled one.
“But the last game of the season, we had just gotten whooped 48-8 by our biggest rival, Harlingen (High), and I took my guys to the end zone and I looked at each and every one of them, and I told them, ‘Those that stay will be champions.’”
It didn’t happen instantly.
With rising offensive stars in junior quarterback Desi Najera and junior halfback Ruben Fernandez, the Eagles improved to 6-4 in ’68 but fell a few wins short of a District 28-4A title and the district’s lone state playoff spot.
According to Najera, however, the table had been set for a breakout campaign in ’69.
“He had a great vision for Brownsville. He had a vision for us,” Najera said of Rodriguez. “He kept us together, He kept us working. He didn’t let us down.”
The ’69 Eagles became the culmination of Rodriguez’s patience in waiting not only for his varsity opportunity, but also for his young players to develop. Twenty-two of the 24 sophomores from ’67 bought into Rodriguez’s plan and remained. By their senior year, the Eagles were flying high.
It certainly didn’t hurt having Olvera (known affectionately as “Johnny O” by his coaches and teammates), who practically fell into the starting running back job after Rodriguez’s top two options were hurt and transfered, respectively.
“I didn’t even know Johnny O,” Rodriguez admitted. “Our other running backs were either hurt or had left, and I was told by one of my assistant coaches to take a look at Johnny. But he was so small. He wore No. 0 and that’s what other people called him, ‘Johnny Zero.’”
Added Olvera, “I was 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and maybe 140 pounds soaking wet. But when they told me they were going to give me a shot, I looked Coach Joe right in the eyes and said ‘It’s about damn time.’”
And as Rodriguez himself will admit all these years later, perhaps it was.
Behind a bruising offensive line, Olvera rushed for more than 1,300 yards in 12 games. Najera, who captained the Eagles’ offense with an innate ability to both carry the football and throw it, said Olvera’s success at the halfback position was less of a coincidence and more of an example of Rodriguez’s unique ability to draw success out of his athletes.
“I think it was a gift he had; Joe can see the potential in an individual. He could put kids in places where he knew they’d be successful. He knew your potential before you knew it.”
Under Rodriguez, Brownsville High’s potent offense and stingy defense led the Eagles to a 7-0 record before a closely played upset loss at the hands of PSJA High on the road. The Eagles recovered nicely to top Edinburg High and San Benito to finish out the regular season before scoring an upset of their own during the bi-district playoffs.
Competing against a heavily favored Corpus Christi Miller team, Rodriguez again demonstrated a keen belief in his players.
Locked in a tight contest with the Buccaneers, the Eagles had the ball on their own 30-yard line and were facing a fourth-and-2 situation.
“Coach Joe sent out the punt team,” Najera explained. “I told him, ‘Coach, let me run this. I can get the first down.’ He looked me in the eyes and asked, ‘Are you sure?’ I ended up breaking it off for a 70-yard touchdown.
“The faith he had in the team, we could have that dialogue with him.”
In the end, the Eagles came away with a 25-15 triumph.
The season concluded one week later with a 47-14 loss to Seguin, but that defeat has done little to tarnish Rodriguez’s successful mission of turning teenaged believers into winners. His ’69 squad finished 10-2, scoring 411 total points and surrendering just 169, posting four shutouts. As the years pass, that squad is still revered as one of the best the city has produced.
“People still remember that team because it was a great team,” Rodriguez said. “We were the highest scoring team in the state in our division.
“And you have to remember, they were a bunch of sophomores that had gotten their butts beat a couple of years before … it was a story, man. You go 0-9, the kids are down, but they have faith in you. And then the team comes and plays for the district championship a season later. And then their senior year, they met their goals and won district.”
Ultimately, Rodriguez’s seven-year stint at Brownsville High was a rousing success. He eventually graduated to head baseball and basketball coach while holding the reins of the football program. He produced a 42-29 varsity football record and never suffered a losing campaign after ’67. He also took the Eagles to the Class 4A state championship baseball game in ’65, when they finished as runners-up.
And his legacy doesn’t end there.
For as much as his players remember about their time with Rodriguez the coach, even more is remembered about Rodriguez the educator, and his efforts to propel students in the classroom. Rodriguez, who taught math, social studies and physical education, may be as big an advocate for education as he is athletics. Najera and Olvera each described Rodriguez as a coach eager to see athletes and non-athletes alike reach greater heights.
“Coach Rodriguez would take us to church before road games,” Najera said. “He wanted us to have that in our lives. He wanted us to be successful as athletes, but also as students and as men. I had never seen that before. He motivated us and kept us in line. He showed us a little bit of himself.”
Olvera, who also enjoyed success under Rodriguez on Brownsville’s baseball team, added: “I saw Coach Joe reach out to people when they needed help. He wasn’t just looking after the starters on the team or the kids he had groomed over the years. He looked after everyone, both on the field and in the classroom, and he cared for them equally.”
Following a seven-year career as Brownsville High’s head football, baseball and basketball coach as well as the school’s athletic director, Rodriguez left the school prior to a three-way split in 1974 that gave birth to Pace and Porter high schools. In the expansion, Brownsville High was renamed Hanna.
During his leave from education, Rodriguez pursued personal business endeavors, all the while making sure no one was skimping on their studies. After all, Rodriguez is the owner of two masters degrees — one in physical education from Sam Houston State University in ’69, and his second in athletic administration from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association in 1991.
“Eleven of those 22 sophomores that stuck with me earned college scholarships,” Rodriguez said. “After I left Brownsville High, I eventually started an organization called Student Scholarship Services. To date, we’ve awarded 974 scholarships.”
Added Najera, “He was always for that. ‘Get your degree, get your degree, get your degree,’ he’d always tell us. He’d pound it into our heads. And every time I talked to him after high school, he’d ask me, ‘Did you finish your degree yet?’ He’s always been a reinforcer for education.”
Rodriguez eventually returned to Brownsville Independent School District in 1991 and served as athletic director until 2010. He also held a chair on the BISD school board from 1975 to 1990 before making his way back in 2015. Even at 81, Rodriguez is still finding ways to aid students, athletes and the Brownsville community.
“He believed in never giving up on a child, and he still does,” said Phillip Cowen, a fellow BISD board member and friend of Rodriguez for 31 years. “ He’s very concerned with whether or not the children are successful. He’s probably had a hand in building 20 schools. Even as a coach, he was always making sure his players were making the grade and doing well with their studies.
“I don’t know what else to say … I’m a fan. I can tell you that, without Joe, our lives would be pretty boring.”
A few hours spent with Rodriguez will reveal him to be anything but.
Rodriguez stands out with his unique ability to recall his athletes, plays during games and scores afterward, and other past events in stunning and sharp detail, especially given his age. But above all else is Rodriguez’s capacity to never forget those who have helped pave his way during the past 50 years.
“All of the success I’ve had in coaching, in teaching, etc., I owe it all to the kids. I’m in four halls of fame, and the only one I can attribute to myself is the baseball hall of fame. I owe it all to the kids. And, of course, the assistant coaches who helped me along the way.
“Those kids I coached, they meant the world to me. The thing about that is, these kids here in the Rio Grande Valley, if you capture their heart, they’ll give it to you. I coached for 17 years, and I never worked a day in my life.”