BOBCAT HALL OF FAME: Lasater helped to reestablish winning for Bobcats football

March 15--SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Marvin Lasater was already making waves before he ever even stepped foot on the campus of San Angelo High School.

Even at Edison Junior High, the eventual TCU star -- and member of the 2014 class of the Bobcat Hall of Fame -- caught the eyes of the Standard-Times and sports editor Bob Milburn.

Milburn spoke highly of the then-ninth grader Lasater in his Sport-O-Scope column of March 12, 1953.

Lasater showed his versatility by becoming a three-year letterman in basketball and football, and earned two more letters in track and field.

"He was a great one," Lasater said of Milburn. "He could stretch the truth like no man ever. He had me thinking I was all-world, and I couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time."

The legendary sports writer wasn't the only one high on the 1956 San Angelo High product.

Eventually, Lasater would be voted as the "Best all-around Back" on the all-time District 1-4A team (known in jest as the Little Southwest Conference) in the late 1950s. The honor carried even more weight, considering Abilene High was in the midst of three consecutive Class 4A state football championships and Edwin "Wahoo" McDaniel was suiting up for Midland High during Lasater's time with the Bobcats.

One of Lasater's earliest memories took place before he ever played for the Bobcats. New head football coach Bob Harrell asked him to come to spring practice when he was still at Edison and he had to walk from the junior high to the high school practice field.

At the time, the Bobcats were mired in an 18-game losing streak.

Harrell came in and announced to the group that they weren't going to start spring ball because of the rainy weather.

After much commotion and complaining from the team, Harrell yelled at the team to get out onto the field, because practice would start promptly in 15 minutes.

"That scared the crap out of me, a ninth-grader with all those juniors and seniors," Lasater said.

Instead of stretching or any traditional practicing, Harrell lined the team up in two long lines and they had head-on tackling drills for two straight hours, according to Lasater.

"He got after us. I got paired up with Pat Adams," who was one of the biggest and meanest football players on the team, Lasater said.

"I wish I would've gotten knocked out or something. He broke me in pretty quick. I felt like I fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Pat Adams kicked my hiney right up between my shoulders."

Harrell's tough approach paid dividends for Central and for Lasater, who eventually starred for the Bobcats, earning a scholarship to Texas Christian University.

The 18-game losing streak was snapped in the first game of the 1953 season, a 27-26 win over Big Spring. The squad improved for four straight years under Harrell's guidance.

Bobcat Hall of Famer Billy Hollis actually had a friendly rivalry with Lasater when the two were competing at Edison and Lee junior high.

"He went to Edison and was their quarterback, and I went to Lee and I was quarterback," Hollis said. "Then we were together as sophomores on the JV basketball team then together as juniors for the Bobcats.

"There was a rivalry, for sure. Lee and Edison was the championship game every year. In ninth grade we tied 6-6. Eventually we became teammates and friends playing together for the Bobcats."

Hollis, who competed in track and field for Baylor, recalled when Lasater was playing for the Horned Frogs and making his mark as a sophomore.

"When he first played at TCU as a sophomore -- back in the days when you played offense and defense -- he was their left halfback and he played linebacker. Usually halfbacks played corner or in the secondary. He was a tough guy."

TCU excelled when Lasater played for the Horned Frogs, winning the 1958 Southwest Conference championship and tying with Arkansas and Texas for the 1959 crown.

The team played Air Force to a scoreless tie in the 1959 Cotton Bowl and also played in the inaugural Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston against Clemson.

Lasater started 37 straight games for the Horned Frogs, was named all-conference in 1958 and was inducted into the TCU Hall of Fame in 1999.

He spent six years coaching in high school, 14 more back in Fort Worth coaching at TCU and then 20 years in the insurance business.

"I think it is a marvelous thing that the committee has gotten together and taken on this endeavor," Lasater said of being inducted. "It is good for the community and city here. I think this is a wonderful thing."

Follow Quinton Martinez on Twitter @qmartinez.

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