The 1 and only

If anything else, the 1961 Donna Redskins were tough.

They weren't big or fast.

But they were tough.

Three of the teams that Donna faced in the postseason that year (Quanah, Brady and Sweeney) had the top three sprint relays at the state meet that season.

Quanah had the gold-medal relay, which was made up of its offensive backfield.

So when it came to speed, Donna was vastly outmatched.

But when it came to heart, the Redskins stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Donna only suited up 18 players for the championship game on Dec. 16, 1961.

To say the Redskins were underdogs was a huge understatement.

Quanah was 14-0 on the season and had outscored its opponents 483-56 up to that point.

But the Redskins weren't about to back down and won the Valley's only state championship to date, 28-21.

The 1961 Donna Redskins and their one state championship, is the focus of the Valley Morning Star's last installment of the "By The Numbers" series.

"Week after week, we went into that game knowing we would win," said former Donna coach Earl Scott. "We were always tougher than our opponents.

"Ability-wise they were better than we were. But we just focused on eliminating mistakes. We weren't good enough to give up yards on penalties. So we just had to be tougher."

Donna defeated Refugio (32-0), Devine (12-7) Sweeney (32-14) and Brady (16-14) that postseason.

The Redskins were 13-2 that season.

After a hard-fought scrimmage against San Benito that season, Donna dropped its first two games to Mercedes and Rio Grande City.

Donna won 13 straight games to end the season.

Linebacker Fred Edwards and lineman Jackie Roberson went on to play at the University of Texas.

Tackle Harry Lantz went on to play for TCU.

Other notable players on the team included Luz Pedraza, Raul De La Garza, Joe Gonzalez, Alfredo Avila and Jim Hulme.

Eladio Jaimez covers football for Valley Freedom Newspapers. He can be reached at eladioj@valleystar.com. Peter Rasmussen of the Monitor contributed to this article.