The Beverly Rockhold Memorial Group Successfully Celebrates Beverly Rockhold Day!
On March 30, 2012, the RMG reached all of its initial goals with a Baytown event drawing 170 attendees that incorporated the dedication of the Beverly Rockhold Monument on the Beverly Rockhold Track during the Beverly Rockhold Relays on Beverly Rockhold Day in Baytown. This website is to be further developed as a chronicle of that event as well as being an archive of Baytown Lee track history during the tenure of Coach Rock. It is also intended to preserve an era of great accomplishment in the sport of track & field under our legendary track coach.
Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District Coverage of the Event.
Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District Photos of the event.
Baytown Sun Coverage of the Event
This site originated with the commitment of pole vaulter Clem Hausmann ['66] to oversee the research and writing of a Rockhold Biography, motivated by his deep respect for the man. We were all in a sense Rock's "kids" as he and wife Lucille had none of their own. The more we researched, the more we realized that this website can be a conduit to that and much more. Coach Rockhold spanned some 30 years as track coach at R. E. Lee, and his legacy has unavoidably and fittingly been linked to our own.
As a few 1960 track team members began in mid 2010 to plan a Rockhold appreciation team reunion, we became inspired as word spread to track athletes in other REL classes who were also affected positively by the man's character and motivational successes. After an initial gathering in Bryan in February 2011 with some 40 guys spanning 13 track seasons from 1953 to 1966, we now have an ever growing roster of over 125 Rockhold track athletes spanning from 1940 to 1970, including most of the living Rockhold National Honor Roll All Americans [there were 45 total over his 30 year tenure as track coach].
While all from that era would surely settle for 20 more years of enriched life experience, some will not attain such a goal. How many more times in life does one get the opportunity to do something so worthwhile as to commemorate the life of a man and an era that was so dear to us all? As you traverse this site and see our purpose and accomplishments, we are inviting you reflect and perhaps even participate via our Rockhold Memorial Trust. If you are a widow to or offspring of a Rockhold "trackster," you are in a essence one of us. If you admired Coach as a mentor, then you indeed have good judgment!
We wish to thank the Steering Committee members [Eddie Gray ['53], Wally Wilson ['55], Art Whitmer [61], Clem Hausmann ['66] Richard Bain ['60], Bill Askey ['66], Delton Perkins ['61] and George Walmsley ['44] for the perfect blend of expertise and support. Our goals were lofty and we have just pulled off a longs odds event that enshrined an era some 42-72 years ago!
Potentially this website could be the forerunner or even the overseer for similar historical and memorial development in other REL organizations such as football, band, Brigadiers [1931-2001], cheerleaders/pep squads, baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, choir, and even faculty....a site to show our kids, grand kids and great grandkids, and help preserve an era inclusive of REL's traditions and successes.... legacies far too rich to allow to wane. We wish to thank long time Baytown Sun Columnist and former Managing Editor Wanda Orton for her support and many timely columns. She will have carte blanche invitation to write columns here as her own Baytown legacy is also near and dear to us all.
So, come jog a few laps with us as we continue to upload to out site more current events and milestones.GO GANDERS!... Richard Bain [co-captain 1960]