By Greg Jaklewicz

The black Buick Skylark parked in front of the gym was your first clue.

It was long and sleek, nothing like, say, the lookalike SUVs of the 2020s.

The purple banner confirmed suspicions. This was not 2026 but a trip back in time to when Wylie High School was one small classroom building out in the country.

Inside the red brick gym at the original Wylie ISD campus Saturday was a gathering of the classes of 1969 to 1973, although any Wylie Bulldog was welcome. Superintendent Joey Light showed up. He’s a ‘78 grad.

This era of students meets as a group. The high school was much smaller and it wasn’t hard to know just about every student, regardless of grade. Especially if brothers and sisters were sprinkled in.

The Hall boys were there, Paul and Steve, for example. There were sightings of the Bryzozowski girls. Brenda and Sharon were Wylie students at the time.

Of course, catching up on things and reliving memories were the favorite activities. Some joked that the remembering is getting a little harder, but someone else was always nearby to get the story straight.

Photos were taken (Spike, the WHS mascot who wasn’t around back then, was there for that), food was enjoyed, and information about who to see for eye surgery or a knee replacement was passed around.

Joe Bob Stricklin was there. Wylie’s football team in 1971 was outstanding, with the Bulldogs host to Baird for the district title. The game was close as expected when Stricklin, Wylie’s standout running back, blew out his right knee. Without him, Baird won the District 8-A and took a 9-0-1 record into the playoffs.

Stricklin was wearing shorts, and the scar on his knee still is visible.

He recently had eye surgery and joked the car outside may have more original parts than he has now.

Other attendees included Tim Kelley, a 1974 grad who retired just this year as superintendent at nearby Eula ISD, and Cal Sumrall, who made a name for himself in the local car business.

Whatever varied things these students did in life, they shared the same origin - everyone was a Wylie Bulldog.

Golden days

From left, Sandra Jackson Harris, Nita Cowan Lawson, and Sandy McKee Clay reminisced about winning the Class A state basketball championship in 1970 under the legendary Stanley Whisenhunt.

A focal point for this group of grads was recalling the 1970 girls state basketball championship. The team was coached by Wylie legend Stanley Whisenhunt, who believed that group of girls could make history. It was Wylie’s first championship; the girls would win again in 1990 and 2010 and 2011.

The trio of Sandra Jackson Harris, Nita Cowan Lawson, and Sandy McKee Clay took a trip down memory lane. Clay was a junior on the team and relished that she got playing time though she was not a starter. Back then, she recalled, rosters were not as deep and varsity players got to play.

“They need to bring back Stanleyball,” she said, laughing.

Lawson, also a junior, was a starting forward.

Wylie came into the season with high expectations.

“When we were freshmen, Stanley told people that if he ever won a state championship, it would be with these girls,” Harris recalled. “He knew we had the potential and he worked us hard. He knew.”

Lawson agreed.

“He absolutely knew that,” she said.

And so did the players.

“Every single girl, to the nth degree, wanted to win state,” Lawson said. “Stanley told us that we can do this, if we want to.”

The girls were motivated, too, to win a big gold ball for their coach.

“We loved to make him happy,” Harris said.

“He was the GOAT as far as a lot of people are concerned, and we do, too,” Harris said.

Wylie, they recalled, barely got out its region, regarded as the toughest in the state.

The Bulldogettes, as they were known in the era of six-player game, were behind by five points to Claude in the regional championship game late, but rallied. Harris said Wylie scored the final nine points.

“Somehow we came back and beat them,” she said. “Stanley always told us that if we won regional, we’d win state.”

Things looked dire against Claude. Lawson said her dad had his feet on the rail with his they’re-not-going-to-win body language showing.

The trio remembered their opponents perhaps celebrating too early.

“They were jumping up and down and going ‘We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1. I tell you what, that made me so mad,” Lawson said.

Whisenhunt refocused his team during a timeout.

The team enjoyed singing and clapping on bus trips, and Stanley was part of the fun.

During the timeout, however, he made it clear that there would be no singing in the future because there would be no bus ride to Austin if they didn’t score some points.

“I looked at Pam (Raughton) and I looked at Sharon (Martin) and said, ‘We’ve got this,’” she said. Those three players were the shooters. The other team’s shooters “never touched the ball until we won.”

Wylie indeed seized its moment in Lubbock. Claude won the next two regional and state titles.

Finally, the championship

Reunion attendees remembered the way they were back in their high school days.

At the state meet on the University of Texas campus, Wylie clearly was the best team.

The Bulldogettes beat Cushing 73-43 in the semifinals and outscored Grandview 80-57 in the final.

Wylie finished the season 31-2.

“It was fabulous. One of the best times in my life,” Harris said.

Cowan-Lawson scored 30 points in the title game Martin 29, and Raughton 19. This was the era of the six-player game. There were three forwards and three guards who could not cross the halfcourt line. The ball had to be passed from one side to the other.

Lawson said Whisenhunt’s coaching and the time the girls put in to perfect their shooting was key to Wylie’s success. He also was a stickler to making free shots.

“You just can’t go out there and be a star,” Lawson said.

Wylie’s defense forced 29 Grandview turnovers and the Bulldogettes had 17 points before Grandview scored its first field goal.

Raughton had 32 points in the win over Cushing, with Cowan adding 20 and Martin 17.

The games were played at 4,000-seat Gregory Gym on the UT campus. The larger venue unsettled some shooters but Wylie shot better than 50 percent in each game.

The Bulldogettes had played in Texas Tech’s gym and at the new Taylor County Coliseum. But this was the state tournament in the state capital.

Harris said she was in awe of the big gym and the big games there.

“It was like stepping into the Taj Mahal or something. I broke out in hives,” she said. The mother of student Carolyn Fanning wrote a poem about Wylie’s magic season and, Harris recalled, laughing, the part about her was her and hives.

“But it was just awesome to be there,” Harris said.

A twist to the story

‘The gym setting Saturday was perfect. The home bleachers still are there but the concession is closed. And there now is air-conditioning for the youngsters who play inside.

The players recalled their coach having more than a rivalry with Comanche coach Leta Andrews. Once, they said, their pregame exchange of words prompted an official to separate them and threaten technical fouls before the first whistle.

Yet, Cowan recalled, it was Andrews who professionally wrapped her twisted ankle to allow her to play in the regional final.

“I had never sprained my ankle,” Cowan said. Whisenhunt saw his team’s shot at the state tournament evaporate.

Until his nemesis came out of the stands to wrap his scorer’s ankle. Cowan played, and Wylie won.

Andrews coached for 52 years - she was at Comanche from 1970-76 - and retired as the winningest high school coach, boys and girls, with 1,416 wins. She won 80 percent of her games.

Whisenhunt, who died in 2020 just after being inducted into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame, was beloved by his players. He and wife, Dorothy, did not have their own children but had a huge family with the girls who played for him over the years.

His teams won 15 straight district titles. He had taken another Wylie team to the state tournament in 1963, losing in the semifinals by two points to Jourdanton.

Whisenhunt led the singing at View Baptist Church, where many of his players attended.

The team was honored in 2005 when Wylie schools turned 100 years old, and then on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its title in 2021 at the state tournament, now in San Antonio.

Sadly, Whisenhunt had died three days before.

“You just wanted to play for him,” Clay said.

“You loved him,” Lawson said. “And he loved you.”