J.J. Joe is very familiar to most fans of the Baylor Bears. As the quarterback of the Bears from 1990 through 1993, J.J. led the Bears to three winning records in four seasons and a pair of bowl appearances – the 1991 Copper Bowl and the 1992 John Hancock Sun Bowl. J.J. was a three-time Academic All-American selection and was named as the quarterback on Baylor’s All-Decade team for the years 1990-1999. J.J. graduated as the school’s all-time passing leader (with 5,995 yards) and t...
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Thursday June 11, 2009 10:48 AM Posted by ftblbob5
The small town of Goree, Texas had a population of 600 in 1958, playing 6-man football. The leader and best athlete on the 1958 team was a 6’1”, 215-pound, lanky fullback named Stacy Mathis, the son of a Baptist minister. Stacy, like most athletes in such a small school, played football, basketball, and ran track for the Wildcats of Goree. Stacy was the team’s leading rusher and receiver his junior and senior seasons, scored 240 of the team’s 440 points, accounted for over 2,000 all-purpose yards, led the team in tackles as a linebacker, won the 100-yard dash in the district track meet three years in a row, going to state in his junior year (10.0).
Cotton Davidson, at the time the Baylor backfield coach, had heard about this young man through the West Texas grapevine – a Baptist preacher had gone to Baylor Coach John Bridger’s office to tell him about the young man’s potential. Davidson thought that an athlete like that might be worth a trip to Goree. One afternoon, the superintendent of the Goree Public Schools came to get Stacy out of class. When Stacy got to the superintendent’s office, he found Cotton Davidson waiting for him. This visit resulted in an offer of a scholarship to the young man from Goree, but it was given with a twist. Although Stacy had played fullback throughout high school and was one of the fastest young men in the state, the Baylor staff (“Catfish” Smith) was going to play him in the offensive and defensive line – no questions asked.
A few years previous, Jack Pardee had successfully made the transition from six-man football to the Texas A&M squad, but the success for Stacy was far from a done deal. Stacy was having to transition, not only from the 6-man game to the eleven-man game, but from a running back to an offensive lineman – a position he had never played. Additionally, Stacy was promised only one year on scholarship. If he didn’t pan out, it would not be renewed for the next season.
Stacy remembered his first practice at Baylor. He lined up in front of John Jessup (who became one of Stacy’s closest friends). John Jessup had been a highly decorated and sought after offensive lineman from Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas. Jessup was very experienced and was technically very proficient in offensive line techniques. Needless to say, Stacy was given an interesting initiation to big-time college football and wound up looking out the ear hole of his helmet. To his credit, when Coach Charlie Driver (offensive line coach) told Stacy to get out, Stacy asked for another chance to get it right.
Eventually, Stacy began to make significant progress. He told the Lariat in 1963, “It was not really as hard as I thought it would be. You have to be in better condition to play six-man ball and it is a faster game. I wouldn’t say that eleven-man is a tougher game than six-man ball, but it involves more contact, fundamentals and a greater complexity of techniques.” Though he did not make it into the regular rotation until his senior season, Stacy became the fastest lineman on the Baylor 1963 squad. In a track meet between the University of Texas football team and Baylor, he won the 100-yard dash and ran with the winning 400-yard relay team.
In his senior season, Stacy was a vital part of the 1963 team’s success. Coach Bridger’s said, “Stacy is conscientious about everything he does and always wants to do the right thing. This attitude and the confidence he gained in himself this year enabled him to do a fine job.”
For his performance in the 1963 season, Mathis made the Honorable Mention All-Southwest Conference Team. Following the Bluebonnet Bowl victory, Mathis went on to sign a contract to play professional football with the Ottawa Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. An injury ended his football career. Stacy was named to the 6-man Texas Football Hall of Fame in its third-ever class.
Stacy went on to a career in a major property and casualty insurance company as a Marketing Executive and is now retired, living in Richardson, Texas.
Coach Kaz has the Baylor football team's summer activities in full swing. Some of his methods might seem to be a little "quirky," but the under-lying logic is sound and the players seem to be willing to follow Coach Kaz's example.
Some of the boys are being asked to take yoga to develop more functional flexibility and the ability to "pop" the hips. One of the biggest problems with a lot of heavy weight training can be a reduction in rotational movement ability. Obviously, Kaz is trying to head any of these possible problems before they become severe.
Coach Kaz has the guys doing "team building activities." One of his latest efforts toward keeping our team's focus where it needs to be was bringing all the guys together for a "bonfire." Kaz took all of the positive articles that have been coming out about our Baylor Bears this summer and built a boy scout fire tepee out of them and set them ablaze. He told our Bears that they hadn't done anything yet to have "earned" that kind of publicity. He said that the only thing that kind of publicity would do is make sure that every opponent on next year's schedule would be ready to play when they played Baylor.
It appears that we are very fortunate to have a man of Coach Kaz's caliber at Baylor University. It may already be common knowledge, but Coach Kaz was basically a war refugee from Africa when he came to the United States. He told the guys that when he got the United States, he would go to the store for his mother, pay for the groceries, and pray that the clerk had given him the right change because he knew nothing about our currency or how to speak English.
Coach Kaz left the NFL due to a torn bicep (I can't imagine how that felt). He got that injury by working out too hard. Proprioception means "sense of self". In the limbs, the proprioceptors are sensors that provide information about joint angle, muscle length, and tension, which is integrated to give information about the position of the limb in space. The muscle spindle is one type of proprioceptor that provides information about changes in muscle length. The Golgi tendon organ is another type of proprioceptor that provides information about changes in muscle tension. Sometimes, highly trained individuals can develop "mental blocks" on the proprioceptors that inhibit muscles from firing too severely. When the proprioceptors don't limit the muscle (as in the case of Coach Kaz) you can actually push yourself too hard, causing the muscle to rip because it is pushed beyond its ability to contract or stretch.
Our 2009 team (including in-coming freshmen) is on campus and working diligently to prepare themselves for next fall. They have great aspirations, but I think that they understand that nothing is going to come easily - that they won't sneak up on anyone next fall. With Coach Kaz's leadership, it appears they understand that any success that they might have in the up-coming season will have to be "earned."
May 26, 2009
J.J. Joe is very familiar to most fans of the Baylor Bears. As the quarterback of the Bears from 1990 through 1993, J.J. led the Bears to three winning records in four seasons and a pair of bowl appearances – the 1991 Copper Bowl and the 1992 John Hancock Sun Bowl. J.J. was a three-time Academic All-American selection and was named as the quarterback on Baylor’s All-Decade team for the years 1990-1999. J.J. graduated as the school’s all-time passing leader (with 5,995 yards) and t...
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