Page 2 College Station, Texas Thursday, August 25, 1960
Myers Heads Ag Football Coaching Staff
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Jim, Myers
starts third year as coach
Jim Myers, head football coach
and athletic director at Texas
A&M, came to Aggieland in Feb
ruary, 1958 after a one-year ten
ure as head coach at Iowa State.
Previously, he served eight years
as top assistant to Red Sanders at
UCLA.
In the two years at A&M Myers
has developed a well-rounded ath
letic program and he has in his
department one of the finest staffs
in the nation.
Myers was born 38 years ago
in Madison, West Virginia. Fol
lowing graduation from Scott
High School in Madison, where he
was a prep star, the Aggies coach
enrolled at the University of Ten
nessee. He played freshman foot
ball for the Vols in 1940 and was
a member of John Barnhill’s teams
in 1941 and 1942 before entering
the Marine Corps.
After serving three years in the
Marines, Myers returned to Ten
nessee for his senior year, playing
the 1946 season under Gen. Bob
Neyland. Myers played one sea
son at Duke in the Marine V-12
program, then served overseas.
He attained the rank of captain.
Following graduation from Ten
nessee in 1947 Myers served as an
assistant at Wofford College be-
bore becoming an aide to Sanders
at Vanderbilt in 1948. He moved
to UCLA with Sanders in 1949
and was named head coach at Iowa
State in 1957.
He is married to the former
Carolyn Agee, whom he met at
College. The couple has three
daughters: Susan, 13; Kathy, 10
and Carol, 9.
WILLIE ZAPALAC
Assistant Coach
A native Texan, and an A&M
graduate, Willie Zapalac is in
charge of the A&M defense and
works with defensive ends and
linebackers.
A Bellville product, Zapalac
scored a record 245 points his
senior year at Bellville High in
1938, then enrolled at A&M where
he played varsity ball under Ho
mer Norton in 1941, 1942 and 1946.
Following graduation in 1947
Zapalac played one year of pro
fessional football with the Pitts
burgh Steelers before beginning
his successful coaching career in
1948.
Zapalac coached at John Tarle-
ton State College, Hillsboro High
School and Arlington State before
joining the A&M staff in 1953.
Zapalac served 36 months in the
Air Corps during World War II,
reaching the rank of captain.
Willie played in the 1942 Cotton
Bowl game, two East-West all-
star games and in two Colleg All-
Star Games at Chicago.
He is married and his three chil
dren—Billy, 12; Jeff, 10 and Jill,
7. His wife’s name is Dorothy.
ELMER SMITH
Assistant Coach
Elmer Smith, one of two hold
over coaches on the Myei^s staff,
works with the offensive guards
and center at A&M.
One of the all-time great ath
letes at Hendrix College, Smith
came to A&M in 1954, after a
successful tenure at Southern
Arkansas State College in Mag
nolia His Magnolia teams in eight
seasons compiled a 54-27-2 record
and won state titles in 1951 and
1952.
A graduate of Danville, Ark.,
high school, Smith was a four-
year, four-sport letterman at Hen
drix, Conway, Ark. He is a 1931
graduate.
Smith was an outstanding
catcher in organized baseball until
a football injury forced his retire
ment. When Smith was a regular
catcher, for New Orleans in the
Southern Association, Hall of
Fame Catcher Bill Dickey of the
New York Yankees was his sub
stitute.
Smith was an assistant at Hen
drix until 1936 when he went to
Centenary College, Shreveport, in
a similar capacity. He served in
the Navy during World War II
and reached the rank of lieutenant
commander.
Smith and his wife, Sybil, who
teaches in the Bryan school sys
tem, have no children.
MATT LAIR
Assistant Coach
Matt Lair, former defensive line
coach at Kentucky, will be in
charge of defensive guards - and
tackles at A&M this fall.
Lair joined the Aggie staff in
February, 1959.
Lair developed some outstanding
linemen while at Kentucky, latest
being Lou Michaels, all-America
star of 1957 who teamed with
A&M’s Charlie Krueger in helping
the College All-Stars down the
Detroit Lions in August of 1958.
Before joining the Kentucky
staff of Blanton Collier in 1953,
Lair had high school coaching ex
perience at Selma, Ala., Louisville,
Ky., and Montgomery, Ala.
He played four years at Ken
tucky, graduating in 1948. He
was a blocking back under Ab Kir-
wan in 1941 and 1942 and after
serving as a B-17 gunner in Italy
during World War II, returned as
a guard on Paul Bryant’s 1946-47
Kentucky teams. He holds a mas
ter’s degree from Kentucky.
A native of Paris, Ky., where he
played fullback add tailback for
Collier in high school, Lair is mar
ried to the former Helen Davis Of
Lexington, Ky.
TOM ELLIS
Assistant Coach
Tom Ellis, head coach at Mc-
Murry College the past four years,
came to A&M before spring prac
tice in 1960. He will help with the
defense and backfield.
A native of Cleveland, Tenn.,
where he played at Bradley High
School, Ellis played his collegiate
ball at McMurry im Abilene in
1942, 1946 and 1947.
Following graduation he served
as assistant coach at Winters High
for two years and from 1950
through the 1954 season was line
coach and head basketball coach at
Merkel.
He came to McMurry as line
coach in 1955 and was named head
coach the following year. His
teams won 24 and lost 16, includ
ing an 8-2 season in 1959. He
developed Charlie Davis, little All-
America guard, in 1958 and has
had several others drafted by pro
clubs.
Ellis served three year’s as a
radio operator in the 14th Air
Force with duty in China. He
was a staff sergeant.
He and his wife, Billie, have a
9-year-old daughter, Deborah, and
two sons, Bill, 4 and Mike, 2.
TRAVIS (SHORTY) HUGHES
Assistant Coach
Travis (Shorty) Hughes, recent
successful coach at Deer Park
High School, will work with the
Aggie freshmen and also help with
the offense.
Hughes, who Deer Park teams
lost but one district game in eight
years, served the Texas High
School Coaches Association as vice
president and would have been
president next year. His Deer
Park teams won state titles in
1954 and 1955 and won 45 con
secutive games.
Prior to coaching at Deer Park,
Hughes served three years at
Humble High School following
graduation from Sam Houston
State College in 1949. At Sam'
Houston Hughes was a blocking
back.
Hughes, who served in the Ma
rines three years during World
War II, is married and has two
daughters, Kay 11, and Sue, 9.
His wife’s name is Florence.
BOBBY DRAKE KEITH
Assistant Coach
One of two former A&M stu
dents on the coaching staff, Bobby
Drake Keith works with offensive
ends and tackles. He joins Willie
Zapalac as the only A&M alumni
on the staff.
Keith, a native of Breckenridge,
was recruited to A&M by Zapalac
in 1953. He was a. halfback and
end at Breckenridge and played |
halfback on the 1953 Aggie Fish
team.
He continued as halfback in .
1954, but was moved to end in
1955 and 1956. He served as a
student coach in 1957, then joined
Paul Bryant on the Alabama staff
for the 1958-59 seasons. He re
turned to A&M and Coach Jim
Myers’ staff prior to spring train
ing in 1960.
Keith was a starting end on the
1956 championship club until suf
fering a broken jaw mid-way in
the season.
Keith’s wife, Margaret, is a na
tive of Monahans.
CHARLES E. HARPER
Athletic Trainer
Veteran trainer at A&M is
Charles E. (Smokey) Harper, who
came to A&M in 1954 from Ken
tucky. Smokey has been in the
business 34 years and has worked
at Clemson, Vanderbilt, Florida,
Alabama, UCLA and Kentucky
prior to coming to A&M. He is a
native of Milledgeville, Ga., and a
graduate of Mercer College ih
Macon, Ga.
S. M. MEEKS
S. M. Meeks took over the im
portant position of handling the
A&M athletic equipment in 1958.
He was former in the sporting |
goods business in San Antonio. 1i
He has two sons who were grekt : a
athletes—Charley, formerly of the '.il
University of Texas track team,
and S. M., Jr., a former halfback U
at the University of Houston. He 1
and Mrs. Meeks have a third son, ^
Tommy, who is a senior in Stephen
F. Austin High School in Bryan. P
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... .
HELLO
To you who have already enrolled at A&M, and you
who plan to - we want to say ^Greetings and Welcome
to Aggieland.”
r.
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