While the Tyler Junior College Apaches came back to win from an 11 point deficit to beat Kilgore College 24 -21, there was another group of football players watching from the stands.
The 1957-58 TJC Apache Football team came to show their support at Homecoming and also do some catching up with their old friends.
“This is something that one of the alumni members has been talking about for years now. They did this at their 25-year reunion, and now they decided to get back together so now this will be their 50-year reunion,” said Alumni Director Betty Briggs.
This is something special that Tyler Junior College tries to do for all organization such as Apache Belles, football team, students, and etc.
“I’m sure that they have reunions off and on with groups over the years. I been the alumni director for 11 years so we have been doing this a little more frequently and usually an alumni or two will contact me and ask me to help them with the reunion to help find people,” said Briggs.
The1957-58 football team thought that it was good idea to bring the team back together so they could have the opportunity to see their friends or make some news ones.
“This is the first time I been back in 50 years,” said ex-running back Ned Jolly. “When I was here, we won one of two of our bowl games. We lost the one in the 58′ season, but we played a good game. I’m glad to see that my friend became good people and got good jobs to make something out them. I’m really happy for them.”
Other alumni such as Jackie Cannon and Riley Burnett also enjoyed reuniting with their old buddies and coming back to TJC.
“This was the best two years of my life. It was a great experience being here at TJC and it gave us opportunities to get college degrees and move on to bigger universities.” said Cannon. “All football times were great memories because we were all the same, a bunch of country boys and if you could survive you were good to go.”
Briggs said former students look forward to these special reunions.
“This event was very special to these guys. They came from all over just to be here from the Dallas and Houston area and even one came from Washington. So they really enjoyed being back here at Tyler Junior College with their friends,” said Briggs.
