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The memories won't fade away

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It's history week in Leander. You can learn a lot about how the city got where it is today in the News' special section. On the sports scene you can also get a little bit of history this Friday at the last football game ever to be played at Bible Stadium. The stadium will be torn down immediately after Friday's annual “Battle of Bagdad” - the Lion's preferred name for their annual game with the Timberwolves. There have been a lot of great contests over the years at the stadium that still carries a lot of Mojo.

The story of how the stadium came to Leander is a legend of its own. Leander desperately needed a bigger stadium when word came from Odessa that Permian High School, a legendary powerhouse, would build a new stadium and was willing to sell the steel frame of their old one for only $60,000. The low price sounded like a deal to Leander Superintendent Fred Hobson. Construction costs ran the price up but it is safe to say old Lion Stadium was the cheapest 12,000-plus seat stadium built anywhere in Texas during the past 50 years.

Construction starts soon on the new stadium, being built under the theory it is cheaper (in the long run) to build a new stadium rather than paint the old(?).

I witnessed some great games at this stadium, particularly the 2002 game between Pflugerville and Leander. The Lions Al Pena and Joey Parsons ran wild against the powerful Panthers and the Lions eventually won 49-45. The unique thing about this game is Pflugerville never punted and scored the first seven times they got the ball. But the football gods were with Bible and the Lions, and they prevailed.

In 2004, Cedar Park and Leander played their best game ever, a 23-20 victory for the T'wolves and their first victory over the Lions. Time was running out in the game with Leander leading by seven and only needing to run out the clock. Suddenly, the T'wolves' Brandon Haug forced a fumble by Lions running back Efosa Ogbeide which was scooped up by Kyle Williams who scampered into the end zone tying the game, and leading to a 23-20 win by Cedar Park. I will never forget that play.

It is these memories that made me love the old stadium.

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