To relive the old days, or maybe just to see if they “still had it,” former players from Bullard and Frankston played an alumni football game this spring. 

Roaming the Bullard sidelines was the brightest spot in the history of the Panthers’ football program. Paul Rothwell, who coached Bullard from 1989 to 1994, called the plays to a group of guys who mostly never played under Rothwell, but there were a few who did. 

They were the lucky few who were in the program when Bullard made its only playoff appearances each year from 1990 to 1993. 

During the event Rothwell met current Bullard coach Shannon Wilson, who was a few weeks from starting his second season with the Panthers and was coming off a 3-7 campaign in 2010.

Rothwell never won a playoff game in his four tries with Bullard, but he has always been held in high regard around town. He was the guy who got the Panthers there, in a time when only two teams made the playoffs. He was the guy who led Bullard to two straight nine-win seasons. 

He was the guy for whom high school students walked out of class and townspeople signed petitions after he was removed from his job in 1994.   

Bullard hired six football coaches in between Rothwell’s departure and Wilson’s hiring in 2010. None stayed longer than three years. Three times Bullard had winning seasons and twice the Panthers were one win short of a playoff berth. 

But, somehow, some way — call it fate, irony, whatever — Bullard had its changing of the guard that March day at Panther Stadium. 

“He’s got ’em on the right track,” Rothwell said on Wednesday from Georgia, where he still coaches football. 

Wilson and his 2011 Panthers are on a run never before seen in Bullard. They won the last game of the regular season to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993, and for the first time in Class 3A. Then, a 24-14 win over Center in bi-district. Bullard’s first win in the football playoffs, ever, was 32 years in the making. 

But, Cinderella wasn’t done yet. 

One of East Texas’ favorite football stepchildren, those kids who can only play with circle-shaped balls, shocked the area and the state with a 53-41 win over Robinson last week in the area round. Bullard — yes, THAT Bullard — is playing football during Thanksgiving.   

“For a football team and its coaches, (playing during Thanksgiving) is very special. The only thing better is playing December,” Wilson said. “We definitely want this to be a yearly thing, not a one-hit wonder. To do that takes this kind of effort and work-ethic every single year.”

Playing during Thanksgiving is not a foreign concept for Wilson, having spent three years as defensive coordinator at one of Texas’ most storied programs in Southlake Carroll. 

Which begs the question: What on earth was a coordinator at Southlake Carroll thinking when he applied at Bullard?

“I only sent out a handful of résumés. It had to be something I felt was good, coaching-wise and for my family,” Wilson said. “I was just impressed with everything here. It just, I don’t know, had that feeling to me, I guess. When I met our superintendent, Keith Bryant, and met the administration, I knew this is where I wanted to be.”

Wilson’s application was one of 120 Bryant had in his possession for Bullard’s next football coach. He narrowed the list down to 20, and then brought all 20 to Bullard for interviews.

I asked Bryant if it was unusual to interview that many candidates face-to-face. “Some people said I was crazy,” he said. 

Toward the end of the month-long process, Bryant brought back six coaches for second interviews. Wilson had struck a chord the first time around, but this time, he knew. 

“He convinced me he was the guy who could come in and turn Bullard around. There was no doubt in his mind,” Bryant said. “Some of the other who interviewed hoped they could, but somehow, he knew it.”

The effort proved beneficial. While all of the other finalists were top-notch, Bryant said — each of them has made the playoffs the last two years — Bullard has found both its football coach and the builder of the football foundation. 

“I’m not an ‘I’ guy or a ‘me’ guy. It’s a ‘we’ thing for me,” Wilson said. “We’ve learned to work hard, and we’ve got a group of resilient kids. They take a lot of pride in laying the foundation for future teams. That’s overcoming a lot because a lot of these kids weren’t even born the last time Bullard was in the playoffs.”

Rothwell and Wilson share a lot in common from their time in Bullard, even if the two have only met for a minute. Both came into a program that “couldn’t win.” 

“When I got to Bullard, all I heard was, ‘Bullard can’t ever win. They can’t do this. They can’t do that,’” Rothwell said. “Sure, we couldn’t do some things, but what we could do, we did. I’ve been coaching for 31 years, but those were the best years of my life in Bullard.”

Funny. Wilson told me the same thing. 

“We always focus on what we can control. Our effort is one thing. The second thing is to use our strengths,” Wilson said. “Our strength is we can outsmart guys. Our kids and our staff do a great job of that.”

Bullard was 16-74 before Rothwell was hired and won two district titles. The Panthers were 44-103 prior to Wilson. One of Bullard’s proudest trophies outside of Rothwell’s accomplishments is the game ball from the Panthers’ first-ever win in 1983, their 33rd try.

Well, until this year. 

It’s all new territory at this point for Bullard, which is a member of the final 16 teams in Class 3A Division II and faces perennial powerhouse West Orange-Stark on Saturday in Shenandoah. Last week’s win against Robinson that got the Panthers to this point is something that will stick with the players and the town for years to come. 

“It was unlike anything I’ve experienced in high school football,” Bryant said. “I’ve been involved in exciting games and such, but there was almost an electricity in the stands. You can be successful in a lot of things, but there’s almost just a sense of pulling in an entire community when your football team is successful. There’s an excitement and cohesiveness in this town I’ve never seen before.”

As for Wilson, he’ll take none of the credit. And that’s what makes him a perfect fit in Bullard.

“When we got here, we were going to do everything first class, but really we were going to bust our tails. To get where you want to be, you’re going to have to work really, really hard,” Wilson said. “It could be done; they just had to believe. Everyone who stayed and believed, well, they’re still playing football.”