Coach AllenWilson and his 1994 John TylerLions football team, which won the Class 5A Division II state championship with a 16-0 record,will be honoredFriday night when JT hosts WestMesquite atChristus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadiumin Tyler.

Allen Wilson, who returned John Tyler High School football to prominence, will be honored on Saturday in San Antonio.

Wilson will inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor, the highest award from the organization.

Wilson, who made Cujo known around Texas, led JT to the 1994 Class 5A Division II state championship with a 16-0 record. His Lions were perennial title contenders and made a state finals appearance in 2000.

Other inductees will be Joe Clements, Wally Freytag, Alan Weddell and Robert Woods. Other award winners are Putt Powell Sportswriter of the Year Kale Steed of the Amarillo Globe News, Curly Hays Officials Award Michael Fitch of the Fort Worth Chapter, Trainer of the Year Debby Winder of Stephenville, Tom Landry Award Hal Wasson and Distinguished Service Award Jim Faulk of San Antonio Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The 2018 Hall of Honor Inductees were unanimously approved at the March meeting of the THSCA board of directors.

The inductees will be honored at the THSCA Hall of Honor Banquet, sponsored by Balfour, at 7 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The banquet is held in conjunction with the annual THSCA Coaching School and Convention, which will take place Sunday through Tuesday in the Alamo City.

In his 11 seasons at JT (1991 to 2001), Wilson compiled a record of 102-34-2. He led the Lions to three district championships and nine playoff appearances. At JT, five of his teams won at least 11 games.

In 1994, John Tyler went 16-0 and won the Class 5A Division II state championship with a 35-24 win over Austin Westlake at the Astrodome in Houston.

A graduate of Midland Lee High School and Abilene Christian University, Wilson got his first head coaching job at Paris High School in 1983. He was a graduate assistant at ACU for two years before going to Paris. He remained in that position for eight years, winning four district championships and guiding his team to a state championship in 1988. His 1988 squad won the Class 4A state championship with a 31-13 win over West Orange-Stark.

After JT, his final coaching stop was at Dallas Carter from 2002-2010 where he was 44-5 in his first four years. In his nine years at the helm, his teams posted nine wins or better seven of those years.

In his 28 years as a head coach, Wilson posted a career record of 246-90-4 with 22 trips to the playoffs, 14 district championships and two state championships.

Wilson is a member of the Tyler ISD Athletic Hall of Fame and the Abilene Christian University Hall of Fame.

At Abilene Christian he was a defensive back on the NAIA national championship team and Lone Star Conference title squad.

That 1994 season at JT included a legendary regional semifinal game against Plano East Senior High School at Texas Stadium in Irving. The Lions won 48-44.

JT led 41-17 with 3:03 to go only to see PESH rally for a 44-41 lead with 24 seconds on the clock. The Lions’ Roderick Dunn then returned the kickoff 97-yards for a TD with 11 seconds remaining. Dunn was the very same player who had muffed the reception of the final two onside kicks, and it was the only touchdown of his high school career.

The game drew national attention in the United States due to its wildly improbable and tumultuous finish, with seven touchdowns scored in the last four and a half minutes, and it won the 1995 Showstopper of the Year ESPY Award. It has been billed by many sportscasters, both in Texas and the rest of the United States, as the greatest high school football game ever played.

The next week the Lions defeated Richardson Lake Highlands, 27-7, followed by a 45-20 semifinal victory over Arlington to reach the state title game.

Other honorees include:

Joe Clements’ career as a head coach was launched at Houston Lee High School in 1967. After an initial winning season (6-2-2), his record steadily improved. From Lee HS, he continued to build on his successes as head coach at Kingsville from 1972 to 1975, and finally at Huntsville HS where his team won the 1980 Class 3A state championship. He set a state record in 1985 of 51 consecutive district wins and his Huntsville teams competed in post season playoffs 14 of his 19 years with a record of 170-44-3. Clements’ head coaching career spanned 27 years, with an overall record of 222-76-6. Clements retired in 1994. He passed away in 2015.

Wally Freytag began his coaching career in 1961 at Pearce Junior High in Austin. He then went to Austin Reagan in 1965, moving up to head coach in 1974. With the exception of 1975 when Reagan was 4-5-1, Freytag never had a losing season making the playoffs nine times and winning seven district championships. He amassed a career record of 129-42-5 in his 16 years at Reagan High School. In 1989 he became athletic director for the Austin Independent School District and served in that capacity until his retirement.

Alan Weddell’s first head coaching job was at Victoria High School from 1982-89 where he amassed a 46-32-2 record and two district championships. In 1990, he became head coach at La Marque and led the Cougars to a 103-13 record in his eight years at the helm with two state finals appearances in 1993 and 1994 and three back-to-back state championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997. The 1997 THSCA All-Star coach left the high school ranks to become an assistant coach at Texas A&M and then University of Houston before returning in 2010 as assistant head coach at Brazoswood.

Robert Woods’ coaching career began in Plano where he went from seventh grade coach to varsity assistant in 1977. From 1977-87 he was part of a coaching staff that won three state titles. In 1988 he became head coach at Wilmer-Hutchins HS and in his six years at the helm, his teams qualified for the playoffs five times and won the state championship in 1990. He was also named 4A Coach of the Year. After three years at Crowley, he became head coach at Cedar Hill from 1994 until 2003 when he became as assistant coach in the Dallas ISD. He served his last two years as head coach at Dallas Jefferson before his retirement. Woods was a THSCA All-Star coach twice, once in 1980 with the Plano staff and as head coach in 1992.

 

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