Buryl Baty was a winning athlete, coach, builder of men, and an early pioneer in the fight against bigotry. In 1950, after serving in World War II, quarterbacking the Texas Aggies during glory days of the old Southwest Conference, and being drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions, Baty became head football coach for the Bowie High School Bears in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso. Coach Baty quickly inspired this all-Mexican American team of athletes from the south side ghetto with his winning ways and personal stand against the era’s extreme, deep-seated prejudice–to which they were subjected.
By 1954, the Bears were poised for a third championship…until an unthinkable tragedy turned their world upside down. Decades later, the school and its former players memorialized Coach Baty’s legacy by dedicating Bowie High’s stadium in his name, and inducting him into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame.
