1952: Wink takes state

1952: Wink takes state

    OHS had a winning season in 1952 but it was nearby Wink that stole the sports page.  The Wink Wildcats opened the season by losing two of their first three games, then ran the table en route to a 26-20 victory over Deer Park in the Class A state championship game. Wink scored 400 points in its first 10 games, including an 80-28 victory over McCamey, a 68-0 win over Iraan and a 59-20 defeat of Marfa.

Tanker fire: A spectacular fire broke out on May 21 when eight runaway railroad tank cars loaded with gasoline raced over a 10 mile stretch of track, hurtled into a switch engine and exploded in the West Texas warehouse district. The fire and explosion caused a million dollars in property damage.

    General Election: A record turnout of more than 14,000 voters flocked to the polls on Nov. 4 to help elect the first Republican president in 24 years, Dwight D. Eisenhower. A few days prior to the election, vice president-elect Richard Nixon made an appearance at Midland Airport during a one-day air tour of Texas. Nixon spoke about communism and foreign policy. In local politics, Fred Gage was elected mayor and Ed Costello, L. B. Cooper and Balie Griffith were elected city councilmen. Just before the election, councilman G. P. Jackson quit in protest against the council's refusal to fire J. J. Heaton as chief of police. Lucille Gerron was appointed Ector County judge to complete the term of her husband, O. E. Gerron, who died May 14.

    Crime report: On May 29, an Odessa roughneck shot and killed a female caf owner and her male companion and then turned the gun on himself. On Aug. 9, 9-year-old Eva Lois Phillips disappeared from her Odessa trailer home. She was found unharmed four days later in Dallas. She was the victim of a kidnapping scheme by a man and woman who wanted her as their child. The couple received five year suspended sentences.

    Religious protest: Three members of the Ollitt family were arrested at Medical Center Hospital for interfering with a physician's attempt to give Grace Marie Ollitt, 20, a blood transfusion. Her two brothers and father were released after she received the procedure. Relatives said the transfusion violated biblical law.

Headlines

    * For the second year, Odessa High's football team lost but one district game, but the loss was to Lubbock High, which repeated as Class 4A state champion.

    * The state's new auto inspection law went into effect in January, creating jams at inspection stations throughout Odessa at the end of the month as car owners tried to beat the deadline.

    * Ector County ranked seventh in the state for crude oil production in 1952, and eighth in the nation.

    * First Presbyterian Church completes new building after purchasing an entire block, between 14th and 15th streets and Sam Houston and Washington Avenues.

    * The Odessa American moves to its present location at 4th and Jackson. The office had been one block west, at 4th and Texas Avenue.

    * Rabbi Pizer Jacobs becomes the first fulltime rabbi of Temple Beth El.

    Information is drawn from news accounts, archives and other historical records.

Click here for 1952 Season Stats

Click here for 1952 Individual Stats