Mites Made (Big) Headlines....

When the Mighty Mites played a team, it was BIG news, and that is no Texas exaggeration! This front page feature from a Dallas newspaper was in anticipation of the big game between the Oak Cliff Sunset High School Bisons and the Mites.

Debra Stephens has sent us newspaper clippings, including this one, from her father's archives. Her father, Mighty Mite Don Stephens, played college football ball (at Rice University), went on to serve in WWII, and then returned to live on the Masonic Home campus and coach the football team from '50 - '52. Her father moved to California when Debra was 14 after coaching teams in the Texas towns of Rosebud, Edna, Killeen and Mexia.

In thinking back about her father's career, Debra said, "I would think that Mr. Russell would have been influential in teaching him how to grow the players. You don't have to threaten a kid in order to get them to play a decent game of ball. That just wasn't my Dad's way."