Heel or Hero? Half an Inch Can Make the Difference...

Rusty Russell's philosophy of coaching can be gleaned from Channel 8 interview conducted in Dallas in his retirement years when he and Nita enjoyed watching football games from the comfort of their home. He was 86 at the time of the interview.

"Half an inch one way or the other can make a heel or a hero out of you," he often said to his kids in teaching them the importance of doing your best.

"I worked 24 hours a day if necessary...to prepare a team to win a ball game. I wanted to do everything possible, of course I made a lot of mistakes. If it didn't turn out right I didn't lose any sleep, I sat down and ate a good meal and went to sleep and I believe in that. I tell my kids and I always have, you give your best, you give your all out there and when you do that, you don't have to apologize to anybody. That's my ticket."

1940 Team...

The September 1940 team included: front row, left to right, Ray Coulter, Billy Joe Cagle, Dewitt Coulter, Curtis Robbins, Floyd Lewis, Cecil Moseley and Leonard Roach; back row, left to right: Hardy Brown, Clyde Roberts, C.D. Sealey and Basel Smith.

JUST IN THIS PHOTO OF 11, the accomplishments beyond The Home are amazing. Ray Coulter and DeWitt Coulter are in the Texas High School Hall of Fame, and Dewitt is also in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Brownie Lewis was a starter at SMU and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers. Billy Joe Cagle enlisted and served at Iwo Jima, was wounded twice, and received two separate Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star. He played on scholarship at the University of Tulsa and was named All-Conference. Clyde Roberts went to North Texas on a football scholarship, enlisted in the Marines, started as a Private and ended up a Lt. Colonel. He was decorated 11 times after serving in WWII, Korea,Vietnam, and among those awards, was the Bronze Star. Hardy Brown was named All-Conference at Tulsa, then played 12 years of pro football. C.D. "Wheatie" Sealey was decorated and wounded in WWII and then served as a coach and educator for 40 years in Fort Worth. Doug Lord isn't in that photo but was on that team and went on to manage a World Boxing Champion, gain a bachelors and graduate degree and attain the level of Brigadier General in the Air Force.

Old Blue...

When it was time to load up and go play an "away" game, the football team scrambled up in Old Blue, similar to this 1926 Model T flat bed truck, and chugged off regardless of the weather. It was all that was available to transport the kids at The Masonic Home.

Dr. E.P. Hall, "Doc Hall", the team doctor who donated all of his time and love to take care of the orphans, would ride in the cab with Rusty Russell. Old Blue is just as much a character as anyone else in the story of the 12 Mighty Orphans.

Mean Hardy Brown...

After witnessing his father's murder at close range at age four, Hardy Brown arrived at the Masonic Home with his brother and sister. He spent his entire childhood there and played football on the Mighty Mite team. He died in 1991 at age 67.

In an interview Rusty Russell recalled Hardy's transition after he left The Home. Hardy went on to become a Marine paratrooper and afterwards he wanted to fulfill his college ambitions. DeWitt Coulter, his Mighty Mite buddy, got him to come to West Point to play football with him. It didn't work out at West Point and Hardy called Mr. Russell.

Henry Frnka had been a coach at a highschool in Texas and was at that time a coach at University of Tulsa. Russell knew the kind of coach Frnka was, knew Frnka personally, and he felt Hardy would fit into Frnka's system. Russell called Frnka on Hardy's behalf. Based on his conversation with Russell, Frnka offered Hardy a scholarship. Hardy had a successful career at the University of Tulsa before entering the NFL.

When he was in Tulsa, a newspaper ran the photo above of Hardy when he played fullback at Tulsa University and was a contender for All-American. As his wife, Betty looked on, he claimed he could iron a shirt in less than two minutes. Whether he learned that at the Home or not, we can't say.

He played professionally for the San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins, and the Denver Broncos. He was one of only two men who played in the All-America Football Conference, the National Football League, and the American Football League.

At The Home he was surrounded by his family. Perhaps that was the best thing in his life and when thrown into the world of football, he survived as best he knew how. He would say in his pro career he had 75 - 80 knock outs and everyone was out to get him. For those who knew Hardy at The Home, he was in a place where he felt safe and no one was "out to get him".

He was named #5 of the Top Ten Most Feared Tacklers and Washington Post's Matt Schudel writing in his Post Mortem blog about the hardest hitters in football, noted that Hardy cherished his tough NFL reputation. Hardy was 6' and at 190 lbs played linebacker. Interviews with sports figures for a special on the Top Ten Tacklers thought his mean streak and violent nature was "shaped at the Masonic Home for orphans in Fort Worth Texas, a rough and tumble place" and some thought "Hardy channeled his frustrations through football and "he was going to make people pay for it". He had a special move where he threw his shoulder into opponents. "It's like a boxer, take one step forward, keep your back straight, keep your eyes forward, and ...... (pop your shoulder)....and that's it," Hardy said, showing how he does that.

Crazy, Stinky, Skinny Well-Fed:Nicknames

When new kids came into The Home, they were given a "Big Kid" for a buddy. Often these led to life-long bonds stronger than those of siblings. New kids also gained nicknames and many nicknames stuck for life.

Some of those nicknames include: Buster, Wheatie (ate nine bowls of Wheaties cereal in a challenge), Wink, Snoggs, Fat Lord, Brownie (big brown eyes), Little Dick (because there was already a Big Dick), Sleepy, Hootie, Killer Underwood, Shorty, Crazy, Stinky, Moe, Monkey, and many others. Skinny Well-Fed gained his nickname when he wrote his mother a postcard telling her that he came to The Home "skinny and now I'm well-fed". Someone read the postcard and from then on he was Skinny Well-Fed.

They called each other "Home Kids" while outsiders called them orphans. They called each other family. Forever.

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Wheatie Sealey, Coach, Teacher, Mite

Charles Drew "C.D." Sealey died December 11, 2010 at age 87. He was known to his Masonic Home family as "Wheatie" because when he first came to the orphanage right after he had turned six, he took on the challenge of seeing who could eat the most bowls of cereal and he won, acquiring his nickname from thenceforth. He ate nine bowls.

When his father, a Master Mason, died, Wheatie was taken to The Masonic Home and School to be raised and educated. He was one of the youngest children there, as you couldn't enter The Home until age five. It was 1929 at the height of the Depression and he was typical of many kids who entered the home at that time when their fathers died and their mothers could no longer support their children.

Wheatie had vivid memories of entering the home. "I saw all the tall buildings. I couldn't imagine what kind of place that was, ...what kind of place I was getting into," he said. "Everyone had a big kid pal when you got there." They were protectors and disciplinarians. It was helpful to a "new kid" to be taken under the arm of an older "protector". The big kid pals became like older brothers, looking out for the younger boys and teaching them. This concept carried over to the Milk Slimes, a work chore group that Wheatie belonged to, where bigger boys initiated the younger boys who came of age to join to group who milked the cows that provided the fresh dairy products for the children. The Home Kids became like family to one another.

Mike Barr, one of the principals of 12 Productions developing the story into the movie, sat by Mighty Mite Miller Moseley at the funeral. "When his three descendants spoke to those gathered, about 75 percent of what they talked about was Sealey's time at The Home and its impact on his life," Barr said. "His daughter said that his children had hundreds of aunts and uncles -- Sealey's non-blood siblings from The Home. He was proud of his time there, always talked about it, how it shaped him and how Rusty Russell influenced him." Barr said 20 percent of the tributes given were about Sealey's years spent as a coach and there were quite a number of his players there.

H.N. "Rusty" Russell came to the home in 1927 as a teacher and administrator and he started the football program right away. Wheatie was pulled right into the football program and was a Little Mite and later part of the famous Mighty Mite teams from 1937 - 1940, that made the State Playoffs and Wheatie played quarterback. Wheatie graduated in 1941 from The Home.

Like his Mighty Mite teammate, Doug Lord, who fell in love with and later married fellow Home student Opal Worthington, Wheatie met and married his first wife Erline Alderson, also a Home Kid. He joined the Marines as a paratrooper at the beginning of World War II and returned home after being wounded. After graduating from college, at North Texas University in Denton, Texas, he became, like other Mighty Mites such as "Brownie" Lewis, a teacher and coach.

Wheatie remained in Fort Worth. "Coach Sealey" retired from the Fort Worth Independent School District in 1981. He was a sixty-year member (and past master) of Polytechnic Masonic Lodge 920 and a member of Godley Masonic Lodge. His brother, Murray, predeceased him. He is survived by two sisters, Agnes Hall of Fort Worth and Niela Shelton of Haslet, his wife of 30 years, Joella Mims Sealey, and numerous children, step-children and great-grandchildren.

links:
obit from Fort Worth Star Telegram
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After The Home...

Rusty Russell, in January 1971, as he is inducted to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. In this photo Russell is 77 years-old and had been retired from coaching football only eight years. Coach Russell was installed to the Hall of Fame that day along with other sports notables like Jack Johnson, heavy weight champion of the world. The crowd was close to 1,000 people and included Coach Joe Paterno and his entire Penn State football team as well as Coach Darrell Royal with his Texas Longhorns whose teams would meet the next day in the 1971 Cotton Bowl Classic.

Cowboy Hat on the Sidelines...

Masonic Home's Coach H.N. "Rusty Russell" is pictured with Notre Dame's College Hall of Fame Coach Frank Leahy in South Bend, Indiana before the kick-off of the SMU-Notre Dame game in 1951.

Coach Russell often wore this hat and this hat was donated, along with other personal effects, to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame for the new Rusty Russell exhibit. The exhibit was funded by the Masonic Home Ex-Student Association and Coach Russell's Ex-Victoria College players who also provided memorabilia.

Hall of Fame...

The Texas Sports Hall of Fame, pictured above, is located in Waco, Texas, and houses not only the TEXAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME but also the the TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS HALL OF FAME. From golfing's Ben Hogan, to baseball's Nolan Ryan, to NFL greats like Roger Staubach and Bob Lilly, and boxing's Jack Johnson, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame is a must see for any sports enthusiast.

Masonic Home Coach Rusty Russell has been honored by his induction in both the Texas High School Sports Hall of Fame as well as The Texas Sports Hall of Fame and has been joined there by many of his ex-players. In fact of the 250 placed in the Texas High School Hall of Fame, over almost 100 years of high school football, 11 were players of Coach Russell's at the high school or college level. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame has 304 inductees and of those, 7 played for Coach Russell in either high school or college , and in several cases, both. Many legendary Texas football greats like The Masonic Home's Dewitt Coulter and Ray Coulter, Scott McCall, Bill Stages and Allie White are inductees. Some of Coach Russell's college players are also inductees, including Ed Bernet, Bobby Layne, Doak Walker, Bill Forrester, Forrest Gregg, and Kyle Rote among others.

The Texas Sports Hall of Fame will open a new exhibit honoring a few of Texas High School Great Coaches, Players and Teams from the past, and Coach Russell was honored by being chosen as one of the new exhibitions to open this summer. The Hall of Fame is a beautiful facility on the edge of the campus of Baylor University and very convenient to I-35 . The curators have done an excellent job of putting together a wonderful sports history for the State of Texas, including a new exhibition on the old Southwest Conference, complete with video, audio and excellent memorabilia from the Colleges in the old Southwest Conference.

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."

Front Page Headline Stars...

Jeff Brown went on to be a first-starter for the Rice Institute Owls in Houston and Mighty Mite teammate Don Stephens followed Brown a few years later and the press enjoyed keeping The Masonic Home team legend alive. The AP photo cutline above refers to the players as "former members of the popular Little Rascals eleven of Masonic Home which blazed a brilliant (path) through Texas football campaigns....".

Moseley: Mighty Mind & Mighty Mite

Miller Moseley was only seven when he came to The Home after his father died of typhoid fever. Moseley became one of the Mighty Mites. Too small to smash opponents, Moseley mastered the difficult trick plays developed to outsmart bigger and tougher teams. His smarts didn't begin and end with football, though, and he went on to work with some of the smartest minds of the last century.

Weighing a scant 126 pounds upon graduation, he had little chance of being recruited to play college football on a scholarship so he headed to TCU in Fort Worth, encouraged by a Mason to apply there and find work to help pay for his college. This photo is from his college days at TCU where he graduated with degrees in physics and chemistry, finishing at the top of his class.

From the TCU Winter 2008 magazine:

He received a fellowship to pursue graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he began working on a project separating isotopes for the U.S. Navy. Eventually he enlisted in the Navy and began working in the Naval Research Laboratory, then in the midst of a huge World War II push to develop a thermal diffusion process to supply the 235-uranium isotope used for the first atomic bombs.

It wasn't until he heard the news reports of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that he learned his group's research had been a pivotal part of something that had changed the course of the war and world history forever. He downplays his involvement, saying "I was just doing my job."
After the war, he finished his graduate work then returned to TCU - "to see old friends and find a job."He ended up doing both. Gaines, his former professor, offered him a position teaching and he joined the faculty in the fall of 1950. Apart from a sabbatical in 1957-58 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he spent close to 40 years teaching at TCU, finally retiring in 1990.

Moseley was mentored in Chapel Hill by Dr. Nathan Rosen, who was a collaborator and right hand man to Dr. Albert Einstein earlier at Princeton. Rosen was directing Moseley's dissertation work and when Einstein called Rosen to come work with him to develop the atomic bomb, he in turn brought in Moseley to work on the Manhattan Project at a naval yard in Philadelphia where they were roommates. Jim Dent wrote, "His mathematical genius, developed at the Masonic Home, quickly emerged...as he was working with an all-star cast that included Einstein, Edward Teller, considered "The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb" and Robert Oppenheimer, "The Father of the Atomic Bomb."

Brownie...

Recently, by chance, I met Linda Billman, Floyd "Brownie" Lewis' daughter (he is pictured sitting on the hay bale, above), at a book club function in Fort Worth. The group decided to read Jim Dent's book, Twelve Mighty Orphans, for its selection in January 2010, and Linda raised her hand to note that her father was on the famous Mighty Mite team. She stood up to tell the ladies what The Home meant to her dad and how he considered his father and brothers to be those who cared for him there. He always thought holidays were very special because most kids headed to stay with extended families over the school break and he was always aware of those (like Hardy Brown) who had nowhere to go. Linda said he always appreciated his own family and those less fortunate yet, like many of that "Greatest Generation" she said her Dad didn't talk about himself much so she, like others, have enjoyed seeing this story unfold and realizing how significant the time, place and circumstances were in the lives of the orphans.

Brownie emulated his mentor's career path. Just as Mr. Russell left school to serve in World War I, Brownie, (as did many of his teammates), enlisted and headed off to defend the U.S. in World War II. Like C.D. Sealy, Brownie enlisted in the Marines and fought in the South Pacific. He later became co-captain of the SMU football team and an All-Southwest Conference selection at guard, playing under Rusty Russell who by then was on the SMU coaching staff. He briefly played professional football, but was considered too small for the NFL. He owned and operated the Brownie Lewis Door Company.

Linda, who has her father's big brown eyes (hence his nickname, "Brownie"), said her father went on after SMU into coaching in Texas, and one of his players was the famous SMU and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith. The photo above is from a function while the Russells and Brownie were affiliated with SMU. It was so much in Mr. Russell's character to stay suited up in his own style... all the time, regardless of the occasion. He was very much aware of the example he set for others. While everyone else wears western attire for a Cullen Ranch SMU function and Juanita wears her fancy cowboy boots for the occasion, Russell remains in his signature coat and tie. He sought to reflect character, integrity and honor in all he did and to make a difference in the lives of others. Linda was not aware of the forces that molded her father until she read the book and began to put her own father's story together. He died March 12, 1988. Her father's number was #25 at Masonic Home.

Mite-y Good Rusty Days...

So says a headline written when H.N. "Rusty" Russell was 76, with an editorial remark that the legendary coach's only flaw might have been not having a clear head at the beginning of games due to to the hardship of broken-down rusty equipment like Old Blue, the ancient scrap of a pick-up that ferried the team to games. Russell recalled that he'd felt half drunk by the time he arrived at games from driving the old Dodge truck with his team in the back bed. "Dern right I drove it," he said, "that ole truck nearly gassed me to death" with the fumes leaking into the cab.

David Castevens wrote, "Perhaps that's Rusty Russell's only flaw. He stayed intoxicated with football's aroma, from 21 years as a schoolboy coach to the hey-days of Doak Walker at SMU." Russell's indelible mark on football led him to be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. His overall record as a head coach in 23 years of high school and 13 years as college head coach is 250 wins, 100 losses, 21 ties -- a 71% winning percentage. Russell coached 43 teams (he coached two high teams in one year) in 42 years total including his years as assistant coach at SMU before he became head coach and when started coaching at Temple High School as an assistant coach. As an assistant at SMU Russell enjoyed a 32-16-5 record where the Mustangs were nationally ranked, won two Southwest Conference titles, and made two Cotton Bowl appearances in 1947 and 1948.

Bear Bryant, referred to his friend Russell as being the greatest passing coach in the United States. Russell was called a "quiet and congenial" coach, the "man behind the guns" and "an innovator", a "football genius" and a legend.

"People called me a screwball because we did a lot of experimenting. You name it, I tried it, everything from a one man line to a 10," Russell says. He is credited with inventing the spread offense which is in bigger use today than it ever was. Originality of offense was considered to be one of Russell's biggest assets and it was written of him that "He thinks football almost the year around. It is reported that on many occasions he mulls over new plays and formations far into the night, many times getting out of bed in the early hours to diagram a play or work out new assignments. To any fan who has seen his teams in action there is little doubt but that he has some entirely new "stuff"... and they have some plays that only they can work. These plays call for expert handling of the ball back of the line and are so complicated that many times Russell himself loses site of the ball."

Many of his players are so small "as to be of little help" but they, like all Mighty Mites, refer to him not as "coach" but always as "Mr. Russell."

He was twice college coach of the week, retired in 1963, and after 42 years of work, Russell called his 16 football seasons at Masonic Home in Fort Worth "most satisfying." They produced a won-lost-tied record of 127-30-12 and eight of the more exciting teams in the history of Fort Worth. His 11 Mighty Mites Class A teams won seven district championships and tied for another. In all of his life-long career of full-time coaching, he never had a losing season.

The Impact of Mentors...

Marie Glick dedicated her life to teaching. Nearing 99, she had students gathering around her, above, when she attended the Twelve Mighty Orphans book event at the downtown Fort Worth Masonic Lodge in September 2007. She served over 34 years at The Masonic Homer as a teacher, counselor and principal. She attended events last year in honor of her 100th birthday.

Most all Home Kids will tell you that the impact of teachers, administrators and principals is a key to what made The Home a unique place and, because of her many years of service and her dedication to the students, many many students mention Mrs. Glick as an important mentor. She still shows up at Home events and is accorded the best seat in the house.

Glick holds a BBA and an MBA from the University of Texas. Five years after she started teaching at The Masonic Home she married Dr. Walter Glick, a dean at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. She often joked that her husband thought she was married to the students at The Home as that is where she directed much of her love and attention. After he died in 1960 she continued to live in their home on Texas Wesleyan Campus and she often sponsored students and allowed them to live in extra bedrooms. The home where she and her husband lived on the Texas Wesleyan campus was recently dedicated to the University as the Glick House Community Counseling Center - a gift that Glick made 20 years ago. At 101 she still lived on campus and this November she will turn 102.

The Psychology of the Game (The M Jacket)...

Rusty Russell's arrival at The Masonic Home to be an administrator, a teacher and a football coach began in 1927. Upon arrival he found a classroom to teach in, an office for his use as an administrator, yet no football equipment to play with nor a football field upon which to play. Few of the children at the home had any knowledge of football.

Russell played his first game and won their first real leather football on a side bet with the other team's coach. They used old t-shirts with spray painted numbers for jerseys and hand-me-down unmatching pants that came from somewhere and they were well into the season before they all had football shoes. A few had helmets.

The little team finished its first season in Class B with an 8-2 record. At the end of the season Russell's football budget was no larger but he had an idea of what might make a huge difference for the school and the team and he had a notion how to get it. He agreed to an exhibition game against the powerful Sherman High School team that had been in the Class A Championship Playoffs. Russell's team would be paid $250 for driving to Sherman and being sacrificial lambs. Sherman crushed the fledgling team 97-13, but their coach, Mr. Russell, walked away with something most important.

The Mighty M Jacket

With the season over, Russell took the podium two weeks later at an all-school assembly and presented each of his 12 players with letter jackets with the big "M" varsity letter on the front for all to see. These letter jackets had been paid for by the proceeds of the Sherman game.

This was the first iteration of the Home Kid Football Hero and the first lesson in knowing that going up against tough challenges fearlessly brings its own rewards. All kids looked up to these boys who went out to face the outside world on the football fields. Boys earned respect and proudly wore their letter jackets which became very important visible signs of how success could be earned, even if it was through hard, tough, and even failing efforts.

Years later Opal Lord, a Home Kid who married Home Kid Mighty Mite Doug Lord (both are characters in Jim Dent's book), proudly wears Doug's letter jacket as she signs her photo in Dent's book at the publication events for Twelve Mighty Orphans, the book, in Fort Worth in 2007 when it was first published (it is now in its 20th printing). She is pictured above.

From the very beginning, Russell's interest in psychology and motivation was apparent. He pursued additional education and credentials in this new area of "child guidance" obtaining his master's and later further post-graduate work in psychology/child guidance from institutions in Colorado, NYC and Texas Christian University. He thought his career would be in those areas within teaching, rather than as a coach, which he saw as only a sideline to his other interests of teaching and administration. He would spend many years honing those skills, surprising even himself that his success was found on the football field in addition to the classroom.

Ragnots: Raggedy Uniforms and High Hopes....

In 1932 the Mites reached their finest hour when they met Corsicana for the state championship and the legend can be said to begin that season. "We were ragnots, doing an excellent job. The whole town began to pull for us. We wore those leather helmets and khaki pants...our uniforms were good protection but maybe they weren't the prettiest things," H.N. "Rusty" Russell said of those times. But that is only the beginning of the inspirational story.

Those "ragnots" learned how to overcome obstacles and how to be successful in life. The Channel 2 in Houston special, "The Eyes of Texas," hosted by Bill Balleza, noted of that "for the record, (of the Home Kids) there were nine United States judges, four United States Army generals, five ministers, 47 medical doctors, lawyers and university presidents." Jim Dent adds that additionally there were mayors, two NFL stars (Hardy Brown and DeWitt Coulter), a nuclear physicist that worked with Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein, teachers and educators, a 35-year Marine career ending as Lieutenant Colonel, corporate CEOs and company presidents, and many, many students went on to earn graduate degrees.

The individual stories and careers are too numerous to tell but the whole school was sort of a bunch of ragnots with every excuse and reason for failure but the fact is the school cared, the teachers cared and the students did enough with it that they went on to become very important people in the world, their community and it didn't have to be that way. The Home repeatedly turned out great people who valued integrity, learning, perseverance and character. The impressive records of success can only be attributed to the players in the story -- the administrators and the children at The Home. The kids say things like "Mr. Russell is the finest man I ever knew" and "there were teachers we loved like Mrs. Glick and those who she hired to teach". The administrators say it was the kids, who were ready to learn and appreciated opportunities and relationships with mentors. What it was is a magical combination of both. The story is about a specific place, a specific time, willing recipients with their hearts in the right place and people willing to give beyond the norm. With that combintion, you have something that rarely happens. And it did.

Strategy, Strategy, Strategy

Always thinking, always strategizing, Rusty Russell was a man who had foresight and delighted in planning. His mind was never relaxed; he was always thinking about the future and how to manage and execute to meet goals.

"Whether it was bridge, or football, or investments or really, anything, he was a master strategist," Betty Russell recalls of her father, H.N. "Rusty" Russell, who, because of his influence, remains an avid football fan and reads the newspaper sports section first every day and plans her schedule around sports events she can watch on tv or attend.

According to History Professor J. Rufus Fears, the ability to have foresight is a critical element of leaders who make an impact.

Going through the letters and cards received after her father died, those whom Russell mentored as teacher or coach mentioned most the influence he had in their lives in teaching them values, character, and how to be successful in life. Rarely was football even mentioned in these letters.

Doug Lord, Golden Gloves, Then & Now...

When Rusty Russell's great-grandson was watching a mixed martial arts event in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in early 2009, he was surprised to discover that Doug Lord was a judge at the fight. For those who know Lord, it was no surprise.

Lord, one of the characters in Twelve Mighty Orphans, was one of the smallest kids on the Mighty Mites football team but was a born ringleader and he talked four of his buddies into going to the Will Rogers Colliseum in Fort Worth where the Golden Gloves were being held and they all signed up to fight, forging parental permission forms. There, with a mouthpiece he picked up off the floor and one pair of tennis shoes - both shared among all the buddies - he fought a man almost ten years his senior and although he went to the final bell, his opponent won. One of Lord's Home buddies, Ray Musselwhite, made it all the way to be crowned champion of the Golden Gloves.

Doug Lord over the past 50 years has continued to be involved with Texas Golden Gloves and professional and amateur boxing. He was the manager of World Welter Weight Champion Curtis Cokes, who was known for his training regimen. Lord, having been taught with the Mighty Mites how to be best prepared to go into a contest, would have brought those skills to prepare Cokes for his matches.

He continues to be a boxing judge at ring side in fights throughout Texas. Lord was honored at the 2008 Golden Gloves by his ex-fighters, fans and friends. The trophy presented to him read: Doug, thanks for all you did to make the Golden Gloves a great success.

Texas has had a very large share of National Golden Glove Champions and Lord's consistent contribution over the years to the sport has helped make Fort Worth a strong center for this sport.

Rusty Russell: The Impact of Life Events...

Unforseen events and the influence of others can have an impact in the direction of lives. For the Home Kids, family circumstances altered their definition of home and family. For H.N. "Rusty" Russell, outside intervention twice in his life changed his course.

First, he was plucked off a tractor to play sports for Howard Payne boarding school in Brownwood, Texas. He had to work hard with tutors to catch up academically. He continued to play sports for Howard Payne University with a small interruption when he fought in the trenches in France in World War I.

The second major life event was that he received major injuries as he served as a medic on the front lines. He nearly died and spent a year recovering in hospitals in France. He dreamed of returning and making a difference in the lives of others, but first he had unfinished goals. He wanted to finish his college career with a team championship and achieve his personal goal of making All-Conference. This photo is from 1922 when he returned from the Great War.

Returning to Howard Payne after his war experience and recovery, Russell resumed his sports activities with even more intensity. He was All-Conference in football and basketball at Howard Payne, lettered in track and was named Best All-Around Athlete. He was Captain of both his basketball and football teams. The football team won the Conference Championship his senior year.

Most of all, more important than the sports to Russell, was the opportunity to learn and to immerse himself in an academic environment that he would otherwise not have had helping out on his family farm. He had to have private tutoring to bring him up to speed academically when he first entered Howard Payne. The world of the mind was the foundation of the game of life.

Why would Russell take a job at an orphanage in Fort Worth? Jim Dent thinks that Russell knew he could mold these kids into something big - they had nothing else to lose, says Dent. The Masons built The Home in Fort Worth to give orphans a first-class education. Science teacher-turned coach Russell rarely had more than 12 to suit up. His daughter, Betty, says he thought his calling was to be in Child Guidance, a relatively new field then and the academic focus for his master's degree. However, the importance of teachers as mentors in his own life and in the life of his wife, Juanita, led him to understand innately the impact he could make in the world by touching one child at a time with hope, love, teaching and guidance. And...coaching.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Masonic Home games were routinely outdrawing the major college games of Dallas (Southern Methodist University), and Fort Worth (Texas Christian University). More than 25,000 would come to watch the Mighty Mites. Sacks and sacks of mail were delivered with letters and telegrams arriving from people all over the nation.

Had someone not seen his potential as more than riding a tractor to help his family make ends meet, Russell's life might have taken a completely different path. The appreciation for that intervention led him to do the same for others from that point on. He would not have been injured in the war had he not put his own welfare second to his goal to save others on the front who had been hit by mustard gas.