I went to Sunset High School in Dallas, a school that was built in 1925 and has a proud history down through the years. Jerry Mays played for the Kansas City Chiefs, but his days at Sunset were before my time and I never met him. Jerry Rhome played for the Dallas Cowboys and he was two years ahead of me and we knew each other just passing in the hallways..
I grew up in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff and the boys in my neighborhood would all get together to play baseball, football, or basketball as each season rolled around. One of my pals was Billy Foster and we played sports together all the way back to the fourth grade. I knew Foster was special by the time we reached junior high school. He was just faster than everyone else. Billy could run the bases like a pro, he was always out front on the fastbreak, and was always open as a wide receiver.
By the time we got to Sunset coaches were frothing over Foster. He won 4 state championships as a high schooler. In 1960 he brought home the gold in the long jump as a junior, but the following year he captured the trifecta by winning the 100 yard dash with a run of 9.5 seconds, a blazing run in the 220 yard dash in 20.94 seconds, and a new record in the long jump of 24 feet 4 inches.. After high school Foster decided on SMU for his college career..
As a Mustang, Foster played football as well as ran track. He was part of the SMU team that defeated Roger Staubach and his Navy team in the Cotton Bowl.. On the cinder track Foster set five Southwest Conference records and tied a World Record in the 60 yard dash. At an indoor track meet in Lubbock in 1964 Billy the Bullet tied the World Record in the 60 yard dash in a run of 6 seconds flat..
Foster was also instrumental in my meeting of another legend of Sunset High School.. He told me he was training with a former Bison who was now at the University of Texas.. When he said the name Eddie Southern I was all in.
Southern was a 1955 graduate of Sunset and all he did was win four individual state records and one national record. Southern ran a 20.7 in the 220 yard dash, a best ever by a high schooler at the time. In 1956 was invited to the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. He came home with the Silver Medal in the 400 meter hurdles event with a time of 50.1 seconds.
At the University of Texas Southern set a new national record in the 220 yard dash at 20.7 seconds.. Running the anchor leg of the 440 and 880 relays he led the Horns to the Southwest Conference Championship in 1957, 1958, and 1959. Southern died earlier this year at the age of 85 and was a super polite gentleman to the very end.
And that brings us to my days at Sunset..
In 1962 my friend Henry Allen was the City of Dallas Champion in the low hurdles..As you can see by the above photo, he was almost perfect going over the hurdles...I lost contact with Henry after our high school days, but surely he belongs in this post... He ran with fast company...
