Little did these buddies know as they would take off along North 11th Street to turn someone’s yard into a rousing sandlot game that one would be snapping the ball to the other on a landmark Temple Wildcats team.
Pickett and Mercer died just four days apart last month, having long ago poured much of themselves into the foundation of Temple’s rich football tradition.
The Pickett home was a popular stop for members of the 1938 Wildcat team. It was all Tom’s parents could do to stay stocked in dairy products. Tom was a voracious milk drinker and his friends came by and helped themselves one quart at a time.
The Mercers were devoted Wildcat followers. They were fixtures not only at games but also for hours-long practices and scrimmages. The football team was an extension of both families. Guys such as Tom Carlile, Tom Rex Burns, twins Ray and Roy Goad, Joe Skelton, Blondy Dryk, Herbert McKinley and Adolf Pollak were always welcome.
This was an era of colorful nicknames, and Pickett became so synonymous with his that he’s immortalized in the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame as Tom “Meal Ticket” Pickett. It was apropos, not just for its rhyme and meter but also for his individual talent that carried the Wildcats much farther than anyone had dreamed.
Pickett was an all-state player as a junior in 1937 but played a bit in the shadows of Euel Wesson and Noble Doss. The ’37 team tied for the district championship and reached the state quarterfinals. Prognosticators didn’t think coach Les Cranfill’s ’38 Wildcats had enough returning talent to match the achievements of their predecessors, much less overtake prodigious district powers Waco and Cleburne.
Pickett, wearing No. 36, got the nod to lead the Wildcats’ single- and double-wing formations. Mercer, in No. 47, would bravely lead interference despite a bothersome leg injury.
In the season opener, Meal Ticket Pickett introduced a glimpse of what was to come. He scored 20 points in the Wildcats’ 22-7 victory over Austin. Telegram sportswriter Harry Blanding described the spectacle this way: “A new star rose in the Texas football heavens on Woodson Field last night as ‘Meal Ticket’ Tom Pickett drove around, over and through a fighting, but outplayed Austin team.”
The Wildcats played Corpus Christi to a scoreless tie the next week. Buccaneers coach Harry Stiteler, who incidentally was Temple’s first choice to replace Red Forehand after the 1936 season, later said, “If I had me a back like that Pickett, we’d go places.”
Temple narrowly beat Bryan and fell to San Antonio Brackenridge. Pickett, who remained modest amidst his increasing celebrity, kept the Wildcats afloat during this stretch and then shined as Temple reeled off four straight wins - including a 39-0 thrashing of Cleburne behind Pickett’s 152 rushing yards - leading to a Thanksgiving date in Waco for the district title.
Some 10,000 fans jammed into Waco’s Municipal Stadium to witness something that had happened only a precious few times - the Wildcats stunned Paul Tyson’s heavily favored Lions, 7-6. Carlile took a pitch from Pickett and broke free for a score in the third quarter. Pickett kicked the decisive extra point to give the Wildcats what was, for the time being, considered the greatest victory in Temple’s athletic history.
Temple rolled over Kerrville in bi-district for the right to play Tyler, another greatly favored juggernaut, at TCU Stadium. Despite Tyler’s physical superiority, Pickett etched himself even more indelibly into Wildcat lore by rushing for 155 yards and scoring every point as the teams tied 13-13, with Temple advancing on penetrations.
No Temple team had ever reached the semifinals. Woodson Field would be hosting a rematch with Corpus Christi, whose only blemish was that tie with the Wildcats three months prior.
No sporting event of this magnitude had taken place in Temple before. Fans lined the streets before dawn to buy tickets. The game was also attracting its share of luminaries. Former Wildcat greats Barton “Bochey” Koch and Ki Aldrich - both are enshrined in the high school hall with Pickett - were there along with Sammy Baugh, by then with the Washington Redskins, and would be on the sidelines with the Wildcats.
New York Giants pitching great Carl Hubbell - also known as “Meal Ticket” - was in attendance with his pal Joe Moore, the longtime Giants center fielder from Gause.
Temple led 7-0 at halftime. Pickett put the Wildcats on the board when he rolled right to pass, tucked the ball away and rumbled 37 yards for a touchdown before kicking the extra point.
But the Buccaneers came back to score 20 in the second half and the Wildcats didn’t have an answer. Thus came to an end the lengthiest season in Temple’s 30 years of football. Pickett’s high school career was complete.
Mercer had another year of eligibility left and took his friend’s spot as the focus of the ’39 team. He later served as an Army captain in World War II and returned to Temple, impacting the city as the parks superintendent along with numerous civic activities and having the softball complex named for him.
Pickett went on to play in back-to-back Cotton Bowls for Texas A&M before serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He returned to letter again for the ’46 Aggies. Pickett went into coaching and was the head man at Boling for several years in the ’50s before embarking on a successful stint at Wharton County Junior College. He left coaching in 1965 and spent the next 20 years as an administrator in the Wharton school district.
Seventy seasons have come and gone since that exhilarating fall of 1938 in Temple that is gradually fading in memory. However, one constant that remains is that every great team needs someone like Meal Ticket.
twaits@temple-telegram.com
