After 100 seasons, Cleburne-Houston Heights rematch of first UIL championship

It has been 100 years, 7 months and 20 days since Cleburne and Houston Heights last met on a football field.

That game was played on Jan. 8, 1921, on a rainy Saturday on a soggy Clark Field in Austin, long gone now, just a couple of blocks from where Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium stands today. It was the first UIL’s first state championship game, and the contest ended in a scoreless tie and a co-champions.

But the Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs reunited on Saturday at a sun-splashed Waco ISD Stadium to commemorate that first meeting and this game was more than worthy of a championship clash. Cleburne survived a 32-yard field goal attempt by Heights as time expired and escaped with a thrilling 43-42 win.

Cleburne (1-0) was awarded a trophy for winning the rematch as a memento and for bragging rights given that the first meeting ended in a scoreless tie.

Heights (0-1), a Class 6A school today, looked to have the defense of the 1920 squad early, forcing three Cleburne punts to start the game while piling up 20 points of its own.

Zachary Menefee scored the game’s first points on a 3-yard run with 5:52 left in the first quarter. Just 11 seconds later Darius Davis scored for the Bulldogs after he scooped up a fumbled kickoff and returned it 24 yards to give Heights a 13-0 lead at the 5:41 mark of the opening quarter.

Heights quarterback Jalen Morrison made it 20-0 when he hit Xavier Neal with a 64-yard bomb on the first play following Cleburne’s second punt.

The Yellow Jackets, in Class 5A Division 2, got a spark late in the first quarter when Max Bigham picked off a Heights pass at the Bulldogs’ 24. Following an unsportsmanlike penalty on Heights, Jacarrean Gray carried it in from 12 yards out to cut the lead to 20-7 with 48 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Cleburne’s defense stepped up and forced back-to-back punts and the Yellow Jackets’ offense capitalized both times.

Quarterback Landry Shields ran it in from four yards out with 8:06 left in the second quarter and freshman Lance Sansom made a nice grab after getting wide open down the left hash for a 41-yard score from Shields to give Cleburne the lead 21-20 with 3:05 left before halftime.

“Having the aura of the first title game match up played a big part in our minds,” said Shields, who threw for 236 yards completing 13 of 27. “Cleburne has been going through a drought recently and we haven’t held up a trophy in 23 years.”

Cleburne built what looked to be a comfortable 43-28 lead by the end of the third quarter. Gray returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a score, Shields hit Dorian Potter with a 79-yard TD pass and Noah Earley took a lateral from Shields in the flat and hit Jason Pugh for a 68-yard score.

“This meant a lot to us and we really wanted to bring that trophy back home,” said Earley, who also starred on defense. “This was a tough game and it gives us some momentum for the season now so it means a lot to us.”

But Heights rallied behind Morrison who scored on a 2-yard run with 9:50 remaining in the game and tossed a 40-yard TD pass to Christian Logan with 7:52 left.

Cleburne had two late turnovers, but the Bulldogs went three-and-out after a couple of penalties following the first gaffe and missed a field goal to end the game.

“This was a lot bigger than just a district game or a non-district game,” said Shields. “It meant a lot to us to go out there and hold the trophy up.”

Joe Rhome, Blue Smith, George “Albert” Sowell and the rest of the 1920 Cleburne squad would be proud.

This story was originally published August 28, 2021 at 10:30 PM.