Forever Young

By JOHN HICKS and NEAL WHITE Daily Light staff
Sunday, April 24, 2005 2:50 PM CDT

The Waxahachie RBI Club presented a special 40th anniversary gathering for the 1965 Waxahachie High School baseball team, which won the Class 3A state championship that year.  Coach Bill Borgers and the majority of the 17 players on that team came to Richards Park to relive memories of that special season, then sat back and watched the 2005 Indian varsity take the field.

The players were introduced prior to the game against the Crowley Eagles, and Borgers threw out the first pitch.  Huddled together on the field after posing for a team picture prior to the game, the '65 team reminisced about that magical season.  "I don't know if we were good ball players or not. But we were fearless," said Dale Fincher. "We'd fight Hell with a water bucket."  "We did that, don't you remember the incident in right field," one of Fincher's teammates quipped, evoking a roar of laughter.

While there were a number of good memories and smiles shared, it was also a moment to remember fallen teammate Tommy Rhymes, while also reflecting on the bond of brotherhood each man shared with each other   "Some of y'all might not know this, but I few years back I had to have surgery and at the time, they gave me a 50 percent chance of making it through the night," Glenn Perryman told the group.  "Well, at a time like that, you start looking back on your life -- the things you do and the things you wished you would have said.  One of the things I kept coming back to was all of you, and this team right here.  "I thank God for today, and for the chance to tell all of you what I wished I would have said a long time go," Perryman continued.  "I want all of you to know playing on this team with all of you has meant so much to me. I want all of you to know how honored I am to have been your teammate," he said.

Without fail, each former player down played their individual accomplishments, instead, attributing all of their success to Coach Borgers.  "That's the man who deserves all the credit right there," James Neal said, pointing to Borgers. "You took a group of boys and made us the men we are today. You changed our lives."  An emotional Borgers put his arm around one of the players.  "The feeling is mutual," he said. "The feeling is mutual."