Oklahoma Farm Bureau Has a Mild Mannered Employee with an Astonishing Past That Might Even Make the Superhero Envious

Oklahoma Farm Bureau has a mild mannered employee with an astonishing past that might even make the superhero envious. uddy Batten displays a small Btrophy presented to each member of the 1956 Coffeyville Junior College national champion football team during last fall’s reunion. The same group also became the first entire team ever inducted into the National Coaches Hall of Fame by the National Junior College Athletic Association. 10 • Oklahoma Country • Spring 2007 ove over Clark Kent! The First The mild mannered Man of Steel in “Everything went our way,” Buddy says of the championship game. disguise has met his match, a real-life mild E“You’d have thought the bigger school would have had the best team on mannered man who holds a distinction even paper. Most of our team was small, and probably was considered an Superman never garnered. underdog.” Buddy Batten, who has been an Oklahoma Farm Bureau fixture for The Red Ravens theme for the 1956 season was “one play all the more than 38 years, earned an honor last fall that might make even the way.” The first time the Red Ravens touched the football in the game mythical superhero envious. resulted in a punt return for a touchdown. The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJACC) inducted Buddy wore number 40 and the program listed him as 5 feet 8 the 1956 Coffeyville (Kansas) Junior College football team, which inches, tipping the scales at 152 pounds. featured the talents of the Farm Bureau technical services manager, “We had some smaller than me,” he says. “Our team was mainly fast into the National Coaches Hall of Fame. It was the first entire team and had a lot of desire.” ever to be inducted. When the final gun sounded, the 2,000 fans watching in the The 1956 Coffeyville Red Ravens played in and convincingly won the coliseum saw the scoreboard read 46-6 in favor of the Red Ravens. first official junior college national championship game at the Los While the crowd was small for the venue, Buddy says it still was about Angeles Coliseum Dec. 15, 1956. Buddy was a two-way player, manning 1,600 people more than saw any other Red Raven game that season. both the offensive and defensive halfback positions. The Red Raven coach played his first and second units in the first He was a defensive starter on the 1956 championship team, which half, and the third unit played the entire second half. notched a lopsided victory over Michigan’s Grand Rapids Junior College. Buddy had two outstanding plays in the championship game. He “I can still see that beautiful green grass (in the coliseum). It was so played left defensive halfback and stopped a running play on the right soft. You could make cuts,” says Buddy, who will turn 70 this summer. side of the line for no gain. The coliseum turf was a far cry from the home-and-away fields His other play might have been even more impressive. It was against Coffeyville played on during the 1956 season. Buddy vividly remembers the team’s 6-foot 4-inch end. the almost rock-hard clay fields where the team played, where players’ “Being rather short, they put a 6’4” guy against me. He button cleats barely penetrated. hooked, and I was behind him. The quarterback couldn’t see me. I “The Los Angeles field was so much different, with the lush grass.” stuck my hand through and knocked down the pass to him. The guys Each team earned the right to play in the inaugural championship really gave me some high fives for that one.” game by finishing atop their respective Western and Eastern Divisions Buddy’s team also recorded another first while in Los Angeles – they in the coaches’ final weekly poll. got to go to the newly-opened Disneyland, the first national champions Coffeyville, which had just 461 students, finished the 1956 season 10- to visit the lavish theme park. 0-1, scoring 336 points while surrendering only 75. The only blemish on The championship game was on radio – Buddy said there was no the record was a 19-19 tie with powerful Northeastern Oklahoma. television then. Buddy’s team finished first in the Western Division, ahead of Boise “About all we ever saw,” he remembers, “was in the local paper. They (Idaho) Junior College – today’s Boise State University, which defeated had a function for us when we got back. A doctor took us out for a steak the University of Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl in overtime. dinner. It was the first national championship for Coffeyville.” Grand Rapids, which had 1,261 students and was then the only Michigan junior college fielding a football team, topped the Eastern The Road To Coffeyville Division, finishing 5-1-2. Its lone loss and two ties came at the hands of Buddy’s road to Coffeyville Junior College went through Texas and four-year Michigan universities. BOklahoma. His father worked for an oil company, doing seismographic work, and the family never stayed in one town much more than a year. He remembers playing organized football starting in the fifth grade while growing up in Texas. The family’s frequent moves did allow Buddy to play on many different teams in Texas. “I had several years experience when my family finally moved to Oklahoma.” By Mike Nichols Oklahoma Country • Spring 2007 • 11 Buddy’s family settled in Oklahoma City when he was 15. He went to he 1956 Coffeyville Junior College on the third row on the far left end. Taft Junior High and then on to Classen High School. His father Tnational championship team Inside the program was the grainy old (below)appeared in the program at left photo of Buddy(far left). He wore supported him playing football, and Buddy says his mother – despite that was reproduced by a member for number 40 and was the starting left never learning too much about the sport – liked to attend all his high the team at last fall’s reunion. Buddy is halfback on defense. school games. In the fall of 1955, the new Northwest Classen High School opened and Buddy says about 95 percent of his class moved to the school. The Northwest Classen team was a powerhouse, ranked number one in the state for several weeks. It finished the season with an 8-3 record, losing to Oklahoma City’s Northeast and Capitol Hill, and one Tulsa high school. Buddy earned Honorable Mention All City his senior year, when he played halfback on Football team members did get a “training table” meal in the both offense and defense. evenings Monday through Friday. The cooks at the Coffeyville High “Statistics weren’t kept, so I don’t know what mine were in high School prepared the meals, and players assembled at the high school school.” cafeteria to eat. One of the Northwest Classen coaches, Clay Davis, was a high school Each player always received a quart of milk with the meal, which teammate of a Coffeyville football assistant coach – Jack Hartman. Buddy says he “always drank.” The “training table” meals were usually Hartman, who later won renown as the basketball coach at Kansas “blue plate specials,” such as chicken fried steak, potatoes and gravy, State University from 1970 to 1986, split coaching time between the corn, green beans, rolls and a dessert. football and basketball teams during his six years at Coffeyville. While at Coffeyville, he lived in a big two-story house with seven “That’s how we got tied in with Coffeyville,” recalls Buddy. “I received other guys. His housemates were all football players – two were a letter that offered me a scholarship. .” teammates from Northwest Classen. They shared a couple of bedrooms. Each one had his own bed and a small study table. Only Books and Tuition “We had to pay our own rent since the school provided only books and Unlike today’s collegiate athlete, Buddy’s scholarship covered only tuition. But, the houses were certified by the college to be used as dorms.” Ubooks and tuition at the Kansas junior college. “The chamber of commerce was real active. They found jobs for all A Winning Tradition the players.” Coffeyville has two more junior college football national champions Buddy worked several jobs simultaneously – he washed dishes at a Csince Buddy graduated, one in 1983 and 1990. In the school’s local restaurant for both the breakfast and lunch crowds; worked 80-plus-year history, it has accumulated three national championships, evenings at the local theater taking tickets; on Saturdays at the local 29 conference titles and a remarkable 35-game winning streak. drug store cleaning windows, stocking shelves and making deliveries; Buddy said some of the school’s most notable football alums include and on Sundays for a couple of elderly women mowing their yard and Mike Rozier, Ron Springs and Mel Gray. Some 37 school alums have doing other chores. gone on to play professionally. “That was tough,” he remembers, “playing football and working so The championship team Buddy played on had 19 players from much. We always had four days of full practice.” Oklahoma, nine from Kansas and two from Texas. Practices were usually from 2:30 to 5 p.m. daily, with Wednesdays He remembers traveling from Coffeyville to Tulsa for the trip to the being a heavy scrimmage and Fridays a walk through for game day. The championship game, where the team boarded a plane for the trip to team practiced on a high school field, and also played its home games California.

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