INTEFuSCHOJLASTIC LEAGUER tiHBUt ft ct. t h L1 Vol. XXXV AUSTIN, TEXAS, OCTOBER, 1951 Number 2 Legislative Council Ellis Will Speak at Breakfast To Meet Nov. 11-12 Consideration of possible Inter- member schools to the Council and On Dangerous Youth Trends scholastic League sponsorship of charged with representing their junior high school athletics will be conferences and regions/ will dis­ Friday, November 23, is the leisure time—partly the result of school for the bleak facts of crim­ A portion of the talk will con­ right at the top of the 1951 agenda cuss important questions facing date for a talk which is of excep­ changing educational methods. The inal trends in Texas, and school­ cern testing problems, reflecting of the Legislative Advisory Coun­ the Interscholastic League, and tional value for Texas school men. speaker for the League Breakfast men can see wherein they have the methods used by Texas Prison cil in its meeting Nov. 11 and 12. will study proposed changes in On that date, at 7:30 a.m., 0. B. will put emphasis on the respon­ failed and draw their own conclu­ System in determining possibilities This, the twelfth annual meet­ League rules. Twenty-three super­ Ellis, dynamic general manager sibilities of home, church and sions of what they should be doing. of salvaging useful lives from men ing of the council, will be held in intendents and principals consti­ of the Texas Prison System, will already on the wrong social track. Austin on that Sunday and Mon­ tute the membership of the Coun­ talk to schoolmen assembled for The Rice Hotel will be the scene day, in the Driskill Hotel. cil. the Interscholastic League Break­ for the League Breakfast, held an­ ADMINISTRATORS, elected by It is the duty of the Council to fast, on "Dangerous Trends and Manager Remakes nually in connection with the decide whether or not the pro­ Some Possible Solutions." Thanksgiving holiday meeting of posals brought before it should THE MAN who more than any the Texas State Teachers Associa­ 10 Regions Electing be approved and submitted to other one person in this state, sees tion. Reservations for the break­ member schools for final referen­ the tragedy and waste resulting in Prisons for Texas fast are now being accepted by dum vote. Within the League, the part from the failure of Texas' In 1947, the Texas Prison Sys­ man, O. B. Ellis, will be the Miss Willie Thompson, Secretary Representative To Council is the policy-forming body educational system, has some ex­ tem was publicized throughout the speaker for the Interscholastic of the League, at Box H, Univer­ and is also responsible for con­ tremely important suggestions to nation as one of the worst in the League Breakfast on Nov. 23 at sity Station, Austin. siderable planning of the League make to the schoolmen of the state. United States. Today it is rapidly the Rice Hotel in Houston. ONLY 150 reservations are program. He has a startling report to make climbing toward a reputation as A quiet but dynamic man, with available under present arrange­ Legislative Council a "model" prison system. Prior to the November meeting, on statistics and trends which will tremendous reserves of energy and ments with Rice Hotel. Early ap­ Election of ten members to the Council members will have can­ shock and then perhaps reinvigo- The change resulted because kindness, Mr. Ellis had attracted plication for reservations is es­ Legislative Advisory Council of vassed their respective member rate administrators. Texans did something about the nation-wide attention in his man­ sential because of this limited the Interscholastic League will be school constituents for changes Part of the problem, as Manager terrible report four years ago. agement of the Shelby County, capacity. completed by the time this issue desired in present rules, regula­ Ellis sees it reflected by the flood They hired the best man to be Tennessee, penal farm near Mem­ R. J. Kidd, Director of the reaches its readers. Preferential tions, or plans, and for new legis­ of misguided youth coming under found and.made him General Man­ phis. Brought to Texas to tackle League, after a recent visit with ballots for elections in the ten lative proposals. These members O. B. ELLIS his care, lies in great increases in ager of the entire system. That the long, hard job of improving the Manager Ellis, commented, "The regions were mailed to administra­ will also inform themselves on Texas system, he has accomplished impact of Mr. Ellis' ideas is ter­ tors early in October. Oct. 16 was arguments pro and con upon all in less than four years reforms rific. The League is very proud to the deadline for returning the subjects submitted for the regular once believed all but impossible. be able to' bring to schoolmen a ballots. Girls' Basketball Council agenda. Years First Activities Meet WITHIN TWO MONTHS of be­ first-hand report of such an im­ A MAXIMUM OF five names ginning his duties on Jan. 1, 1948, portant side of Texas' educational was carried on each ballot, these Member schools also have the life. privilege and duty of making their Mr. Ellis had prepared a detailed names being the five highest Draws Over 800 fo S.M.U. Acceptance Cards "Mr. Ellis' views concerning tha wishes known to members of the report of the needs of the Texas named in the nomination ballot. More than 800 students at­ journalism. A number of others chairman of the S.M.U. confer­ Prison System, and had put a cost new leisure time, and the bad The names carried were: Council. tended the first Student Activities took part, but their names are un­ ence. tag of $4,196,075 on the improve­ effects of it on Texas youth, point Region 1-B, Superintendents SOME OF THE ITEMS to come Conference of the year, and the Consultants from the University Reach 727 Total ments suggested. This report, up the importance to the school Lawrence Brotherton, Gruver; before the Council are: available. first ever held in the North Texas of Texas assisting at the S.M.U. Latest available figures on tent­ quickly becoming known as the and the individual of guided extra­ Noah Cunninham, Whiteface; O. 1. Report of a Committee HEADLINE SPEAKER for the ative girls' basketball assignments "Ellis Plan," was adopted by the curricular activitfes. headed by Superintendent Dale area, at Southern Methodist Uni­ journalists at S.M.U. was Don Mat­ conference were Bruce Roach, B. Fuller, Ropesville; John T. show that 727 schools will partici­ state Legislature, and has served "If there ever was a talk public Douglas of Pleasant Grove School, versity on Oct. 13. thews, assistant superintendent in speech and drama, and Bluford Morris, O'Donnell; and W. L. pate in the League's program this as the blue-print for improvements. school men cannot afford to miss, Waggon er New Deal. Dallas, as to whether or not the By the time this publication charge of public relations for the ( (Cont. on p. 2, Col. 8) year. Schools have until Novem­ Prisons that four years ago had this is it." Region 2-A, Superintendents E. League should sponsor junior high reaches League members, the Dallas schools. He spoke on "The ber 15th to accept the plan and ramshackle wood-and-corrugated- For something of the back­ E. Williams, Colorado City; J. C. school athletics. second and third Activities Con­ Role of High School'Publications." to be assigned to a district. In iron buildings, antiquated machin­ ground and amazing accomplish­ Helm, Jr., De Leon; Ira R. Huch- ferences of 1951-52 will also have Dr. C. L. Wisseman was general 2. Report from a Committee practically all instances boys' and ery, mule-worked farms, and a ments of this year's League Break­ ingson, Hamlin; G. B. Rush, Ran­ drawn additional hundreds to the studying a schedule of fees for girls' basketball teams have been terrible disciplinary record, now fast speaker, see the accompanying ger; and Principal Von Rhea University of Houston and Texas basketball officials. assigned to the same district so as are sprouting new brick buildings, story. Beane, Lampasas. Tech on Oct. 20. S. Report on restricting partici­ to reduce travel and loss of school new convict-operated factories, Region 3-AA, Principals Howard pation on non-high school basket­ THE CONFERENCE at S.M.U. time. tractor-cultivated fields, and a A. Allen, Adamson High, Dallas; ball teams after the close of the drew on a large number of con­ steadily improving record of re­ and Walter J. E. Schiebel, Crozier season. THERE IS NO additional fee sultants from that university, The for joining the League's girls' bas­ building wrecked human lives. Clinics Scheduled Tech, Dallas; and Superintendents 4. A proposal to modify the University of Texas, and profes­ ketball program. This is covered by Statistics show these facts J. F\ .Gardner,. Ennis; L. A. composite team rule to allow sional pao#ks*_©f-_Dallas. Many of 'League membership fee and mere­ clearly. In 1947, there were~t2fl Roberts, Dallas County; and Jack junior high school boys in a the schools of the area furnished Ryan, McKinney. ly is another service rendered by. escapes; 56 in 1950, 25 in the first At M) Schools For separate building to participate faculty and student participants six months of that year; and 13 Region 4-B, Superintendents A. League for the public schools of on the high school team. in panels and demonstrations. in the first six months of 1951. In M. Anderson, Judson Grove, Long- Texas. 5. Consideration of regional In all three of the first confer­ 1947 there were 87 self-mutilations view; D.