KC HOME TODAY | Rangers host Community Christian; Hall of Fame inductees honored at halftime
Every year, Kilgore College, in effect, has two homecoming games: one honest-to-goodness one, and one for the KC Athletics Hall of Fame.
Honorees are welcomed back for today’s game against Community Christian College, and they’ll be recognized twice: once Saturday morning at an induction brunch at the Devall Student Center (more on that below), and again at halftime of the non-conference game, a 3 p.m. kickoff at Kilgore’s R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium.
Hear the call, listen on the radio on 92.1-FM, The Team, or on 92.1 FM – The TEAM Sports Radio (theteamfm.com).
For a live streaming online broadcast, try this link: kilgorecollege1935 – YouTube.
The Rangers also have a little bit of business on their minds.
After being upset at home by conference rival Cisco last week, KC took a bit of a tumble in the polls. The Rangers are No. 9 in the national poll, down from fifth a week ago, but still in good position. They’re the highest-ranked team in the Southwest Junior College (Texas) Football Conference, and with a 2-1 record in conference play and most of the schedule still to go, there’s no reason to panic.
KC (3-1 overall) will take on CCC this week, take an open date next Saturday, and then has back-to-back road games at Trinity Valley (Oct. 19) and at Tyler (Oct. 26). They host Blinn on Nov. 2, then finish the regular season at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on Nov. 9, and the conference playoffs – just for the top four teams in the standings – start the following week.
Coach Willie Gooden’s Rangers have won the conference the last two seasons and were the preseason pick of both the coaches and the media to do so again.
The Rangers dropped last weekend’s home game to Cisco, allowing the Wranglers the last word in a back-and-forth contest that came down literally to the last play, a 35-30 Cisco win.
KC is averaging 30 points per game (right on the money, actually) and allowing 21.8; they’re averaging 312 total yards a game – 139 rushing, and just over 172 in the air; and they’re giving up an average of 245 yards a game. And KC’s “Blue Steel” defense is only allowing 51 yards rushing a contest.
In the poll, Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College remained No. 1, and the rest of the top four followed suit: Iowa Western, Snow (Utah) and Mississippi Gulf Coast all remained in place at numbers two, three and four, respectively. Georgia Military was booted up to fifth, Garden City (Kan.) came up to sixth, and a pair of Mississippi colleges – Northwest Mississippi and Holmes – are seven and eight. KC checks in at No. 9, still the highest-ranked of the Texas JUCOs, and Highland (Kan.) is 10th.
Cisco debuts in the rankings at No. 13, and perhaps might have been higher if the Wranglers had another game to their body of work: they’ve only played three all season.
Being inducted this year into the KC Athletics Hall of Fame are contributor “The General,” Jerry Grafton, a key member of Kilgore College’s football personnel even to this day, involving equipment and game day operations; former tight end Kevin Everett, the former University of Miami tight end who suffered brief paralysis in an NFL game while playing for the Buffalo Bills; from men’s basketball, Nolan Johnson, who suited up for the Rangers in the 1996-97 and ’97-98 seasons under coach Scott Schumacher; in women’s basketball, Debra “Stretch” Williams, on coach Evelyn Blaylock’s Lady Rangers’ powerhouse teams in 1985-86 and ’86-87; former Rangers football coach Jim Prewit (1976-84) and a former Rangers’ football standout, Bo Adams; the very first Rangers softball team, from the 2012-2013 season; and a player from that season being inducted individually, former softball standout Molley Mackey Savell. Everett is receiving the Spirit of Excellence Award.
