It all started with a syrup bucket nailed to a wall
During 22 years as the boys’ basketball coach at Ross S. Sterling High School, Woody Walker’s teams won 379 games and several district titles.
“I grew up during the Great Depression. Unless you lived in those times, it’s hard to imagine how poor people were back then. We didn’t have much. So when I became interested in playing basketball, my mother took a gallon syrup bucket and nailed it to a wall in our home. She made a rag ball for me, and I developed my touch by shooting at that bucket.
“Looking back on what happened to me, I’m so grateful that someone from a little town (Palestine) in East Texas could earn a scholarship to play basketball at Texas A&M. Especially since I was just 5-foot-7½ and weighed 135 pounds, which is still the record for the shortest men’s basketball player at A&M. Then to win the team’s defensive player of the year award in my junior season, and for us to reach the NCAA playoffs for the first time, it’s pretty amazing to think about.
“When I was growing up, all I ever heard the older people say was, ‘That old boy will never amount to a hill of beans.’ Well, I may never have amounted to a hill of beans. But because of all the people I’ve met, the friends I’ve made and everything that’s happened to me in my life, I’ve had a great 88 years. I wouldn’t trade all of that for the world.”
— Woody Walker
Related:
(Note: Woody Walker passed away on Feb. 9, 2021.)
