Come For The Muscle Cars And Leave With A Letter Jacket

Welcome And What’s Ahead

Mike Marrs 0:05

From the Texas Gulf Coast, it's in wheel time. Coming up in this segment, we're going to be talking with Frank Clam. Now he's got a big event coming up in a couple of weeks that we're going to talk about. And then we're going to have a look at the race card and we're going to look at some automotive history. I'm Michael Mars. Thanks for joining us. And let's go see what Frank is doing. Sir, there you are. Michael, how in the world are you doing? Doing well, sir. Well, sir. Frank Clam with the president of the Spring Branch Alumni Foundation, right? Correct. All right. All right. I got it right. Okay. So uh let's let's start with the foundation and what it is, and then we'll get to the event and get some more information

Building The Spring Branch Museum

Mike Marrs 0:54

going.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Perfect. Well, uh the Spring Branch Foundation was originally created as a history of the Spring Branch High School, which was closed down in 1985. And uh some of the graduates uh talked to the school district and end up purchasing all of the memorabilia from the high school. I mean, who wanted it? You know, except there and there were no more graduates coming out. So and in about 10 years ago, under Duncan Klusman, who was the superintendent, he allowed us to create a museum in the old library of the original high school. Now the high school has been totally torn down, except for the auditorium, library, and gymnasium. So in and what they built in its stead is the Cornerstone Academy, which is a charter school for the school district. So it's an active school that has an old auditorium, an old library, which is now a museum, and the old gymnasium. So we we've we've collected items over the years uh to help the people understand uh Spring Branch High School, which was the only high school in Spring Branch from 1949 to 1962 when they opened memorial. So, and since that time, we have decided that we need to make this more than a high school museum, and we are now shifting gears, so to speak, to create a memory of the entire school district. So, I mean, education began in the Spring Branch area in 1856.

Mike Marrs 2:45

There you go. Right there, and so you know, and it kind of makes sense the way that Houston has grown and created the different school districts. I mean, Spring Branch is surrounded obviously by by Houston, and so it makes a little more sense to kind of bring in all those uh things that have been influences on the area, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Uh, and we and we want the the other schools become involved, and we're gonna have a lot of their memorabilia put in there, but it's somewhere someplace where you can go and you can get an entire history of of the of Spring Branch, you know. That you know, we we weren't we didn't become an independent school district until 1946, which allowed the school. I mean, before that, it was the Spring Branch District number 27, the Hillendah District 27, the West Harris County District. That's when Spring Branch and Addicts actually combined together to create a school district, and they ended up getting a divorce because they couldn't agree where the high school should go. So that you know, they got together for several years and then they split up. So, you know, the Spring Branch became an independent school district in 1946, which allowed them to create a tax base. Okay, you know, that's what that's what and before that they were always authorized under the the county uh districts, and that's why we were number 27 for many many years. It was the common district number 27. But we we became in the independent school district in 46, and of course, we built the high school in 1949, and I think the the the first four-year class that went through it was 1953. So, you know, for the longest time, you know, Spring Branch was a I can't say it's a one-room school, but it was a one-building school that had grades one through twelve, and it wasn't until 49 where they actually raised the money to build the school at the current location on Westview. Where so we the academy is now, but where the academy is now, and we're gonna we're where we're gonna be holding the car show on the 17th.

Mike Marrs 5:09

Uh so I have to tell you, the the time I've been there a couple of times and and I got to go through, and I was amazed at what's there. Like you say, it's it's got all these years. There's people have contributed fan uniforms, there's newspaper articles about some of the people that came through there and went on to bigger and better things in the rest of the world. And and it made me think where I went to school, my Niederland High School started in the early 1920s or something like that. We've got football rivalries that are over a hundred years old.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Now, did you say Niederland?

Mike Marrs 5:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

What's interesting, if you look at Spring Branch's Spring Branch High School 1949 football schedule, they played Niederland.

Mike Marrs 5:58

See, that's what I'm saying. You know, my I went to school and graduated in 71. That's how old I am. My children graduated from a different building because they built a new school and they out and grew it. My grandchildren graduated from a different school. But I'm thinking all these people, different schools. My grandchildren have no idea, you know, uh they don't really know who Bum Phillips is, but they don't know that he was a football coach. Football took us to our first state championship. I mean, there's there's history like that that's just gone. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

And what one of the things that we've started this year is that we've got some funding, and we have we we are now interviewing prominent graduates from the Spring Branch Independent School District, and we have computer, we have four computer terminals set up there where you can click and you can listen to their interview, or you can download a QR code and listen to the entire interview at your convenience. But you know, we've got, and one of the things that just added is Roger Clemens just donated his high school letter jacket to the museum. So we have Roger Clemens High School letter jacket, and uh, we've probably got about 21 or 22 graduates that we've interviewed. Uh uh Chase Untermeyer was probably no one remembers who he is, but he was he went to Washington and he was undersecretary of state, and he was uh ambassador overseas, you know, very well known in the 1960s, not so much now, but we but now we've got a chance to talk to him while he's still alive. And what we're asking each one of them, what was the Spring Branch District like when you went to school? And that's where I think the people, you know, they don't realize that we were a very rural school when we started.

Mike Marrs 8:04

Yeah, it's hard to tell that from where you're you're physically located now.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Oh, exactly. But we were the boondocks. I mean, we were way out in the boondocks when HISD was there, you know. We were, and uh so it took the longest time to uh, you know, to I mean, we we grew from probably three or four hundred uh students in the district to in the 70s, we had over 40,000. And then that was whole district and the whole district over 40,000, and that was kind of the peak because what happened was the kids grew up, but the parents stayed. Oh, so so in the early 80s, we started dropping and dropping and dropping till we were down like 24,000 students. Now you drop from 40,000 students and six high schools and go to 24,000. That's why they had to shut down two of the high schools. They shut down in 1985, they shut down Spring Branch and Westchester.

Mike Marrs 9:15

I can kind of see that because of the way Houston was growing around you. You know, when you say we're going to leave, we're going to move off. Well, 10 miles down the road, you've moved off. You don't have to move across the country.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

You're in Katy or Cy Fair. And now Sci Fair and Katy are doing the same, they're in the same position Spring Branch was in the 1960s. They're growing and growing, they're adding schools and adding schools, and eventually it's going to grow past them and they're going to leave. And in fact, I just saw an article where they expected SciFair by 19 by 2030, that they're they're going to lose about 10,000 students. And it's going to be the same thing from gentrification, where you no longer have young families with little kids joining the school district.

Mike Marrs 10:11

No, they're moving out a little bit further as yes, that that freeway system that runs up through there. Oh, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

And yeah, in 90 in 99 and and all that. So, you know, Spring Branch, you know, you know, our history, like I mentioned, starts in 1856 at St. Peter's Lutheran, which is still an active church on Long Point Drive.

Mike Marrs 10:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

And and uh, so you know, we we've had uh you know a lot a lot of history through there. You know, uh we try to tell people that one of Stephen F. Austin's old 300 settl uh settled in Spring Branch.

Mike Marrs 10:52

So that's that's there's a lot of history, and there's a lot of reasons to to to support this, and and we kind of got off track a little bit from the car show, but let's go let's talk about the car show before we

Back To The Past Car Show

Mike Marrs 11:04

go.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Oh, the car show. This is something that that we started five or six years ago. So I think this year's gonna be our sixth annual, but we you know we uh we have a couple members of our board that are car buffs and and really enjoy this. They said, let's put on a car show. And and I'm thinking, okay, what are we gonna get? Five or six cars come out. No, we had we had a hundred cars show up, and I mean it was just it was it was just so awe-inspiring because it was you know, cars from the the the 20s, 30s, and then of course all the muscle cars, which you and I, you know, I'm a graduate of 68, so you know what what better muscle cars from the late 60s and early 70s, and there's a lot of them there, and and so we started saying in the in the the car show became so popular we kept doing it, it keeps be getting bigger and bigger, and then we've been working with y'all, and y'all have made it famous by getting us on wheel time, so you know we we just love it.

Mike Marrs 12:11

Well, we appreciate it, we're doing what we can. I do remember the last time we were out there. In fact, we've got a a picture of it that's in the spot that the promo spot we're running. I I want to say it was a 19 Italian car. I mean, it's like I I want to say it's the only one in the country, and it was running and driving, and he brought it out there. I mean, it was that kind of an antique car that was there, along with you know, 69 Camaros and and 40 mile Ford coups that have been restomotid and oh yeah, and and and the hot rods, you know, the 30s and 40s that have been turned into hot rods that you know, people I mean, that's like their children.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

I mean, that I just you know, that's one of the things that amazed me is how serious these car collectors take what they have. And when I see their everything they have out there, I I can see why. But we, you know, we we get it, it gives us a chance to over the museum. We have barbecue, uh, good food, uh, and of course we we give uh uh trophies for uh you know best car, and you know, and we have the people.

Mike Marrs 13:22

There's several different classes on it, yes. Let me see if I can put this flyer up here a little bit bigger.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

So and and this happens at the 9016 Westview location, yes, yes, in the back parking back parking lot, big parking lot, and we fill it up with cars, right?

Mike Marrs 13:41

So so there's you know, we just kind of pull down the side if you're in entry, and there's a there'll be some guys down there to check your registration and get you situated. Yes, car show runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Yes, 10 to 2. Of course, they you know the these people get their car there, you know, 7 7 30. I mean, we have to make sure we get there early because they're lined up. So we're ready to show up. We want the good spot, and they get their chairs set up and their rags to wipe down their car or truck, and it's just uh so but and and then we we get it, you know, and then the public is you know, we go 10 to 2, so a lot of people show up. We decorate the front of the the the school so everybody knows something's going on, okay. And in the past, we've had like 200 U.S. flags line the the Westview. So when somebody drives by, they definitely turn to look to see what's going on. So we have a lot of uh just people that just drive past and and show up, and then a lot of people look forward to this.

Mike Marrs 14:52

So if you want to bring your car, registration is thirty dollars. Yes, but spectators are free. You just drive by and you see the sign, say, I want to go to the car show for a couple hours.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Exactly, exactly.

Mike Marrs 15:06

Yeah, we're you're hungry and you want to stop in and grab a barbecue sandwich and sit and watch the cars, and exactly it's a great day.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

It is, and I'm gonna knock on wood because we have had good weather the last five years.

Mike Marrs 15:22

Uh yes, yes. I remember a nice bright sunshiny day, and sit out there all day, you get a little bit get a little tan going on there.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yes, but it's it's it's something that if you like cars, if you like history, if you like barbecue, because we have one of the uh the Houston Livestock and Show barbecue teams come out there and cook for us. So they know what they're doing.

Mike Marrs 15:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this gets a little bit better shot here. So 10 to 10 to 10 to 2. The October 17th. The October the 17th. The awards will be at two o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, 145-ish. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Marrs 16:04

Yeah, somewhere around there. Yeah, and uh got food vendors on hand, got plenty to eat, drink, got lots of cars going to be out there, it's gonna be a great and the mus and the museum will be open if you want to see what what it was like in the past, and you know, you're looking at our whole high school, we could be any high school USA. Absolutely, but nobody else has thought of it.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yes, it's uh well, fortunately, they still have their high school open. This this was kind of by necessity, but well, yeah, we've turned it into something that we want the community to be proud of.

Mike Marrs 16:43

But by the same token, like I say, my high school, they're on the third building since I graduated, and and you know, it's just all gone. There's nobody been pushed because we keep growing, the school's still there, the kids, the grandkids, great grandkids for some people. Uh, you know, I had the Friday night tickets to the football game for over 30 years. My kids were up and gone, but the people that were sitting around this, they their kids were up and gone. It was just, you know, it was just that's what you did on Friday night.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah, and yeah, you know, I remember, you know, right now you look at the the football stadium that's behind the current facility, it's called Grobe Stadium. That was the spring branch stadium for our high school, and now you look at it, there's a little bit of seating on one side. At the time that I went there, it held 15,000.

Mike Marrs 17:38

Yeah, okay. I think it looks more like it's it's set up for a track meet, really, is what it looks like.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Exactly. Now, now you have junior high, they come and play, they come and play football or soccer, lacrosse, and and it's you know, it's just it's still there though. It is still there. There there was a time when it held 15,000 people, and our games were broadcast on radio.

Mike Marrs 18:05

It's amazing, you know. School district of 40,000 people dissolves because it just gets absorbed into everything else. It's amazing. Exactly. Frank, we appreciate you taking the time and joining us.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Thank you so much, and we wish you the very best. And I hope to see as many people out there as they can make it to see uh a bunch of great cars.

Mike Marrs 18:28

And go in and see the museum. The museum is worth going in, it doesn't cost anything, right? That's what I say, it's worth the price of admission. Yeah, you will take some donations, but it's not open all the time because it is an active school. So this is an opportunity to to make that visit while you're there. And uh like I say, check it out, have some food, check out the cars. It's gonna be a beautiful day at the uh Back to the Past car show. Yep, October 17th. October 17th, Frank Clem. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, Mike. Sharing this with us. And we, sir, will talk to you again real soon. Okay. Bye-bye.

Break And Event Promos

Mike Marrs 19:13

Thank you for joining us again. We're going to take a quick break and we will be back after these few words.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

It's that time again. Fire up those engines. Heroes and Hot Rods is rolling into Bastro for Veterans Day weekend. Friday night, cruise downtown. Saturday, 400 of the coolest rides in Texas, take over Main Street. Honor our veterans, enjoy local food and shopping, and help support local charities and scholarships. Presented by Craig's Jewelry and over 200 local sponsors, November 13th and 14th, downtown Bastro.

Mike Marrs 19:50

It's Back to the Past. Cruise back in time Saturday, October the 17th for the SBISD Alumni Association's annual Back to the Past car show. See classic cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more as automotive history comes alive at the Cornerstone Academy, 9016 Westview Drive in Houston. Bring the family, check out the rides, and enjoy a great day celebrating the vehicles that we remember and the memories that go with them. That's Saturday, October the 17th, Back to the Past, 9016 Westview Drive in Houston.

Weekend Car Events Roundup

Mike Marrs 20:26

So going on today, we're going through this real quick for October the 10th, starting later on today. It's the Yellow Out Barbecue and Car Show in Pairland. We talked about this last week. Registration 11, awards at four. Get lots of barbecue competition, vendors, music, family activities, or you can run over to the Lake Charles Fall Fest and car show that runs from 8 a.m. this morning till noon at the historic City Hall. Got vintage cars with show and shine and lots of market vendors. Now we're going to take a little bit look ahead and go off to October the 17th, Back to the Pass. We talked about this. In fact, Frank Lamb is on the show today talking about this, but we wanted to bring it out. We like it in wheel time, it's going to be there. It is the Alumni Association's Back to the Pass car show, truck, and motorcycles. So put this on your calendar for next Saturday. Then we're going to buzz out to October the 17th. Monster Jam is coming into Houston. You know, if you want something that's got a lot bigger tires, Monster Jam rolls into Houston's Reliance Center on October the 17th. Pit party begins at 2:30 p.m. gates open at 5 30, and the main event starts at 7. Got lots of 12,000-pound Monster Jam trucks competing in the Big Air two wheel and freestyle action. It's a great opportunity to see these trucks beat drivers during the afternoon pit party. Again, Monster Jam October 17th. Then we're going to slide over something a little more family. October the 17th, Beaumont Touch a Truck. Now, this is for the younger future gear heads. Beaumont Children's Museum Touch a Truck. It's downtown 701 Main Street in Beaumont from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Now they're going to have a lot of vehicles, a lot of heavy equipment out there, but children will be able to climb aboard and explore some of the emergency vehicles, some of the construction equipment, even utility trucks that are going to be out there, and they can talk to the people who actually operate these vehicles, learn a little bit more about them. Then we're going to slide over October the 17th to motor mornings in Houston. Now, this is uh something a lot different on the other end of this automotive spectrum. It returns on October the 17th, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. It's short, but it brings in a lot of the Houston area exotics, supercars, and collector automobiles, and the public is more than welcome to come out and look. So the display vehicles are selected through registration. So it's kind of like some other events. You got to tell them, here's what I got. I want to come out, I want to show my vehicle, and they will approve you coming out as part of this high-end machinery show. It's a relatively short Saturday morning event, but there's a lot of unusual high-end cars here. And in some of them, this is probably the only place that you're going to see one like it. Then we're going to stroll over to October the 24th, the Jaguar Club of Houston Concours de Elegance. Now, this is uh the 48th Concours de Elegance, and it's in Sugarland at the town square. Cars start arriving at 8 a.m. judging starts at 11, and the event continues to about 3 p.m. Usually have a big impressive collection of Jaguars from classics up to some of the newer contemporary models. October the 24th, we're getting close. So we're going to see the Halloween Classic Car Show in Houston. Now, this is the 18th annual Halloween Classic Car Show at the National Museum of Funeral History on Saturday, October the 24th. It's a week before Halloween, but that's okay because this year's theme is heroes and villains, and they're going to have all makes and models of vehicles are going to be out there welcome. They're going to have 40 judge classes plus special awards all around 3 p.m. So this is the rather unusual venue. It's great for Halloween. It's amazing the kind of things they've got in there related to funerals. Funerals on wheels, you might think about. So that's a quick look at the weekend auto scene update.

Texas Drag Strips Worth The Drive

Mike Marrs 24:12

All right, now it's time to take a look at where the roads can take us this week. We got to talking about drag strips, so we thought we'd take a look at what regional drag strips are still around because there was a time when it seemed like just about every town had a drag strip somewhere, not too far away. It may have been an old airstrip, uh, had that over in Lake Charles, a couple other places around here, a piece of pavement, which was out here uh outside my town for years when I was growing up. Or it could be just an eighth-mile track where everybody knew somebody that's racing. So we're gonna take a look around it because because I remember when our town had one, we were just old enough to drive. We managed to get out there, and it was out on the edge of town, so we didn't have a lot of people to worry about. So we're gonna start with the Evedale Raceway. Now, this is up Silsby, Evedale area, and there's actually people that bring their cars over from Houston to do some testing over here because it's out of the way. Even when Houston Baytown was running, they would come over here because tested two nights, not as much traffic. It's a little bit easier, a little more relaxed, a little easier to work on the cars. But we're gonna start here because it's close to home here in Southeast Texas. It's on FM 105 near Silsby. It's a lot closer to what many of us remember when somebody says the local drag strip. It's not a great big giant motorsport stadium, it's a community racing facility where local racers and families can spend an evening at the track. Evidale has developed a pretty strong reputation for grassroots racing, including junior racers and specialty events. And for our Golden Triangle listeners, it's also proof that you don't have to make a cross-state road trip to experience old-fashioned Texas drag racing. We're gonna head north towards Lufkin, and you're gonna find that the Pine Valley Raceway is another track in Texas keeping grassroots drag racing alive. Now, October the 16th and 17th is gonna be a great excuse for a drag trip. October the 16th and 17th is gonna be a great excuse for a road trip. Dragging and pulling in the pines. He had told us about this event coming up earlier in the year. And this is one of those events that they're created, they brought in to kind of bring in spectators, kind of get more people acquainted with the track. So this one goes beyond regular ordinary drag racing because this is diesel drags, this is big rigs, this is tractor pools, and a burnout contest. There will be a car and truck shows, and there's going to be live entertainment. Friday and Saturday activities make it almost a motorsports festival rather than simply a night at the strip. But it's close enough that Southeast Texas to make the trip very easy for the weekend. From there, a lot of people have heard of this one, Little River Dragway up in Holland, Texas, near Temple. Now, the track dates back to the 1950s, and October the 17th, it's going to have its vintage drags back. Now, this is exactly what you're looking for if you want traditional hot rods, stalkers, gassers, dragsters racing on an old Texas drag strip. The events are geared towards American-made cars from 1975 and earlier. And racing is on the eighth mile. Friday night, October the 16th, offers test and tune, followed by the vintage drags on Saturday. So if you miss this one, it's okay. Little River continues to race well into November, so there's still time to get in some action before the end of the year. From there, Houston Motorsports Park. Now, this is a big place, but you don't have to leave Greater Houston if you're looking for some grassroots drag racing action. Houston Motorsports Park also operates an eight-mile drag strip on North Lake Houston Parkway. Now, this is next to the asphalt oval. Now the emphasis here is exactly what makes local tracks interesting. They got street nights, they got test and tune sessions, they got grudge racing, and they have specialty shootouts where spectators can get much closer to the action than you're going to get at a national event where there's 30, 40, 50,000 people there. In fact, October the 10th this weekend features shootout Saturday with several index and truck classes. There's also going to be junior dragsters and a testing tune. So this is a kind of a modern version of the neighborhood drag strip that a lot of us remember, but like a lot of others, civilizations closing in. I like the name of this one. This is the Yellow Belly Drag Strip up in Grand Prairie. Now, if we're talking old school Texas drag strips, Yellow Belly Dragstrip deserves the place on the list because its history dates back into the early 1950s, where young racers were reportedly running cars in the sandy Trinity Bottom River. Property owner O.L. Nelms eventually provided them something better. He gave them an asphalt drag strip that opened in 1955. Yellow Belly still promotes itself as a run what you brung kind of place and says some families have been attending for three or four generations. Now that's about as close as we're going to get to stepping back into some Texas hot riding history. We're going to finish this segment by going from the little neighborhood drag strip to the other end of the spectrum. Texas Motorplex in Ennis is hosting the Stampede of Speed, which is the NHRA Fall National's October the 9th through the 18th. Now, the Motorplex isn't a small town strip, it's really not, but it's close. It's not that far. It's one of America's major drag racing facilities, and it's got a historic, all concrete quarter mile track. But that's exactly why it's worth including it because you can spend one weekend watching racers at a little eighth mile track and another seeing some of the fastest drag racing machines in the country. And that maybe this week's road trip isn't really about finding one particular destination. Maybe it's about finding your local drag strip. Sometimes where the road can take us is right back to the drag strip.

Wrap Up And What’s Next

Mike Marrs 29:57

That's going to wrap up the first half of our program. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope that you're going to stay with us for the second half of our program. If you're listening to this on a podcast during the week, the next episode will be the second half of that program coming out later on this week. So we're going to be right back after this quick break, and we hope you stay with us. Cars, trucks, SUVs, motorsports, road trips, and the people who make the automotive world interesting. In wheel time is changing and we're expanding. We're bringing you more automotive stories, more interviews, more destinations, and more of what you may have missed. From Texas to the automotive world beyond, in wheel time is your place for automotive talk without the politics or the nonsense. Join us for the next generation of In Wheel Time Cars, trucks, and the people who love them.