10/10/1954
El Paso High School football followers Saturday were stunned by the news of an early-morning accident which resulted in the death of two Bowie High School football coaches.
Buryl Baty, head football coach and assistant Bowie High School principal, and Jerry Simmang, athletic director and line coach of the South Side school, were killed when the car in which they were returning from Pecos, Texas, was struck head-on by a 10-ton truck on Highway 80, about 50 miles east of El Paso about 12:30 a.m. Saturday.
Fred Rosas, backfield coach, also a passenger in the car, was injured but his condition was reported good Saturday afternoon by attendants at Hotel Dieu Hospital.
Sheriff E.A. Wright of Sierra Blanca, Texas, said the late model car in which the coaches were returning to El Paso from scouting the Kermit-Pecos football game was demolished by the terrific impact.
WENT TO SLEEP
Robert Moore, 19, Spur, Texas, driver of the truck, told Texas highway Patrolman Sgt. James Mason, who conducted the preliminary investigation, that he apparently went to sleep at the wheel of his loaded truck. The truck was carrying cottonseed from Deming, N.M. to Spur.
Sgt. Mason said the truck was on the wrong side of the road when it crashed into the west-bound car. The impact, according to Sheriff Wright, hurled the automobile 140 feet. The truck turned over in a ditch after the crash.
Moore was taken before Hudspeth county Judge Tom Neeley and pleaded guilty to charges of negligent homicide, second degree. The complaint was filed by State Patrolmen J.P. Lynch and M.H. Hogan, stationed in Fabens.
Judge Neely ordered Moore returned to jail after deferring sentence.
IN FIAR SHAPE
Dr. Robert A. Nering, who treated Rosas, said the likeable backfield coach sustained a fractured jaw, dislocated left hip and multiple lacerations. However, he said, his condition was “fairly good.”
Baty, 30, a native of Paris, Texas, took over as head football coach at Bowie High School in 1950. He was a graduate of Texas A&M, where he was a standout football player. He was graduated in 1948, and in 1949 was named as football coach at Luling (Texas) High School. He lived at 7620 Veracruz Road in El Paso.
Survivors include his widow, Betty Jo; a 4-year-old son, Robert Gaines; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.B. Baty of Paris Texas; three brothers, Earl and Harold Glenn Baty of Paris, and Albert Baty of Wichita Falls, and a sister, June Baty of Paris.
Coach Simmang was a graduate of Trinity University where he also was a star football player. In 1949 he was named assistant coach at Bowie, but returned to Trinity University in 1952 to receive his master’s degree. He was a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School of San Antonio.
LEAVES WIDOW, SON
He is survived by his widow Mrs. Ruth Sawyer Simmang; an 11-month-old son, Mark Thomas; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Simmang of San Antonio; a brother, Ralph of Houston; and a sister Jacquelyn also of San Antonio. The family resided at 352 George Orr Road. Funeral arrangements were pending with the Rodehaver-Miller Mortuary for both.
Rosas was appointed to the football coaching staff at Bowie after his graduation from Texas Western Collage. He was a backfield star for Bowie High.
Frank C. Pollitt, Bowie principal, was in Cloudcroft, N.M., when he was informed of the tragedy Saturday morning.
“It was certainly a big blow to us. We are going to miss Baty a great deal, not only as a football coach but also as an administrative official,” Pollitt said.
He said that memorial services for the two coaches will be held at the school as soon as arrangements are completed.
Tentative plans call for the holding of joint funeral services for the two coaches at 4 p.m. Monday in Asbury Methodist Church. However, the plans are subject to change, mortuary officials said.
Comments