Home Care in San Saba, TX

SAN SABA, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – San Saba’s football stadium is full of history and not just because of the memories made via the Friday night lights, but because the stadium once served as the town’s cemetery.

Since 1856, this lot of land has belong to the Rogan family. This football field was once a graveyard for civil war soldiers and early settlers up until 1878, when commissioners court stopped all new burials. In 1935, SSISD was donated this land from the Rogan family. In that same year, the city set to remove all bodies, monuments, tombs, grave markers, shrubs and trees.

But according to Ronnie Shulze, San Saba HS Football coach, some of these bodies were not removed due to not having family members to claim. Most of these people now rest in city cemetery. Shulze learned this from a past friend named James.

“He said that he remembers the bulldozers coming in to clear the land, and a few of the bodies remains didn’t get claimed so they just bulldozed the tombstones in and left them there… there wasn’t many,” Shulze recalled.

Before the land was cleared, the city had reached out to the families of 18-25 gravestones and asked for them to relocate the bodies. Not everyone claimed these markers and it is unknown how many remain today.

Jake Lackey, San Saba resident, said the school use to use the fairgrounds as a stadium before the school got the land. There was controversy on whether the graveyard should be used as a stadium in 1935, but the Rogan family wrote a letter telling the community that since citizens did not keep the area cleaned up, they should allow SSISD to have the land and look after it.

“Well, you can’t help it, kinda have that feeling, especially if your on the graveyard and on Halloween or Friday the 13th… Knowing that there’s actually remains of San Saba City citizens under us, were the only ones that can say we built our football stadium on a legitimate graveyard,” said Lackey.

Today, many citizens have called the stadium ‘The Graveyard’ and have hung up signs. Many stories have spread about this unique place, although it is hard to tell which ones are facts and which ones are myths.

A newcomer to the football experience at Richland Springs High, located in San Saba County about 35 miles south of Brownwood, should immediately master two facts. First, the school’s nickname is pronounced with two syllables. Don’t pronounce the e in Coyotes. As in the singsong chant: “Co-yotes fight! . . . Ne-ver die!” Second, Richland Springs High has won nine state football championships, one shy of the record for any school at any level during 102 years of state championship play.

All nine have been won playing in the University Interscholastic League’s (the state body responsible for overseeing public high school athletics) six-man classification, for schools so small they’d struggle to field eleven-man squads. With so few players, the field is smaller, some of the rules are different, and scoring is plentiful—some teams routinely hit triple digits. The unincorporated town of Richland Springs boasts a population of about 250 and its high school lists an enrollment of 48 total students. The Coyotes compete in Class 1A’s Division II, the smallest of the small.

All nine of those state titles have been won under current head coach Jerry Burkhart, who first arrived at Richland Springs in 2003. Burkhart is tied with the legendary Gordon Wood for the most state championships won by a Texas high school football coach; Wood won his at two schools.

Linda Bailey—whose grandson, Jayden Sutherland, is a junior on this year’s team—stated the obvious before one game this season: “It’s an awesome, awesome program.”

The chances of Richland Springs adding to its record haul this year appeared strong, with Dave Campbell’s Texas Football ranking the Coyotes fourth in the state’s six-man Division II in the preseason.

Then, in a matter of weeks, so much changed.

In late August, the executive committee of Richland Springs’s UIL district found Burkhart guilty of recruiting, a serious violation in the eyes of state athletic administrators. They said he had participated in the transfer of a student from nearby Mullin High. The committee referred the case to the UIL’s state executive committee to review its decision and determine a punishment for the coach.

A few weeks later, the state committee met in a Pflugerville hotel conference room to hear the case. By then, football season had started and Burkhart’s Coyotes were already 3–0 in non-district play, and the team had risen to number two in the state rankings. The committee unanimously upheld the district committee’s finding and suspended Burkhart for three years from coaching at any UIL school. Only one other coach in UIL history had ever received a suspension of that length.

Burkhart, whose contract runs through the 2023–24 academic year, is still at Richland Springs, where he works as the school’s athletic director. Assistant coaches Shawn Rogers and Harley Ethridge assumed control of the football team.

On the second Friday in October, the Coyotes played their first home game without Burkhart. They ran onto the field carrying their 7TH FLAG OVER TEXAS banner in front of the packed home stands to face district rival Cherokee High School. The visitors were also undefeated and ranked third in the state. Richland Springs lost, 78–47. It was the Coyotes’ second home defeat since Burkhart took over in 2003.

The week before that game, Burkhart had filed a motion in state district court asking for a ruling that would allow him to continue coaching Richland Springs. The case was moved to federal court by the state attorney general’s office, where it awaits resolution. The suit states that as a result of the UIL suspension, the coach won’t be able to fulfill all of the duties in his contract and that “it is in fact very likely that it will result in Burkhart losing his job.” Burkhart and his attorney declined interview requests for this story.

The transfer student from Mullin, another six-man school, had been a starter last season as a sophomore. Dave Lewis, superintendent of Rochelle ISD and chairman of the UIL district executive committee, described the student to the state committee as a “potential superstar athlete.”

During the September hearing, the committee focused on a fourteen-minute phone call the student made to Burkhart in early August, one day before Richland Springs’ school year began. While no one disputed that the student placed the call, the state committee and UIL staff in attendance apparently didn’t accept explanations from both Burkhart and the student that they never discussed the possibility of playing football for the Coyotes.

Burkhart called the recruiting accusation “ridiculous” and told the committee he regretted not ending the call soon after it began. He said he remained on the phone that long because he thought he was being set up. Four days before the call, Burkhart said, Mullin High School coach Brent Williamson had texted Burkhart and accused Richland Springs of recruiting.

The student was found guilty of changing schools for athletic purposes. The smoking gun: when he left Mullin, he told Williamson he wanted to play somewhere he could win. His penance is one year of ineligibility from competition in varsity sports.

This isn’t the first time Richland Springs has played football without its coach since 2003. Burkhart left the school twice. The first time, he resigned to take over the six-man program at Gordon High School after steering the Coyotes to his sixth championship with the team in 2012. But the move didn’t last long; Burkhart was back at Richland Springs in time to begin the 2013 season. He told the Brownwood Bulletin that his family was struggling with the adjustment to his new position.

Burkhart was on the move again following the 2017 season, one year after winning title number eight. That move was a foray into coaching eleven-man football at Stanton High School, about twenty miles northeast of Midland. His time there was disappointing on and off the field. With his Buffaloes at 1–6, Burkhart resigned in late October of 2018. A Midland television station soon after reported that he’d filed a complaint that a student at the school threatened to stab Burkhart’s son, who was a quarterback for the football team.

Back at Richland Springs for the 2019 season, Burkhart immediately delivered a ninth state championship. The Coyotes dominated Motley County in the title game, which ended in the third quarter with a score of 62–16 thanks to Texas’s six-man mercy rule, which states that a game will be declared over once a team’s lead reaches 45 points in the second half.

Barbara Young could be considered a typical Richland Springs football fan; the seventy-year-old has missed only one game in recent years, and that was because of a broken femur. Yet she’s anything but typical, roaming the Coyotes sideline in a cheerleader outfit, wearing a Mohawk wig in the team’s blue-and-white colors, and belting out encouragement through a huge megaphone that her daughter snagged at a garage sale. At the home loss to Cherokee last month, Young said she stands with Burkhart.

“I don’t feel like they had any proof,” Young said of the UIL’s ruling and subsequent suspension. “I think a lot of these coaches are jealous of him.”

Mike and Christy Usery were seated ninety minutes before the kickoff against Cherokee. Their son Joshua is a junior on the team, and another son, Jeremiah, played on the 2019 championship squad. Mike Usery said of Burkhart: “When he’s not on the field, we can feel it. It makes a big difference.”

The observation was prescient, as Cherokee pulled away in the fourth quarter. As the home fans watched the closing minutes in disbelief, the school’s six indefatigable student cheerleaders continued their “Coyote power!” chant as if their town’s pride and joy were not suffering its first home defeat in almost a decade.

The win over Richland Springs allowed Cherokee to claim the district title, snapping a Coyotes streak that stretched almost all the way back to the previous century. Even without Burkhart on the sideline, though, Richland Springs qualified for the playoffs as the district runner-up, with a 7–1 overall record. The team will face Zephyr (9–1) in a first-round game Friday night. If the Coyotes win this weekend and then survive their next postseason test, they could earn a rematch with undefeated Cherokee.

A UIL representative told Texas Monthly that if Richland Springs manages to go all the way and claim another state championship this season, the title will be credited to whoever coaches the team on the field that day.

Unless the legal system grants him temporary relief from the suspension or the case is resolved in his favor, that coach won’t be Burkhart, whose next crack at a record-tying tenth football state title might not come until 2025.

“I am only 50 years old and my plan is to keep coaching for years to come and finish my career as a head football coach,” Burkhart stated in his October affidavit. “The decision suspending me gave no rationale or basis and does not even take up all of one page. I have no right to appeal this decision within the UIL.

“The impact that this suspension has had on me, my family, Richland Springs High School and all the coaches, staff, family and players and the whole community has been enormous,” Burkhart continued. “The Richland Spring[s] football program is now in disarray because they have no head coach.”

On the surface, the grass that covers San Saba High School’s football field looks pretty much like every other field in rural Texas.

But what lies below is an entirely different story, one that is told regularly around Halloween..

“Many strange things happen on this field,” is how it’s described on TexasBob.com, a site devoted to Texana.

Rogan Field sits on top of an old cemetery — it’s gone but not forgotten — and is appropriately named The Graveyard.

When the San Saba Armadillos take to the field, they know very well that they are playing over bodies — perhaps ancestors? — that have been buried there for over a century. They also know that when heavy rains pound the field, an occasional bone has been known to surface.

San Saba, known as the Pecan Capital of the World, is about 90 miles northwest of Austin — as the soul flies.

While it sounds like something pulled from “Poltergeist,” the silent supporters supposedly give the home team an advantage over visitors. Brad McCoy, San Saba’s football coach from 1990-94 and father of NFL quarterback Colt McCoy, told Sports Illustrated those bodies offer up assists from time to time.

“A few times, guys from opposing teams have had an open field and have tripped and fallen,” Brad McCoy said.. “Our kids say it’s our spirit hand coming out of the ground to make a tackle for us.”

Years later, the field’s history still gives others that same eerie feeling.

“At times when we played there, a player would trip in the open field and we always knew it was bc of a skeleton reaching up and grabbing us,” one person tweeted.

According to multiple news outlets including the San Antonio Express-News, an early settler’s cemetery that had been prohibited from use was moved in 1935 to make room for a high school football stadium. The land was sold to the school for a mere $10 by the Rogan family, who had grown tired of seeing the cemetery on the land they donated overgrown with weeds, KWTX noted.

But because some of the families of those buried there couldn’t afford to relocate their loved ones, not all the bodies were removed. As many as several dozen may still be buried under the field, Texas Coop Power explained.

Roughly 200 bodies were originally buried there, including many Civil War soldiers, multiple news outlets including KXAN reported.

While it’s not known the exact number bodies remain six-feet under the feet of athletes, it still chills the bones whenever one surfaces.

“I had an athletic period down here last period and I looked down at the hedge,” longtime assistant coach Ronnie Schulze told KWTX. “There was a ball joint from a human that came up from the water. It was definitely human, there was no doubt.”

San Saba isn’t the only school where a supposed final resting place is under a playing field. Neyland Stadium, home of the Tennessee Volunteers, was famous for housing the bones of donated bodies in offices under the field. Though they were moved to a laboratory in 2017, Knox News reports.

So far this season San Saba has a record of 6-3, but only 1-2 at The Graveyard. The Armadillos play their regular-season home finale on Friday, Nov. 4, when there’s a 50% chance of thunderstorms.

And you know what that means.

Regardless of cultural backgrounds, dietary restrictions, or myriad family dramas, Thanksgiving-celebrating Americans seem to agree that pie is the proper way to end the feast.

But people have heated opinions as to which pie is preferable. So a gracious host, who is already stressed about the hard-to-find bird, is pressured to provide a full sideboard of options.

Lighten the load a little bit by ordering your pies instead of baking them. Luckily, these ten Texas-based bakeries all happen to ship to your door, so you don’t even need to worry about picking up the pumpkin, pecan, apple, chess, chocolate, and sweet potato desserts. If that is still too much of a burden, just throw in the towel and head to Luby’s.

Houston

After pursuing a career in law, fifth-generation Houstonian Sara Brook switched gears to baking and opened Dessert Gallery in 1995. She’s known for her pecan pies, for which she toasts the pecans before adding them to the brown-sugar filling for extra nutty flavor.

To receive the pecan pie in time for Turkey Day, order the Southern Pecan Pie Care Package or To-Die-For Fudge Pecan Care Package by November 18.

Dallas, Fort Worth, and McKinney

Emporium Pies’ seasonal selections include the Drop Dead Gourdgeous, the Buttercream Gang, and the Lord of the Pies (a deep-dish apple pie), but the crowd favorite for Thanksgiving is the Drunken Nut, says CEO and lead “entrepieneur” Megan Wilkes. The bourbon pecan pie features Texas pecans mixed with caramelized brown butter and brown sugar in a shortbread crust.

Order through the website no later than November 15, because these sell out fast and shipping quantities are limited.

Weimar

Gladys Farek started her bakery out of her garage fifty years ago with the help of her six daughters. She later rose to prominence for her 150-pound Texas-shaped fruitcake that appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman in 1990 and 1991, respectively. By then, Gladys’ Bakery was well-known for smaller versions of that fruitcake, which are chock-full of pecans and don’t include filler ingredients like raisins and dates.

If fruitcakes aren’t really your bag, you can opt for a pecan pie or apple strudel: just order through Goldbelly or the website by November 16.

Houston

Goode Company president and chef Levi Goode says the Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie recipe is his grandmother’s, “so it brings back many memories and is a true comfort food of mine.” It uses fresh Texas pecans harvested from the banks of the Brazos River, resulting in a “bigger and gooier and richer” pie, the website says. If all of that doesn’t convince you, it does come in a snazzy keepsake wooden box.

To get the pie and its box delivered by Thanksgiving, place orders by November 20. For Houston locals, check out the pie drive-through November 22.

Online only

Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion has certainly had a busy fall. In addition to launching a mental health initiative and hosting Saturday Night Live, she’s offering her H-Town Hottie Pie for Thanksgiving, inspired by her single “Sweetest Pie.” The twist on pecan pie includes coconut and butterscotch chips with a dusting of edible gold.

To get this pie in your mouth, order by November 21.

Conroe and the Woodlands

Pie in the Sky Pie Co.’s best-selling pies are strawberry rhubarb and chocolate pecan, which is made with pecans from Central Texas. They also happen to be owner Marlene Stubler’s favorites. She got into the pie business after abandoning her dream of becoming a famous singer. She started by wrapping pies and cakes for sale at her parents’ convenience store, and she eventually opened her own shop in Conroe eighteen years ago. The buttermilk vanilla pecan, the Mississippi mud, and the bumbleberry—made with blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and rhubarb—are also worth trying out.

Order by November 18.

Round Top

Before Round Top became the nationwide mecca for antiques, Royers Cafe was churning out pies for the town with a population of around 80 at the time (it has bumped up to 87 now). Jonathan “J.B.” Royer now runs his father’s small-town cafe with his wife, Jamie-Len. He says he prefers to create “a giant pie sandwich” with a slice of the pecan pie, made with Millican Pecan Company pecans, and a slice of pumpkin. The Texas Trash Pie is probably the cafe’s most famous, though, with caramel, chocolate chips, coconut, graham crackers, and pretzels.

The cafe makes up to a thousand pies a week during busy seasons, so be sure to order by November 17. Royers will also ship to overseas troops who order via email.

Rockdale

For that super-extra host or guest who wants to add a little style to their delicious dish, Texas Talking Pies offers monogrammed pies. Marketing manager Callie Limes says that since the pies are custom engraved, the bakers can add “some extra Texas on top with a ‘Howdy Y’all’ message or Lone Star emblem.”

Order flavors like chocolate, buttermilk, pecan, lemon, or coconut with your family name or company logo by November 18.

Kyle

After losing her banking job 36 years ago, Julie Albertson says she “set out with a rolling pin and a plan” and founded Texas Pie Company using her grandmother’s Southern recipes. The restaurant attracts so many tourists, it led Governor Greg Abbott to designate Kyle as the Pie Capital of Texas last year. Albertson says the pumpkin and pecan pies (with pecans from Comanche County) are the natural best-sellers, but there’s also peach, Almond Joy, cherry, and coconut macaroon for those who want to venture outside the typical Thanksgiving flavors.

Order by November 19.

Multiple locations in Austin, one in Waco

Amanda Wadsworth got the idea for her business when her son asked why he couldn’t take a slice of apple pie to school. Twelve years later, Tiny Pies is thriving with Wadsworth’s family recipes. The recipe for the Sweet Texas Pecan pie, made with San Saba pecans, is four generations old, tracing back to Wadsworth’s great-grandmother Maude. It comes as a Not So Tiny nine-inch pie or as a cupcake-size tiny pie in a twelve-pack assortment box, which also features apple, cherry, and Texas Two Step, with a pecan and brownie filling.

The last day to order for Thanksgiving is November 21.

Mike Lee / Brownwood Bulletin

The Stephenville Yellow Jackets, who fell from No. 2 all the way out of the Class 4A Division I top 10 last week, re-entered the rankings this week at No. 8 – one spot ahead of the Brownwood Lions, who remained No. 9 for the second consecutive week.

This week marks the final statewide Texas high school rankings by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football as released on texasfootball.com. Moving forward, the weekly results of the playoffs will replace the need for a poll.

Stephenville, which had been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 all season, dropped out of the Class 4A DI top 10 last week after suffering its second consecutive loss, a 50-49 decision to Alvarado. But with top 10 teams Kilgore and Kaufman losing last weekend, the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football staff that compiles the rankings placed Stephenville back in the Class 4A DI top 10 at No. 8 after the Jackets beat Waco La Vega 42-28.

Voting Stephenville back in the rankings ahead of Brownwood makes sense, considering the Jackets and Lions both finished the regular season 8-2 – and considering the Jackets won the nondistrict game against the Lions 42-21 on Sept. 30.

At No. 9, Brownwood is the highest-ranked team in Region I-4A DI. The Lions were open last week and open the playoffs against El Paso Irvin (2-8) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa. If the Lions beat Irvin, they will play the Canyon-Burkburnett winner on the weekend of Nov. 17-19.

In addition to Stephenville, the other new team to the 4A DI top 10 is El Campo (8-2) at No. 10.

The top six teams all remained the same in the final 4A DI top 10, starting with top-ranked China Spring (9-1) and following with Corpus Christi Calallen (10-0), Boerne (10-0), Anna (10-0), Celina (9-1) and Lumberton (9-1). Tyler Chapel Hill (8-2) moved up one spot to No. 7 this week, followed by Stephenville, Brownwood and El Campo.

In Class 3A Division II, Wall (9-1) held its No. 10 spot in the final rankings after routing Brady 54-10 to secure the outright District 2-3A DII championship. Wall already has received a forfeit from Tornillo into the second round of the 3A DII playoffs. Wall will play the Childress-Coahoma winner in the area round.

Tornillo finished 0-9 and forfeited its final three regular-season games as well.

In Class 2A Division I, Tolar of District 5-2A held its No. 7 ranking after beating San Saba 63-0 last week. The win gave Tolar its first 10-0 regular season in school history. Tolar will play Whitewright (4-6) in bidistrict at 7 p.m. Thursday at Springtown.

Also in Class 2A DI, No. 10 Coleman of District 5-2A remained No. 10 after blanking Bangs 47-0 last week. Coleman finished the regular season 8-2 and will play Alvord (6-4) in bidistrict at 7 p.m. Thursday at Fort Worth Castleberry.

In Class 1A Division I, May (8-1) was open last week and held its No. 6 ranking. The Tigers, state runners-up the last two years, will open the playoffs against No. 7 Irion County (9-0) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Robert Lee.

Jonesboro (9-1) blanked Evant 63-0 last week and held the No. 3 spot behind top-ranked Abbott (9-0) and No. 2 Westbrook (9-1), the reigning state champion. Jonesboro, which beat May for the District 14-1A DI title this season, will open the playoffs against Menard at 7 p.m. Thursday at Blanket.

In Class 1A Division II, Cherokee (9-0) remained No. 2 after beating Lohn 70-0 last week, and Richland Springs (7-1) remained No. 5 after being open last week. Rising Star received a forfeit from Moran last week, but the Wildcats slipped one spot to No. 10. Rising Star (9-1) was passed in the rankings by Bluff Dale (also 9-1), which beat Walnut Springs 50-0 last week.

Rising Star is set to play its bidistrict game against Blackwell at 7 p.m. Thursday at Trent.

Cherokee will play Blanket in bidistrict at 7 p.m. Friday at San Saba. Richland Springs will play Zephyr at 7 p.m. Friday at Goldthwaite.