Ronnie Boyette
1948-2007
South Park High School photo - 1966

Remembering a teammate, friend and role model

It had been more than 35 years since I had seen or heard from Ronnie Boyette.

When I found out about his unexpected death a month ago, it brought back a rush of nostalgia that has continued to linger in my mind.

I guess just about everybody who grew up with aspirations of being a good athlete had a “Ronnie Boyette” cross their paths.

I’ve heard a lot of high-school coaches make the statement, “I’ll take that kid in my foxhole anytime.”
That’s the way I always felt about Ronnie Boyette as a high-school teammate. I didn’t have to look far for a role model.

The fact that he was a three-sport athletic standout (quarterback, point guard, centerfielder) and National Honor Society member is not what really made him so special. It was his charisma … and the confident, yet casual, way he carried himself. It was the way he took time to recognize people for who they were, and the way he always spoke to them. Like all good high school athletes, he could get a little wild and crazy at times, but he had a genuine soul and an “All-American” attitude. He epitomized the true spirit of a South Park Greenie.

Ronnie was a year older than I and from the time we first met, when I was a fourth-grader, I frequently became absorbed by the question: “Why can’t I be like Ronnie Boyette?”

Like Ronnie, I was very active in sports in high school. A lot of games we won were largely due to Ronnie’s leadership and determination. He refused to back down from any obstacle and never allowed his teammates to do so.

When integration came to South Park High School in 1965, the football team was basically called on to lead the way with its early August practices. It was Ronnie, much more than the coaches as I recall, who immediately helped establish the standard of making the new players feel welcome and part of the team.

Beaumont, Texas, was one of the most racially torn cities in the South at that time, but as I look back, there was never anything resembling a major incident of racial conflict during my three years at the school.

Ronnie received an academic/football scholarship to Trinity University in San Antonio, where he became one of the nation’s leading punters.

The last time I spoke to him, at a South Park High basketball game in 1971, he was on the verge of graduating from Trinity and headed toward a successful career in investment planning in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Strangely enough, Ronnie Boyette was back in San Antonio at a gathering of college football teammates when he died of a heart attack at age 58 the last week in August.

Much of the interest I gained in becoming a sportswriter came when I was a high school athlete. Remembering those special days, and having had a friend and teammate like Ronnie Boyette, is why attending and covering high school sports activities remain the most enjoyable part of my occupation.