“It was an unforgettable experience for a teenage boy to enter Dick Burnett stadium, see the game (no TV then), and hear the crack of the bat! The stadium itself was the classic clamshell design located near the railroad tracks in the area behind the Two-States Coffee Shop. To teenage boys used to playing cow pastures near Fulton, it was impressive! I don’t remember any of us being able to buy popcorn or sodas but it didn’t matter. We were thrilled just to be there.”

—Dr. James R. Wilson of Texarkana, Texas



“When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my mom and dad took the family to a ball game. I’m pretty sure it was the Bears. We were seated in the right field bleachers. At some point a fellow named Aikenhead came up to bat. I have good reason to remember his name. He hit a screaming line drive foul into the area where we were seated. My dad yelled, ‘Here comes a ball’ as it skittered across the benches. It bounced up and hit me in the head. I was knocked cold. They took me to a doctor who X-rayed my head. Since there was nothing in it, nothing was hurt. I distinctly remember a fellow outside the stadium selling the Gazette. It was five cents.”

—Paul Massey



“When John Berry’s spell-binding homer dropped into the blackness beyond the left field palisades and disappeared into the underbrush bordering the creek, the curtain dropped on as great a baseball season as this modest city ever witnessed. At times during the season, the Bruins played like any minor league club, committing more than one club’s share of errors. But when September rolled around the Bears were bee-stung into activity. They were sharp in the late drive and against Greenville, Paris and Wichita Falls. The 1-0 thriller with the Spudders was probably as great a contest as any Class B battlers ever staged anywhere.”

—Texarkana Gazette’s Louis Graves in his “Sports Script” column. Exact date uncertain but written after the Bears’ 1947 championship win.



“Wide-eyed and innocent, likable Gabby Lusk got the umpire’s heave-ho at Tyler Wednesday, marking the first time he has been ejected and fined in organized baseball. With the Trojans ahead 4-3 and Joe Kracher on first, nobody down, Johnny Wood bunted and Catcher Joe Rossi threw wildly to first, the Bears advancing to second and third, but Umpire Price ruled that Wood stepped on the plate and was out. During the heated argument that ensued, a Bear player ‘bumped’ into Price’s back, then stepped aside. Lusk was rushing to break up the argument and unluckily stepped into the umpire’s line of sight when the arbiter whirled to find the offender.

‘You’re out of the game and that’ll cost you $25,’ Price roared.”

—Texarkana Gazette’s Louis Graves in his “Sports Script” column, Sept. 15, 1946. The Bears would tally a 81-58 record that year and finish second in the East Texas League.



“A can of beer in one hand and a baseball pennant in the other—that was the scene 30 years ago when Texarkana was actively involved in professional baseball.”

—Texarkana Gazette sports writer Louie Avery writing about baseball

in Texarkana



“This is the time of year when the mercury pokes its head above the 95 degrees mark in the thermometer, looks around at suffering humanity, and wonders how they stand it ...

When baseball fans long for air-conditioned grandstands, and football fans begin to believe that the only pigskin they will see this fall will be hanging in packages on the cafe counter.

It’s summer, friends. Too hot to write and too hot to read.”

—From the Texarkana Gazette’s Bob Mundella in his “Sports Script”

column, July 10, 1949