Champion of the Barrio | Review by Lone Star Literary Life
Buryl Baty was a winning athlete, coach, builder of men -- and an early pioneer against bigotry. In 1950, after serving in World War II, quarterbacking the Texas Aggies during glory days of the old Southwest Conference, and being drafted by the NFL's Detroit Lions, Baty became head football coach for the Bowie High School Bears in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso. Coach Baty quickly inspired this all-Mexican American team of athletes from the south side ghetto with his winning ways and personal stand against the era's extreme, deep-seated prejudice to which they were subjected. Decades later, the school and its former players memorialized Coach Baty's legacy by dedicating Bowie High's stadium in his name, and inducting him into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame. Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Baty is written by Gaines Baty, son of this legendary coach, who came to know his dad, and learn from him, through the eyes of over 100 people whose lives he touched.
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Review by Lone Star Literary Life

12 Aug Review by Lone Star Literary Life

Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Baty by R. Gaines Baty is the latest biography in Texas A&M University Press’s Spirit of Sport: A Series of Books Focusing on Sport in Modern Society. The author, older son of Coach Baty, undertook this project as a way to learn more about the father he hardly remembered, to see the man through the eyes of those he touched so deeply before he was taken so tragically and so young. A member of the Greatest Generation, Buryl Baty grew up during the Great Depression in Paris, Texas. A high school football star, he earned a full ride to play Aggie football. His college career was interrupted by World War II, during which Baty served in both the European and Pacific theaters as an Army combat engineer. After returning and completing a successful college career, he was drafted by the Detroit Lions but chose instead to dedicate his life to teaching and coaching young people.

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