75th JUBILEE
October 14, 1999

Back in 1922 growth in Second Ward, the area bounded by Cotton Street on the East, the Rio Grande on the South and West, and Texas on the North, was such that the two grammar schools at the time in the barrio were bursting at the seams. Aoy was already thirty years old and Alamo was twenty three. The School Board decided to ease the overcrowding by constructing another grammar school in the area where Cotton and Seventh streets meet. Mr. Robert C. Jackson met the first students at the site in September 1923. A total of 695 students in kindergarten through the 6th grade settled into the new building. By 1925 Mr. Jackson was able to organize a school band and the new school showed a lot of promise for the families who looked with hope to the benefits their children would receive in the beautiful structure in their midst.

But over population of another sort in another area of the city would change the role that the new school would play among the "Mexican" population in the barrio. By 1927 overcrowding had pushed the capacity of El Paso High School, the only other high school in the central area of the city, far beyond the acceptable limits and the decision was made to convert the blossoming grammar school into a high school. It happened overnight with few if any modifications to the existing building. So, a ninth grade was added that year and an additional grade was added each subsequent year. The first senior class of 13 students, 4 girls and 9 boys, graduated from the school in January 1931.

Principal A. L. Carlton was the helm of the school during these formative years and he, more then anyone else, gave the student body the identity of a family and the school the feeling of home that still exists today. Most of the people in the area had meager incomes and lived in most marginal circumstances. Few of the houses had indoor plumbing or electricity. Mr. Carlton made the school available to the students after normal school hours. The students were able to use the bath facilities and the library or listen to the radios placed in various rooms in the school. Bowie became a home away from home and the students became members of an extended family which was supportive as they studied and later went out to take on the world. Mr. Carlton also wrote the words for the school song. "We're Loyal to you Bowie High" says it all. He also chose the Bear as the school mascot. The first Growler, the school newspaper, was published in 1930 and the first Aztec, the school annual, was published in 1935. By that time the school had 834 students and graduated 75 seniors that year. Mr. Carlton left Bowie in 1934. He was followed by Mr. W.W. Wimberly who stayed until 1937 and Mr. J. D. Osborne who replaced him and left in 1938.

The original building had an auditorium which doubled as the library. The two story structure was dimly lit. As the student population increased, students had to follow one-way signs in the hallways and were not permitted to go up the down staircase. Eventually, a permanent bridge was built over the irrigation canal that divided the school campus so the students could get to the football training field and the rudimentary field house. The field house survived well into the 1950s. It was not much to start with and at the end it was not a fit place to wash pigs much less for youngsters to use after their athletic work outs. In time the campus saw the construction of administrative offices for the R.O.T.C and workshops to teach the manual labor skills which many thought was the best way to prepare Bowie students for a future. The school never got a football stadium nor an indoor basketball court. Nevertheless, Bowie went on to carve out a much envied record in athletics and academics.

A high school band was organized in 1931 and by 1933 the school's football team came of age by winning the district football championship. Bowie football teams were to repeat in the district and win several regional championships in the years to come. A football encounter between Bowie and anyone of their city opponents was more than a game, it was a social event. There was no football stadium on campus so the Bears played their home games at EI Paso High stadium in the north part of the town. The entire barrio would make the pilgrimage for those fall events. They streamed north like ants crowding into the stadium hours before the game started. Everybody, youngsters, mothers, grandmothers and babies wore Bowie's blue and white. On signal they would stand up and sing the school song and cheer the team to victory. They were the start of the Bowie glory days.

The Army R.O.T.C. came to Bowie in January 1936. The cadets wore World War I uniforms with O.D. shirts, riding trousers with wrap leggings and brown shoes. At the time, few of the boys in the program realized that the freshman entering Bowie that year would be fighting and dying in the far flung battlefields of World War II five years later. But here, they and many others to follow in the same footsteps would learn the rudiments of military training and leadership that would thrust them into responsible positions when the war came.

Mr. A. E. Lang, a veteran of World War I, took over in 1938 and remained at Bowie until 1943. During his tenure the first phase of the new Bowie was constructed in 1940-41. The first class graduated from the building in 1941. At the time the student body numbered a total of 1,237. Mr. Lang also witnessed the exodus hundreds of Bowie students as they were drafted or volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces in defense of liberty around the world. They went off to places that few could pronounce or knew existed. But those Osos Orgullosos, mindful of their heritage, their duty to their country and the honor of their families performed well and distinguished themselves in combat. They and others to follow in subsequent wars were awarded many decorations by a grateful nation. One of these boys, Ambrosio Guillen, USMC was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroic combat action in Korea in 1953. The desolate halls of old Bowie were filled by the creation of a Bowie Junior High School of 231 students on campus in 1942. The departure of male students continued in 1943 and 1944 as 234 and 200 seniors graduated in those two years.

Dr. H. V. Williams became principal in 1943 and remained until 1947. Although his tenure was short, he had considerable impact on the future of the school. He expanded the curriculum to make it more responsive to the needs of the students to compete in the tumultuous job and educational environment after World War II. He became the President of Sul Ross College after he left Bowie. In 1945 the students mindful of their responsibilities, erected a memorial to those who lost their lives during the just completed global war. As the years went by, additional plaques were added to the monument to remember those that made the same sacrifice in Korea and Vietnam. That same year Bowie got on the EI Paso landscape when the "B" was painted on Mount Franklin. The school made the international news when President Avila Camacho, President of Mexico, presented 60 band uniforms to the Bowie Band.

Mr. Frank C. Pollitt took over as principal in 1947. He was not a stranger to the school, having served as assistant principal for several years prior to his promotion. He stayed as principal until 1969. In that role he had a major impact on thousands of students who in years to come, would be able to boast that they were Bowie Bears for life. During Mr. Pollitt's tenure Bowie continued its winning ways in athletics and academics. Javier Montes, Class of 1948 set a new Texas State record in the mile run of 4 minutes and 25 seconds. The record was to stand for years. Javier went on an equally successful track career at Texas Western College and took part in the Olympic Games in 1952 at Helsinki, Finland. Success in academics insured that more and more Bowie graduates would go into higher education. In 1949 the Bowie baseball team won the State Baseball Championship. That same year the basketball team was fourth in the State Tournament. Bowie was the map and Bowie graduates went to the School Board and into city government. Many entered the medical and legal professions. Many others, the salt of the earth really, went into those endeavors that build cities, states and nations with the sweat of their brows and the strength of their backs.

On September 25, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson and President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, President of Mexico, met on the Bowie Campus and amicably settled the thorny border dispute of the Chamizal that had been a problem between the two countries for 100 years. The Chamizal Treaty resulted in the transfer of 630 acres of land formerly in the United States to Mexico and 193 acres formerly in the eastern part of Juarez to the United States. Part of the U.S. land was used to build the Chamizal National Park to commemorate the treaty signing event and the remainder was set aside for a high school to be built on the site in the future.

This historic event set the stage for the most important fight in Bowie's history. Plans for building the new school on the Chamizal site called for current Bowie and Jefferson, further east from Bowie, to become intermediate schools. A race was on to find a suitable name for the new school. The Bowie Alumni, under the leadership of Bowie graduates Elman Chapa, Belen Robles and others started a ground swell of support backed up with petitions containing 10,000 signatures to name the new school Bowie. The determination of "Los Osos"paid off, Bowie would continue as a high school. The former Bowie at the comer of Cotton and Seventh Streets became Ambrosio Guillen Intermediate School, named after a former student of "La Bowie" who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic action in combat in Korea.

Mr. Gonzalo G. LaFarelle assumed the principal's job in 1969. Mr. Luis Cortez replaced him in 1972. Mr. Cortez had the task of setting up the "new" Bowie and insuring that the proud traditions and strong bonds that were fundamental to the Bowie families would be continued in the new setting. The new school opened on August 20, 1973. It was a facility built to accommodate 2500 students. There were 105 classrooms, a library, cafeteria, gymnasium to seat 2500 and a football stadium to seat 8000. Lastly, the campus included an amphitheater that would seat 1000. Bowie had traveled a long torturous path to its final upscale site. All the plaques and monuments from the “old" Bowie were moved to the new campus and the school moved forward into a new era of success and accomplishments.

Mr. Cortez was followed by Mr. Pete Ramos in 1984. This gentle giant continued to push for a greater Bowie. Sadly, our beloved first principal, Mr. A.L. Carlton, died in 1982. Equally sad was the failed fight to keep the original Bowie building from being demolished to make way for Administrative offices and additional parking. The building passed to oblivion in 1986.

Mr. Paul Strelzin took over the reins at Bowie High School in 1992. He made Bowie a safe heaven for its students by taking the Border Patrol to court to curtail patrol raids on the Bowie campus in search of undocumented individuals. He was an extrovert that ushered a new era onto the Bowie campus. You always knew what Bowie was doing while he was around.

Finally, Mr. Oscar Santaella walked on the Bowie campus on September 1997 to take over the highly coveted job of principal. He was the eleventh individual to have that role. Each one left his imprint on the school's history and each one, in his own way, contributed to the success of the school and to the success of those "chosen" students who walked the hollowed hallways of all its buildings starting back in 1922. With them worked countless teachers and other administrative personnel who became our mentors and, as one student put it, “they were the wind under our wings." They brought out the best of each and every student and then basked in the radiance of their success. Truly a familial undertaking.

The new millennium is right around the comer. In 25 short years Bowie will reach 100. Youngsters about to be born today will be around to celebrate that anniversary as students or as recent graduates. We envy them. They, like so many others who have gone before, will look back as we have done and review the history of "La Bowie".” We are certain that those Osos will be like us, always "Loyal to Bowie High" and they will cherish the thought that once you go to Bowie you will become a bear and "Once a Bear, Always a Bear.”