Shed a Little Light
Last week I spent almost three days in Benjamin, Texas, located at the junction of State Highway 6 and U.S. Highway 82.
More than two-thirds of my existence has been living at the junction of U.S. Highway 180 and State Highway 669, so I get the small-town thing.
That may be why my editor and publisher gave me the assignment that took me to the small Knox County community. My personal experience as a high school and college volleyball player and general love for sports and sports history made the 72-hour adventure one of my favorite road trip experiences ever—and I have had quite a few.
Benjamin unveiled its new gymnasium over the weekend. The Don Haskins Gym hosted the Marlboro Man Memorial Volleyball Tournament, with sixteen teams competing in two divisions of pool play on Friday and bracket play on Saturday.
Don Haskins? Yeah, that guy who led the 1966 Texas Western men’s basketball team to a NCAA national championship by defeating number-one Kentucky. If you have seen the movie “Glory Road,” you know why Haskins and his team hold a place in sports lore. What you may not know is that Haskins’s coaching career began in Benjamin seventy years ago.
I had the honor of interviewing Benjamin native Wyman Meinzer, whose dad was on the school board that hired Haskins. Meinzer is a celebrated American photographer, the official Texas State Photographer, and a former Texas Tech adjunct instructor in Mass Comm photography classes. His dedicated efforts are the main reason why Haskins has his name on the school’s new gym.
Meinzer’s dad was on the school board who hired the young man who would one day be the older man inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Many years later, Wyman and Haskins would reconnect, with Haskins revealing that Benjamin (and El Paso) were his two favorite places.
In other discoveries from the trip I am calling My Benjamin Wellness Retreat, I met the family of one of the original Marlboro Men. Benjamin native Donnie Ryder died in 2021. His grandson Cody Propps, the Benjamin volleyball coach, found a way to honor his “Pop.” The tournament has been ongoing for five years, the first held just a few months after Ryder’s death. What I observed in the orchestration of this big event was how community and family, Cody’s in particular, came together.
I met Mimi and Mammy, Cody’s grandmothers who sold T-shirts and cheered on their grandson. Cousin Shaylee, Cody’s vital right hand, drove in from Oklahoma to run any and every errand, matching her cousin’s signature energy step for step. Cody’s parents Stacia and James and his Aunt Shannon and Uncle Jason were the quiet, dependable adults who managed the hospitality room and took tickets. Cody’s wife, Savannah, due to deliver their daughter in November, relocated from gym to gym to help keep books. And his son Jake kept hospitality room guests entertained with how best to eat his granddad’s barbecued ribs.
What happens in Benjamin should be spread far and wide. Working together in a spirit of cooperation is not something easily achieved anymore.These folks did it right.
The staff at Benjamin ISD, along with community volunteers and former players, sacrificed as well, giving up two days to participate in something special. Local churches provided a place for many teams to stay overnight.
What happens in Benjamin should be spread far and wide. Working together in a spirit of cooperation is not something easily achieved anymore. These folks did it right. They did it well. And I came home feeling just as rejuvenated had I been at a five-star spa in Palm Springs.
P.S.—A special shout-out to the Roots Retreat in Seymour, thirty miles east of Benjamin, where I spent two nights. This little lodge was cliché-ish-ly cute as a button. Check it out. Think I’ll make my reservation again for next August when I plan my return to watch the Sixth Annual Marlboro Man Memorial Volleyball Tournament.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
