These two photos were purchased by classmate Miles Wofford after he saw them at Leo's restaurant during our 50th reunion.  If you want copies of these or other photos that Miles has, contact him at mwofford@elp.rr.com.   He has photos of several older Teams, SEE BELOW.

"I was able to go back to Leo’s soon after our reunion and obtain from the owner all but two of the district football pictures that were hanging on the walls -- the owner had unintentionally acquired the pictures when he purchased several items at the auction of Ashley’s Restaurant in 'Five Points' on Montana when it closed -- his buy included a large dough mixer which was on a closed cardboard box with a pallet underneath so it could be moved, and upon opening the box, he saw the All District Winners football pictures.

There was a tradition, each year Ashley's restaurant treated the winning district football team to a big Mexican dinner, the team's picture was taken for posterity and displayed on the dining room walls with preceding years' photos of winners.  This custom was discontinued after 1954 when Ashley’s moved their restaurant way out on Montana, several miles before the Border Town Drive-in, which some of you will probably remember.

The cardboard box underneath the dough mixer contained photos of the All District Winners from 1937 to 1954, and two Austin yearbooks for 1962 and 1963.

Leo's owner had the items in storage for years, and when he heard we would be having lunch at his restaurant for the 50^th reunion, he brought in a few photos for us to see and maybe purchase, he thought the football players in our group would especially be interested, but although there was interest in looking at the photos, none were purchased.

After our reunion lunch at Leo's I purchased the 1952 and 1954 photos for $20.00, and later was able to obtain the remaining photos and the two yearbooks for $75.00.

Leo's owner asked that I distribute the photos by email to anyone who's interested, as part of the low price he gave me. Most photos are in frames with glass covers and in good shape, but a few unframed photos' names are hard to read.

There are 15 photos in total, the earliest year 1937 and latest 1954, with two years missing, 1942 and 1949.  The size I'll email to whoever's interested is 8½ x 11.  

The photos are all marked with the players' and coaches' names and other information.  Seven photos are Austin '54, '52, '50, '48, '47, '44 and '37;  there are four Ysleta photos for years '51, '46, '43, and '41;  three El Paso High photos for years '45, '40 and '39, and one Bowie High photo for year 1953.  What is unique is that these photos have never been in circulation -- the players may remember that a picture was taken, but unless they went back to Ashley’s restaurant and dined in the room where the photos were displayed, they never even saw the picture.  

I plan eventually to give the originals to the Museum in El Paso for high school athletics, I understand there is such a place. 

Anyone who wants one or more of the photos emailed to them, let me know, and you can print out hard copies if you want to.  The large view photos here on the website can be printed out directly from the web page, just be sure to use good quality photo paper.

I can also have copies made of the original larger photo images in 11x14, and will postal mail for the actual costs involved."   Miles: mwofford@elp.rr.com
 

Click on any Panther Year for Large View...

1937

1944

1947

1948

1950

...or just click to next page to see all 5 photos