Back in football’s early days, when helmets were made out of
leather, noses were broken out of habit and touchdown celebrations
would cause other players to think
”
you were crazy,
”
Maurice
”
Red
”
Elder was a college celebrity.
By Josh Koehn Staff writer
Gilroy – Back in football’s early days, when helmets were made out of leather, noses were broken out of habit and touchdown celebrations would cause other players to think “you were crazy,” Maurice “Red” Elder was a college celebrity. An All-American fullback for Kansas State in 1934, Red was the man trusted with the ball and forced to stick his unprotected face headfirst into a scrum of cleats and fists. He was a simple country boy, red-haired and freckle-faced, that never heard a word from a college coach or scout in high school, but later found a way to stick a sock in the maniacal mouths of 40,000 fans.
“You go to (the University of) Nebraska, they let you know you were in enemy territory,” Elder said. “At that time, well, geez, it was a big deal letting Kansas State ‘come up here and beat us.’ I still remember, I scored the first touchdown and I can see that little opening, and I was PPHHTT!, right for the goal line untouched. That was 7-nothing, boy. That quieted things down right there.”
The team won the game and went on to take the Big Six title, now known as the Big XII. This was just the beginning of where football would take Red.
To put things into perspective, sixteen different presidents have lived in the White House since Maurice Elder came into this world. Born March 21, 1916, on a farm in Wellington, Kansas, South of Wichita and about 15 miles North of the Oklahoma border, it would be easy to say that the difficult times Red was born into helped shape the man that has never known what it feels like to be old. But no adjective, such as strong or durable or ageless, can encapsulate the character of the 91-year-old man called Red. He is the last of his peers. A link to America’s past.
Having traveled no further than 15 miles from home, college opened up opportunities Red had never even entertained.
“Back at college, all those old boys were from Kansas, and I’d never been to Kansas City. I’d never been to Topeka, the capitol. I’d never been anywhere. And my sophomore year we had a game in New York City. We were gone from school for two weeks on that trip. Talk about big eyes – New York city, holy cow.”
After graduating from college, Red was invited to play in the East-West Shrine Game (Elder and Jeff Garcia are the only grandfather and grandson to both play in the game). Washington Redskins coach Ray Flaherty came up to Red’s hotel room after the game and let him know he had been drafted by the team in the second annual NFL draft.
“I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Elder said.
When told he would be paid $125 per game, Red’s confusion changed to shock.
“I said, ‘you mean you’ll pay me to play football?'”
The hot and humid climate of Virginia training camp turned out to be a nightmare. Red’s feet blistered and light skin turned an ugly shade of maroon. About to be cut, he was offered the chance to play for a new franchise, the Los Angeles Bulldogs. Red quickly accepted, noting, “It was the cheapest big city in the United States, rent was $30 a month.”
The next four years were the most fun in his life. But, in 1941, the country stepped into World War II. The team was owned by the American Legion and the league was quickly disbanded.
Married to his first wife Rosethel and needing a job, the two packed up their life and moved to Colorado. Red coached football at Pueblo Community College and then a high school in Nevada before settling down in a small California town called Gilroy.
With four children, and looking for more job security, Red was lured to the area in 1957 when his friend Art Baxter told him about a job coaching at Gilroy High School. Red channeled his gift for grinding it out on the gridiron towards molding young men.
“You don’t get into that business for the money,” Elder said. “You get into it because that’s what you like to do, because you like to be around kids that age.”
While his expertise revolved around a fairly simple offense – “Single wing, and if you really wanted to get fancy you might go to a double (wing)” – he tinkered with formations and trick plays.
One of the first young men to make one of Red’s imaginative plays come to life was “a little guy” named Bobby Garcia. One game, Garcia was told to receive a kickoff and teammates would immediately form a huddle around him so the other team wouldn’t know who had the ball.
“Well, on the kickoff, guys were running by me and saying ‘that guy over there has the ball!’ Garcia recalls. The result was an easy touchdown.
Red may have had some fun formations, but he wasn’t always fun to play for.
“The impression that the whole team got was he was kind of a tough guy,” Garcia said. “He was coming in and was a touch coach, but he knew his football and he was going to making sure you were physically fit. But other than that he treated everyone the same.”
Red even treated Garcia the same when the youngster started dating his daughter Linda.
“Bobby as a son-in-law, are you kidding? Elder laughs. “It never even entered our mind. But Bobby is a good man.”
Shortly after, Bobby and Linda were married.
After six years of coaching GHS, Red moved on to teaching Driver’s-Ed for the school.
He married his second wife, Fleta Stuckey, when his two daughters set him up after their mother passed away. The two were married for 34 years.
“Of the two wives, the first one had a tough job, raising four kids. The second one, we traveled. We went to Australia, New England, we went around. It was a fun time.”
Red now spends his time traveling and watching his grandson Jeff play in the NFL. He is also dating a woman named Carol, 15 years his junior.
“We have a fun time (traveling together),” Elder said. “At this stage of the game, if you’re still able to, you better do it. See as much as you can while you can.”
Having lived such a long and happy life, Red has had to deal with the uncomfortable departure of family and friends. He is also the sole surviving member of his football teams at Kansas State.
“You know, in a way that’s a strange feeling to know that all your buddies are gone,” Elder said. “There’s nobody to contact, they’re gone. That’s the way it is, the alternative is…(laughs).”
Red has seen and done what many men wouldn’t be able to accomplish in two lives. He has no magic tonic or special spell, just a simple outlook that has carried him this far.
“Somebody says, ‘how old are you?’ I say ’91,’ and that sounds so old. I don’t feel 91. I feel like I’m about 60-65, and that’s my attitude toward it. If you think you’re old, you’re gonna’ be old. And attitude means a lot. You’ve got to have your head on straight. So as time goes on and you’re older, OK, it’s just another year. But I’m not old in my own mind. I don’t feel old.”
