He’s 1,000 miles from Arnold, but if you want to know anything about Fox High football, Ragan is the man to ask. He has compiled records and statistics for the Warriors since 1976, when he first published “Weekend Warriors,” an annual compilation of their history.
Ragan, 68, graduated from Fox in 1971. He recently finished an updated version of “Weekend Warriors” that tracks Fox stats back to the program’s origin in 1958. Flores worked in the roofing business in the St. Louis area until he moved to Floresville in 2006. For the next 14 years, Fox played football, but Ragan was preoccupied with his new life in the Lone Star State.
Then last year he ran into Fox football head coach Brent Tinker, who asked him to revive the annual publication.
“I did the research and they gave me stats they had from 2006 to 2019,” Ragan said. “I get my sports information from the school and some from the prep sports site at stltoday.com.”
In a few months, Ragan caught up with 13 years of Warrior history and self-published the record book. Many Fox players from the last three years found themselves at the top of several categories. The Warriors reached the Class 6 semifinals for just the second time in 2020 and under Tinker the last three seasons have compiled a record of 27-7.
“When I came to Fox in the fall of 1968, I wanted to earn a school letter,” Ragan said. “I talked to the football team’s managers and they said someone was needed to keep the stats.
“This is a history book, not just a book on stats. It’s a labor of love to preserve the names of people who did these things.”
As a sports editor, I love stats, especially box scores. Since high schools don’t pay someone to keep stats, how detailed they are varies greatly from school to school and in each sport. For someone like Ragan, who lives far away and has no family connection at the school, to take time to compile and publish a record book with annual updates is very uncommon.
The newest version begins with a quiz. I learned that Fritz Rouse was Fox’s first 1,000-yard rusher in 2000. The Warriors played on artificial turf for the first time in 1982, on the same field as the old St. Louis football Cardinals used for training camp, at Lindenwood College (now University).
There have been 10 head coaches in Fox history. The late Ray Hodge, for whom Fox’s baseball diamond is named, was the first. Gerald O’Connor was second and coached the Warriors for 15 seasons (1960-1974), the longest tenure in their history. Two former players, Gerald Dockery (1975-1979) and Greg Heinemann (1990-1997), came back to serve as Warrior head coaches. Tinker is second all-time in longevity at 10 years and counting; he’s also the current longest-serving football head coach in Jefferson County.
As I leafed through Ragan’s book, I quickly started wishing every school had a reference guide like this. I will be keeping “Weekend Warriors” close by next fall when I cover Fox football.
Ragan said his father worked as a “jack of all trades” but mostly did roofing. Ragan followed in his father’s footsteps, and sports eventually entered into that, too. He said he was the project manager when the America’s Center domed stadium in downtown St. Louis, home of the NFL Rams from 1995 to 2016, changed its corporate sponsorship from TWA to Edward Jones. Ragan and his crew designed the Edward Jones sign that was 300 feet long. His wife, Christine, helped on the project and Ragan said she’s been invaluable in helping revive “Weekend Warriors.”
Christine works at Trinity University in San Antonio and Kevin, wanting to jump back on the gridiron sidelines, joined the chain gang for games there, although Trinity (an NCAA Division III program) didn’t play in 2020 because of COVID.
Ragan has plenty of stories to tell that don’t show up on a stats sheet. He recalled a game in 1980 when Irvin Kappler was the head coach. The Warrior kicker booted a line drive field goal that hit the crossbar three times before going through the uprights. He also remembered a game against Northwest decades ago when both teams were 0-9. Ragan was asked to give the Warriors an impromptu pre-game speech that day; they listened to the message and won the game.
When Ragan visited Fox in 2019, he wore a red-and-white letterman’s jacket with the red numbers 71 sticking out on the white sleeve. He said the students he bumped into were mainly incredulous at someone who graduated 50 years ago.
“I can tell them stories from games and it’s fun to see their response,” he said.
I’ll leave you with a few of the more notable stats I gleaned from Ragan’s book.
Levi Terrell rushed for a school-record 402 yards against Oakville in 2008. Current assistant coach Scott Neibert’s son, Bob, holds the school record for career rushing yards with 3,130. Chris Collins threw an 88-yard touchdown pass to Rob Rickermann against Marquette in 1999, the longest scoring toss in Warrior history. Last fall, quarterback Brock Inman moved to the top of the school’s career scoring chart with 250 points. In 1974, Dave Pulliam intercepted a St. Pius X pass and returned it 95 yards for a TD, the longest pick-six in school history.
If you’d like a copy of “Weekend Warriors,” Ragan suggests contacting the athletic department at Fox.