Cockrell Cocksure Bet For Future Stardom
Alan Cockrell, fourth Grade student from Galena Kan., will compete in the sectional Punt Pass and Kick competition during the halftime of the Kansas City chiefs Houston Oilers football game Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Cockrell has already posted victories in the local zone and area competition. A complete young athlete Cockrell batted .872 as a Little League baseballer last summer and placed fifth in the 100 yard dash in the Kansas Junior Olympics. The youth has been working with head coach Jim Frazier and the Missouri Southern coaching staff. He is shown in the accompanying photo with his father Delvere Cockrell and Jim Lee, a Joplin Jaycee who will accompany Cockrell to Kansas City. Dan Stanley motors of Joplin sponsors the youth.
Joplin Globe, November 17, 1973, Pg 16
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Galena/Riverton Not Good Enough?
Twice named first-team all state, Cockrell led Joplin, Missouri's Parkwood High School Bears to a 31-3 record during his three years as starting quarterback. Alan's career statistics included not only 3,499 yards passing and 44 touchdowns as quarterback, but an additional 1,541 yards and 36 touchdowns rushing, and 154 extra points and 8 field goals as a kicker.
His mere presence on the team was controversial as his parents had relocated from nearby Riverton, Kansas for the express purpose of giving him the opportunity to play for a higher profile program, and not without the help of local boosters who secured Cockrell's father a job with a local engineering firm despite his questionable qualifications.
The move paid off as Cockrell led the Bear's wishbone attack to an undefeated season (14-0) andthe Missouri State Championship in 1980, gaining him the national attention necessary to secure a full scholarship to Oklahoma State (Cockrell would later transfer to Tennessee).
An All-American at Tennessee, Cockrell was the Volunteers starting quarterback for the 1982 and 1983 seasons, a tenure that culminated in a Citrus Bowl championship in his final season. Alan is one of only four quarterbacks to start a game for Tennessee as a freshman - the other three are Peyton Manning (1994), Casey Clausen (2000), and James Banks (2002).Twice named first-team all state, Cockrell led Joplin, Missouri's Parkwood High School Bears to a 31-3 record during his three years as starting quarterback. Alan's career statistics included not only 3,499 yards passing and 44 touchdowns as quarterback, but an additional 1,541 yards and 36 touchdowns rushing, and 154 extra points and 8 field goals as a kicker.
en-academic.com
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During a very brief 1981 trip from Dallas with my mother, I ran across Ted Watkins in Galena. Ted’s brother, Bill, was married to my Aunt Margie. Ted was born and raised in Galena and was a longtime postman. We started talking baseball, of course, and I told him about George Grantham, a big-league baseball star born in Galena. He said that might have some connection to an old deserted and grown-over homesite he had seen on one of his routes. “Overhead, at where had been the entrance, was an old and rusted iron structure that spelled out ‘Grantham’ at its top. It’s made me wonder who they might have been.” It might have been that family I told him; however, I had done some previous research and found out George and his family left Galena when he was young, and that had been a long time ago. Ted informed me that fact about George Grantham being the only big-name (there was also a lesser-known Bill Windle) big-leaguer to come out of Galena was about to change. He seemed sure of it. “There are two right now who can’t miss, in my opinion,” he said. He mentioned a Gibson boy and Alan Cockrell. His words turned out to be largely prophetic. Atlee Alan Cockrell was born in Kansas, but in Kansas City, Kansas, December 5, 1962.
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Regarding Parkwood's upcoming 1978 season:
Combs, entering his 11th season at Parkwood, was returning just five starters from last season’s 8-1 team. Based on his current squad, he felt it necessary to switch from a wishbone to a veer offense.
Alan Cockrell and Curtis Wilson have been battling for the starting quarterback job since the first Day of practice. Cockrell is a 6-0, 185-Pound sophomore who transferred from Riverton, Kan. Wilson a 168-pound junior saw limited action for the Bears last season
First year [Parkwood] coach Richard Kruse played football at Kansas State University. He played football, basketball, and track at Galena Kansas High school and coached at Galena before coming to Parkwood. Kruse coaches the offensive ends and is an assistant track coach.
Joplin Globe, August 27, 1978, Pg 56