One of this year’s football team leaders will take home the Grant Teaff Character Award and scholarship, which will be awarded Sunday during the Snyder High School football banquet.
Teaff, the legendary college football coach and Snyder High School alum, created the trophy and scholarship in 2003 and has been honoring Snyder athletes each year since.
At first, the award was a one-time scholarship, but has grown into a $2,000 endowed scholarship that honors a senior on the Snyder football team who displays a high moral character and the qualities that make someone not only a good teammate, but a good person.
Snyder head football coach Wes Wood said he was impressed with the respect that the Snyder community has for the award.
“When you first hear about it, you go ‘oh, that is cool’, but you don’t really understand the magnitude it carries,” he said. “But the more you talk to people about it, you start hearing about the type of people who have won it and the reason they have won it. It is just about those guys who are die-hard Snyder Tigers. They show up, they work hard. They are going to be great fathers, great husbands one day. They are the type of people you want to recognize in the community. It is a big deal and the people who win it take a lot of pride in it.”
Zach Garcia, the Tigers’ offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator, was the second Snyder athlete to ever win the award. He spoke fondly of the brotherhood he gained from the award and said it meant the world to him at the time he heard his name called in 2004.
“I was talking to the first guy who won it, Sid (Isidro) Gutierrez and he is still one of my best friends now,” Garcia said. “To see how it has grown and how much people have poured into it is amazing. I am just happy to be from Snyder and to be a part of that ‘fraternity.’ Every year when they announce the winner, I get chills because those guys don’t even know the brotherhood they are entering. I can still call up several of those guys that won the award and I know they will pick up because they are those types of people. They are leaders in their community, leaders in their personal lives. I am just proud to be a part of it.”
Teaff graduated from Snyder High School in 1951 after competing in football, basketball and track. After a football career at San Angelo Junior College and McMurry University, he began his coaching career at McMurry, where he eventually secured his first head coaching job.
After five seasons at McMurry, he moved on to Texas Tech where he worked as an assistant for two seasons. Teaff then served as the head coach at Angelo State University for a pair of seasons before the Baylor Bears came calling and Teaff found his second home.
Teaff would go on to lead the Bears for the next 21 seasons. His legacy in Waco became that of college football legend. Teaff went on to win 128 games, four bowl games and many memorable wins over top-ranked teams. Most notably perhaps was the “Miracle on the Brazos,” in 1974, when he coached the Bears to a 34-24 victory over the University of Texas after Baylor trailed 24-7 at the half.
Teaff is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame, the McMurry University Hall of Honor and the Snyder Athletics Hall of Honor. He spent 23 years serving as the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). With that kind of resume and background, it’s easy to respect Teaff.
“He is very well respected,” Garcia said. “He always gave credit, doesn’t matter what he did, he always gave credit and always had his ties back to Snyder and where he started off his journey. For somebody like that to always know and acknowledge where they came from is something to look up to. It doesn’t matter how long it has been since I’ve seen him, he always remembers my name and you have to imagine how many different people he has met in his life and for him to remember my name is pretty special.”
Wood said he is excited to meet a coach with Teaff’s background and said he admires what Teaff does for the Snyder community.
“I’ll know more when I get to actually meet him and sit down with him, but talking with him on the phone, he seems like a good old-fashioned, hard-working coach, like I grew up with being around my dad,” he said. “I am excited to get to know him better.”
Teaff will attend the banquet on Sunday to present the award himself for the 17th straight year. The banquet is set to start at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Snyder High School cafeteria and several awards will be announced, as well as the Grant Teaff Character Award. Tickets will be available at the door.
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