Clarence Darrow Hooper—Senior and Junior

Robert T. Hill Junior High School was not exactly a cornucopia of athletic talent in the 1966−67 school year, at least among the ninth graders. The Highlanders football team went 1-8, and most of its top players were eighth graders like Blake Johnson, Tommy King, Joe York, Steve Morgan and Troy McDaniel. The basketball team was better, if only due to the presence of Clarence Darrow “Dee” Hooper. Junior high school hoops would ordinarily get the scantiest attention from the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald, but an exception was made for Hooper. He sometimes scored 30 points, fairly impressive considering that the games lasted just 32 minutes. Yes, those of us at Hill were proud of this aptly named young man. Might he be the next Pete Maravich? The Pistol was then a freshman at LSU, pouring in 43 points per game—just as he would do for three varsity seasons.

Hooper, who had been a member of that woeful Hill football team, stuck to basketball when he got to Bryan Adams High School. I followed him a year later. Having made the all-sophomore “B” team, I was among his teammates until back surgery derailed my dreams of hoops stardom. I remember Dee; he played hard, dribbled well, could drive to the basket and was deadly from outside. He was no great leaper, however. Coach Ralph Zietz was fond of him, and that can be said for me and his other teammates like Larry Hagedorn, Paul Hafner, John Groscurth, Don Chandler and Rick Morris. To the best of my knowledge, he never made all-district and did not get a scholarship to one of the Southwest Conference schools or even some lesser institution. Having peaked in junior high, he was clearly no Maravich.

During that time, I heard vague stories about Dee having an illustrious father. Not until much later did I realize how great his dad was. Allow me now to summarize the man’s life and career.

Born in 1932 in Fort Worth, his parents named him after Clarence Darrow, one of America’s most renowned lawyers in the early 20th century. A leading member of the ACLU, he defended Leopold and Loeb, and John Scopes in the “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925, badly shredding William Jennings Bryan. Always a champion of the underdog, Darrow built a solid legacy. He has been portrayed in films and plays, and is the subject of several biographies.

Dee Hooper’s father excelled in football, basketball and track & field at North Side High School. Unlike his son, he thenceforth abjured basketball. He was a three-year starter for Texas A&M on the football field. That alone is worthy of note, but his fame derives from throwing the discus and shot-put. He won both events in the Texas Relays, Drake Relays, Kansas Relays, SWC and NCAA meets. This Aggie specialized further in the 1952 Olympic trials in Los Angeles by setting aside the discus. The shot-put was his métier. Hooper rose to the occasion by tossing the 16-pound ball 17.41 meters, edging Parry O’Brien and Jim Fuchs. A few weeks later in Helsinki, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played thrice as those gentlemen stood atop the podium. The Americans swept as O’Brien took gold, Hooper silver and Fuchs bronze. I think it is worth noting that Hooper, while pretty stout himself, was smaller than the others; he weighed 181 pounds, considerably less than O’Brien (245) and Fuchs (223). Fuchs had also won bronze at London in 1948, and O’Brien was just getting started—he would win gold again at Melbourne in 1956 and silver at Rome in 1960. (He made the 1964 American team but did not medal.)

Hooper ended his athletic career in the Finnish capital, although he might have returned to the gridiron since the New York Giants spent a 10th round pick on him in the 1953 NFL draft. After graduating from A&M with a civil engineering degree, he joined the Air Force and became a second lieutenant. He worked for Gifford Hill and opened his own company, Hooper Engineering Laboratories, in 1977. After 22 years as his own boss, he retired to travel and take care of a brood of grandkids. He is a member of the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame (1965) and Texas Sports Hall of Fame (1979), and rightfully so. Hooper, whom I would love to have met, died less than a year ago, on August 19, 2018.