By Tracy Gupton

 August 17, 2022, was a very sad day for the many friends, classmates, players, students and fellow coaches and educators of Calvin Lee Phillips of Pearland. For that was the day life ended for the 1972 graduate of Columbia High School. Calvin was two weeks shy of celebrating his 68th birthday, and none were more devastated by his passing than his family. The outstanding high school and college athlete and former longtime coach will be honored posthumously Friday, October 17th, on Griggs Field where he used to haul in touchdown passes from quarterback Troy Williams in the early 1970s. Troy and Calvin both played college football in New Mexico after their days as Roughnecks concluded with high school graduation in the spring of 1972.

Calvin was a wide receiver for the Eastern New Mexico University Greyhounds in Portales, New Mexico, from 1972 through 1975, while his fellow Roughneck Troy Williams continued quarterbacking for the University of New Mexico Lobos in Albuquerque. Sadly, both of these former Roughnecks greats have passed away. We lost Coach Phillips three years ago.

Representing Calvin Phillips on the field October 17th will be his wife, Brenda, and their children, Rodney Terry and Alexis Terry, Calvin’s brother, Gary Phillips, and Calvin’s niece, Rachelle Williams, daughter of Calvin’s sister Shirley Williams. Gary is a former Roughnecks standout who also played college football while Rodney, as most of you know, is the former head men’s basketball coach at the University of Texas in Austin. Rachelle is also a graduate of Columbia High School. Calvin’s son Johnny Olguin will not be able to attend the Hall of Honor game due to his duties as head football coach at Taos High School in Taos, New Mexico.

In addition to being a major contributor to the success of the Roughnecks’ varsity football and basketball teams when he was a student here, Calvin Phillips devoted 42 years of his life to teaching and coaching young men at several schools in Texas.

“He loved coaching and working with those kids,” Brenda Phillips said of the husband she misses so very much. “Calvin’s main joy was coaching.”

Calvin Phillips was the head boys basketball coach at Livingston High School when his health issues closed the book in 2022 on what had been a remarkable streak of coaching high school basketball and football for more than four decades. The son of Tommie Calvin Phillips and Alois Marie Burns Phillips, Calvin Lee Phillips grew up in West Columbia’s Rainbow Subdivision.

He made his parents proud by excelling in both high school and college sports, especially by earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Eastern New Mexico University. In addition to coaching, Calvin was an assistant principal at Columbia High School and West Columbia Junior High School.  He was the head boys basketball coach at Columbia High in the 1980s while also serving as an assistant coach on Ed Derrich’s Roughnecks varsity football coaching staff. Calvin Phillips will join his fellow former Roughnecks coaches Ed Derrich, Charlie Brand and Jack Hays in this school’s Athletics Hall of Honor. Jack Hays was the head football coach when Calvin was a dependable wide receiver and safety for the Roughnecks.

An early 1970s newspaper clipping provided by Brenda Phillips focused on Calvin Phillips’ small stature not hindering his performance on the football field for the Roughnecks. Then Brazosport Facts sports editor John Platzer quoted Roughnecks’ Head Coach Jack Hays as saying, “He’s a real hard worker,” speaking about his 5’8″ wide receiver and safety. “In fact I would say his overall ability to work is his number one asset. He is little but he still blocks well, for example.”

“Phillips has been performing a few pass-catching miracles for the Roughnecks,” Platzer wrote in The Facts‘ article from over 50 years ago. “He caught a 35-yard pass against Bay City while scoring twice and hauled in a 39-yarder against Pearland while scoring once.”

Coach Hays called Calvin Phillips “One of the better receivers around,” despite a lack of overwhelming physical ability, The Facts‘ article from the early 1970s said.

After serving briefly as a graduate assistant at Eastern New Mexico University, Calvin took on his first coaching assignment in public schools in Cleveland, Texas, where he not only was the junior varsity boys basketball coach and an assistant football coach but met and married his wife of 41 years, Brenda, when both were working at Cleveland High School in Brenda’s home town.

“Calvin was a great Dad to my kids,” Brenda said. “He always treated them just like he would his own kids.” Brenda said their grandson, Azari Woods, “just loved him. Azari always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his PeePaw.” Grandson Azari, who was a standout basketball player for Manvel High School, is now attending college at the University of Texas-Tyler in Tyler, Texas. Azari will be graduating from UT-Tyler this fall.

A rundown of the many coaching jobs Calvin Phillips could brag about on his  resume include, in order: Cleveland High School, Columbia, Wharton, Stafford, Brazoswood, Angleton, Dickinson, Brazosport and Livingston. Calvin was the athletics director and head football coach at Stafford High School and the head boys basketball coach at Wharton, Angleton, Dickinson, Livingston and, of course, right here where he coached the Roughnecks basketball team for several seasons.

Brenda created the Calvin Phillips College Scholarship that is awarded to a deserving senior athlete at each of the schools where Calvin coached. “We had to keep that legacy alive. I couldn’t let that die,” Brenda Phillips said of the scholarships bearing her late husband’s name.