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Remembering Coach Wallis

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No one ever called Eldon Wallis by his real name. He was called Wally and in the army, he was Bones. But in La Habra, he was always Tex.

He was raised on a cotton farm in west Texas. He hated every minute of it, he said. Sports was his way out, on to college and the scholarships that would make that possible. But he was smart enough to know that as a player his career would be limited. Tex always wanted to be a coach.

At Texas Tech, he started on varsity his freshman year, and lived in a room in the gym.

Drafted during World War II, he went to officer candidate school and emerged a first lieutenant but turned down an appointment to West Point. As a platoon leader in the 7th Infantry, he served in the South Pacific and was among the first Americans in Korea. There he enjoyed a different kind of play—shooting tracer bullets over the heads of the Russians who were foolhardy enough to get too close to the 38th Parallel.

The basketball team at Eastern New Mexico University was his next stop. "Shoot, we were the best team in the Southwest, he said. They even played Indiana State, who had a coach named John Wooden.

Not limited to basketball, Tex was also invited to spring training with the Boston Braves. Instead, he accepted his first high school coaching job where he coached his team to four league championships and his WL record was 133-54. That's when a friend told him about opportunities at a new high school in southern California.

In 1958, Tex joined an LHHS faculty hand-picked by principal Walter Pray. It was a good time, he said, because "we all pulled in the same direction."

For the next 27 years at La Habra, Tex coached football, cross country, baseball, track, tennis, softball and, oh yes, basketball. He used the undergrad teams as a farm system, with everything leading to the varsity. He coached the varsity boy's basketball team to eleven league championships, reached the CIF playoffs eleven times and was named coach of the year five times. His WL record? 494-235.

Towards the end of his career, Tex took on the girls too, coaching them to two league championships and reaching the CIF championships four times in four years.

"I loved it," he said, "because we were sooo good."

Grades were important to him, reasoning that if "your grades aren't up where they need to be, I can't trust ya."  His secret? "Press 'em. Press 'em till they get back on the bus."

Tex looked for, and found, the best. He coached little league in the spring, ran basketball camp and the weight room out of the gym in the summer, and coached Pop Warner in the fall. He made sure his teams played summer league against LA County teams. He wanted to recruit the best players down at Our Lady of Guadelupe, and he made sure the LHHS schedule included Servite and St. Paul. So he could beat them.

He coached his son Gary and his daughters Judy and Terri at La Habra High. This, he said, was the best of all. His house was open 24 hours a day and his driveway in La Habra often resounded with the bounce of basketballs until well into many a summer night.

Tex Wallis was an All-American who treated every student he ever coached like an All-American.
 
 

LHHS Alumni Association is a non-profit organization
401 S Harbor Blvd. #329 • La Habra, CA 90631 • 714.313.9665


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