The tale of how Lee Park became Valentine Park is a sweet story, one born of a love and dedication to education
Located at 1317 N Pioneer Drive, the park this month was renamed to honor James E. Valentine, known to most as “Coach Val.”
His life touched many people, his daughter Tanya Valentine Johnson said.
His years teaching and coaching at Woodson High School, where he led his teams to state playoffs and district championships.
This years managing the city’s swimming pool in summers.
His later career at Jefferson Junior High, where he taught history and coached 7th and 8th grade boys’ football and basketball until his retirement in 1984.
But many of his former students — and many in the community — never knew her father’s full name, Johnson said Friday, until his death in 1994.
“He was Coach Valentine,” she said.
A disciplinarian when necessary — a news column from the year of his death recalled “Big Red,” the paddle he kept in readiness for wayward students — Johnson said her dad was a father figure and mentor to many youths in the Black community, even implementing his own version of a “no pass, no play” rule for his athletes.
Under new policies adopted in December by the city’s parks board, the name change will stand for at least 50 years.
“To know that for 50 years, my grandchildren and his great grandchildren that he has living, will see this, it’s just amazing,” Johnson said. “Fifty years will go by, but there will be those that remember and can pass down the impact that daddy had with students. Teachers back then, it was a family.”
Strong support
The drive to name the park in honor of her father came from calls from former students and family friends, Johnson said.
Putting the idea on Facebook, the idea soon garnered more than 100 people willing to offer their names.
“It was just enlightening to see that daddy had that kind of impact,” Johnson said. “He has students to this day and athletes that are still around, and they were the ones that came for the comments.”
But it perhaps shouldn’t have surprised Johnson.
Even to this day, people come up to her and ask Johnson if she’s “Coach Val’s” daughter, she said.
Lesli Andrews, director of community services, said the city’s parks board adopted policies Dec. 21 on how to rename a park and anything in a park system — whether it be a facility, a building or a field.
It requires a written submission and a show of support via signatures.
“It can’t just be one person wanting to rename a thing,” Andrews said.
The procedure required two readings by board, while signs were placed in the park letting people know it was up for consideration for a name change.
There were two names suggested for the park via petitions, Valentine’s and those of Robert and Sammye Stafford, also Black educators, who taught for years in Texas and New Mexico, including Abilene.
Robert Stafford was awarded Teacher of the Year in 1958 in the Abilene ISD, while his wife also taught and later became director of Abilene Day and Health Care Center for Elderly the Elderly for four years.
Johnson said either selection would have been apt, both her father and the Staffords having an immense impact on young people, especially in the Black community.
“Everyone (suggested) was deserving,” she said.
Lengthy process
Andrews said that because of the way applications came in the name change was a topic of discussion for several months, and a subcommittee reviewed the options.
David Pittman, chairman of the parks board, said the “due diligence” of the subcommittee was essential in helping make a decision.
“They really sat down and dug into the stories,” he said. “I’m honored that we were able to honor a man that had such a such an impact on all of the community of Abilene, and certainly the community within the neighborhoods that he served and obviously, the African-American community, as well.”
Opposition to changing the name at all was slim, with only one person speaking at one meeting in favor of retaining the name, though Andrews said she had personally received “probably half a dozen or so phone calls against renaming the park”
Pittman said the overwhelming feedback was supportive of change, while discussions about the impact of the candidates themselves in meetings was often powerful, even evoking tears, Andrews said.
Signage for the renamed park isn’t in yet, but as soon as it’s available, plans are to work with Valentine’s family to have a dedication or recognition ceremony in two or three months, she said.
Lifetime legacy
Born and raised in Gonzales, James E. Valentine attended Wiley College in Marshall, playing football there until he left to join in the Army.
He was discharged in 1945, after serving in World War II.
He returned to Wiley College to complete his education, earning a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education and Biology in 1952.
He didn’t just earn an education there. The school also was where he met and married Anna Wallick.
He returned to Gonzales, where he taught and coached at Edwards High School, also teaching veterans.
He moved his wife and son, James H. Valentine, to Abilene in 1956. His daughter was born later.
Offered a teaching and coaching position at Woodson High School in the Abilene Independent School District, in 1957 he led his team to a state playoff run, where the Rams were three games away from a state championship.
He coached Woodson to District Championship in District IAA Negro High School Division in 1958, and his Woodson High track teams were always top competitors in the district.
Outside of his teaching and coaching at Woodson, in the summer Valentine was the manager of the only city owned swimming pool, Stevenson Pool, from 1956 to 1979.
During the summer, he worked closely with Abilene ISD coach Beverly Ball to teach swimming lessons to many children.
He continued teaching and coaching at Woodson until the school closed in 1968, also participating in coaching boys’ youth flag football.
After Woodson High closed, Valentine was assigned to Jefferson Middle School, where he taught history and coached boys’ football and basketball.
The home field advantage
Her father going to Jefferson created a bit of rivalry in the home, Johnson recalled.
“I ended up going to Franklin (Middle School),” she said. “So I was a Franklin Bronco, and we were always going back and forth with between Jefferson Coyotes and Franklin Broncos. If he won, oh, that would irritate me to no end. But if we won by the time he got home, there was a sign on the door that said ‘Franklin Broncos win!'”
Her father, who made sure set aside money to assure she could pursue her own college career and not have to worry about debt, was “everyone’s father and mentor, and he was their coach,” Johnson said.
Johnson said she lives near the park and will be able to see it daily when she leaves her home and returns.
“I have a granddaughter that’s with me, and hopefully she’ll be going to Stafford Elementary right there,” she said. “And she’ll be able to see that her great granddad, that’s his park — and that’s her park because of her ancestry.”
Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
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