Bowie High School spirit lives on and on, 'Once a bear, always a bear'

This week Bowie High School received an official Texas Historical Marker to commemorate its 100 years of history.

The historic school celebrated the plague unveiling Wednesday, Sept. 27.

Bowie's reach legacy lives on through its graduates, as they say, "Once a bear, always a bear."

This July 15, 1982, El Paso Herald Post article describes what some of that bear pride is all about:

‘La Bowie’ spirit lives on and on

We’re loyal to you Bowie High

We’re loyal to you Bowie High

We’ll back you to stand

You’re the best in the land

For we’re loyal to you Bowie High

You’re brave and you’re true, Bowie High

You’re brave and you’re true, Bowie High

We’ll back you to stand

To the very last man

For we’re loyal to you, Bowie High

-A.L. Carlton

Those lyrics stir up all kinds of loyalties among Bowie High School affiliates.

The school is named after American frontiersman James Bowie, but the students that are loyal to Bowie High aren’t loyal to James, they are loyal to “La Bowie” and the loyalty is for the institution, the establishment, the symbol…

Others seem to relegate the spirit to a closet with the pompoms and banners of forgotten high school days.

However, when the majority of Bowie students leave, their loyalty to Bowie High travels with them.

Bowie High students and graduates never seem to forget the breathless anticipation they felt during pep rallies, athletic events and homecoming ceremonies.

They become doctors, lawyers, laborers or homemakers, but their alliance to Bowie remains steadfast and true.

More: La Bowie High school celebrates milestone anniversary in South El Paso at 100: Trish Long

'Once a bear, always a bear'

So much so that they have formal alumni groups throughout the country, including California, Austin and New York. An expressed goal of many of the groups is to offer scholarships and financial aid to Bowie students.

The phrase “Once a bear (the school mascot), always a bear,” is hard to dispute when in the presence of ex-students.”

David Saldana, 1939 graduate, chosen Outstanding Ex of 1977, is noted for saying, “There are two kinds of people in the world; Those who went to Bowie and those who wish they had.”

The school song is so popular that the Bowie Booster Club commissioned Bowie ex-student Ray Camacho to record it.

At least two El Paso establishments owned by exes play the recording to signal closing time.

'We were all brothers'

The devotion to Bowie High School is a complex and emotional concept, “Friendship and camaraderie are fostered and there is a common denominator,” said Salvador del Valle, a 1936 graduate, affectionately known as Papa Bear. He said, “Most of us came from the same sort of background and 99% of us were Mexican-American or Spanish-speaking students. It wasn’t forced segregation, but it was segregation and it has the same effects. (Until 1949, when Jefferson High School was built, Mexican Americans from around the city attended Bowie.) We were all brothers, we all had something in common. And even today, I don’t care where I am, if I am in the Philippines or Europe, if I meet someone from Bowie, we get together and put on the dog.”

He related a recent late-night telephone incident, “In the middle of the night, there is a guy on the line dying from an incurable disease and he says, ‘I am dying of cancer, but before I do, I want to come back to El Paso to have a good time with ex-classmates.’”

Eva Duran Vigil, who served on the board of directors for the Bowie Alumni of California, once said, “With deep and chauvinistic pride, we can proudly state that in all probability, there are no alumni from any public high school in the United States with the sense of commitment and school spirit that still permeates the structure of the society from which we came.”

And it’s not just nostalgia that bind the exes together. Each year new graduates join the ranks of the alumni.

No other school like it

Lis Cortes, principal of Bowie, said, “There is no other school like Bowie. Most go on and cut the ties, but the culture, the family, the old Mexican American standard is strong in this area and Bowie is basically a community in itself.”

It all began in the ‘20s, said A.L. Carlton. There was only one high school in the city. The school, El Paso High School, was comprised of only 8% Mexican Americans. The schools on the Southside were only junior high schools, which offered skills and basic education. The need for a high school in the area was apparent. Carlton is not modest about the aggressive stand he took with the superintendent.

In 1931, the school graduated its first class. There were 24 in the graduating class more than half went to college. There were 464 in the student body…

The school which builds a community

Salvador del Valle, retired lieutenant colonel, told of stories during the war when graffiti on the walls in war-torn countries mentioned Bowie.

The El Paso Bowie High School graduates went across the seas to battle for their country.

Some of them never returned, like Ambrosio Guillen.

Those who did pursue careers, became doctors, lawyers, business managers and blue-collar workers. While in the service, del Valle was once doing some signal work onboard a ship. Through signals, he discovered an El Pasoan.

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Where did you go to high school?

Once they established the hometown, the obvious flow of the communication was to ask “where did you go to high school?”

It turned out, he also had gone to Bowie.

A scan of the country might reveal many others who have walked the halls of Bowie.

For instance, Leroy Nigra, who graduated in the middle ‘30s, is a general with the U.S. Army, an attaché to Mexico; and Claudio Arenas, who is undersecretary of defense.

Javier Montez was the first El Pasoan to compete in the Olympics in 1950. He was a miler, a Bowie graduate.

The first non-Black to play with the world-famous Globetrotters was a Bowie graduate, Arturo Campo.

Nolan Richardson of Tulsa fame, was a Bowie graduate before he returned to coach there.

Ector A. Garcia graduated from Bowie in 1940 and went on to create the cartoon character, Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: ‘La Bowie’ spirit lives on and on, 'Once a bear, always a bear'