Yellowjackets Club Special Edition – October 2024

On Saturday, January 6, we celebrate the 92nd birthday of Fr. Ed Vrazel – aka The Tiger.

His ancestors were part of the large migration of Czech people who came from Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia to Texas in the 1870s. Most were Catholics. They settled in the open prairies in southeast central Texas and helped found or settle towns like Hallettsville, Yoakum, Shiner, Fayetteville and LaGrange.

Father Vrazel’s grandfather Joseph John Vrazel, the oldest of five children, was born in 1860 in the central Czech region of Moravia. The family moved to Texas in 1873, traveling by ship from Bremen to Galveston.

In 1887 Joseph married Mathilda Faltisek. She was born in Moravia in 1866, and she and her family also came to Texas in 1873.

Joseph and Mathilda had nine children. The seventh was Edward John Vrazel. Eddie, as he apparently was known, was born in 1901 in Shiner. He’s Father Vrazel’s Dad.

In 1929, Eddie married Marie Josephine Havel – Father Vrazel’s mother. Marie’s parents were born in Bohemia, and they too had emigrated to Texas. Marie was born in 1907 in Gonzales, Texas, and the wedding took place in Gonzales.

Eddie and Marie had two children. Marie Josephine – known as Mary Jo – was born in Corpus Christi in 1930. A son – Edward Joseph Vrazel Jr. – was born in 1932 in Gonzales.

In 1930 the family was living in Corpus Christi. According to Census records, Father Vrazel’s Dad worked as a musician with a hotel orchestra. The Dad’s 1942 draft card says the family still lived in Corpus Christi, and he now was working for the Graves Music Company.

It appears that the family moved to San Antonio sometime in the mid-1940s.  In 1948 Mary Jo graduated from St. Mary’s School in San Antonio and was the class president. By 1954, the family was living at 810 San Pedro, Apartment 1, in San Antonio.

St. Anthony

According to the Paduan, Father Vrazel attended St. Mary’s Grade School in San Antonio and entered St. Anthony as a freshman in the summer of 1947. Among those in the class ahead of him were Bill Davis, Mike Levy and my uncle, Bob Kleinworth.

The Paduan goes on to say: Father Vrazel was a center on the varsity basketball team for two years, but the greater part of his fame resides in his “headliner,” three-year, varsity fullback performance, undoubtedly one of the best ever seen at St. Anthony.

By the fall of 1950 the San Antonio newspaper sports pages included many mentions of Father Vrazel. Here are some examples:

November 6, 1950: Jackets Nip Old Foes by One Point

The St. Anthony Yellowjackets were on top again in their annual football game with the Central Catholic Buttons. Playing Saturday afternoon at Alamo Stadium, the Jackets shaded their No. 1 rivals 20-19. Ed Vrazel had quite a day for the Jackets, scoring twice on passes from Frank Mabrey, passing to Mabrey for another score and plunging for the extra point that eventually proved to be the winner. The occasion was the annual music festival of local Catholic schools, as well as the football game. Paid admissions totaled 3,337.

November 27, 1950: Burket’s Kick Wins for Blues

Three stalwart goal-line stands plus a straight-as-an-arrow conversion by kicker Ferdi Burket gave the St. Gerard Royal Blues a 7-6 triumph over the St. Anthony Yellowjackets at St. Gerard’s new stadium Sunday afternoon. The victory gave the Blues the mythical city Catholic football championship….St. Anthony scored early in the second period on a 50-yard drive climaxed by fullback Ed Vrazel’s 11-yard plunge. Vrazel went over with three St. Gerard tacklers hanging on his back….Next week St. Gerard goes to Houston to meet St. Thomas for the Texas Catholic title.

December 6, 1950: St. Anthony Puts Three on Little Giants (Note – this appears to be the all-city football team)

Ted Pfeiffer and Ed Vrazel, a pair of St. Anthony standouts, led the Express News Little Giants voting to be the only unanimous choices on the 12-man team…..Six coaches did the selecting…..Along with Pfeiffer and Vrazel, St. Anthony also placed tackle Emmanual Ballard on the team. 

In addition to playing football, Father Vrazel also was in the school choir for three years and, according to the Paduan, he “had an equally long stint ‘running off’ the Paduan. He was the last Paduan mimeograph operator” before the school began sending it off to a printer.

Father Vrazel graduated from high school in 1951 and stayed for two years of college at St. A’s. In the 6th form, he served as dean of his college class of 13.  

And if my numbers are correct, he was at St. Peter’s Novitiate in Mission from 1953 to 1954, and was ordained by Archbishop Robert Lucey on June 1, 1958, at St. Mary’s Church in downtown San Antonio.

Stories from our class

Father Vrazel joined the St. Anthony faculty in 1960. By the time our class arrived in 1965, he was teaching freshman biology, was in charge of the school grounds, and served both as the freshman football coach and the B-team basketball coach. He’d later also serve as the assistant coach on the varsity football team – as well as prefect of the junior-senior dorm.

Our classmate Fernando Fernandez had Father Vrazel as a football coach in our freshman year. “He taught us proper techniques and also taught us how to be tough,” he said. Then Fern added: “He would get so upset at us. He’d get right in the middle of us, with no pads on, and knock our linemen over, showing them how to block and the rest of us how to tackle.” 

Joe Bell recalls a practice when Father Vrazel got mad about a missed tackle. “I want to see everyone knock someone down on the next play,” Father Vrazel said. The play happened, but Fr. Vrazel never blew a whistle. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Joe saw a great, speeding freight train bearing down on him. It was Mark Cooney, who later would go on to play for the University of Colorado and the Green Bay Packers. Ever since then, Joe has been able to say he was crushed by a professional football player.

Father Richard Guerra also recalls a freshman football practice where Father Vrazel was teaching the team how to tackle. “I hit someone as hard as I could – and I got knocked out cold,” Richard said. “When I came to, Father Vrazel was standing over me. He had a cigar clenched in his teeth. ‘Mr. Guerra, you all right?’ he asked me. I think I nodded yes, and he picked me up with one hand. ‘Go rest,’ he told me.”

In our freshman year, John Gill worked under Fr. Vrazel on landscaping and drainage in the back end of the campus near Trinity University. “Fr. Vrazel scared me more than any of the priests,” John said. “But I was so small, I could crawl through the big pipes and cement the seams where they connected. Because of that, I started getting along with him.”

During our high school years, Alton Wells worked every summer at St. A’s –  mowing grass, watering the fields, cleaning the priests’ rooms and doing whatever was needed. He usually reported to Father Vrazel.

One summer day, Alton was mowing the sunken area between the Provincial House and the Chapel and his mower bumped up against something. Alton lifted the front of the lawnmower and brought it down – and hit a pipe. That broke the mower, and broke it good. It was an expensive Toro mower too. Father Vrazel would get over it eventually, but for a while Alton got to see the full fury and anger of Father Edward J. Vrazel, O.M.I.

In our class’s final two years in high school, Father Vrazel was the prefect of the junior-senior dorm. Every infraction – such as talking after lights out,  or not properly making your bed – brought you a check on the giant check board  Father Vrazel had mounted on the wall in the jakes. Three checks in a week, and you were campused.

You also got a check for not getting to chapel in time for morning prayers. This often brought Father Vrazel into conflict with Mike Merrion, who was notorious for not getting up when the morning bell rang.

As Mike recalls, the bell would go off in the morning, and Father Vrazel would enter and say something like “All right, gentlemen, get up.” He’d make one pass through the dorm and stand by the door, and then he’d make a second pass at guys who weren’t up yet. If someone still would not get up, at that point Father Vrazel would flip his bed – with the student still in it.

This happened to Mike more than once – but one time was more memorable than others. Father Vrazel flipped his bed, but instead of climbing out from under it, Mike remained under the bed, not moving. “It had startled me for a second,” Mike said, “but pretty soon I went back to sleep.” He also added: “Father Vrazel really got pissed at that.”

By our senior year, Father Vrazel also was teaching typing. I didn’t join the class until early in our spring semester, and by then it already was exam time. Father Vrazel told us to type on the top of the first page our name, the date and the words “Six-Weeks Exam.” I did, only when I typed the word “six,” I hit the “e” instead of the “i.” My paper said “Sex-Weeks Exam.”

Of course Father Vrazel was passing behind me at just that moment. “Well, we can see what your mind’s on, Mister Kleinworth,” he said.

That was how he addressed the students. Mister Ballard. Mister Light. Mister Tschoepe. He never addressed anyone by his first name.

Which leads me to one more dorm story.

In our senior year, Marty Schmalz pulled a groin muscle playing football. That night the pain was so intense he couldn’t sleep. He decided to apply some Ben-Gay to see if it would help.

He applied a lot – a whole lot – and returned to his bed. However, as he lay there, his entire groin area – including his “private parts” – started getting hotter. And hotter. And hotter.

Marty couldn’t take it anymore. He raced to the jakes. In the darkness he dropped his pajama pants, lifted one leg on a sink and started splashing himself with cold water.

Unfortunately, it was at that moment that Father Vrazel decided to make the rounds of the dorm – and when he stepped through the door to the jakes, he stopped. Marty dropped his leg from the sink and stood in front of Father Vrazel. Naked.

And that’s when Father Vrazel asked Marty the same question we’ve been asking him ever since.

“Mister Schmalz – What are you doing?”

Family

Father Vrazel’s parents lived out their lives in San Antonio. His father Eddie died in 1985 and his mother Marie in 1986.

His sister Mary Jo graduated from Our Lady of the Lake College and was a teacher for much of her life. In 1953 she married Kenneth Biediger. They lived in San Antonio and had two children: a daughter Mary Paulette (1956) and a son David (1960).  Her husband died in 1993 and her son died in 1998.

In 2010 Mary Jo married Clif Bolner, a widower, the founder of a successful spice and seasoning business named Bolner’s Fiesta Products, and a generous supporter of the Oblates.

Mary Jo passed away on December 29, 2022, and Clif Bolner died twelve days later.

The later years

Father Vrazel left St. Anthony in 1976. In the coming years he served in Midland, Del Rio and San Antonio, with three years as associate director of the Novitiate in Godfrey, Illinois. In 1995 he was assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Laredo, and he would remain there until his retirement in 2013 at the age of 81. Since then he’s lived at the Oblate Madonna Residence.

Over the years, Father Vrazel kept his crewcut, but along the way he started wearing glasses and grew a beard. His hair turned white. 

For some time now, he has been confined to his bed at the Madonna Residence. I’m told that he can’t speak, and it’s hard to tell if he is aware of what is going on around him.

With the passing in 2023 of Father Guidon, Father Davis and Father Canas, the only faculty members left from our time at St. A’s are Father Vrazel and Father DeGeorge.

Sadly, there’s no way we can send birthday wishes to Father Vrazel. I hope, though, that you’ll join me in celebrating the 92nd birthday to the priest they call the Tiger.

Happy birthday, Father Vrazel.

Support the Oblates

Donations to the Oblates can be made below. Donors will receive tax compliant notices of their gifts annually from Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate USA . To receive additional information about the Club, call or email Harry Yosten 303-791-8113, hpyvice@aol.com.