VANN: COACH BIG JOE RODRIGUEZ'S DARKEST NIGHTMARE

By Juan Montoya
Remember the 18-year-old from Segiun, Texas who ran roughshod over the 1969 Brownsville High School Golden Eagles and spoiled what many hailed as the greatest high school team this city ever had?
Despite the accolades given to Rodriguez – and which he has milked for the past 45 years in the form of plum appointments and cushy jobs – the fact was that his push for greatness was spoiled by a black football player from the sticks who cut through his Eagle defense like a hot knife through butter.
None other than Max Maxwell, the imaginative (and legendary) sports writer told it like it was.
"Brownsville kept pace with Seguin and entered the locker room knotted at 14-14, but the Eagles fumbled deep in their own territory on the opening drive of the second half. Momentum, once lost, was never regained, particularly with Cleveland Vann running through, around and over his opponents
That was in that drizzly night in 1969.
By 1971, Vann was running for the Oklahoma State Cowboys from 1971 to 1973 in some memorable games.
After that he drifted with the Southern California Sun of the short-lived World Football League.  In one game, playing defense, he intercepted three passes.
Vann was also a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. In the 1976 Grey Cup, the Roughriders lost to the Ottawa Rough Riders 23 to 20, but he was awarded the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player for his second half interception and his Iron Man performance.
The Roughriders website states that "He eventually tore his knee ligaments in a game in July 1979, but returned the following year. After further hand and wrist injuries, however, he was unable to maintain his place on the roster and retired."
After he retired from professional football, Vann returned to Texas and worked in law enforcement. He later returned to Canada to work in security for an energy company.
Rodriguez after the 1969 debacle accepted the outcome with aplomb.
"We hung in there for a half, but you can't make mistakes at this level and expect to win," said Rodriguez. "We met our match. Every team but one will meet its match. Tonight was our turn."
Rodriguez – after three stints as BISD trustee facing Shirley La Bowman and Mary Rey, has put on the cleats again and is being helped out into the playing field. Rodriguez was been appointed Athletic Director only to resign later . He is currently embroiled in protracted litigation with the district after he was named in a forensic audit which charged that he had received preferential treatment form then-A.D. Tom Chavez as a vendor of an athletic equipment company which resulted in the BISD making purchases which were thousands of dollars over his competitors.  
Vann had the good sense to retire after he had seen his better days.
Some – like Big Joe – still nurse the residues of a 45-year-old dream of pacing the sidelines egging his floundering team on.
Will La Bowman turn out to be Coach Joes' next black nightmare?