Victoria
In 1958, a much better paying job enticed Wood to leave West Texas for the first time as a head coach. He landed in Victoria, Texas where he reunited with Assistant Coach Morris Southall. That year, Wood also hired Kenneth West as an assistant coach. West had played for Wood at Stamford in 1951. The two grew to be longtime friends and coached together for twenty years. Their first season at Victoria, Wood, Southall, and West shocked many Victoria fans and brought the team a 6-4 winning season. Then Coach Wood brought Victoria another winning season in 1959 with six wins, three losses, and one tie. Wood was getting paid well in Victoria, making about $10,000, but a lack of fan support and homesickness for West Texas convinced him to move back west. He left Victoria with twelve wins, seven losses, and one tie.
The job he really wanted was San Angelo Central, which had just opened after Bob Harrell resigned. However, it eventually went to Emory Bellard, so Wood had to settle for Brownwood.
Before they left Victoria, the Wood family decided to add another member. In 1959, Gordon and Katharine decided to adopt a baby. They had been trying for years to have a second child, and while in Victoria, a friend convinced them to adopt. They adopted a newborn baby boy into their family in 1959 and named him Jim Wood.
Read more about this topic: Gordon Wood (American Football Coach)
Famous quotes containing the word victoria:
“Sometimes my wife complains that she’s overwhelmed with work and just can’t take one of the kids, for example, to a piano lesson. I’ll offer to do it for her, and then she’ll say, “No, I’ll do it.” We have to negotiate how much I trespass into that mother role—it’s not given up easily.”
—Anonymous Father. As quoted in Women and Their Fathers, by Victoria Secunda, ch. 3 (1992)