Early Years
A native of Hill, New Mexico, Pierce grew up in Fort Stockton, Texas, graduating from high school there in 1932. He went on to attend Schreiner Institute (now Schreiner University) in Kerrville, Texas, where he earned his associate of arts degree while playing football, basketball and track. Pierce continued his collegiate career at Sul Ross State Teachers College (now Sul Ross State University) in Alpine, Texas. He participated in varsity football and basketball, and graduated two years later with his bachelor of science degree in chemistry. He earned his Ed.D. degree from the University of Houston in 1961.
During World War II, Pierce served as a gunnery officer in the US Navy, and became the head football coach at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Port Deposit, Maryland near the conclusion of the war.
Read more about this topic: Paul Pierce (American Football)
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)
“Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for—they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)