Football stadium named after coaching cousins

Football stadium named after coaching cousins

Written by Lindy Hauenstein Saturday, 07 January 2006

Charles W. Kuempel, a 60 plus year resident of Pflugerville, can tell you about a time when Pflugerville’s high school consisted of only 60 students.

The Kuempel family, originally from Germany, was one of the first families to settle in Pflugerville. Kuempel’s grandmother was Annie Pfluger, the daughter of George Pfluger who platted the town site of Pflugerville in 1904.

Charles Kuempel’s story begins much later in 1955 when he was hired by his hometown school district as a biology and science teacher. He and his second cousin, Herbert “Hub” Kuempel, served as the coaches for the schools’ sports teams.

Although the school had few students, the small town made it easy for Charles and Herbert to personally ask each of the 30 male students if they would join the football team. To keep the students in shape during the summer, Charles solicited their help hauling hay.

With so few members on the team, they played the first three years with six and eight man line-ups. By 1958, they had enough players to play regular 11-man games. The team traveled to Leander, Florence, Kyle and Buda to compete. The most exciting games were against their rivals, Hutto and Manor.

In his first years of teaching and coaching, Charles recalls beginning at 7:30 a.m. driving the school bus around town to pick up students. He then taught five periods of either science or biology, and after his conference period coached the football team for seventh period. After that, he was back on the bus, driving the students back home.

The Panthers won 55 consecutive games between 1958 and 1962 until they were finally brought down in the last game of the season. This record still stands in Texas. The team received national attention and Kuempel was interviewed by the New York Times. Pflugerville High School’s football stadium was re-named in 1986 to honor Charles and Hub Kuempel.

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