Gilroy – At 89 years old, Maurice “Red” Elder still remembers the sweetness of hitting daylight on a touchdown run, particularly one that he made as a player for Kansas State back in 1934 in a game against Nebraska.
“I remember scoring the first touchdown (of the game). I can still see going through the middle (of the) line, nobody there…” says Elder, making a whistling sound to describe himself shooting through the hole. “Right over the goal line. Lucked out. That’s a good ballgame.”
It was a good team, too.
Elder, the grandfather of Jeff Garcia, is the only surviving member of that historic Kansas State team, something that was discovered when a small radio station in Clay Center, Kan. went searching for the remaining members this past spring. The 1934 squad won the Big Six conference title – the first-ever football conference title for the university – with a 6-2 record under coach Lynn Waldorf. The Wildcats didn’t win another conference championship until 1999 as a part of the Big 12.
The Nebraska game was the highlight of the season. Kansas State, which Elder says was made up of Kansas “flatlanders that came from the farm or little old towns,” beat the Cornhuskers 19-7 on their own field in Lincoln, Neb. Much like today, Nebraska was then considered the elite in college football.
“We beat Nebraska, which was a big deal,” Elder says. “Any time you’d beaten Nebraska, you’d done something.”
Elder went on to have a brief professional career with the American Football League’s Los Angeles Bulldogs before the league shut down because of World War II in the late 1930’s.
“This team here,” Elder says, pointing to the framed black-and-white Bulldogs team picture on his dining room table, “That was the best time of my life. Four years there on that team. You look back on that and I had a lot of fun. I had a lot of good friends.”
As a pro, Elder was paid $125 a game. The team played one game a week.
“They won’t even tie their shoes for that now,” says Elder of today’s pro football players.
Elder calls the $125 a week “pretty good,” considering he and some teammates rented a furnished apartment – complete with maid service – for $32 a month.
“Everything is relative, you know,” Elder says. “But now they’re talking millions? I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Today, Elder is a hometown legend, and soon his name will be synonymous with Gilroy High football when the new Garcia-Elder Sports Complex is completed this fall. Garcia donated the money to have the stadium built and insisted his grandfather’s name be included. Elder gets a kick out of that.
“I can’t believe that,” Elder says with a laugh and a clap of his hands. “He didn’t have to bring grandpa’s name into it, but he did.”
After serving time in the Navy during World War II and then coaching college football, which included stops at Colorado A&M and Pueblo Junior College in Colorado, Elder came to Gilroy in 1956, where he coached football and taught physical education. After six years of coaching, during which time he coached Bobby Garcia, his eventual son-in-law, Elder moved on to teach driver education full-time. He retired from the profession he loved in 1986.
“I’ll tell you, when you’re actually coaching, you don’t realize the influence you have on the kids you’re coaching until maybe 30 years later and a kid will come up to you and say, ‘You did something or you said something that influenced my life.’ And that has happened many times,” Elder says. “Nobody goes into teaching to make money, but there are highlights like that that you can’t buy.”
These days, Elder lives alone in Gilroy with his dog, an energetic white poodle mix named Fiver, named in an ode to Jeff Garcia’s 49er days. Elder’s second wife of 34 years, Fleta, died in February at the age of 91 after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s. It’s a loss he’s still learning to deal with, but Elder says Fiver makes it more bearable.
“It’s going to take time for adjustment and that’s why Fiver is important to me because when I come home, I can’t get a better greeting than him,” Elder says.
And, he and Fiver enjoy the same hobby: Playing the organ. Elder plays, while Fiver eagerly listens.
“When I play the organ, he’ll get in that chair and watch every move my leg makes,” Elder says. “He’ll listen, so I guess he’s a music lover.”
Elder also spends his time walking the Uvas Creek levee. He makes a two-mile trip three times a week, but plans to increase that mileage now that his hip, which he had replaced last year, is feeling better.
Elder’s bad hip was not the result of a football injury, and he hasn’t had any other health problems as a result of playing the tough sport in his young age. Elder moves around with the mobility of someone years younger and for that, he’s thankful. He’s thankful his grandson has had the same luck health-wise, too.
“He hasn’t really been injured seriously,” Elder says. “But he’s 35 now and he’s (one of) the oldest (men) on the team in Detroit. And I would say that this will probably be his last year. He may stay on as a back-up, but I don’t think he’ll go to another team as a head quarterback.”
Watching his grandson is about all the exposure Elder has to football now. But he does like to think back to his playing days at Kansas State and with the Bulldogs.
“Oh, I like playing,” laughs Elder, when asked if he preferred playing or coaching. “It was fun… We all enjoyed it and we enjoyed the closeness of the team as friendships developed and it was a great time. Like I say, the best time in my life were those four years.”
