source: wbuathletics.com
(The Wayland Baptist Athletics Hall of Honor will induct Rosemary Brown Bowser, Alexey Carvalho, Johnny Cobb, Brett Cook and Andrew Williamson in ceremonies set for 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 in McClung University Center. The public is invited.)
Adaptability – and having fun – were the keys to Rosemary Brown Bowser’s successful basketball-playing career. From entirely changing positions in a revamped game to openly accepting unfamiliar roles, Bowser’s ability to provide just what her team needed helped make her a decorated four-time college all-American, and later, a successful high school coach and administrator.
Bowser was born in Talco, Texas, east of Dallas, but attended Rivercrest High School in Johnstown, a small community between Talco and Bogata. She played post in high school but, at 5-foot-9, was moved to point-guard upon her arrival at Ranger College, where she also had to learn the full-court game after playing 6-on-6, half-court in high school.
“My older sister Joyce went to Ranger to run track, and so I went to Ranger because she was there,” Bowser explained.
The post-to-point position switch and going from half-court to full-court (“I liked full-court much better because it was faster-paced,” Bowser said) wasn’t an issue as Bowser earned two junior college all-American honors…as well as the respect of then Flying Queens coach Dean Weese. When Bowser’s Ranger team played Weese’s Queens during the 1972-73 season, Ranger won, 58-57, thanks to a last-second bucket by Bowser.
“We were one of the few teams to beat the Flying Queens,” she said, before adding, “but they stomped us pretty bad” six of the seven times the teams met over the next two seasons.
Weese thought enough of Bowser that in 1974 he recruited her to Wayland, where another big change awaited her.
“In junior college I was a shooter. I played a major role in scoring. But when I got to Wayland my role changed and I became basically a floor general,” Bowser said. “We played inside-out and used our post people,” including all-Americans Pearl Worrell and Breena Caldwell.
Bowser, meanwhile, directed the Flying Queens’ fast-break. “We did lots of fast-breaking, and I knew players were going to score. Brenda Moeller played wing, and she was one of the best.”
While Bowser was “really aggressive on defense,” she said offense was the team’s focus. “Our goal was to have 50 points each half, and the only way to do that was to run and score,” she said. “We had to push that ball.”
During the 1974-75 season, Bowser helped the Flying Queens establish a new season record for average points per game, 77.4. They also broke a 20-year-old program record for most points in a game in a 106-18 victory over Texas Wesleyan and scored 90 or more points 10 times. Bowser’s senior season saw the team again shatter the scoring record with 83.2 ppg while reaching 90 points 13 times, including topping the century mark on six occasions, highlighted by a 115-30 win over Texas A&I.
Bowser’s junior campaign saw the Flying Queens produce a 34-1 record, their lone loss coming to Immaculata College, 68-58, in the National AIAW championship. Bowser and company did win the Flying Queens’ seventh straight National Women’s Invitational Tournament in Amarillo and the last of the Flying Queens’ 10 AAU national championships.
“The thing I liked the most (about being a Flying Queen) was we were very, very successful. We did not lose ballgames often. That and I was surrounded by lots of great athletes. No (single) person had to get the job done,” Bowser said.
Even though he was a tough coach, she also said she appreciated Weese.
“He demanded perfection, but that’s why we were so good. He demanded we did things right and we were fundamental, and he explained to us why we did things the way we did it. I liked that about him.”
Playing for such a demanding coach wasn’t easy, Bowser said, “but we always picked each other up. Coach Weese was tough, but I knew he cared about us. He was a no-nonsense person, but he could be fun, too.”
Weese’s wife, JoAnn, who kept statistics and attended all of the games, helped soften the coach/player relationship.
“She was like our mom,” Bowser said. “I remember being pretty frustrated about an issue but I felt I could sit and talk to her about it. She was good for us.”
Bowser’s final season in 1975-76 saw the Flying Queens finish 34-5. They won another NWIT crown by beating UCLA in the finals, 90-77. Coincidentally, Bowser was recruited to go to UCLA but “my mom wouldn’t let me go. It was too far away, and we didn’t have enough money to get me home.”
Bowser lost her final game as a Flying Queen by one point, 67-66, to National General West of California in the National AAU finals in Gallup, N.M. Bowser made the all-tournament team, capping a career that also featured one NWIT and two AAU All-American honors.
Besides that final loss, Gallup holds another tough memory for Bowser. She had already toured the United States and Russia as a member of U.S. national all-star teams, and after graduating from Wayland with a bachelor’s degree in English and physical education, Bowser was selected for the 1976 Olympic squad. But she suffered a severely sprained ankle during training camp in Gallup and didn’t get to continue with the Olympians.
“They actually called me later and wanted me to come back and play, but by then I had taken a job at Amarillo High. I had committed to going to summer school in order to take that job and my mom wouldn’t let me break my word,” Bowser said. “That is one thing I regret.”
At age 22, Bowser started the girls’ basketball program at Amarillo High at the same time former Flying Queens teammate Pearl Worrell started the program at Amarillo Palo Duro. Bowser, whose three sisters also were teachers in Amarillo ISD, spent the next 15 years coaching before opting out in the early 1990s “because I didn’t want to coach my daughter.”
Bowser, who earned her master’s degree in education from WTAMU, then became an assistant/associate principal at Palo Duro for 18 years and spent two years as assistant athletic director for Amarillo ISD prior to retiring in 2010. Today, she lives in Euless and works part-time for her son-in-law in Pinnacle Consulting Management Group, Inc., a company which provides right-of-way services.
In her free time, Bowser and husband Mark like to watch three of their six grandchildren — MJ, age 13, Trinity, 12, and Kendall, 8 – play basketball. Bowser said MJ and Trinity are both very good players, and Kendall “is getting there.”
Bowser’s family also includes a daughter, former Texas Tech Lady Raider Casey (Jackson) Boyd; adopted daughter Dannissa Pugh; and stepdaughters Ronisha Norwood and Amanda Bowser.
Bowser’s parents – dad Morris Brown, 92, and mom Genetta Brown, 91 – live in Amarillo and have been married for 75 years. “My dad had a lot to do with my success as an athlete. My mother wasn’t going to let us play (sports) because she was taught that it was wrong for girls to play sports or wear shorts or anything like that. But my dad insisted that we play. He is my hero. Any time I thought I couldn’t do something, he was the one who poured positive words into me letting me know that I was as good as the next person.”
Bowser, who is an elder at Dayspring Family Church in Irving, said basketball “taught me a lot of life lessons: how to lead, how to follow, how to make adjustments. Basketball opened a lot of doors for me.”
Being inducted into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor means a great deal to Bowser, even though she never gave it a thought. I never really put myself in the category as one of the greats. I just had so much fun playing. playing.
“This is such an honor to be chosen. They could have picked so many others because there are so many good players at Wayland. I’m so grateful, so grateful.”