Former Marble Falls athlete part of Tarleton State Hall of Fame team

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

STEPHENVILLE — Mark Schlicke, a 1974 Marble Falls High School graduate, is joining the Tarleton State University Hall of Fame as a member of the 1977 Texans football team.

Schlicke, who currently teaches mathematics at San Angelo Lakeview High School, was an equipment manager and videographer for the Texans team.

The 1977 football team won the program’s first Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association Conference Championship with a 7-3 overall record and 4-0 conference mark. That season’s biggest win came when the Texans beat Texas Lutheran, the three-time National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national champion, to start the season.

“We got things rolling that year,” Schlicke said. “We started on the path of going in the right direction with so many good athletes.”

When he was in high school, Schlicke played football and basketball and ran track. He was voted the Mustangs’ most improved football player in 1973 and served as the equipment manager and computed stats for the basketball team.

That helped open the door to serve as the equipment manager and videographer for the TSU football team. By his second year, he was the head equipment manager.

“That helped me get a job because I knew how to film and what (coaches) are looking for, when to zoom in and zoom out,” he said.

After graduating from college, Schlicke began a career of teaching mathematics and coaching, noting he coached every sport except soccer and tennis. He was Brady High School’s first softball coach in the 1990s.

Those experiences helped make him a better coach and family man, he said.

“It made me understand equipment inventory quickly, so we knew what to order and what not to order,” he said. “You teach (both genders) the right ethics and work values.”

He cites former Marble Falls head football coach Jack Henry, who coached the Mustangs from 1972-75, as someone who helped shape many of his philosophies. But he didn’t stop learning from coaches after graduating from high school.

“Jack Henry was a big influence,” he said. “I was with a lot of the college coaches all the time (during college.) They were showing me family values and values in general like doing the right things goes a long way.”

The only members of the 2015 TSU Hall of Fame induction class are the 1977 and 1978 football teams. The ’78 Texans went 8-0-1 to earn the TIAA championship and the first NAIA postseason playoff appearance.

Schlicke graduated prior to the 1978 season.

The induction ceremony is 7 p.m. May 2 on campus of Tarleton State University, 1333 W. Washington St. in Stephenville.

jfierro@thepicayune.com