I have often seen photos of the Hanna “B” from 1979 with a group of people surrounding it… but my father, George Tamez, always seems to be cut out of the photo on the bottom right side of the “B.”
So as the proud daughter that I am… I thought I would upload the full photo with my father’s origin story for the “B” located outside Homer Hanna High School in Brownsville, Texas.
You see my father, George Tamez, has some insight as to how the “B” came about because he was a Counselor for the Hanna High School Class of 1979 and he had approached Sylvia Perez, the Senior Principal, with the idea of having the senior class leave a gift to Hanna High School in the form a “B” statue—similar to the letter which athletes receive for lettering in a sport.
After my father got the okay from Sylvia Perez, he says he presented the idea to the senior class. My father says, at first, some of the senior students wanted an “H” instead of a “B” because the school was called Homer Hanna High School at the time. But my father says that he then explained to the seniors that the school was called “Brownsville” High School previously and then only later it became Homer Hanna High School… so he suggested that they go with a “B” instead and the seniors agreed.
After getting the green light from the senior class for the “B,” my father states they began the project and he went to Vicente Gonzalez, the Commercial Drafting Teacher, to have his seniors draw up the blueprints for the “B.”
Then, my father states that he approached Roberto Castañon, Sr., the Auto Body Teacher, to see if his class could build the “B.” But according to my father, Mr. Castañon Sr. had a better idea. Mr. Castañon Sr. told my father that several of his students’ fathers were welders who could possibly help out with the project. So Mr. Castañon got some of the students’ fathers who were welders to come on board to build the “B.”
The next step was for my father and Sylvia Perez to buy the materials needed for the project. And the “B” was then constructed at Mr. Castañon’s Kollision King Body Shop in Brownsville--Kollision King - Brownsville
My father states he remembers that the following people were the welders who made the “B”:
Roberto “Bob” Castañon, Sr.
Bernardino Gonzalez
J. Guadalupe Gonzalez
Ruben Ruiz Lara
Alfredo Romero
Carlos Romero
Oscar Torres
Nicolas Torres
Jesus J. Valenzuela
The next step was to create the pedestal base for the “B” to rest on. For that part, my father states that Sylvia Perez convinced Larry Herrera, the Maintenance Department Administrator, to construct the pedestal base.
Then in the Summer of 1979, the “B” was placed on the pedestal and installed in front of Homer Hanna High School were it still remains to this day!
