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This year’s game marks the 80th meeting between the Mexia Blackcats and Groesbeck Goats in what has become known over the years as the Battle of the River. The “river” is the Navasota, located between the two cities – crossing under Highway 14 – for you readers that may be new to the rivalry. Mexia won the first meeting between thetwo teams by the score of 10-0.

After 13 months on the run, a former small-town police chief wanted for murder and armed robbery was captured in Tennessee on Sept. 20, 1929. Had Tom Shook always been a crooked cop concealing his crimes behind a badge? If that was true, he sure had fooled a bunch of people during his eight-year career in law enforcement with different departments in North Texas. And the town council in Electra, the Red River boomtown northwest of Wichita Falls, would not have hired him as the new chief of police had he not come highly recommended. Shook lasted no more than a year as Electra’s top cop. Whether he was fired or left of his own accord is unclear eight decades after the fact. It may be that the town elders got wind of his after-hours activities and elected to play it safe by terminating his employment or Shook simply resigned to pursue a life of crime full-time. On the night of Aug. 10, 1928, the ex-chief stabbed to death a 42 year old father of three. To save the sheriff the trouble of looking for him and to avoid any unpleasantness, Shook turned himself in before sunup.

Realty Plus, a real estate company in Mexia, was purchased by owner and agent Melanie Holloway in 1986, Holloway said. Nearly 36 years later, the family operated business was named September Business of the Month by the Mexia Area Chamber of Commerce.