The players inducted with the 2025 Texas High School Football Hall of Fame said their most rewarding experiences in the game were at the high school level.
One of Cuero’s own, Brad Goebel, was among this year’s inductees in Waco on May 10, along with other Texas greats like Patrick Mahomes and Robert Griffin III (RG3).
“Playing high school football there at Cuero was some of the best memories that I've had,” Goebel said in a telephone interview. ”It was just for the love of the game and playing for your teammates and playing for a community. It meant the world to me, and it's just not the same when you get to the collegiate level or the world level.”
Goebel was part of the 1980s winning combination of Gobbler football that saw the team go to three state playoffs (1985-87), bringing home the championship in ‘87. As a junior, Goebel’s coach started him midseason as quarterback, igniting the push that took them all the way to the first state appearance of the decade.
“I was just one guy on a team, a very, very talented team,” he said. “I wouldn't have had the success that I had without great teammates and great coaches and a great community. To all of them, I want to say thank you.”
Goebel went on to play for the Baylor Bears where he had “a lot of success as a quarterback.” But in his senior year, he broke his hand early in the season.
“I missed part of my senior year, which was tough, you know, and so I didn't get drafted. But I still worked out, and I was able to sign a free agent contract in Philadelphia in 1991.”
Goebel said in his rookie season he ended up starting in six games because the other quarterbacks got injured.
“The following season, I was traded to Cleveland, and spent three years with the Browns and a head coach named Bill Belichick.”
He said it was Belichick’s first season as head coach. “He liked me and kept me around for three years. I didn’t get to play a lot, but I had a great time there in Cleveland.”
Goebel’s final season was in 1995 with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“Obviously I would love it to have been longer, but it was a dream of mine to make it, and I feel like I made it,” Goebel said. “You know, God has a plan, and I just tried to work hard and follow that direction wherever it led me. And it led me into the real estate world after football. And I've got a beautiful family.”
Goebel met his wife of 20 years, Kristy, in Marble Falls, where he was selling real estate in the Horseshoe Bay area. They have two teenage children: son, Gage, and daughter, Kylie.
His parents, Sally and Arlen Goebel, still reside in Cuero and he makes regular trips home to visit. As we talked, he was driving to Victoria for a speech at a sports banquet.
Goebel said that he enjoyed meeting his famous fellow inductees, but having his former teammates there was important. Not all of them could make it, but Cuero’s Paul Harper and Yoakum’s Tom Kelley were able to celebrate with the Goebels, as well as former Gobbler Coach Kenneth Schumacher, who now owns Energy Waste.
His son had a different agenda. “He was more fired up to meet Patrick Mahomes and RG3,” Goebel chuckled. “I don’t blame him; I don’t blame him one bit.”
Goebel’s display in Waco is next to both Mahomes’ and RG3’s. He is the first Cuero player inducted, but Coach Buster Gilbreath, who led the Gobblers to the first state playoffs and championship in the 1970s, was also inducted.
Harper said there were new members from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. He said the ceremony added a component this year of presenting custom grey jackets to inductees, echoing the jackets presented to NFL Hall of Famers.
Recalling their historic state run, Harper said Goebel threw for almost 4,000 yards (3,800). “We played good football. I mean, we probably played beyond our ability, on paper, to get there,” he said.
Harper said Goebel invited a lot of their teammates to share with him in the honor. In his speech, he acknowledged he wouldn't have gotten there without them.
”We know we did it all together,” Harper said. “Other states are not like Texas when it comes to high school football. And I've lived in several other states. There's nothing like it. For us, it was the best time of our lives.”
He said that most of the players that were honored played in all three levels, high school, college and pro. “And every one of them said the high school time was the best time out of all three levels.”
