Goebel newest member of Texas High School Football Hall of Fame

CAPTION: Marble Falls rising freshman quarterback Gage Goebel’s private coach has excelled at the highest level of the sport. That coach is his dad, Brad Goebel (back), who played for a high school state championship, for Baylor University and spent five years in the NFL. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

Highland Lakes resident Brad Goebel will be inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame Saturday, May 10, in Waco.

Ironically, when he was first called about his inclusion, Goebel let the call go to voicemail.

“I didn’t realize he was a board member (of the hall of fame),” he said of the caller. “He kept calling. Finally I answered and he told me the reason for his call. I’m very humbled and honored to be selected. I enjoyed my time at Cuero.”

Originally, Goebel’s first love was baseball while he playing for Cuero High School. He was a receiver and a safety for football head coach Larry Pullin, who also is a member of the hall.

In Goebel’s junior year, Pullin told him of a position change.

“You’re playing quarterback,” Goebel recalled hearing.

His first start in the position was against Beeville, which was a state-ranked Class 4A team. The Gobblers lost 33-3. One of their touchdowns was a 97-yard interception return.

“I had a rough start,” Goebel said with a chuckle.

Aside from the outcome, the other part that he remembers was Pullin’s demeanor after the contest.

“He had a big smile on his face,” he said.

He remembered the coach telling people, “I found my quarterback.”

“Obviously, he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Goebel said.

From then on, the Gobblers were virtually unstoppable. Cuero entered the 1984 playoffs as the District 29-3A champions and won two playoff games.

In his final season, he led Cuero to the 1985 Class 3A state championship game where the Gobblers lost to Daingerfield 47-22.

And though he was making a name for himself on the gridiron, Goebel also played basketball and baseball.

“At a smaller school, you can play multiple sports,” he said. “Whatever the season, I was playing. You ask teams what would they rather have – a one-sport athlete or a multi-sport athlete? They’d say, ‘We’d rather have a multi-sport athlete.'”

He signed to play football for Baylor University in 1986 and tried to also play baseball. But the football team had tabbed him as the starter as a redshirt freshman going into the 1987 season. By the end of that football season, he was named to the All-Southwest Conference team.

“For me, I needed to be out there in spring training,” he said of the 1987 semester. “By my senior year, I was dealing with adversity. I broke my right throwing hand against Texas Tech. I missed the later part of my senior year at quarterback. I wanted to continue playing. I got the opportunity to play on the next level.”

In four years, he completed 375 passes for 5,026 yards and 25 touchdowns.

CAPTION: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Brad Goebel is tackled by Cincinnati Bengals linebacker James Francis, a former teammate at Baylor University. Courtesy photo

Goebel spent five years in the NFL playing for the Philadelphia Eagles (1991), the Cleveland Browns (1992, 1993-94) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (1995). He signed with Washington in 1996. He also was the quarterback for the San Antonio Riders of NFL Europe in 1992.

As he reflected on his time as a quarterback, he chuckled again.

“I guess it worked out pretty well,” he said. “God has a plan, and He was drawing me to play football. My first love was baseball. People felt I was a better football player. Since God gave me the ability to play that sport, I continued.”

While Goebel hung up his clients some time ago, he hasn’t completely retired yet. He and his wife, Kristi, are known as The Goebel Team at Horseshoe Bay Resort Realty.

And he can still be found on a football field. Except now he’s wearing a cap and is holding a binder or clipboard as he coaches his son and his classmates. Gage Goebel is a rising freshman at Marble Falls Independent School District. The couple also has a daughter, Kylie.

Goebel has spoken to members of the Marble Falls Youth Football program and others to encourage them to continue playing.

“I’m very excited to be a parent and watch my son,” he said. “He plays all sports. Being a parent has so much joy and satisfaction – to be able to watch your kid excel and participate. Sports has such an impact on kids. It teaches them hard work, dealing with adversity, how to deal with teammates. It’s more than Xs and Os and winning games. It teaches so much you don’t get in a classroom. I want everybody to know that sports means more than wins or losses.”

Goebel is one of 10 inductees into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame and represents the “1980s.” Other class members include Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, who starred at Copperas Cove High School before graduating in 2008 and is representing the 2000s; Patrick Mahomes III, who starred at Whitehouse High School, representing the 2010s; former Gilmer High School head coach Jeff Traylor, who is one of two Eddie Joseph Coach inductees who is now the UTSA head coach; and Contributor to the Game inductee David Smoak, who is the lead host of 365 Sports, a radio talk show based in the Waco area. Smoak interview Goebel here.

“It’s a very impressive list,” Goebel said. “I’m looking forward to meeting those gentlemen as well as my son.”

Goebel was inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Honor’s 2020 class and the Cuero High School Sports Hall of Fame about a decade ago.

CAPTION: Brad Goebel played quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Courtesy photo

In two seasons, quarterback Griffin led the Bulldawgs to back-to-back state title game appearances while rushing for 2,161 yards and 32 touchdowns and passing for 3,357 yards, 41 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2011 as the Baylor Bears’ top offensive player. His head coach is Horseshoe Bay resident Art Briles. Griffin was picked second overall in the 2012 NFL Draft by Washington.

Mahomes has redefined the quarterback position in the NFL. He became the starter of the Kansas City Chiefs in December 2017. By 2020, Mahomes guided the Chiefs to a Super Bowl win, the first of three this decade and was named the game’s MVP all three times. The Chiefs have had two other Super Bowl appearances that resulted in losses. At Whitehouse High School, Mahomes was a four-sport athlete. In football in his final year, he passed for 4,619 yards and 50 touchdowns, ran for 948 yards and 15 touchdowns. He was named the Maxpreps Athlete of the Year for the 2013-14 school year.

Before Traylor took over the Roadrunners, he spent 15 seasons guiding Gilmer High School, his alma mater, to He was named the Texas High School Class 4A Coach for the Year four times and had a record of 175-26. The Buckeyes won state titles in 2004, 2009 and 2014 and played for the championship in 2007 and 2012. He coached quarterback G.J. Kinne, who is now the head coach at Texas State.

CAPTION: Brad Goebel was a Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback. Courtesy photo