Jack Ewing enters a conference room at the Ewing Lara & Company offices in McAllen with a friendly demeanor. After a few formalities, he sits back in one of the chairs and begins casual conversation.
 
The blue eyes of the former Broncs pitcher, who played for UTPA during the 1975 and 1976 seasons, light up when his baseball history is brought into the conversation. He seems to remember every detail of the pattern that brought him from Little League to the pros and his fulfilling personal life.
 
He begins to narrate his beginnings with baseball.
 
“You mean when I was... a little guy? Five years old, six years old?” he asks.
 
Apparently, Ewing's life didn't turn out as he expected. It turned out better.
 
Ewing, the youngest of three brothers, was raised in Nederland, a town in east Texas, a few miles from Louisiana's state line. He started playing baseball in his neighborhood, joined Little League when he was nine, and went through Babe Ruth League and Senior Babe Ruth League until he was 18.
 
Ewing grew up following in the steps of his brother Nick, who is two years older than him. Both Nick and Jack were high school athletic standouts, but Nick excelled in baseball and Jack in football. When Jack was a sophomore, a shoulder injury didn't allow him to continue playing football and he had to focus on baseball.
 
Ironically, Nick moved on to play football on a scholarship at Tulane University and Jack was recruited to play baseball at Temple College.
 
“So he stayed with football and I stayed with baseball and I think we were better the other way around,” Ewing said.
 
But playing college baseball was not Ewing's idea of his future as a young player.
 
“Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to play Major League Baseball. I was a big Yankees fan, growing up in the late 50s and the early 60s. I used to write to the New York Yankees and they would send me 8x10 black-and-white photos of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Joe Pepitone, Whitey Ford, and Tom Tresh... all these great New York Yankees,” he said. “I wanted to be a Yankee and I wanted to be major league ball player.
 
“When the Astrodome opened in 1965, I went and saw the Astros play in the Astrodome... and then I wanted to be an Astro.”
 
But when Ewing suffered that shoulder injury, the newspapers from the area reported that we would not be in condition to continue playing. Although he recovered and developed into a good pitcher, not many colleges contacted him.
 
Ewing decided to do things on his own and attended a professional tryout camp hosted by the Montreal Expos, but he was disappointed.
 
“There was a bunch of people there. I felt that I was just a number,” he said. “I just went there, threw a little bit, and I was gone.”
 
Two weeks later, on July 3, Ewing received a phone call from Red Morph, the regional scout for the Montreal Expos:
 
“Hey, this is Red Morph. I was looking over your grades and it seems like you made pretty good grades.”
 
“Well, school has never been a big problem for me.”
 
“No, no. I'm not talking about school. I'm talking about the grades in the pro tryout camp, where we graded you. I'm going to be at your house tomorrow. Are you going to be there?”
 
“Yeah, I'll be here.”
 
“Okay, get a catcher.”
 
The following day, Ewing and Morph met at Nederland High School's gymnasium because it was raining. Ewing did well, and because Morph knew the head coach at Temple College, he urged him to sign Ewing to play there.
 
THE PATH TO UTPA
 
During the fall of 1973, former UTPA baseball head coach Al Ogletree organized a series between the Broncs and Temple College. Ewing pitched against UTPA, and Ogletree told him that if he did not get signed professionally, he would have a spot with the Broncs.
 
Although Ewing wanted to go to Texas A&M, the Aggies didn't offer him a full scholarship, so he called Ogletree, and in a matter of days, Ewing was a Bronc.
 
In August 1974, Ewing drove 10 hours from Nederland to his new home, Edinburg.
 
“I'm trucking along in my '69 Camaro, with air conditioner... and finally I get to the dorms (now Troxel Hall). I opened up the door to get out and it must have been a 110 degrees and I thought, 'what am I doing coming all the way down here?'” he said. “I got used to it. I'm still here.”
 
During Ewing's first season at UTPA, the Broncs went 63-7, and missed going to the College World Series when they lost against the University of Texas in the regional finals. Texas went on to win the College World Series.
 
“I was probably pretty good, but the team was much better,” he said. “There were probably games that, if I pitched for a lesser team, I would have lost. Since I had such a good team behind me, some of those marginal games I came out as the winner, and it is because I had some real guys on the team... some good hitters, great fielders, great attitude.”
 
Ewing explained that the Broncs didn't have an “off game” that season, except for that last game against Texas.
 
“We were so busy playing, having so much fun, that it wasn't like we had any sense of arrogance about it,” he said. “I don't remember anyone being arrogant or anybody thinking that we had a great team. It wasn't until you look back... to do that every single day, go out there every day and have a good day, that's kind of unheard of.”
 
The group was lead by Ogletree, who spent 30 seasons with the Broncs, during which he recorded a 1,084-618-1 record, developed 174 future coaches and saw 80 of his former players sign professional contracts.
 
“Coach Ogletree was wonderful. He was more of a dad to us than a coach, meaning that he knew how to get stuff out of us by loving us and he was just a kind generous man,” Ewing said. “It's hard to describe Coach Ogletree unless you played under him. He was quite an icon. Just a genuine, good man.”
 
Ewing said he is happy with the turn that the UTPA baseball program has taken in the past few years, because he believes that head coach Manny Mantrana, who recently completed his fourth season, and the new administration have brought a new mentality that does not try to imitate Ogletree's legacy, but instead tries to carry on with it.
 
This season, the Broncs accomplished their first winning season in 12 years. The hiatus made Broncs fans forget the greatness of UTPA Baseball.
 
“Pan Am hadn't have a winning season in so long,” he said. “They don't remember we were nationally ranked. We were up there playing with the big boys and we were the big boys.”
 
THE INFAMOUS THREE-MILE RUN
 
Ewing was famous among coaches and teammates, and is still remembered, by the fact that he always went for a three-mile run before pitching.
 
“For whatever reason, I had it in my head that if I didn't run those three miles, I wouldn't be able to pitch well,” he said. “I don't know what the deal was, really.
 
“I had to time myself to come off my three-mile run, go get my arm rubbed down, throw my warm up pitches, and then go pitch,” he said.
 
LIFE AFTER BASEBALL
 
After playing in Kansas the summer after his senior campaign, some friends that lived in Nederland and had connections in McAllen referred Ewing to them for him to work at a produce company. Ewing got hired to perform maintenance work for the company's trucks.
 
After a few days at work, his boss called Ewing to his office. He wanted Ewing to fill an open spot on his handball team. From then on, Ewing became a regular on the team and was offered a junior executive position when he graduated from UTPA in May 1976.
 
“He only had me play handball. My job there was to play handball,” he said. “He paid me a thousand a month to play handball.”
 
In August of that year, Ewing got married to his wife, Gail. Her dad suggested that he go back to school to pick up some accounting classes so that he could work in the family's CPA firm.
 
“I went back to Pan Am part time,” he said. “I went to work for him at the CPA office, so I did that and got my CPA certification. That's 35 years ago and here I am.”
 
Ewing is still working in the company he started his public accountancy career at, now called Ewing Lara & Company. The Ewings have three children who have started their own families.
 
According to Ewing, the lessons he learned from baseball were unrealized until after his run with the Broncs.
 
“You learn most of it in hind sight. When you're living it you're not really learning,” he said. “You're learning, but you don't realize it until you walk away from it.”
 
Although Ewing dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, and still thinks he could and should have become one, time has made him realize that, ultimately, things orchestrated so that he ended up where he belongs.
 
“I learned that, as good as you might be one day, the next day you may not be as good. Not getting drafted to play professional baseball was a huge disappointment to me, but I learned that life goes on,” he said. “G-d has much more for you than a baseball field, much more for you than CPA practice. G-d has so much for your life that you just have to let go of the things of this world and enjoy them, but not claim to them, and not put all your trust and hope in something here that can go away in just a second.
 
“As heartbreaking as it was that I didn't get to play – my real dream – the life that has come after Pan Am… I can't imagine how even playing for the Houston Astros or the Yankees could have been better than the life that I have been given, because the things I'm doing now are so rewarding. I can't imagine that I could have been more blessed by playing baseball.”