Edcouch-Elsa field house named for ‘La Maquina Amarilla’ coach Javier Gutierrez
EDCOUCH — A pillar of Edcouch-Elsa ISD history and culture, Javier Gutierrez, the district’s first Hispanic football head coach, athletic director and the pioneer who established the varsity baseball team, is now forever enshrined in history with the renaming of the field house in his name.
Even in old age and dealing with health issues, Gutierrez wouldn’t let the tremendous honor go by without standing up and giving a speech at the podium. With the help of his son Javier J. Gutierrez and nephew, EEISD board member Fernando Torres, Gutierrez took to the podium.
Gutierrez, a migrant farmworker in his youth, was a former EEISD student-athlete on the 1959 district championship football team. Before his historic tenure, Gutierrez earned a bachelor’s degree from Pan American College in 1966.
In 1971, Gutierrez would establish the Edcouch-Elsa varsity baseball team which went on to the state quarterfinals.
The following year, Gutierrez would be promoted to varsity head football coach and athletic director, the first Hispanic to do so in the district’s history.
Gutierrez would build the program and lead it to the memorable nickname “La Maquina Amarilla” symbolizing their formidable presence on the football field.
Attended by family members, former student athletes, coaches, district and city officials, Gutierrez said afterward that he almost started to cry looking at everyone in the crowd.
“To be a coach, you got to be great people,” he said. “The kids come first, you come second and I was so proud of our kids.”
With his former football and baseball players in the crowd, Gutierrez said he can die happy being able to see them all again and what they have become.
“They were what made the coaches, they were great kids and now that I see them now as adults, It’s awesome to see the guys and what they become … I don’t recognize a lot of you because of old age and then old age for you guys too,” he said jokingly.
Torres said the renaming of the facility will keep his uncle’s name alive as thousands of students will walk through the doors and understand the man who started traditions and his story.
“I remember being 7 years old, coming with him to the weight room as a child, just to look around and obviously later on, becoming a Yellow Jacket myself and following him,” he said. “But along the way, I knew what he stood for. He’s always been the beacon of the family … There’s a lot of respect and honor that my uncle has driven and I know there’s many people that believe his actions back in those days helped a lot of people today be successful.”
Rene Reyes, an attorney in Edinburg who played center from 1972 to 1976 for the Yellow Jackets, said Gutierrez had an impact on the players lives beyond football.
Gutierrez’s brother, Jesse, who was also a coach at EEISD and now teaches in Austin, said his older brother also had a major impact on his family being the first to pursue higher education.
With ten siblings and growing up as migrant farmworkers, Jesse said his brother was a positive influence for his younger brothers and sisters with six of them becoming teachers and coaches as well.
Gutierrez after the ceremony recalled the struggles that he had to face growing up as a migrant farmworker facing segregation in many of the places he traveled to for work and how different the city and school was back in the day.
“It was a hard job to have because of the way it was back then … but you see how much better things are now than they used to be,” he said. “It’s amazing. Edcouch-Elsa was one of those cities where we had to fight for it but whatever was done it was worth it.”
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