Ronnie lettered in football for three years. As a sophomore, Ronnie saw extensive action at both offensive end and on defense, as a defensive end. That year in 1965, Ronnie hauled in three passes for 32 yards and one touchdown.
Coming back in the fall of 1966, Ronnie was a two-way starter. As an outside receiver on offense, he caught 7 passes for 113 yards. Very few defensive statistics were mentioned by newspapers in the 1960’s, but many articles writing on the results of Dumas games speak of a “jarring hit from McInturff created a fumble;” or “McInturff saw the fumbled ball and recovered it for the Demons.”
Ronnie’s play his Junior year resulted in him being recognized in the summer of 1967 by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. McInturff was listed on the magazine’s honor roll as a defensive player who played well enough the previous year and was believed to be prepared to have an even greater impact for his team in the coming year.
Head Coach Bill Spann said of Ronnie: “Heading the muscle upfront is end Ronnie McInturff and we believe he could be outstanding on both sides of the ball.”
During the 1967 season, McInturff caught 23 passes for 379 yards and 3 touchdowns. In what could be called the district championship game against Perryton, Ron hauled in a touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter which secured the 7-0 victory over the Rangers. Against Borger that year, he caught 4 passes for 57 yards and against Pampa he demonstrated he could also run with the ball, receiving the hand off 4 times for 66 yards.
Again, defensive statistics were not recorded back then, but articles throughout his senior season speak of tackles behind the line of scrimmage; quarterback sacks; and bone jarring hits that resulted in fumbles. In a bi-district game against Odessa Ector, Ronnie was the key in containing the outside running attack of the Ector Eagles.
At the end of the season, McInturff was named first team all-district on both offense and defense; and then he was named first team all-state for his play on defense.
Ronnie also lettered three years for the Dumas Demon basketball and baseball teams; and made first team all-district in baseball. On looking back, Ronnie writes that the memories are too many to recall; but all of the memories do concern the people he played with as well as the memories that only Dumas could have given him.
Ronnie signed to play football for Oklahoma State and played for the Cowboys for three seasons. Later, Ron would go to work for Diamond Shamrock and retire from there in 2019 as a Vice President of Pipelines and terminals. He is living his retirement in Boerne, Texas.
He is married to Jennie and has two children, four grandchildren, and one great grandchild. We are more than excited to include Ronnie McInturff on our Dumas Demon Wall of Honor.
