Home Field: Texas High School Football Stadiums from Alice to Zephyr 9780292784857

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HOME TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

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FIELD STADIUMS FROM ALICE TO ZEPHYR Photos byJeΩ Wilson Foreword by BUZZ BISSINGER | Text compiled by BOBBY HAWTHORNE

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T EX A S P R E S S, AUS T I N

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THIS BOOK WAS SUPPORTED IN PART BY A GIFT FROM BARBARA STUART IN HONOR OF JOHN STUART AND GEORGE MACATEE IV, CHEERLEADERS, AND GEORGE MACATEE V, A SCOTSMAN, FROM HIGHLAND PARK HIGH SCHOOL.

Copyright © 2010 by Jeff Wilson Foreword copyright © 2010 by Buzz Bissinger All rights reserved Printed in China First edition, 2010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Home field : Texas high school football stadiums from Alice to Zephyr / photos by Jeff Wilson ; foreword by Buzz Bissinger ; text compiled by Bobby Hawthorne. — 1st ed.

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html

ISBN 978-0-292-72199-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Football stadiums—Texas—History. 2. Football—Texas—History. 3. School sports—Texas—History. I. Wilson, Jeff, ill. II. Hawthorne, Bobby.

∞ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).

GV415.H66 2010 796.332'6209764—dc22

Book and jacket design by T. J. and Lindsay Tucker

2010000812

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p.

cm. — (Charles N. Prothro Texana Series)

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CHARLES N. PROTHRO TEXANA SERIES

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for Cassandra and Manon

< The author photographing Alamo Stadium in San Antonio

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Map

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CONTENTS FOREWORD BY BUZZ BISSINGER THE STADIUMS AFTERWORD BY JEFF WILSON AKNOWLEDGMENTS A-Z STADIUM INDEX MAP COPYRIGHT © UNIVERS AL MAP GROUP LLC, (800) 829-6277. USED WITH PERMISSION.

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FOREWORD BY BUZZ BISSINGER

HAVE BEEN ASKED the question a thousand times over. How did you end up writing a book about high school football in Texas? I would like to think the curiosity about the origins of Friday Night Lights stems from the genius of the idea. But that is entirely wrong, of course. It emanates from one look at me: the anti-Texan, low not lanky, UTP7_US_Text_R2.indd 10

east-coast speed-talker not take-yourtime twanger, striped tie not string tie. I know so little about hunting I actually thought there was such a thing as searching for snipe. I don’t think driving two hundred miles to a sad little faucet of water for fishing is a remotely good idea. If I ever got caught in a bar fight, I would be the first to hide under a table and offer a bribe. I say things I shouldn’t; use a particular obscenity as noun and adjective and 6/11/10 2:05:35 PM

adverb; like hot dogs slathered with mustard and sauerkraut from unsanitary stands; cross the street only when the light turns red; and enjoy sneaking in an elbow on a crowded subway. In other words, I was born and raised in New York City. So how did it take place, this stranger plopping himself in the sui generis flatlands of Odessa in West Texas for a year to chronicle the sociological impact of high school football? It happened because it had the same allure as the book you hold in your hands—a haunting beauty, an almost mystical enchantment, a sense that a high school stadium in Texas is not simply a high school stadium in Texas but a shrine, a temple, an epicenter of small-town life more important than the Baptist church or the local barbecue joint. All books, at least the ones that have a chance to be good, are powered by a first kernel of love, wonderment without quite knowing what the wonderment is, and I instantly fell in UTP7_US_Text.indd 11

love with the Texas high school football stadium. Long before I decided to write Friday Night Lights, I had an opportunity to see dozens of stadiums in 1986, when I drove cross-country with a friend. We shuttled along for several weeks that summer in a two-seater MG that did just fine except for stalling whenever it stopped. But the top was down and it hugged the ground, and you could almost reach out and touch the whistle-stops and tiny dots on the map we traversed. We took the southern route, into the heart of high school football country. We went through Georgia and Alabama and Louisiana on back roads, avoiding the sixteen-wheelers on the interstate that literally would have blown us off the road. We saw high school stadiums along the way, but it was only in Texas that the power of them kicked in, the mix of physical humbleness and psychological pride that dug so deep. The trip was too long ago, and I am at an age where I forget far more than I 4/11/10 8:48:57 PM

remember. I cannot tell you the names of the towns we went through, but I can tell you the inevitability of what we saw in our well-meaning MG. The downtown was dry gulch, once thriving but now bare, the only thing left of the Sears or the JCPenney the hieroglyphic of the faded lettering, the surrounding stores shuttered with scattered furniture covered by sheets, ghosts in the wind. Once past the border of Main Street, we drove by clusters of homes on twosyllable streets often named after trees or other states (with the exception of New York and New Jersey), some sturdy, some ready to blow away in the next galvanic thunderstorm. And then there it was, a few blocks farther out: the high school stadium, with the field as green as the finest golf course and so lush even in the Texas heat of summer, the bleachers as carefully preserved as a bookcase of rare books, the rectangular scoreboard donated by the local bank or insurance company, the daddy longlegs of those magnificent UTP7_US_Text.indd 12

lights. I felt a shudder course through me whenever I saw these places, indestructible icons in a country of increasing physical impermanence. I knew that Texas was synonymous with high school football (forget such faux interlopers as Florida and Ohio). As an addicted sports fan, I knew about the lore of the Sugar Land Express and Gordon Wood over at Brownwood and the great Abilene High teams under Chuck Moser and the one and only Tyler Rose. But I had never been to a high school football game in Texas; to tell the truth, I had only been to one high school football game in my life, when I was nine, in Tarrytown, New York. It was not the stuff of greatness. I began to imagine what these Texas stadiums must be like on a Friday night, the great meeting places as the townsfolk watched their boys in the sweet and bittersweet splendor and spectacle of noble battle, the only places where regardless of race and class and gender you could spend two hours getting 4/11/10 8:48:57 PM

away from the crops that wouldn’t grow and the oil that no longer flowed and the marriage going sideways and the hardscrabble life that defined Texas every bit as much as the spectacular opulence of Dallas and Houston. I knew something was powerful there, something worth spending time with and chronicling if I could get my arms around it, bottle and capture what had so moved me. After the trip I returned to the helter-skelter herky-jerky of Philadelphia, went back to work as an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. I liked the job, as much as any editor likes making writers look good and never getting any credit for it. As another mishmash story landed on my desk that would take hours to fix—if it could be fixed—my mind wandered back to those high school football stadiums in Texas. I was thirty-three years old at the time. I had recently gotten divorced, so my life was something of a mess. I felt wanderlust and an acute need to get away UTP7_US_Text.indd 13

from all that I knew. So I hearkened back to that unforgettable summer trip and turned it into something real, moving to Odessa with my four-year-old twin sons and fiancée in the summer of 1988 to write about the then-storied Permian Panthers. Odessa was not a quintessential small town; it had a population of about ninety thousand. But it felt like a small town because of its extreme isolation, roughly three hundred miles from Dallas, roughly three hundred miles from El Paso, roughly three hundred miles from everything, set smack in the scruff of the Permian Basin, what little green there was the scrubby tentacles of the mesquite bushes like the withered arms of a witch. Midland was close, but there might as well have been a Berlin Wall between the two because of their social and economic differences. If I was going to do the book, I wanted access to everything, whether it be private or public. I needed permission, so I first drove to Odessa in the spring of 1988. It was the time of the oil bust, 4/11/10 8:48:57 PM

and the ride in from the airport only accentuated the towering fall, dozens upon dozens of rigs lying on their sides like prehistoric skeletons. Trucks, water tanks, horseheads—one gigantic flea market where you could get pretty much anything and everything for ten cents on the dollar. The downtown was empty, dusty, carved in slanted shadow. The more I drove, the more I felt I had the right place. But I still wasn’t convinced. Until I saw the stadium. Ratliff didn’t produce in me the same sense of enchantment as had the stadiums I had seen during my road trip. It had been built in 1982, so it was still new. There was no beauty. But I had never seen anything remotely like it: a high school stadium that seated close to twenty thousand, with an artificial field, and so spotlessly clean it would satisfy the most serious obsessive-compulsive. I later found out that some expense had been spared: a decision had been made, reluctantly I imagine, not to put in an elevator from the concourse to UTP7_US_Text.indd 14

the press box. But the stadium still cost $5.6 million. It was the only bond issue at that time ever passed by the county encompassing Odessa, Ector County. And because of its location, in the middle of nowhere, it reminded me of a rocket ship that had just landed on the moon. I could not resist. How could anyone resist? As I later learned, the place literally shook on a Friday night, the sudden swell of the roars, the pageantry of the cheerleaders and the pepettes, the soldier-straight lines of the band playing the one song they had practiced over and over and knew perfectly, the little kids in the corner begging for the chinstraps of their high school heroes, the swaying back and forth of thousands like a grand chorus line, drenched in the school color of black. The lights rose through the vast ink-filled night to the heavens. Of all the sporting events I have witnessed, and I have witnessed many, nothing came close to these games. But I still had a sweet tooth for the 4/11/10 8:48:57 PM

more traditional. My children and fiancée and I took road trips on the weekends, often just to see the high school stadiums that dotted the region. I remember going to Wink, home of Roy Orbison and the Wink Wildcats. I remember going to Andrews, where they had built their stadium into the ground so it looked like a bowl. I remember going to Crane and seeing the sturdy stacks of the bleachers. I remember one night when we went to Fort Hancock to see Texas six-man football. The stadium was modern, slabs of concrete, but the night was cool and crisp with a palette of stars painted in the sky. I began to think there was no need for a road map of Texas, at least not on a Friday night; just follow the lights as guide and guidepost and you would always find the way home. I also remember the Sunday we spent in Marathon. We found the stadium, small and modest with tiny sets of seats. I threw a football to my sons, who ran after it in their red cowboy boots, with UTP7_US_Text.indd 15

arms flying. In the distance we saw the endless line of a freight train making its way through the gray stubble. We tried to count the cars but we lost track. It was as Old West and American as it ever gets, and for a moment we were stopped in time, with the joy and innocence that comes when you know you are in a perfect place that will never last. In these pages, the legacy of the Texas high school football stadium is displayed in all its magnificence and importance. Some stadiums look as perfect as they did when they were first built. Some look a little more weathered by the ravages of time. Some are modern. Some are not. They crisscross the state as the Friday night lights always will, Dallas to Dimmitt, Houston to Happy, Fort Worth to Fredericksburg. As you look at them, the memories of what the Texas high school stadium means will go to your very roots, embedded forever in your soil. You will be profoundly moved. I was, and I’m a damn Yankee.

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1< RATLIFF STADIUM Odessa

Ratliff Stadium has always been a prominent place as far as West Texas is concerned, but after Friday Night Lights, it gained a lot of notoriety statewide, even nationally. It’s amazing that people driving through Odessa on Interstate 20 will drive five miles out of their way, stop, get out, and walk around, just to see everything and say they’ve been there. JOHN WILKINS Former head coach and athletic director, Permian High

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2< WILDCAT FIELD Wink

When I was in junior high, Wink was playing Pecos, and the teams got into a big fight. I was sitting on the fender of my daddy’s old purple Buick when the fans started forming around the field, and I took out that way. But then my dad caught me by the tail of my dress and said, “Stay put.” About that time, someone called the fire department, which came out and hosed everybody down. LILLIAN HORNER Graduate, Wink High, 1937

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3< INDIAN FIELD Prairie Lea

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4< TULLY STADIUM Houston

The southwestern fringe of the Spring Branch school district must have been downright bucolic when Tully opened in 1966. By the early 1980s when I was in high school, however, the arteries around the stadium were clogging with fast-food joints, strip malls, and cookie-cutter townhouses. Tully’s institutional neighbors didn’t help either. The multipurpose basketball facility next door was arguably the most architecturally uninspired in the district, which put it in the running for blandest building in the greater Houston area. But Tully was an anomaly in this crass, suburban milieu. It seemed above its surroundings, neither particularly majestic nor picturesque but intangibly likable and open. Not that I was a frequent visitor. In my four years at Spring Woods High, I attended two football games and a soccer playoff. At the time, I was too busy forming rock bands, making experimental films, and editing the student newspaper. Years later, however, I became a sportswriter and editor for newspapers in Buda/Kyle and New Braunfels. For five years, I covered local high school football and developed a much greater affinity for Hays’, New Braunfels’, and Canyon High’s teams than I ever had for my alma mater. These teams galvanized their communities. Win or lose, people turned out in far larger numbers than I ever saw at Tully. The crowds were larger, the fans more passionate. But the stadiums themselves seemed to me to be nothing special. Tully, on the other hand, had—and retains—a certain aura. The home field of my youth somehow exudes an ancestral dimension, even if, in Houston, our roots are sunk in Astroturf. JO E B E L K Graduate, Spring Woods High, 1983

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5 < WALTON FIELD, Kermit

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6 > SANDCRAB STADIUM, Port Lavaca

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NE OF THE COOLEST THINGS

about the stadium at Jim Ned was that all the dads would be walking around the track and hanging on the fence. There was never an empty seat. There were only 700 people in my hometown, but we’d sell out 2,500 seats for the games. I don’t know where they all came from. But I guess my best memory was running out of the teepee. We’d all gather in there, players and coaches. It was like the smoke we ran out of at UT. CO LT M CCOY > JIM NED of #000University INDIAN (opposite) Quarterback, Texas STADIUM, at Austin, Tuscola 2005–2009 Graduate, Jim Ned High, 2005

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7 < JIM NED INDIAN STADIUM, Tuscola

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>8 BEARKAT STADIUM Garden City

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9< BOBCAT STADIUM Dimmitt

In 1976, the Dimmitt school board, as a part of the relocation of the high school football field, authorized the construction of a two-story press box. The roof of the new structure was approximately seventy feet above the ground. It was typically windy the day carpenters installed the roof decking. When one of the workers picked up a four-foot-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood, a strong gust of wind blew her off the roof. She had the presence of mind and physical ability to maneuver so as to ride it to the ground. I rushed to the site, immediately upon notification, to find the woman and her two male coworkers on the roof continuing their construction efforts. Thankfully she only experienced a slight jolt as a result of her seventy-foot “magic carpet” ride. I feel sure she has told her children and grandchildren about that experience many times. R O B E RT RYA N Superintendent, Dimmitt ISD, 1976–1991

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10 < HIPPO STADIUM Hutto

Before taking the band director job at Hutto, I would drive by the stadium, see the huge letters HUTTO painted on the side of the press box, and chuckle at the school’s mascot: the Hippos. After taking the job in Hutto, I found out that a hippo is amazingly fast for its size and is very aggressive and protective of its environment when threatened. I also found out that Hutto is the only public school in the nation with the hippo as a mascot! How cool is that? S TA C Y G I S T Band director, Hutto High

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> 11 LION STADIUM Roby

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12 < WILDCAT STADIUM Temple

My senior year, we were 13–0, ranked first in the state and facing the Pflugerville Panthers in the Conference A semifinals at Temple’s Wildcat Stadium. It was cold and windy. We botched an extra point, gave up a fourth-quarter touchdown, then fumbled on a final drive to lose 7–6. We were devastated. Everyone was crying in the locker room. Even my old man cried. Forty years later, it still pains me to drive by Wildcat Stadium. It’s like looking at a scar. B O B BY H AW T H O R N E Graduate, White Oak High, 1971

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> 13 TEXAN STADIUM Wimberley

It was really cold, and we were standing out there in our little dresses, and I kept saying to myself, “Just smile. Look happy. Everybody is watching you.” We didn’t know who had won until they actually announced it, so there was a good bit of anticipation. I can’t say I was disappointed that I didn't win because the girl who did win is one of my best friends. I was happy for her. TAY L O R B R O O K S Graduate and homecoming queen candidate, Wimberley High, 2009

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14 < WILDCAT STADIUM, Winona

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15 > OWL STADIUM, Hale Center

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L

AGO VISTA DIDN’T START PLAYING UIL

football until the 2000 season, and we didn’t win our first district game until September 22, 2005. We beat Rogers 22–16 on a touchdown with about thirty seconds left to play. That was one of the most exciting moments of my life. Afterwards, seven or eight of us coaches sat in the bleachers until about 2 a.m., talking and telling stories and enjoying that victory. We also left the stadium lights on all night in honor of the big win. ALAN HAIRE Head coach and athletic director, Lago Vista High

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16 < SISEMORE FIELD, Lago Vista

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> 17 BENNY DOUGLAS STADIUM Muleshoe

The original track was 390 yards instead of 440, so we had to put little stops everywhere to show the kids where to finish. It was just a dirt track, so we had to drag it off before every meet. We hired a fellow to put in cinders, but he just went out and got a load of rock and crushed it, so when the wind blew like it does all the time, everybody got peppered with rock. Meanwhile, the practice field was full of grass burrs. We had a guy bought in to fertilize it, and he used sheep manure, so several of the kids developed staph infections. Doesn’t make for a very pretty picture, but that's the kind of thing that happens. R O N N I E JO N E S Coach, teacher, and administrator for thirty-six years, Muleshoe ISD

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18 < MATADOR STADIUM Seguin

Kids start playing football in elementary school, and on Friday nights during the season, you come out to the stadium and play touch or tackle football during the varsity game itself. As you get older, you get excited about watching the varsity. In Seguin, we had two middle schools, and we would play each other at the high school stadium. That was really, really exciting. Finally, as a freshman, you have the chance to play for the varsity in front of all these people you know and who know you— people you go to church with, family, friends, cheerleaders and pom members, people in the band, teachers, and people in the greater community. It’s just an amazing feeling to be out there. I played against the Aggies in College Station. I played in several Texas-OU games. I played against Alabama in the ’81 Cotton Bowl. But I’ll tell you, being out there, wearing the gold and white, under the lights at Matador Stadium and in front of family and friends was just as exciting as playing in DKR Memorial Stadium and the Vet in Philadelphia. L AW R E NC E S A M P L E T O N Tight end, Philadelphia Eagles (NFL), 1982–1984; Miami Dolphins (NFL), 1987 University of Texas at Austin, 1978–1981 Graduate, Seguin High, 1977

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19 < DRAGON MEMORIAL STADIUM Bangs

In the mid-1980s, Coach [Gordon] Wood at Brownwood built a new stadium, and we got permission to remodel our stadium, so we bought the east side of the old Lion Stadium for $4,500. Our coaches went over there, removed all the wood, and hauled it to Bangs. Another fellow supplied a crane and trucks to move the runners. We ordered the metal to finish the stands, built a walkway and ramps, dug the holes for the new light towers and set them up. Our coaches and some local men came and welded on the weekends and some afternoons. All told, we got a $160,000 stadium for no more than $40,000. R O N N I E F OW L K E S Head coach, Bangs High, 1966–1970, 1984–1988

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20 < EAGLE STADIUM Pecos

I graduated from Pecos in 1976. Back then, Monahans was our biggest rival, and the week of the game, you might find a coyote hanging from a goalpost. A coyote was as close to a Lobo as we could find. We'd burn “P’s” and “M’s” into each other’s fields. Six years ago, we replaced the stadium grass with artificial turf, and it split the community, mainly because it cost a humongous amount of money. The Chamber of Commerce said it would attract a lot of playoff games, and it has brought in a few but not a bunch. M A RY A N N “C O O K I E ” C A NO N Business manager, Pecos Barstow-Toyah ISD

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21 < ESTES MEMORIAL STADIUM, Monahans

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22 > DRAGON STADIUM, Southlake

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I

came down to texas in 1948 from wisconsin to work as a sportswriter for the Pampa newspaper, and I was wearing a wide-brimmed fedora, not a Stetson or cowboy hat or anything like that. The wind was howling out of the north as it tends to do up here, and it blew my hat off as I was making my way up to the press box. I thought “to heck with it,” and let it go. I didn’t expect to see it again. After the game, I was climbing back down from the press box, and there was my hat, blown against one of the stadium stanchions. The wind was blowing so hard it had pinned it there for the entire game. I grabbed it, put it on, headed for the office, and wrote my first story—about a 14–0 win by the Phillips Blackhawks over LeFors in a Conference A bi-district game. By the way, it snowed so hard that neither of the teams could get home that day.

WA R R E N H A S S E Sports editor, Pampa News

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23 < HARVESTER STADIUM, Pampa

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> 24 MUSTANG BOWL Sweetwater

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25 < JAMES V. BEAUCHAMP STADIUM Pettus

My father [James Beauchamp] began announcing games at Pettus in 1960 and continued until the 1992 football season when his failing health required him to step down. Afterwards my brother Will and I were invited to carry on in his place. We had both spent time in the press box with him as spotters and were honored by the request. We accepted and have carried on in our father’s position, sharing the announcing and spotting roles since the 1993 season. Walking into the stadium and seeing the plaque of my father will always be special to me. RU S S E L L J. B E AUC H A M P Note: In early 2003, the Pettus ISD school board changed the name of the stadium to “James V. Beauchamp Stadium” shortly before the death of Russell Beauchamp’s father.

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26 < COURVILLE STADIUM Galveston

Ball High integrated in 1968. Basically, they threw the top four grades at Central, the black school, in with the top four grades at Ball High, and it could have been a disaster, but we started six white kids and five African American kids on offense, and just the opposite on defense. We were ranked number one in the state for much of the ’68 season, and that’s what kept the school from exploding. Because of the football team, we had little or no problem with integration. More than onethird of the city attended the state playoff game at Rice Stadium. I RW I N “ B U D DY ” H E R Z Graduate, Ball High, 1957

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27 < BRAHMAS STADIUM, Omaha

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28 > YELLOW JACKET STADIUM, Meridian

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I

ACTUALLY DON’T EVEN SIT IN THE STANDS

most of the time. I sit down on the sideline, outside the fence, or I may walk back and forth on the sidelines. It’s just easier that way. I can stay away from fans who may say things that would upset me. Last year, I had a baby on a Thursday afternoon. As soon as I was released from the hospital the next day, around lunch, we went straight to the school to pick up what my husband needed for the game that night. I drove with some of my family, and my new baby, of course, to the game because I just couldn’t miss it. We sat in the car where we could still see the game, and cheered on our team! It ended up we won, and our team dedicated the game to our new baby girl. A M A N DA B R A N D First grade teacher, Cherokee Elementary, and wife of Cherokee High coach Michael Brand

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29 < INDIAN STADIUM, Cherokee

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30 < MUSTANG FIELD Marathon

I graduated from here in 1953 and we had only eight in my class, but everybody then was football crazy. We didn’t even have a stadium or lights; people would just pull their cars around the field. But our little team went to state several times. Kids today, though, have different priorities. We haven't had a team for the past couple of years. Not enough players. We only have fifty-five kids, pre-K to twelfth grade, and so even if enough boys go out, if a couple of them don’t pass their courses, then we can’t field a team. Maybe next year, we’ll have a team. A little town like this will turn out if we have one. The stadium is still here. They keep ordering grass and cutting it and painting the lines, so we’ll see what happens. SHIRLEY ROONEY Graduate, Marathon High, 1953

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31 < HIGHLANDER STADIUM Dallas

I played left tackle on the 1957 Highland Park state championship team. At 198 pounds I was the heaviest starter and fastest interior lineman. Most of us played every down— offense, defense, special teams. Our team was cut to thirty-two players. We had six coaches. Our practices emphasized fitness at every position. We were working all the time: never took a knee, never took off a helmet, never got a water break. We would dominate the fourth quarter. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Winners never quit. Quitters never win.” FRED PURNELL Graduate, Highland Park High, 1958

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32 < EAGLE FIELD Eagle Pass

When I was in elementary school, the groundskeeper, Tony Maldonado, would allow the neighborhood kids to go out onto the field right after the marching band’s halftime performance for a quick game of touch football. For us, it was like playing in the Super Bowl. CONRADO PEREZ, JR. Graduate, Eagle Pass High, 1973

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> 33 TIGER STADIUM Smithville

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34 < HORNET FIELD, Novice

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35 > BRONCO STADIUM, Dayton

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I

was the p.a. announcer at alice high for forty-eight years. I love sports, particularly football, but I was not one of those fans who might yell at the coach or yell for the team, so being in the press box all those years gave me the freedom of knowing that I had to keep my wits about me no matter what was happening on the field. I had withdrawal pains for a couple of years after I left teaching, but then I realized that I now had time to do a lot of things I’d always wanted to do. It’s kind of like that with being the P.A. announcer. I miss it. You know, back in the early sixties, when we won three games in four years and the stands were never more than half-full, you could buy a seat on the fifty-yard line without any problem, so I did. I purchased a seat just below the press box and have had it ever since. This fall, I watched a game from that seat for the very first time.

GEORGE DRAPER Public address announcer, Alice High, 1960–2008

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36 < ALICE MEMORIAL STADIUM, Alice

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37 < HOUSE PARK Austin

I often ask myself how many people out there are listening. The parents are listening, I suppose. And the players, I’m pretty sure they are. So I work hard to pronounce every name correctly. This is something I take very seriously. I’m not always perfect, but I try to be. You know, I practiced and played on the field at House Park. I graduated from Austin High in ’67, and I have three kids who graduated from there too, so the “Loyal Forever” motto means a lot to me. I have decided to keep doing this as long as my disability allows me to climb to the press box on my own. [Gray suffers from multiple sclerosis.] I’m taking it one year at a time. I do love it, and I want to do it as long as I can. J E F F G R AY Public address announcer, Austin High

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> 38 TRINITY MOTHER FRANCES ROSE STADIUM Tyler

I believe Rose Stadium in Tyler is one of the best stages for a high school football player to perform on. At the time I was playing, I thought it was the largest high school football stadium in Texas. As a small-town kid, there was nothing more gratifying than playing under those stadium lights. EARL CAMPBELL Running back, Houston Oilers (NFL), 1978–1984; New Orleans Saints (NFL), 1984–1985 University of Texas at Austin, 1974–1977 Graduate, John Tyler High, 1973

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39 < BLACK CAT FIELD Mexia

Mums are not as important now as they were, say, twenty years ago. We’re getting more orders these days for the hand garters. Maybe it’s a regional thing. Maybe it’s just a Mexia thing. I know in North Texas, mums are huge. But here, not as much. We still get orders, but mostly for the homecoming queen and the princesses and duchesses. They always have one. JUSTIN SEALE Magness Florist and Gifts, Mexia

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40 < MARTIN FIELD Marfa

Home fans, visiting fans, and both high school bands share the same stone and concrete stands on the west side of Martin Field. There are no bleachers on the opposite side. There’s lots of noise when the play is hard and the score is close. What a fun time! GLENN GARCIA Graduate, Marfa High, 1976

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41 < FALCON FIELD, Veribest

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42 > BUFFALO STADIUM, Stanton

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T

he stadium is down in Tonkawa Park and is ringed by Bur Oak trees. If we were still in the district race when the leaves turned yellow, we knew we had a good team. B I L L FA R N E Y Executive director, UIL, 1995–2009 Head coach, Crawford High, 1970–1977

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43 < PIRATE FIELD, Crawford

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44 < LONGHORN STADIUM George West

When I was a kid, nobody stepped on the stadium field until Thursday or Friday night. The band didn’t practice on it. Kids didn’t play on it. It was reserved for game night only. In a small town back then, football was THE activity. If you were a player, everybody knew you. They were concerned about you. They talked about you and the game. Talk about building a guy’s ego! JO H N E D H O L L A N D Chemistry teacher for thirty-two years, George West High Graduate, George West High, 1959

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45 < RAM STADIUM Del Rio

I grew up in Cienegas, among 3.2 square miles of some of the poorest, most disadvantaged people in all of Del Rio. Despite our poverty, my parents—immigrants from Mexico— worked hard to make ends meet. Though humble, they instilled in me the importance of education and Christian values, but the world did not exist beyond my barrio—until one day. When I was in the fourth grade, I attended my first football game at Ram Stadium. I felt in my heart the beat of the marching band and fell in love with the spirit of not just my barrio but of my entire hometown. Later, in high school, I was a member of the Del Rio Mighty Ram Band. We entertained the same crowds I had once been part of. I graduated from Del Rio, but I never doubted that I would one day return to my hometown. My first job was at Garfield Elementary. My students came with the same story, the same experiences, as me. I wanted to offer them the chance to experience life as a U.S. citizen, as a Texan, so on Friday nights I would pick up a few from their homes and drive them to Ram Stadium. I remember the looks in their eyes, the same look I must have had ten to fifteen years before. I wanted them to feel the pounding of the bass drums, hear the fans singing their fight songs, witness the camaraderie of the players and coaches, and share in the magic of the “Friday Night Lights.” To participate in this American ritual is to understand what it is to be an American. Today, I am an assistant principal at Buena Vista Elementary. Although I dearly miss my kids and the barrio of Garfield, my mission of working with the children of my community goes on. I can’t wait for another football season. Come Friday night, I will be the first one in the stands, cheering for my kids, my Rams. You see, now my own children are out there. One’s a football player. One’s a member of the band. One’s a cheerleader. And I am the proudest man on earth! JO R G E A L B E RT O L I M O N Assistant principal, Buena Vista Elementary

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46 < RABBIT STADIUM Atlanta

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47 < BATTLIN’ BILLIE STADIUM Fredericksburg

From August to November, if we wanted to see our dad, we went to the field house. My sisters and I had the “privilege” of moving sprinklers on the practice fields, cleaning up the trash in the stands after a game, and washing uniforms. Who else got to wash their classmates’ jockstraps? But the best times were always rushing the field to celebrate a Billie victory by his side. T R AC I W I C K E R L I N K E R Daughter of Carlin Wicker, longtime Fredericksburg High coach

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48 < MCALLEN MEMORIAL STADIUM, McAllen

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49 > BRAVE STADIUM, Iraan

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T

he stadium was originally built for eight-man football, which used an eighty-yard field. When we switched to eleven-man, we had to add twenty yards to the field, but the adjacent land wasn’t school property, so we left the bleachers on the home side where they were. Now, they’re centered on the thirty- to thirty-five-yard line, not the fifty. When a team is on the goal line, it can seem as if the home crowd is right on top of them, and I guess, in fact, it is. The adjacent land is still private property too, and we have to send managers and kids to retrieve punts and extra points from the Live Oak and cedar trees now and then. MARTIN MARTINEZ Graduate, Leakey High, 1983

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50 < EAGLE STADIUM, Leakey

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51 < R. CLINTON SCHULZE PUNCHER STADIUM Mason

One year, we got beat 78–6 in Comfort, and they went for two after their last touchdown so they could say they scored 80, but they didn’t get it. The next year, they had nine starters back and were state-ranked, but they had to play us here at the Puncherdome. Well, with the roof on the home side, all the noise goes straight out. It doesn’t go up. It goes right out on the field. The stadium was packed, and we wound up winning a real close game. Afterwards, their coach said it was like playing in front of a gigantic megaphone. LEE GRAHAM Principal, Mason High , 1964–1994

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52 > EAGLE STADIUM Sanderson

Our stadium was built for flood control and is affectionately known as “The Pit.” It holds water that otherwise would stream into town. It doesn’t happen very often out here, inasmuch as we are “the Cactus Capital of Texas.” But in the mid-1960s, the control system saved much of the town from flooding. Four or five years ago, we had another heavy rain, and the local newspaper ran a photo of kids swimming back and forth between the forty-yard lines. B E V E R LY FA R L E Y C H OAT E English teacher, Sanderson High

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53 < SOCORRO STUDENT ACTIVITIES COMPLEX (SAC) STADIUM El Paso

I have joyous memories of scurrying along the sidelines with my close friend, both of us gripping our Pentax 35mm cameras to try to capture some big hit or great catch, the high kicks of the Missionettes dance team, and the fabulous marching band at halftime. I can still hear George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone,” which ushered the football team onto the field, and the booming voice of the announcer at halftime introducing the band: “The Pride of the Lower Valley.” O R L A N D O G O NZ A L E S Graduate, Socorro High, 1994

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54 < CUB STADIUM, Clifton

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55 > CITY BANK STADIUM, Forney

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M

ostly, i try to bring

out the spirit in myself. I find that if I’m excited, if I’m happy and energetic, the fans will be too. They’ll come along. They’ll respond. Regardless of how we’re doing on the field—and we ’ve had an up-anddown season—cheerleading has to be fun, and it’s our job to make it fun. ’

’

MARISSA ROMERO Cheerleading co-captain, El Paso High

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56 < JONES STADIUM, El Paso

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57 < BULLDOG FIELD Zephyr

Our old field was dug out of the side of a hill, and there was a big drop-off just outside the out-of-bounds line on the other side. At the bottom of the field, there was a fence that separated the football field from a small valley that had a backdrop of some large mountains. The lady who owned that land was the same lady who gave us the land for the field. She also raised buffalo, and they’d roam around in the pasture. Many of our fans loved to come here because if the game was boring, they could just sit back and watch the buffalo roam. D AV I D W H I S E N H U N T Superintendent, Zephyr ISD

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58 < BARRY FIELD Hondo

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59 < BULLDOG STADIUM Borger

I was the B-team coach at Borger. We didn’t call it “junior varsity.” It was the B-team. At any rate, there were a lot of independent oil guys in Borger, so after we’d clinched district, they agreed to fly all six of the coaches, including head coach Gene Mayfield, out on Friday to scout the teams we might face in the first round of the playoffs and then fly us back on Saturday to face Pampa, our biggest rival, that afternoon. Well, two of the planes got fogged in and couldn’t make it back in time for the game, so here I was, a twenty-twoor twenty-three-year-old kid, coaching the varsity against our biggest rival, whose fullback happened to be Randy Matson. To make it worse, I didn’t have a key to the equipment room, so I had to break in to get the jerseys and the pads. Fortunately, we had a very good team and we beat them pretty good, but I knew that I was in a no-win situation. If you win, it’s Mayfield’s team. If you lose, it’s your fault. J I M M Y JO N E S Coach, Borger High

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60 < WOLVERINE FIELD, Penelope

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61 > KIMBROUGH MEMORIAL STADIUM, Canyon

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62 < DRAGON STADIUM, Welch

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> 63 TARPON STADIUM Port Isabel

Autumn Friday nights by the bay—with the stadium lights blazing—are spectacular. They mean one thing: members of a community of a little over 4,500 come together as one and cheer on their sons, grandsons, nephews, and brothers to play hard for forty-eight minutes, to leave it all on the field. And our boys do. They play as if they were six-foot-five-inch gladiators, and they never celebrate after a win because they expect to win. For us, it’s not about the district race. It’s how far we go into the state playoffs. L AU R A O R I V E Athletic director, Port Isabel ISD

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64 < JERSEY BULL STADIUM Falfurrias

I graduated in ’78, and all four of my kids graduated from Falfurrias, and I have lived here all my life. The kids are the ones who leave. I still go to all the home games. It brings back memories of when I was in school. It’s good to see my friends’ kids play. Everybody knows everybody in a little town like this. And there’s not much else to do on a Friday night. E D E L M I R E M A L D O NA D O Employee, Falfurrias ISD

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65 < COWBOY FIELD Premont

I’m a stander. We stand around and watch the game in a group. Some of us are young. Some are old. Always on the home side. We haven’t been good for a while, so we usually yell at the coaches. We’ve had four in four years. We have a new coach this year, so we’ll see how that goes. We tend not to yell at the kids. Kids always try hard. JO H N N Y W E E K S Graduate, Premont High, 1998

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66 < ALAMO STADIUM San Antonio

On a cold December day in 1995, the Roosevelt Rough Riders were two-touchdown underdogs in the state 5-A football championship game before more than 24,000 fans at the “Old Rock Yard,” Alamo Stadium. Sportswriters gave Roosevelt little to no chance of beating the powerhouse Flower Mound Marcus team. But two young six-foot-five defensive ends, nicknamed “The Twin Towers,” were meaner than a hungry mongoose in a snake pit. Eric Flowers and Dwayne Missouri shut down any hopes Flower Mound had of winning the title. It might have been a major upset across the state, but Roosevelt’s win was no surprise to those of us in San Antonio and South Texas. G A RY D E L AU N E Longtime San Antonio writer and broadcaster

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67 < VAQUEROS FIELD, Sierra Blanca

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68 > SHOCKLEY STADIUM, Johnson City

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I

was always fascinated with

Evaline Sellors’ bas-relief artwork over the main gate. It showed a passing quarterback and a track runner. The stadium was built in 1938, and I didn’t think there were many passing quarterbacks back then. Turned out there was one pretty good one—the guy in the artwork, Sammy Baugh of TCU in Fort Worth. B U D K E N N E DY Columnist and former sportswriter, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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69 < FARRINGTON FIELD, Fort Worth

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70 < TOMATO BOWL Jacksonville

For me the Tomato Bowl, where I played, was unique. We were the Jacksonville Fighting Indians and we had a big “J” that we lit on fire before every game as we played the alma mater and fight song. That tradition and my family members that have played there—both of my older brothers—made it special. There’s a lot of tradition there. A lot of pride goes into being a Jacksonville Fighting Indian and there were a lot of memorable games that were played there in high school. LU K E M C C OW N Quarterback, Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL) Graduate, Jacksonville High, 2000

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71 < CHAPARRAL STADIUM Austin

My mentors always told me the only way to be a real team doctor is to be on the sideline every time your team takes the field. Only a select few of our student-athletes ever go on to play college football, but what a joy it is to watch all of them give it everything they have each and every Friday night. Most of them dedicate themselves year-round for years and years to a cause bigger than themselves—their team, and Texas high school football! NEWT HASSON Team doctor, Westlake High Note: In May 2009, Hasson was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame— the first team doctor ever to have been so honored. Hasson has served as Chaparral team doctor for twenty-three years.

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72 > BEARCAT STADIUM Moody

I don’t get off work [at David’s Supermarket in Moody] until 8:30 tonight, but I’ll probably drive over to the game later. Mostly, I hang out up on the hill by the concession stand. That seems to be where the teens and other people who don't want to sit hang out. We’ll get a little peek in every now and then to see how the game is going, but mostly we stand around and shoot the wind. JOSH CULPEPPER Graduate, Moody High, 2010

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73 < TIGER STADIUM, Teneha

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74 > NAVASOTA RATTLER STADIUM, Navasota

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75 < COWBOY CORRAL STADIUM Happy

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76 < ROUGHRIDER STADIUM Boys Ranch

People in Texas live high school football. People in other states just play high school football. PAU L JO N E S Athletic director, Boys Ranch ISD

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77 < WARRIOR FIELD Miami

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78 < YELLOW JACKET STADIUM Cleburne

We never practiced in the stadium, “The Rock.” That’s what they called the stadium. Maybe we did once or twice for some strange reason, but Coach [Bruce] Conover taught us that when you step out on that field, it was all business. Then I came to Texas, and Coach Royal did the same thing. When we walked into Memorial Stadium, it was showtime. D AV I D M C W I L L I A M S Head coach, University of Texas at Austin, 1987–1991 Graduate, Cleburne High, 1969

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79 < FINDLAY FIELD, Menard

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80 > LYNX STADIUM, Spearman

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I

have a thirteen-year-old son, Reese, who lives in Denton. Not long ago, I took him to the Cuero stadium. I hadn’t been there in years. We walked out on the field, and it was surreal. I could almost hear the crowd cheering, and I remembered some of those long touchdown runs. I tried to explain to him what it all meant because he plays and is about to experience this himself. It was a pretty emotional thing. ROBERT STRAIT All-American tailback, Cuero High, 1988

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81 < GOBBLER STADIUM, Cuero

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AFTERWORD BY JEFF WILSON of my later years unfolded, during the only time of my life in which I could IS A MATTER OF participate without facing certain great shame and bodily injury. As a child, I was somewhat embarrassment to me short, weak, and overly concerned with that at my relatively my physical well-being. These are not advanced age I am the qualities that make durable running unable to throw a decent spiral. What backs or daredevil wide receivers, was a matter of course for most of my who wow the fans with dramatic acts childhood friends, not unlike riding of bravery and skill. They are the a bicycle, was a triumph of physical prowess and dexterity I would seemingly qualities that compel one to take up never possess. I could only look on as the tennis. The green of my envy would be rivaled only by the color of the carefully game that would become an obsession UTP7_US_Text.indd 174

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maintained turf of Wildcat Stadium, the home field of my youth. As a photographer, I am compelled to document and preserve for posterity both the things that interest me and the things that I feel have an impact on the larger landscape of modern culture. In our society, football is a pursuit that is rife with meaning, both overt and obscure. It is easy to discount the importance of what is, in essence, just a game. To do that, however, is to overlook the cultural significance of sports in general, and football in particular. In the intricacies and eccentricities of human endeavors, rarely is there an undertaking that is truly superficial. Texas high school football has alternately been presented as a noble pursuit and as the apogee of excess. It has been aggrandized to the point of hyperbole in television, motion pictures, and print. The idea of the football stadium as a house of worship is a shopworn metaphor, but one that lives on because it is close enough to reality to UTP7_US_Text.indd 175

remain eerily and sometimes comically plausible. In truth, each community has its own relationship to the game and to the cultural phenomenon it embodies. That relationship manifests itself in many ways, from the color of the uniforms, to the choice of mascot, right down to the playing surface. The stadium, however, has become a particularly special expression of how a community as a whole feels about the game and, oftentimes, how it feels about itself. It is a specialized architecture, meant for only one purpose. It is a structure that is revered in a way that most will never be. In many ways it is a community gathering place, on a par with the drive-in on Saturday nights or the corner coffee shop. It is a place to congregate, to exchange thoughts and ideas, and, most important, to experience a kind of camaraderie unavailable, and possibly even frowned upon, in any other venue. The promise of an empty football field is an irresistible force for those 4/11/10 9:06:28 PM

82 < MUSTANG STADIUM, Marble Falls (up to 2008)

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83 > MUSTANG STADIUM, Marble Falls (2009 to present)

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who understand and revere the game. It represents a blank canvas begging to be painted with the varied sights and sounds of youthful action and enthusiasm. Covering a cross section of social, economic, and geographic criteria, the photographs in this book represent a small but varied sample of stadiums across the state. By surveying the stadiums in winter repose, after the season has run its course and the crowds have filed out, we as viewers are privy to a quieter and more contemplative side of the subject than is seldom revealed to the casual observer. Presenting the home stands of each stadium from the same vantage point on the fifty-yard line allows the viewer to see them as equals, regardless of their position in any hierarchy. Looking at these photographs, we can experience these places that hold so much collective memory in a state they were not meant to be seen in: as potential, rather than kinetic, energy. Far removed from their normal state of intense dynamism, they become cultural artifacts to be puzzled UTP7_US_Text.indd 178

over for their quirks and appreciated for their ability to offer us a window into the hearts of those responsible for them. Any fan, however jaded, would be hard-pressed to stand in the middle of a West Texas football field at dawn and not be moved. The relative innocence of the game in high school keeps the sport grounded in a way that it can never be at the collegiate and professional levels. The banners of butcher paper exhorting players to excel, the colorful images of mascots crafted from plastic cups stuck in chain-link fences, and the grass trampled by hundreds of pairs of cleats tell the story of a season. The meaning of something as basic as one hundred yards and a pair of goalposts can easily be clouded by the introduction of money and the expectation of profits that inevitably follow. But for the time being—as captured in these photographs—it is simple and pure, like a perfect spiral arcing gracefully across the sky.

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AKNOWLEDGMENTS For their contributions to the creation of this book, I would like to thank the following people. Without their moral, material, and emotional support, this book would not have been possible. My wife, cassandra, and daughter, manon wilson My parents, james and maria wilson greg, lila, and isabelle wilson All of my extended family, be they wilsons, hajdus, hunekes, or stewarts dan, kathryn, and dylan winters taylor and gretchen jones john and sidney jones jeff stockton andrew loehman mark and jennifer reeb jerome, angela, moody, guthrie, and eli schoolar t. j. and lindsay tucker scott dadich leslie baldwin evan smith All at texas monthly past, present, and future dave hamrick bill bishel All at ut press bobby hawthorne buzz bissinger To all the coaches, principals, and superintendents who showed up at the crack of dawn, on weekends and on holidays, to let me in to the stadiums, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. In attempting to chronicle such a rich subject spanning the great state of Texas, glaring omissions have been made on my part in an effort to keep this book down to one volume. To all those whose very worthy and much-loved stadiums do not appear in these pages, I offer my deepest and most sincere apologies. You have no idea how many of these things there are.

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B

[ A–Z ]

STADIUM index

19

Dragon Memorial Stadium, BANGS

29

Indian Stadium, CHEROKEE

(Alphabetical by city ) 59

Bulldog Stadium, BORGER

A

78

Yellow Jacket Stadium, CLEBURNE

76

Roughrider Stadium, BOYS RANCH

36

71

Alice Memorial Stadium, ALICE

Chaparral Stadium, AUSTIN

C

54

Cub Stadium, CLIFTON

46

37

61

43

Rabbit Stadium, ATLANTA

House Park, AUSTIN

Kimbrough Memorial Stadium, CANYON

Pirate Field, CRAWFORD

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F

81

9

Gobbler Stadium, CUERO

Bobcat Stadium, DIMMITT

D

E

64

G

Jersey Bull Stadium, FALFURRIAS

31

32

55

26

Highlander Stadium, DALLAS

Eagle Field, EAGLE PASS

City Bank Stadium, FORNEY

Courville Stadium, GALVESTON

35

56

69

8

Bronco Stadium, DAYTON

Jones Stadium, EL PASO

Farrington Field, FORT WORTH

Bearkat Stadium, GARDEN CITY

45

53

47

44

Ram Stadium, DEL RIO

Socorro SAC Stadium, EL PASO

Battlin’ Billie Stadium, FREDERICKSBURG

Longhorn Stadium, GEORGE WEST

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H

M 10

Hippo Stadium, HUTTO

I

K

15

30

Owl Stadium, HALE CENTER

Mustang Field, MARATHON

75

49

5

Brave Stadium, IRAAN

Walton Field, KERMIT

J

L

Cowboy Corral Stadium, HAPPY

82

Mustang Stadium, MARBLE FALLS

58

70

16

83

Barry Field, HONDO

Tomato Bowl, JACKSONVILLE

Sisemore Field, LAGO VISTA

Mustang Stadium, MARBLE FALLS

4

68

50

40

Tully Stadium, HOUSTON

Shockley Stadium, JOHNSON CITY

Eagle Stadium, LEAKEY

Martin Field, MARFA

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17

Benny Douglas Stadium, MULESHOE

N

51

39

R. Clinton Schulze Puncher Stadium, MASON

Black Cat Field, MEXIA

48

77

McAllen Memorial Stadium, MCALLEN

Warrior Field, MIAMI

74

27

Navasota Rattler Stadium, NAVASOTA

Brahmas Stadium, OMAHA

P

34

Hornet Field, NOVICE

79

21

Findlay Field, MENARD

Estes Memorial Stadium, MONAHANS

O

23

Harvester Stadium, PAMPA

28

72

1

20

Yellow Jacket Stadium, MERIDIAN

Bearcat Stadium, MOODY

Ratliff Stadium, ODESSA

Eagle Stadium, PECOS

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S

60

66

Wolverine Field, PENELOPE

Alamo Stadium, SAN ANTONIO

3

Indian Field, PRAIRIE LEA

25

52

33

James V. Beauchamp Stadium, PETTUS

Eagle Stadium, SANDERSON

Tiger Stadium, SMITHVILLE

65

Cowboy Field, PREMONT

R 63

18

22

Tarpon Stadium, PORT ISABEL

Matador Stadium, SEGUIN

Dragon Stadium, SOUTHLAKE

6

11

67

80

Sandcrab Stadium, PORT LAVACA

Lion Stadium, ROBY

Vaqueros Field, SIERRA BLANCA

Lynx Stadium, SPEARMAN

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W

42

Buffalo Stadium, STANTON

62

Dragon Stadium, WELCH

24

7

Mustang Bowl, SWEETWATER

Jim Ned Indian Stadium, TUSCOLA

T

13

Texan Stadium, WIMBERLEY

38

Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium, TYLER

12

V

Wildcat Stadium, TEMPLE

2

Z

Wildcat Field, WINK

73

41

14

57

Tiger Stadium, TENEHA

Falcon Field, VERIBEST

Wildcat Stadium, WINONA

Bulldog Field, ZEPHYR

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