Texas... Well, I lived there off and on over the years. I have lived in Victoria (I started out on the chain crew and finished a line judge for HS ball there), Muleshoe, Guthrie (on the 6666's) and Pampa (my wife's aunt was Zach Thomas's 3rd grade teacher). What can I say? Well, they say high school football in Texas is a religion. That's true. It is the craziest thing I have ever witnessed. I lived in California, and it's just football, same with Nevada, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, Washington, and Montana.
In Texas, high school football isn’t just a sport, it’s a cultural institution, a way of life. To people looking in from the outside, we think the devotion can is exaggerated, but it's not. For Texans, Friday night's are about more than just a game; they are about identity, pride, and community.
In small town Texas, football is the glue that binds the people together. Towns with populations barely scratching a few hundred will pour every ounce of their energy and spirit into their local teams. This is especially true with the really small towns, like Guthrie, where they play six-man, or Canadian where they play eight man, or places like Tulia, or Muleshoe. On Friday nights, the entire town will shutdown with the exceptions being the local Allsups, or a Menards or McDonald's. The tailgates start getting set up around five-thirty, they cheer the team as they walk through the tailgate area at 7:00 and start filing in at 7:15. The community comes together and for a few hours, people forget the things that divide them during the day, unless they are the visiting team, and the only race that matters is the one to the endzone.
These games aren't just entertainment to Texas families, they are social gatherings, family reunions, and civic pride all rolled into one. The high school represents the town's hopes and dreams, and their victories are celebrated as if they are personal triumphs, and in the even their team wins a district title? The town goes into overdrive. Once in a while, or for some towns, every year, they might bring a state title home. That's when they roll out the fire trucks and parade the team through the entire town.
In the cities and metro areas, it's still the same, only on a different scale. Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio... the intense passion remains. If the small town stadiums look like mini-college stadiums, the big sity stadiums can rival P% and NFL stadiums, because, well, a lot of the teams play in the NFL stadiums. These high schools have program operational budgets that would make UM and MSU green with envy. Recruiting, and media coverage are crazy. Many of the games are televised on ESPN, CBS, ABC, and the athletes are elevated to celebrity status.
In Texas, from the small towns like Paducah to the Fifth Ward of Houston, football is one of two major pathways out of poverty, the cow pastures, or oil patch. Football is upward mobility. The rituals surrounding Texas high school football are what make it feel like a religion. Crazy huge pep rallies on Friday mornings, marching bands practicing for halftime shows, cheerleaders perfecting routines, and booster clubs organizing tailgates, it’s all part of the liturgy. The smell of concession stand nachos, hot dogs, and popcorn, the sound of fight songs, and the sight of new and ancient letterman jackets create a sensory experience that feels timeless. Even the terminology, “Friday Night Lights”, thanks to Permian High school has become iconic, immortalized in books, movies, and TV shows.
Texas high school football is different than anywhere I have ever been because it offers something deeply human, a sense of belonging. Living in the Western United States is interesting because our states are so large and diverse. You can drive all day and still be in the same state. The population is large, and you see people from all walks of life at the games. I have quite literally watched cowboys ride up and wrap their horses reins around the hitching rail, wearing chaps,, covered in dust, and walk into a game next to the woman who rolled up in a Bentley, and they are all there to watch their kids become local heroes. In Texas high school football lore is passed down like scripture on Sunday mornings, and for many people, it's not about the game at all but sharing in something bigger than yourself.
At it's core, Football in Texas is just different than anywhere else. I didn't have kids in school, but we went to games, because my neighbors kids played and I had to support them. Football games are where business takes place. People actually get married at tailgates, you can watch four generations of families cheering on their athlete. Oh and don't forget about homecoming, where everyone is dressed to the nines, and the mums the girls are wearing are the size of hubcaps.
I know this was a little more than food for thought, but it's why I love Texas high school football, and I would love to see it like this in Montana. I don't know why it's not since both states and the populations are eerily similar. Heck, It's sorta like that here in Ohio. I go to Ironton to watch the Tigers play, and get hotdogs with their weird sauce, and coleslaw. I take my grandsons now. I show up in my Ironton T-shirt with My Griz hats on, and I talk up Griz football with die-hard Buckeye, Cincinnati, Kentucky and Louisville fans. Tbh if my grandsons play football, I would love for them to play in Texas, but then college ball at UM or Oregon. Screw Ohio State and FTC.
