FOOTBALL FIFTY YEARS AGO


Football was important in my hometown of Phillips. Watching the beloved Longhorns play brings back memories of long ago. Football was about all we had for entertainment in small towns, just about everywhere, particularly in the south/southwest. In Phillips, we also had church. You attended either the First Baptist Church or the First Methodist Church. I don't know if the town planners thought there'd be other churches, hence the moniker "first," but those were the only two churches the town would ever have.

I would have played football if I had a chance, preferably as a wide receiver. (I would have been the best!) My gender automatically prevented me from joining the team, so I played in the marching band instead. Our team played 2A football, just shy of 6-man, 1A football status. Our school might have been small and would eventually be launched into oblivion. Still, our football players were among the state's best. We got close to winning state my senior year. Many players were awarded full rides with football scholarships to colleges in Oklahoma and Texas. One of our football players eventually played professional football and worked for the Chicago Bears when he had a sudden heart attack and died. If memory serves me right, he was a wide receiver in high school, college, and professional football.

When you live in a small town, there's little to distract you from focusing on your interests. Our band won all sorts of awards in music contests. I was part of a quartet that won many awards for several years. Our stage band played the best big band music you'll ever hear. Once I worked through stage fright, I could play a good tenor sax solo.

Marching outdoors in the Panhandle of Texas can be brutally challenging during dicey weather. However, I wouldn't want to diminish the trauma of having your body and head knocked around for several hours while playing football. Since the Panhandle is several thousand feet above sea level and next to mountain ranges, early fall sometimes brings freezing temperatures and even snow. I remember the keys on my tenor sax freezing, not to mention what happened to the reed on the mouthpiece. Many of the band members were close to having frostbite on several occasions. I remember when sleet fell one halftime, causing me to become disoriented during our marching routine. I couldn't remember going left or right and frequently ran into other band members. I probably would have headed for the wrong goalpost if I had been a wide receiver during that game.

Friday nights during the fall were reserved for football. On Saturdays, we watched the Texas Longhorns. After church and a typical Sunday meal of either fried chicken or pot roast, we watched the Dallas Cowboys. All three teams were powerhouses in their own right 50 years ago. The image of Tom Landry standing on the Cowboy sidelines with that ubiquitous fedora hat on top of his head and a flat affect on his face is unforgettable. The treatment of Tom Landry by Jerry Jones remains unforgivable. 

My favorite fall football weekend is when the Texas Longhorns play OU. Texas and OU have been playing each other since 1900. I always remind my much-loved Oklahoma relatives that Texas leads the series 65 to 46. I am also obligated to tell them that OU will never catch up in our lifetimes! We've enjoyed gentle teasing about the Texas/OU game for years. However, the relatives of the losing team are unusually quiet after the game. 

Hook 'em!





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