National Sport of Texas? (fishing, hunting, football)

[Pipeweld]

Originally Posted by TXSooner

I just have to say that I think football draws more of the TX crowd by far. One of the previous posts mentioned Friday Night Lights, and Odessa's obsession with high school football during the oil bust of the 80's (they had nothing better to focus on!). Many, many small towns are still like this with their high school football.

I know a lot of posts are focusing on NFL, but does the NFL garner as much emotions as college football? I went to OU and graduated in 1999. I learned that it is a tradition for Sooners and Longhorns alike to develop a ravenous hate for each other. When I see burn orange anywhere, I instantly feel great contempt for them, and I'm sure they feel the same way if I am wearing my crimson and cream. I actually fear for my safety if I am wearing OU gear the closer I am to Austin! No joke! People live and die being Longhorns, and the same can be said for Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Being a Tech football fan in west TX is considered an obligation.

Of course, the Dallas Cowboys have a large following too, and I respect that. The Houston Texans need a lot of prayers! LOL! I grew up there when we had the Oilers, and they weren't that much better.

Rodeo has it's own sub-culture that I think that many people find a hard time getting into if they haven't grown up with it.

The oil bust of the eighties had nothing to due with West Texas Football!!!
They have been a football fans since they fifties when places like Wink used to win State championships using roughnecks on their teams!

[lonestar2007]

i'd have to go with football, although a lot of pople aren't aware of the many, many rodeos there are. Most people relate to the larger PRCA rodeos, but when you take in to account all the rodeos (county rodeos, college/high school, private riding clubs, the list goes on) there's, by golly, a lot of rodeoing going on!

But I'd still have to say football is king. BTW, great list Cathy of some of the 'old guys' and hats off to you too Reb for your list, but you both forgot to mention Billy Bates #40, everybody's hero. I seldom watch them anymore since the JJ's breezed into town. I thought it was just about as low class as you could get the way they handle the situation with Tom Landry, but it sure put us into our place and let us know in no uncertain terms what we were going to be store for in the coming years.

I did watch the tail end of the last game they played in Texas Stadium because I wanted to watch the post game show. It was so cool watching Roger (the Dodger) Stabach, Bob Lily, Lee Roy Jordan, Bill Bates, Randy White, Mel Renfro, just to name a few, run out onto the field, well let's use the term 'run' loosely here. It was really good to see them all again. Tom Landry's son stood in for his dad.

Reb, as with everything there's always the hidden story, but I will say I think Tom Landry ran a pretty tight ship. His players knew better than to show up on the field with hair hanging down their back and earrings in their ears. Lance Rentzel was a heck of a player, but after his escapades and his umm, exposure to the little girl, it didn't matter, he was out of there. Now if Jerry Jones had been in charge, I honestly believe he (Rentzel) could have gone around all over Dallas with it hanging out and although I know the NFL would have fined and suspended him, once his suspension was up, JJ would have been saying, come on home boy, we got some football games to win! I don't think it mattered to Tom Landry who you were, how talented you were, there were certain ground rules you just didn't cross.

[Cathy4017]

Reb, as with everything there's always the hidden story, but I will say I think Tom Landry ran a pretty tight ship. His players knew better than to show up on the field with hair hanging down their back and earrings in their ears. Lance Rentzel was a heck of a player, but after his escapades and his umm, exposure to the little girl, it didn't matter, he was out of there. Now if Jerry Jones had been in charge, I honestly believe he (Rentzel) could have gone around all over Dallas with it hanging out and although I know the NFL would have fined and suspended him, once his suspension was up, JJ would have been saying, come on home boy, we got some football games to win! I don't think it mattered to Tom Landry who you were, how talented you were, there were certain ground rules you just didn't cross.

And maybe that played a large part in the sliminess that followed. I never even thought about it like that before, either.

What a contrast.

[TXSooner]

Originally Posted by Pipeweld

The oil bust of the eighties had nothing to due with West Texas Football!!!
They have been a football fans since they fifties when places like Wink used to win State championships using roughnecks on their teams!

That's not what Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream, says. It's a 1990 nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger about the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team of Odessa, Texas. The movie was based off his book.
"During the bust, the town's economy shrivels. No oil means no money. It is football that holds the town together."

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TXSooner

That's not what Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream, says. It's a 1990 nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger about the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team of Odessa, Texas. The movie was based off his book.
"During the bust, the town's economy shrivels. No oil means no money. It is football that holds the town together."

Well, boom or bust, neither changed the rabid obsession with high school football in Midland-Odessa nor the surrounding small towns! In the smaller places, the high schools provided even more of the town's entertainment, since there was often very little else going on.

Rankin, Wink, Big Lake, Crane, McCamey, Iraan and other little backwater burgs had nothing else going except high school sports/football.

But I don't think anybody took it to quite the level that Odessa Permian did!

[Pipeweld]

Originally Posted by TXSooner

That's not what Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream, says. It's a 1990 nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger about the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team of Odessa, Texas. The movie was based off his book.
"During the bust, the town's economy shrivels. No oil means no money. It is football that holds the town together."

Well considering I was raised in Odessa versus some writer how spend a few weeks there I might just know a little more than him and you for that matter!!!
Football in West Texas has been around along time before this book was written, and before we even knew what a oil bust was!!! It is not just Odessa by the way, it is a lot of the small towns from Crane to Denver City from Sweetwater to Kermit, not to mention Midland, San Angelo and Abilene.
Odessa permian just won a lot. They started winning state championships in the seventies is when there reputation really got started!!! And no I did not go to permian I went to The Odessa High School!!!

[TX_AGGIE13]

One thing I have always wondered is why the West Texas HS programs get so much more publicity than the East Texas programs. I know that they are very good, borderline awesome, but no better than some of those in East Texas ie: Groveton, Schulenberg, Alto, John Tyler, Lufkin, Rebert E. Lee, Katy, The Woodlands. In all reality the programs in East Texas for at least the last 10 years are better, and the small schools like the ones mentioned above have always had a better history than the small 1A, 2A, and 3A programs of West Texas.

I guess it's just the imagination of the dusty, oil town setting that is appealing to the "media". Some talk about the fact that there is nothing more to do than football, and the local politics associated with it, but that is no different in small town East Texas for sure.

[Pipeweld]

Originally Posted by TX_AGGIE13

One thing I have always wondered is why the West Texas HS programs get so much more publicity than the East Texas programs. I know that they are very good, borderline awesome, but no better than some of those in East Texas ie: Groveton, Schulenberg, Alto, John Tyler, Lufkin, Rebert E. Lee, Katy, The Woodlands. In all reality the programs in East Texas for at least the last 10 years are better, and the small schools like the ones mentioned above have always had a better history than the small 1A, 2A, and 3A programs of West Texas.

I guess it's just the imagination of the dusty, oil town setting that is appealing to the "media". Some talk about the fact that there is nothing more to do than football, and the local politics associated with it, but that is no different in small town East Texas for sure.

I agree it is more image more than anything. I think it did have to do with the fact thought that in the early 50's a few small West Texas towns would use you roughnecks off the rigs to play on Friday nights and won a few state titles. It would leave an impression these players with beards and mustaches, at least until there where age rules put into place. Then came along Odessa Permian with their winning ways just added to the mystic. By the way Odessa used to have a semi pro team, and some of the kids on the first few state teams where kids of players.

[TXSooner]

Originally Posted by Pipeweld

Well considering I was raised in Odessa versus some writer how spend a few weeks there I might just know a little more than him and you for that matter!!!
Football in West Texas has been around along time before this book was written, and before we even knew what a oil bust was!!! It is not just Odessa by the way, it is a lot of the small towns from Crane to Denver City from Sweetwater to Kermit, not to mention Midland, San Angelo and Abilene.
Odessa permian just won a lot. They started winning state championships in the seventies is when there reputation really got started!!! And no I did not go to permian I went to The Odessa High School!!!

The guy spent the entire football season with the 88 team--with the players, coaches, and families, so you have to give him some credit.

And I completely understand your point that football in west TX has always been important, despite the oil bust of the 80's.

What I was trying to get accross is that with times as hard as they were that year in Odessa, the writer probably didn't come up with the assertion that the town was brought together by HS football on his own.

[case44]

The answer is football, football, and football. Now, rodeos are great and a Texan experience to be shared, but football is the true king in our state. So many stories, legends, and events have helped shape Texas' reputation as a football state through the years, from the players and coaches to the fans and the great stadiums they've played in, and on every level.


Now, if only the Cowboys and Texans can both get to the Super Bowl one day......

Boy, that would be an event!