{"id":20721,"date":"2017-01-30T07:13:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T07:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=20721"},"modified":"2017-01-30T07:13:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T07:13:38","slug":"its-still-football-its-still-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/nfl\/its-still-football-its-still-texas.html","title":{"rendered":"It’s still football. It’s still Texas."},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s still football. It’s still Texas.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

About 30 miles north of Dallas, a real estate investor named Mike Giles decided last year to go toe-to-toe with Texas football.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local officials here proposed building a $63 million high school football stadium. Giles, outraged by the costly plan, led a grassroots effort to defeat the $220 million bond measure that included the new stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n

They went door-to-door to persuade fellow residents and visited more than 1,000 homes. They bought campaign-style signs that read \u201cIt\u2019s OK to just say NO.\u201d They sought support from the local newspaper. Then in May, with Giles saying he sensed among residents support for his position, came the vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stadium and bond measure passed overwhelmingly, getting nearly two-thirds of the vote. It will be the third high school stadium in Texas built at a cost of more than $60 million, and its projected price tag has increased to $70 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are very religious around here,\u201d Giles, 71, told USA TODAY Sports, \u201cand football is definitely a religion in Texas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The football gods here go by names like Landry, Staubach, Dorsett, Aikman and Smith. In addition to America\u2019s Team, the state has more Football Bowl Subdivision college teams (12) than any other, led by the Longhorns and Aggies. It has \u201cFriday Night Lights,\u201d the book, TV series and movie based on the football team at Permian High School in Odessa. And it has football cathedrals far more lavish than what\u2019s being built in McKinney.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reliant Stadium, the $350 million home of the Houston Texans, will serve as site of Super Bowl LI when the New England Patriots play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Then there is AT&T Stadium, the $1.2 billion home of the Dallas Cowboys and the first NFL stadium built at a cost of more than $1 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

With safety concerns over concussions research casting a specter over football, perhaps no state continues to embrace the sport quite like Texas does. About 130 miles south of this city lives a man who understands the fervor like few others do.<\/span><\/p>\n

WACO, Texas \u2014 Dave Campbell, 91, arrived at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame last week carrying a small stack of magazines \u2014 Dave Campbell\u2019s Texas Football magazines. He dispatched someone to find a Sharpie.<\/span><\/p>\n

As usual, he intended to autograph the copies of a magazine cherished by Texans.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the annual Texas High School Coaches Association meetings, high school football coaches in the state routinely wait in line for Campbell to personalize an autograph on the cover of the latest issue of the magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTexas is very passionate about football,\u201d\u2019 Campbell offered.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two summers ago, Campbell said, he autographed a copy of the first magazine\u2019s issue, published in 1960, that the owner bought from a collector in Houston for $800. The copy originally sold for 50 cents.<\/span><\/p>\n

A longtime sports editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald, Campbell said he and a few friends trying to supplement their incomes decided to start a magazine but initially picked another sport: bowling. When they couldn\u2019t find enough advertisers, Campbell said, they settled on football. After losing money the first two years in operation, the popularity of the magazine in Texas grew like football itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the magazine debuted in 1960, the number of high school football teams has doubled to more than 1,400.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, there\u2019s an old saying in Texas, particularly in small towns,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cFriday nights, if your team is playing out of town, there\u2019ll be nobody left. Just turn out the lights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tapping into that passion, Campbell said, he was making $100,000 a year by 1985, when he sold the magazine to a company in Kentucky for more than $1 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was wearing out,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The magazine has since changed hands four times and is now owned by Sports in Action, a company near Dallas. The company has launched a TV show with Fox Sports, a web site and podcasts. But the business still centers around magazine, with circulation approaching 100,000, according to company president Adam Hochfelder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell still writes the annual Letter-from-the-Editor for the magazine cherished by Texans. Mike Perrin, athletic director at the University of Texas, has the first nine issues of the magazine bound in leather and within easy reach at his office in Austin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t read it like a bible every day,\u201d said Perrin, who played high school football in Texas. \u201cBut I do frequently refer to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody will say, \u2018Well, what about old so-and-so?\u2019 And I\u2019m, \u2018Wait a minute, let\u2019s go look at that.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Each year, the magazine previews every high school in the state, and that includes the six-man team from tiny town about a 125 miles west of here.<\/span><\/p>\n

RICHLAND SPRINGS, Texas \u2014 Residents warn visitors driving at night to watch out for the deer and the possum that will dart across the road and into oncoming traffic. But opposing football teams headed for this town of 333 residents and zero stoplights are more concerned about the coyotes \u2014 the Coyotes of Richland Springs High School, that is.<\/span><\/p>\n

The football team, which plays its home games at an old rodeo arena, has won back-to-back state championships and eight state titles in the past 13 seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does the team mean to the town?\u201d asked Sandy Reed, mother-in-law of the Coyotes\u2019 head coach. \u201cThe team is the town.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1979, because of dwindling enrollment, Richland High School football joined the ranks of six-man football. The Texas high school association eliminated eight-man in the 1970s, leaving schools with too small of an enrollment to field 11-man teams only two options: play six-man football or the equivalent of a Texas sacrilege \u2014 no football at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

High schools in almost 250 small towns play a brand of football that produces basketball-type scores. In the past two seasons, teams have scored more than 100 points 15 times. In the state championship game this year, Richland Springs beat Balmorhea 96-50. Eighteen of the 20 boys enrolled in the high school this academic year played on the football team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having gained widespread acclaim, Richland Springs recently purchased additional bleachers and has attracted as many as 3,000 fans to home games.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSix-man football helps keep a lot of communities and schools open,\u201d said Jerry Burkhart, head coach at Richland Springs. \u201cBecause I\u2019m telling you, this town don\u2019t have anything. This school is it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking over the team in 2004, Burkhart, 44, led the Coyotes to their first state title and now needs just one more title to reach nine, which would tie him for the most won by a high school coach in Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/2017\/01\/29\/super-bowl-li-51-texas-football-houston\/97213092\/<\/span><\/div>\n

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