Texas High School Football

Ratliff Stadium in Odessa, though iconic, is trash. University of Texas Permian Basin Falcons won’t even play there much. The majority of their games they travel to Midland to play at Grande Stadium. Implode it!
 
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The Reservation

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Kimbrough Memorial Stadium, where my old high school (the original, authentic Canyon High) plays its games. (Originally named Buffalo Bowl in 1959, then renamed Kimbrough in 1971, more recently renamed as Happy State Bank Stadium). It was constructed for WTSU and they let CHS play games there on Friday nights. In 1991 it was leased to Canyon ISD and in 2017 Canyon ISD assumed ownership of the facility. (WTAMU has built itself a stadium on campus, called Buffalo Stadium.)

btw, Canyon ISD just opened its 3rd high school, called West Plains (in addition to Canyon and Randall). Not bad for a town of 15,000. Of course, the students zoned for Randall and West Plains are actually in Amarillo or thereabouts).
 
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Yes, they built the original stadium in 1954. That's a great photo because you can't see the world's largest chemical complex two blocks to the left.
 
Dion,

I went to a game there one Friday night when it rained so hard there was one play where the refs had two footballs on the field 20 yards apart and couldn't see from one to the other. Goofy part was neither set of fans would leave their seats.
 
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SabreHorn said:
GJ,

I know. The school NEVER had a male cheerleader of drum major for its first 70+ years.
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I took that shot back in 2014 during a band festival at the Waller ISD Stadium (Waller TX), a very nice facility. I've not been to The Reservation, but I've been to Bulldog Stadium in Nederland (PNGHS's arch rival?). Speaking of the gender of drum majors, I've noticed that bands such as Nederland and Kingwood and Crosby carry on the tradition of female drum majors ... but up in the Panhandle where I grew up it was the opposite, with male drum majors pretty much being the rule back in my school days.

Two other stadiums down this way that are nice facilities are Challenger Columbia Stadium (Clear Creek ISD, just a stone's throw (or two) from Johnson Space Center); and Cy-Fair FCU Stadium (aka Berry Center) (Cypress-Fairbanks ISD).
 
Berry Center is probably the nicest in greater Houston. Katy has both of theirs next to each other, which I don't like, but it was cheap property that they already owned.

Back in the day, the entire home side at PNG was for season ticket holders. The visitors side (then twice the size it is now) was half for students, band & cheerleaders, and half for visitors. Somebody bitched and the Buna mafia said it could no longer be that way. They referred to the Astrodome as "The Big Teepee". The UIL passed a rule that car dealers could no longer pay the school to put four new vehicles at the four corners of the endzones. Wasn't like anybody in MidCounty would buy a car from Beaumont Motor Company anyway.
 
Glory Days: lil LC’s best game was a 45 yard pick 6 and then I intercepted an option pitch to RB and I took it to the house 55 yards. I was waiting on that play all summer. Ref gave me a warning for high stepping in the end zone lol.
 
Warrior Stadium in Santa Rosa, Texas. My old stomping grounds. Except when I played the stadium was still wooden, rickety, and barely good enough for UofH to consider hosting a game against UT at.





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Another favorite stadium of mine is Sandcrab Stadium in Port Lavaca (Calhoun ISD). Not a fancy place, but to me it epitomizes Friday night lights in small-town Texas.

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One of the nicest small town stadiums I've been in is the stadium in Fairfield. Went there several years ago for a private school playoff game. It was better than many 5A stadiums just not as big.
 
ViperHorn said:
GJ, I thought I was the only one to have prowled Calhoun County.
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I have driven through there numerous times over the years on the way back and forth from Brazoria County to Corpus or Port A. I almost always stop at the little Buc-ee's in Port Lavaca for coffee and a pit stop.
 
Giovanni Jones said:
Another favorite stadium of mine is Sandcrab Stadium in Port Lavaca (Calhoun ISD). Not a fancy place, but to me it epitomizes Friday night lights in small-town Texas.

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Gotta love that pocket of the State.

Boil the Sand Crabs!!!
Fry the Ricebirds!!!
Pop the Black Cats!!!
Sink the Exporters!!!

:cheernana::cheernana::cheernana::cheernana::cheernana:





(aggieism runs pretty strong down there though, or it sure used to... must be all that rice farming)
 
Chop said:
Sink the Exporters!!!
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Speaking of Brazosport HS, Hopper Field in Freeport is worth a mention, just for its location: right on the banks of the Brazos River/Ship Channel, just downriver from the DOW and BASF chemical plants and 2 or 3 miles from where the river empties into the Gulf. Not at all unusual to seek a big tanker go by.
 
I had a love-hate with those Gulf Coast stadiums right by the refineries and chemical plants. What a great and iconic setting for Gulf Coast Texas high school football! But, boy oh boy, that smell!!! (especially when the wind was blowing a certain way)

Now wouldn’t it be something if Hereford HS put their stadium backing up on a huge feedlot!
 
Chop said:
Now wouldn’t it be something if Hereford HS put their stadium backing up on a huge feedlot!
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The feedlots of Hereford are 29 miles SW of Canyon, TX. On those mornings when the prevailing wind was out of the SW (which it was, at least 2/3 of the time), the odor was quite noticeable. We had a couple of away games in Hereford. Fortunately, Whiteface Stadium was upwind of the feedlots. However, there were feedlots further SW in Friona and Bovina, so there was really no getting away from it.
 
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