 On Oct. 1, 1954, the Abilene High School Eagles lost a
football game to the Breckenridge Buckaroos, 35-13, at Fair Park
Stadium in Abilene, Texas.I was in the sixth grade at the time.
I was in the ninth grade
the next time Abilene High lost a football game, to Dallas
Highland Park, in the semifinals of the 1957 state playoffs.
In the interim, the Eagles won 49 straight games and three
straight state championships, in1954-55-56, in the Texas large
school Class AAAA division.
In 1999, at the end of the century, the media in Texas, as
elsewhere, busied itself compiling lists of “bests of the 20th
century.” Duly noting the role of high school football in the
Texas culture, The Dallas Morning News selected a “Team of the
Century” in Texas high school football.
That team was the Abilene High School Eagles, 1954-57.
The streak was a terrific achievement, and “Team of the Century”
quite an honor.
But by the end of the century, even in Abilene, people only
remembered five or six details about the streak.
So I wrote a book. I am a journalist, and a sportswriter in my
soul, and a graduate of Abilene High, where I played football.
The book was a natural thing to do.
Its title is “Warbirds – How They Played the Game,” and its
purpose, as I began the research and writing, was to restore the
details of the 49 games in the streak. The effort quickly became
not only a restoration of the streak but of the time and place
in which the streak occurred. I wanted the reader to feel as if
he or she was in that time and place, and interested in football
only as a part of the larger history.
I self-published the book this summer, and it has met with
nice response in Abilene and in West Texas, and lately it is
showing some strength across a wider expanse of Texas. I think
it has movie potential, but I am biased. To have a look, go to
www.lonestarsundries.com.
|
