Texas High School
Football History
Welcome to this exclusive website designed to promote the history of Texas high school football through records generated by the state's greatest teams and individuals.
High school football is as much a part of the Lone Star state's great heritage as The Alamo, fiercely independent Texas natives, oil booms and cowboys. On Friday nights (Thursdays and Saturdays, too), from September until late December, millions of Texans pile into stadiums from the $60 million Allen ISD complex to a 100 seat facility somewhere to cheer gladiators defending their alma mater's honor and heritage.
Intense rivalries, storied tales and rampant myths have played big roles in Texas schoolboy football lores for more than a century.
That is why, after 50 years of thorough research, the author has decided to make more of his findings available to all of Texas. These initial offerings are mostly team, individuals and coaching marks.
There are many online sites, most with outdated versions of records. The materials on the following pages are updated and as accurate as possible through June 1, 2020.
Records of public schools and individuals compiled by historian Joe Lee Smith
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Lee Smith has researched and compiled Texas high school football records since 1965. However, his collection is limited only to schools in the University Interscholastic League in the 11-man football classification.
He began making material available to media outlets in the 1970s, working especially close with the Houston Chronicle's Bill McMurray to publish several Texas high school record books for a decade. His work has been published in most major high school football magazines, Texas Almanac, two major books and on such noted websites as Smoaky.com, the original Pigskin Prep, TexPrep and The Old Coach among others.
Smith has searched numerous newspapers for game scores and individual and coaches' records in libraries across the state as well as old yearbooks and other sources. Only a few of the records are complete due to limited statewide coverage of high school sports until after World War II, especially individual statistics.
Within a year, Smith expects to provide all of his collection to the public either through this website or through a state historical organization.Those would include the season records of more than 10,000 head football coaches and the all-time scores of approximately 1,300 public schools.
Smith's credentials include 20 years of maintaining NCAA football stats as a sports information director (Lamar University), compiling all-state teams from 1929-84 for a major book and 60 years in the Texas Sportwriters Assn.
In 2007, he was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame as a special contributor.
Entire website copyright, C 2012, TexasHighSchoolFootballHistory.com. All material within this site is protected and all rights are reserved. The use of any copyrighted material is prohibited without written permission.
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About Us
This is an independent website operated by an individual. It is about school, individual and coaching records set within the confines of the University Interscholastic League (U.I.L.).
If you are interested in the hyperbole of some Ozark Ike hero being chased by every university of high academic ratings, there are all kinds of those places available. Nor, do we aid those who offer point spreads or predictions.
But, we will pick top 10s by classifications so you can determine at season's end if we are worth our salt. There will be plenty of historic items posted weekly.
It will be some time before this site is completed and we are not yet set up for e-mails here. So, if you have a question or some other need, please e-mail footballratings@sbcglobal.net.
For years, we have provided our information to the media, schools and others upon requests. Hopefully, this site will be helpful to some and enjoyable for all.
Nothing Is Etched In Stone
Despite years of research, many records are incomplete. Even in today's high tech era, it is still necessary to recheck game scores and winners and decide which version of an individual's statistic to use.
Based on experience, this researcher uses season statistics reported to the Texas Sportswriters Assn. because these are usually submitted by coaches nominating their athlete for an all-state berth.
Wholesale individual statistics prior to the 1970s are virtually non-existent outside of a few major newspapers. Today, the coaches generally chart every play and can provide
more accurate stats.
We historians and reporters, however, owe a debt of gratitude to all of those who have covered high school football games for the past century. They are the ones who helped make the history Texas High School Football.
So, when you read that Big High School has won 600 games, it probably has won and lost more than reported. We research and update continually so our records are only as good as the last research.
In April, 2020, we added or updated records on several hundred schools and individuals from research over a two month period. Also, there are readers who are providing this site with corrections and additional information. We greatly appreciate our readers and encourage you to contact us with corrections, questions or remarks.