Pigskin Pulpit: A Social History of Texas High School Football Coaches

Cashion, Ty; Phillips, O. A. [Foreword]

ISBN 10: 0876111681 / ISBN 13: 9780876111680

Published by Texas State Historical Assn, 1998

Seller Inventory # 0876111681-3-25941680

Synopsis:

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From the Author: A look at the lives and values of old-time Texas coaches
Dust jacket commentary: High school football is one of the identifying institutions of 20th-century Texas. It is not unusual to see youthful football players placed on the same pedestal as the cowboy, oil man, or other icons of the Lone Star State, and many consider high school football to be cast in the state's rough-hewn image. In fact, it is shaped in the image of its coaches who are, by and large, an enigma to most of us. We think of them in caricatures, men who are alternately revered and vilified, but they have always been members of a traditional, closed society, and we do not really know them in their complexities. Pigskin Pulpit opens the Texas high school coaching profession to historical scrutiny for the first time, examining the men who shaped the game--and generations of their players--in their own image. Tracing side-by-side the development of the game and the coaching profession from its beginnings to today, the book explains how this schoolboy avocation wove itself so tightly into the fabric of Texas culture. This seminal work offers both thorough analysis and high entertainment, imparting depth and resonance to a group of men who have too often been depicted as cardboard cutouts. Pigskin Pulpit weaves together a compelling story, making use of extensive interviews with over 80 high school football coaches. Most of them entered the profession between the 1930s and the 1950s, and collectively their voices provide a character study of a unique breed of men whose deeply planted values were nurtured in the common experiences of traditional Texas culture, economic depression, and times of war. The book also surveys the portrayals and perceptions of Texas high school coaches in popular culture and scholarly works, as well as addresses the concerns that modern-day Texans have expressed over such football-related issues as education, brutality, racism, and competition. Football fans and critics of the game alike will be drawn into the flowing, colorful narrative of this probing, analytical study that is sure to become a Texas classic.

O. A. "Bum" Phillips, from the foreword: "I'm as proud to have been a high school coach in Texas as I am to have gone on to the NFL. Like any coach--at every level--people expected me to win, yet only in the high school ranks did I truly feel pressure from the community to juggle the demands of winning with the responsibility of keeping sight of the kids who played the game. From high school to the pros, the men I have known and admired have balanced those demands. But it's the high school coach who is in the toughest spot. He's got to win, but he also has to keep the kid number one. It's a tricky job and one that most coaches do very well."

Bibliographic Details

Title: Pigskin Pulpit: A Social History of Texas ...
Publisher: Texas State Historical Assn
Publication Date: 1998
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Good