At a time when "Friday night lights" shone only on white high
school football games, African American teams across Texas burned
up the gridiron on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The segregated
high schools in the Prairie View Interscholastic League (the
African American counterpart of the University Interscholastic
League, which excluded black schools from membership until 1967)
created an exciting brand of football that produced hundreds of
outstanding players, many of whom became college All-Americans,
All-Pros, and Pro Football Hall of Famers, including NFL greats
such as "Mean" Joe Green (Temple Dunbar), Otis Taylor (Houston
Worthing), Dick "Night Train" Lane (Austin Anderson), Ken Houston
(Lufkin Dunbar), and Bubba Smith (Beaumont Charlton-Pollard).
Thursday Night Lights tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of
African American high school football in Texas. Drawing on
interviews, newspaper stories, and memorabilia, Michael Hurd
introduces the players, coaches, schools, and towns where African
Americans built powerhouse football programs under the PVIL
leadership. He covers fifty years (1920-1970) of high school
football history, including championship seasons and legendary
rivalries such as the annual Turkey Day Classic game between
Houston schools Jack Yates and Phillis Wheatley, which drew
standing-room-only crowds of up to 40,000, making it the largest
prep sports event in postwar America. In telling this story, Hurd
explains why the PVIL was necessary, traces its development, and
shows how football offered a potent source of pride and ambition in
the black community, helping black kids succeed both athletically
and educationally in a racist society.
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