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Small town West Texas football stadiums
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Last: 5 days ago by IIIHorn
Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater is interesting.
Been to Spur. Was a beat-down of a 100 mile yellow dog school bus drive from my home town.
It is a cool little field, I like how they used the natural terrain to build the seats on. And as I recall, the "steps" or levels of the stands were 4-6 feet deep, so you had lots of room around you.
Side note: First game I attended at Spur, my brother was coming home from his fish year at A&M for the weekend, and my folks were driving to the game. I'm helping unload the band bus, and my brother steps in the back door to tell me our folks had been in a car wreck. They were basically uninjured, but a grain truck had turned left in front of them, and they scraped the whole side of the car across a concrete culvert, avoiding a direct head-on. Came pretty close to losing them.
I think someone else driving to the game stopped at the wreck, and my folks sent word with them to tell my brother. This was decades before cell phones.
It is a cool little field, I like how they used the natural terrain to build the seats on. And as I recall, the "steps" or levels of the stands were 4-6 feet deep, so you had lots of room around you.
Side note: First game I attended at Spur, my brother was coming home from his fish year at A&M for the weekend, and my folks were driving to the game. I'm helping unload the band bus, and my brother steps in the back door to tell me our folks had been in a car wreck. They were basically uninjured, but a grain truck had turned left in front of them, and they scraped the whole side of the car across a concrete culvert, avoiding a direct head-on. Came pretty close to losing them.
I think someone else driving to the game stopped at the wreck, and my folks sent word with them to tell my brother. This was decades before cell phones.
From the link in the OPGSPag` said:
Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater is interesting.
Quote:
There is no better High School football stadium in the Texas than the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater. The Mustang Bowl was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939 making it older than most stadiums currently in use but the community has maintained and modernize the facilities over the years in a way that makes it a modern venue for football. If you're ever around Sweetwater on a Friday night in the fall this is the place watch football. The students were excited in 1939 and they are excited today. Below is an article from the student newspaper announcing the approval of funding for the new stadium.
Cool back story
Kimbrough Stadium (now called Happy State Bank) is a bigger version of Spur, also built to take advantage of the natural terrain. Pretty cool to sit there on a late September night, and look across the small valley to the confluence of Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro Creeks, and the upper end of Palo Duro Canyon
Comanche stadium in Stinnett is REALLY nice. We play them and that stadium is far and away the nicest one our team has played in.
Good call on the Mustang Bowl! We played a game there when I was in high school.CanyonAg77 said:From the link in the OPGSPag` said:
Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater is interesting.Quote:
There is no better High School football stadium in the Texas than the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater. The Mustang Bowl was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939 making it older than most stadiums currently in use but the community has maintained and modernize the facilities over the years in a way that makes it a modern venue for football. If you're ever around Sweetwater on a Friday night in the fall this is the place watch football. The students were excited in 1939 and they are excited today. Below is an article from the student newspaper announcing the approval of funding for the new stadium.
Cool back story
Amazing how much stuff was built by WPA and is still in use.
How about Memphis, Texas? Built by the WPA in 1937. When Highway 287 expanded, they just lopped a corner off.
Edit: looking again, I see no way there was a road between the RR and the stadium when built. Either the train tracks were moved closer, 287 used to go down the other side of the tracks, or 287 used to take a more western route, bypassing this area
Edit: looking again, I see no way there was a road between the RR and the stadium when built. Either the train tracks were moved closer, 287 used to go down the other side of the tracks, or 287 used to take a more western route, bypassing this area
Every time I drive through Memphis I am curious about how they put the stadium right there. I'm quite certain footballs have ended up in the hiway on an errant thrown away pass or a shanked punt.
I looked at some maps on the Texas Escapes web site
http://www.texasescapes.com/
It appears to me that the road used to drop due south from the ghost town of Giles, then enter Memphis from the west. Perhaps when the stadium was built in the 1930s, there wasn't a highway between the tracks and the field at all.
Or as I said, maybe a narrow highway, and only a single RR track, not a double
http://www.texasescapes.com/
It appears to me that the road used to drop due south from the ghost town of Giles, then enter Memphis from the west. Perhaps when the stadium was built in the 1930s, there wasn't a highway between the tracks and the field at all.
Or as I said, maybe a narrow highway, and only a single RR track, not a double
my first ever varsity game was against Canyon Randall, and I got ear-holed on the first play (kick off return) and went horizontal.CanyonAg77 said:
Kimbrough Stadium (now called Happy State Bank) is a bigger version of Spur, also built to take advantage of the natural terrain. Pretty cool to sit there on a late September night, and look across the small valley to the confluence of Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro Creeks, and the upper end of Palo Duro Canyon
I remember looking up thinking "this ain't JV any more!".
Van Horn has a nice little facility. If they'd add more bleachers on the visitor's side they cold host some larger school playoff games between El Paso and Permian Basin schools.
Who let this South Plains riff-raff in here?aggiejohn said:my first ever varsity game was against Canyon Randall, and I got ear-holed on the first play (kick off return) and went horizontal.CanyonAg77 said:
Kimbrough Stadium (now called Happy State Bank) is a bigger version of Spur, also built to take advantage of the natural terrain. Pretty cool to sit there on a late September night, and look across the small valley to the confluence of Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro Creeks, and the upper end of Palo Duro Canyon
I remember looking up thinking "this ain't JV any more!".
I sure would enjoy seeing you again one of these days, old friend!
I don't know the history of it, but Childress has a stadium that looks WPA.
Clarendon and Childress are both WPA stadiums. There rock fences are still impressive.
I did not know this or had forgotten.
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Probably that same pink* Cadillac that I nearly killed us both in when the grain truck rain the stop sign in front of us.Lurch said:
I did not know this or had forgotten.
* Cadillac called the color "Desert Rose". Sort of a purplish-pink color. I called the car The Pink Hearse.
I know the intersection of which you speak!
Sorry, that ain't Kimbrough Stadium, that's the Buffalo Bowl. That's where Mercury Morris, Duane Thomas, and Dory Funk, Jr. played.CanyonAg77 said:
Kimbrough Stadium (now called Happy State Bank) is a bigger version of Spur, also built to take advantage of the natural terrain. Pretty cool to sit there on a late September night, and look across the small valley to the confluence of Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro Creeks, and the upper end of Palo Duro Canyon
Quote:
Sorry, that ain't Kimbrough Stadium, that's the Buffalo Bowl.
Or am I missing an objection to the name Kimbrough?
Side note: Kimbrough was a brother to the Aggie John KImbrough, I believe.
https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/img/20040791
Quote:
A Pair of Kimbroughs. John Kimbrough (left), the All-American from Texas A&M, met brother Frank (right), Hardin-Simmons coach, at Fort Worth Ex-students banquet Wednesday night. "You'd better quit this running around over the country and get back to your books or you'll be an ex-student yourself," advised the elder Kimbrough. He smiled when he said it. Published Fort Worth Star Telegram Morning Edition January 25, 1940.
Guthrie!
Me and my buddy were bored one day during Covid and ranked every 1A football stadium (6 man football). Some of our favorites from west texas districts were Spur and Van Horn (both mentioned previously).
Our favorite west texas stadiums from 1A-1 are Rankin and Menard. Other notables include Garden City, Borden Co. and Hermleigh.
Our favorites from 1A-2 are Jayton (previously mentioned), Sierra Blanca, Benjamin (state champions will do that to you), and Crowell.
Our favorite west texas stadiums from 1A-1 are Rankin and Menard. Other notables include Garden City, Borden Co. and Hermleigh.
Our favorites from 1A-2 are Jayton (previously mentioned), Sierra Blanca, Benjamin (state champions will do that to you), and Crowell.
Benjamin has a nice field.merkman03 said:
Me and my buddy were bored one day during Covid and ranked every 1A football stadium (6 man football). Some of our favorites from west texas districts were Spur and Van Horn (both mentioned previously).
Our favorite west texas stadiums from 1A-1 are Rankin and Menard. Other notables include Garden City, Borden Co. and Hermleigh.
Our favorites from 1A-2 are Jayton (previously mentioned), Sierra Blanca, Benjamin (state champions will do that to you), and Crowell.
Quote:
Buffalo Bowl.
and look across the small valley to the confluence of Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro Creeks, and the upper end of Palo Duro Canyon
my first varsity game was as a sophomore for a visiting (and very much overmatched) team against Canyon Randall in this stadium in 1993.
I was as wided-eyed as you would imagine a 15 year old to be - this place felt as big as the Cotton Bowl to me!
We elected to kick, and I was on the kick team. The kicker booted the ball and we took off. I ran down the field in pursuit and got straight leveled with a decleating-earhole block. I will never forget looking up into the sky from that collision, and thinking, "Welcome to varsity football!".
1993, huh? Leather helmet or a one-bar facemask? How many days did the wagon train have to travel to get to Canyon from Lamesa?aggiejohn said:Quote:
Buffalo Bowl.
and look across the small valley to the confluence of Tierra Blanca and Palo Duro Creeks, and the upper end of Palo Duro Canyon
my first varsity game was as a sophomore for a visiting (and very much overmatched) team against Canyon Randall in this stadium in 1993.
I was as wided-eyed as you would imagine a 15 year old to be - this place felt as big as the Cotton Bowl to me!
We elected to kick, and I was on the kick team. The kicker booted the ball and we took off. I ran down the field in pursuit and got straight leveled with a decleating-earhole block. I will never forget looking up into the sky from that collision, and thinking, "Welcome to varsity football!".
akin to this:
Amarillo schools use Dick Bivins Stadium which works but is really a sorry excuse to support so many schools It needs updating and improved "everything" to compare to other stadiums around the state with comparable sized student bodies.
Not the "nicest" stadium by any means, but Bobcat Stadium in Sunray was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING Friday night. Sunray took on fellow Top 10 district for Panhandle and took the win.
It was a really great time to watch my boy play amongst his buddies on their road to wherever this season takes them!
It was a really great time to watch my boy play amongst his buddies on their road to wherever this season takes them!
Excellent venue.
When I was very young I watched Mercury Morris and Duane Thomas run amok.
( ...voice punctuated with a clap of distant thunder... )
When I was very young I watched Mercury Morris and Duane Thomas run amok.
( ...voice punctuated with a clap of distant thunder... )
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