Texas Stadium was an American football stadium located in Irving, Texas, a suburb west of Dallas. Opened on October 24, 1971, it was known for its distinctive hole in the roof, the result of abandoned plans to construct a retractable roof.
Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film co-written and directed by Peter Berg. The film follows the coach and players of a high school football team in the Texas city of Odessa. The book on which it is based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger, followed the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series of the same name premiered on October 3, 2006, on NBC. The film won the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award and was ranked number 37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Best High School Movies.
Michael Charles Leach was an American college football coach who primarily coached at the NCAA Division I FBS level. Nicknamed "The Pirate", he was a two-time national coach of the year, three-time conference coach of the year and the mastermind behind the NCAA record-setting air raid offense. He was the head coach at Texas Tech University from 2000 to 2009, where he became the winningest coach in school history. After Texas Tech, he coached at Washington State University from 2012 to 2019, where he recorded the third-most wins of any coach in school history. He then coached at Mississippi State University from 2020 until his death in 2022.
Jesse Craig James is an American former professional football player and sports commentator. He was a running back for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL) and for the Washington Federals of the United States Football League (USFL). He then became a commentator for the ABC and ESPN television networks. James ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in Texas in 2012, but lost in the first round of the Republican primary.
Gary Gaines was an American football coach. Gaines was the head coach of the 1988 Permian High School football team, which was the focus of Buzz Bissinger's book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream and the 2004 motion picture Friday Night Lights starring Billy Bob Thornton. His coaching career spanned four decades, coaching at eight high schools and two colleges, all in Texas.
Jessie Willard Armstead is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins between 1993 and 2003. He was a three-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl section. He played college football at the University of Miami.
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series developed by Peter Berg and inspired by the eponymous 1990 novel by H. G. Bissinger, which was adapted as the 2004 film of the same name by Berg. Executive producers were Brian Grazer, David Nevins, Sarah Aubrey and Jason Katims who also served as showrunner. The series follows a high school football team in the fictional town of Dillon, a small, close-knit community in rural West Texas. It features an ensemble cast led by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, portraying high school football coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami Taylor, a school faculty member. The primary cast includes characters associated with football and high school. The show uses its small-town backdrop to address many issues in contemporary American culture like family values, school funding, racism, substance use, abortion and lack of economic opportunities.
Matthew Jerome Barr is an American actor, best-known as Johnson "Johnse" Hatfield in Hatfields & McCoys (2012), Danny McNamara in the CBS/Paramount+ action–adventure television series Blood & Treasure (2019–2022), and Hoyt Rawlins in Walker (2021–2024) and its prequel Walker: Independence (2022–2023).
Jesse Plemons is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and achieved a breakthrough with his role as Landry Clarke in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights (2006–2011). He subsequently portrayed Todd Alquist in season 5 of the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2012–2013) and its sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). For his role as Ed Blumquist in season 2 of the FX anthology series Fargo (2015), he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination and won a Critics' Choice Television Award. He received a second Emmy nomination for his performance in "USS Callister", an episode of the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror (2017).
David Wendel Carter High School is a public high school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, United States. The school is a part of the Dallas Independent School District and is classified as a 4A school by the UIL. In 2015, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency.
Arnett William "Ace" Mumford was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at historically black colleges and universities in Texas and Louisiana from 1924 to 1961, compiling a career college football record of 233–85–23. His head coaching positions were at Jarvis Christian College (1924–1926), Bishop College (1927–1929), Texas College (1931–1935), and Southern University (1936–1961). He has been inducted into at least eight halls of fame for his coaching accomplishments.
David A. Webster Jr. in Atlanta, Texas, was an American professional football player who was a cornerback for two seasons with the American Football League's (AFL) Dallas Texans (1960–1961). He was an All-AFL selection in 1961.
Allen Wilson is a former American football coach. A highly successful high school coach, Wilson won two Texas state championships and amassed a 213–74–3 record. His teams are known for their smash-mouth running game.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction novel written by H. G. Bissinger, following the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas, as they made a run towards the Texas state championship. While originally intended to be a Hoosiers-type chronicle of high school sports holding together a small town, it ends up as a critical commentary of town life in Odessa. It was later adapted into a short-lived 1993 television series, a 2004 feature film, and a second 2006–11 television series.
Hensley W. Sapenter is a former American football coach and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Prairie View A&M University from 1995 to 1996, compiling a record of 0–22. Sapenter was inducted into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Fred Thomas "Pop" "Pops" "Big" Long was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and a college football coach. He was the head football coach at four historically black colleges and universities in Texas between 1921 and 1965, compiling a career record of 224–145–31. He was the head coach at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, for 35 years from 1923 to 1947 and again from 1956 to 1965. He led the Wiley Wildcats football team to three black college football national championships, in 1928, 1932, and 1945.
William James Nicks was an American college football player and coach. He coached at historically black colleges in the Southern United States from 1930 to 1965. Nicks served as the head football coach at Morris Brown College in Georgia and at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. He was the NAIA Football Coach of the Year in 1963 and his teams were declared the black college football national champions six times. Nicks was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1999.
The Prairie View A&M Panthers football team is the college football team representing the Prairie View A&M University. The Panthers play in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
James Earl "Boobie" Miles Jr. is an American former high school football running back for Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. He was a primary subject in the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by Buzz Bissinger, and the movie inspired by the book. Miles is a major figure in Bissinger's book as one of the top high school running backs in Texas. He was heavily recruited by dozens of top college football schools, but his promising career was derailed by a knee injury.
Carter High is a 2015 American sports film directed and written by Arthur Muhammad. The film is centered on the 1988 Cowboys of David W. Carter High School in Dallas, a team that fought through racial prejudice and a grades controversy to claim the 5A state title, only to be rocked when six of their players were involved in an armed robbery and the grades issue stripped them of their title. The film is produced by former Dallas Cowboys Defensive End Greg Ellis.
