dallashistory

Six-Man High School Football has a long history in Texas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-man_football
Quote:
Six-man football is a variant of high school American football that is played with six players per team, instead of 11.
Six-man football was developed in 1934 by Chester (Nebraska) High School coach Stephen Epler as an alternative means for small high schools to field a football team during the Great Depression. In 1938, Prairie Lea High took on Martindale High School in the first six-man football game played in Texas and by spring of that year 55 schools were playing the game. This number had doubled by 1939 and at one point in the 1960s there were more than 160 six-man teams in Texas. On October 5, 1940, Windham High School from Windham, Ohio defeated Stamford Collegiate of Niagara Falls, Ontario, 39-1 in the first international six-man football game.[1] Jack Pardee, who played in the 1950s at Christoval High School in Texas is the only known 6-man player to have played or coached in the NFL.

http://sixmanfootball.com
Quote:
Six-man is a fast-moving game played on an 80-yard (73 m) long by 40-yard wide (37 m) field (instead of the normal 100-yd (91 m) by 53 1/3-yd (48.8 m) field used in 11-man football. Furthermore, the game specifies a 15-yard distance (14 m) from the line of scrimmage to gain a first down, instead of the normal 10 yards (9 m).

All six players are eligible to be receivers. On offense, three linemen are required on the line of scrimmage at the start of the play. The person to whom the ball is snapped cannot run the ball past the line of scrimmage; however, if the ball is tossed to another player, that player can run or throw the ball and the person to whom the ball was snapped is still an eligible receiver. All forward passes to the player who snapped the ball (center) must travel at least 1 yard (1 m) in flight.
[edit] Scoring

Scoring is the same as in 11-man football, with the exceptions being on the point after touchdown attempt and the field goal. A point-after kick is worth two points, while a conversion made by running or passing the ball is worth one point; this is the opposite of 11-man football. In addition, a field goal is worth 4 points instead of 3. These rule changes were made because of the difficulty of successfully getting a kick off with so few blockers on the line compared to the number of defenders. In both University Interscholastic League and Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools competition, a 45-point "mercy rule" exists to prevent lopsided scoring deficits (no such rule exists in the 11-man game). The game is ended under this rule if a team is losing by 45 or more points at halftime or at any point after. The mercy rule is alluded to in the title of the David Morse film about six-man football, The Slaughter Rule.
[edit] Six-man football today

The state of Texas has over 110 teams, a number that is increasing due to declining population in many small West Texas towns, as well as newer private schools opting for six-man football as less cost is required for equipment. The sport is also played by high schools in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico [1] Wyoming and in parts of Canada.

There are also two adult amateur football leagues. One is the Texas Sixman Football Association (TSFA) located in San Antonio, Texas and the other is the Southeastern Christian Association of Sixman Football (SCASF). The TSFA just finished their 10th season with 13 teams vying for their championship and the SCASF just completed their 5th season with 8 teams.

The A-11 offense, now banned at the high school level, can be seen as an adaptation of the six-man offense to 11-man rules, with its wide-open style and the appearance of every player being eligible. ,
End quote.

http://www.usatoday.com/SPORTS/usaediti ... 8_st_U.htm

Six-man has Texas-sized appeal
By Jeff Miller Special for, USA TODAY

STRAWN, Texas — The best little rivalry in Texas high school football will resume Friday night in rural Palo Pinto County. The Strawn Greyhounds host the Gordon Longhorns in a backyard battle between schools so small they play six-man football. The schools are tiny, but the appetite for football is big.

"It's like a little Super Bowl," says Mary Jane Tretter, who runs Mary's Cafe in Strawn. "When the game is here, people will park at the field the night before to get a good spot."

The towns are 8 miles apart and almost equidistant between Fort Worth to the east and Abilene to the west. The game often determines a district championship and has featured a state champion four times in the last 13 years. Gordon won two state titles in the 1990s under former coach Nelson Campbell. Strawn has captured two this decade under current coach Dewaine Lee, including last season.

Six-man football is played on a smaller field with some different rules and high-scoring results. Three players are on the line, but the center is not necessarily in the middle. There is a quarterback and two receivers-backs.

It's played at 125 schools in Texas with enrollments fewer than 100 as well as in five other Western states, a 16-member association in Florida and one school each in Ohio and Georgia.

According to the city halls, Strawn's population is estimated at 725, Gordon's 535. Gordon's school district also encompasses the one town between them, Mingus (population 225). According to a website dedicated to Gordon football, Gordon and Strawn have beaten each other 27 times and tied three times since first meeting in 1923. Each has been playing six-man since the mid-1950s.

How much does winning this game mean? Jonathan Parsons, one of three brothers who played on Strawn's 2003 title team, recalls losing to Gordon and being awakened early the next morning by his father to chop wood.

Last season, the teams also met in the playoffs for the first time. Strawn avenged its only regular-season loss, beating Gordon 89-58 before a crowd estimated at more than 5,500.

"In the first game, we got big-headed and they walked all over us," says Johny Abbott, a Strawn senior in 2008 who was selected as the state's top six-man player. "The second time, we knew what to expect."

The rivalry's following extends beyond the locals. Palo Pinto County is prime hunting country, and dozens of outdoorsmen have become fans of six-man play. Strawn Mayor David Day says it was common for hunters to phone City Hall to check on the date of the Gordon-Strawn game.

"We don't get many calls about that anymore," Day says. "Now, they check the Internet."

Hunters aren't the only long-distance admirers. Fort Worth attorney Brandon Boehme, a University of Texas graduate, "adopted" the Gordon Longhorns because of the nickname and persuaded business associates to attend games with him. They once arrived for the Strawn game in a stretch limo that turned heads when they ate at Mary's Cafe. "That limo was about as long as the restaurant," Boehme says.

Part of the rivalry's appeal is the constant crossing of school lines. Former Gordon coach Campbell, an alum, previously coached Strawn. His daughter married a former Strawn player. Gordon's first-year coach, Shane Mallory, is a Strawn grad ... whose wife graduated from Gordon.

Senior-laden Strawn comes into Friday's game 7-1 and ranked second in Texas' six-man Division I. Most of its games have ended early because of the state's 45-point mercy rule for six-man play. This year's halftime homecoming festivities took place just after the game was stopped.

Lee, also Strawn's principal, expects Gordon to play its best. "No matter the records, it's a pride thing," he says.

Gordon has no starters from last year's 11-2 squad, starts mostly sophomores and is 0-8. Longhorns fans are encouraged about the program's future under Mallory.

"They're very good and very experienced," Mallory says of Strawn. "I expect our kids to come out and fight."
End quote.

An interesting book was written about one the desire of one small Texas town to have a HS football team and to establish a six man program: Where Dreams Die Hard.

A review of the book at a book sellers site sums up the book.

An hour's drive south of Dallas, in the tiny community of Penelope (population 211), Carlton Stowers found the perfect vantage point from which to view a small town as it came together around their six-man high-school football team. Here, where shopping for groceries is a forty-five-minute round-trip drive and there is no stoplight on Main Street, he followed the hapless Penelope Wolverines in their quest to win their second game in four years since reviving their football program after a thirty-seven-year hiatus. But even as the team struggled, the entire town still came out to show its support every Friday night. Why? Because as one Texas writer recently said, "Texas high school football is a six-point favorite over Sunday-go-to-meetin' in most small towns." A wide-open game in which teams sprint up and down the field and where the combined score can typically exceed one hundred points, six-man football was invented in Nebraska in 1934. At its peak in 1953, 30,000 teams across the country and in Canada competed in the sport. Though there are fewer teams now, it is still played in states as far flung as Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, and Kansas, among others. A poignant story of a small town, and its unwavering support-through thick and a lot of thin-of the winless Wolverines, Where Dreams Die Hard is a warm and revealing slice of life in the American heartland and of a culture fast disappearing.

Actually, six man is not the only small side version of American football. In Oklahoma they play eight man. IIRC Texas used to have both six and eight man games and even a way for the two to meet in playoffs. Maybe Ronnie or another will add more about that. It has already been noted - by Ronnie I think - that Kenny Hall, the best HS running back ever, played six man ball at then tiny Sugar Land.

Texas hasn't had 8-man football since the 70s.
The classification was done away with because most 8-man schools were able to field 11-man teams.
Ken Hall played 11-man football.
Former NFL player Jack Pardee played 6-man football at Christoval and is the only 6-man player to have played and coached in the NFL.
A friend's wife is a school teacher in Penelope so I've watched the team play a few times and each time the mercy rule was invoked because the team was getting whooped so bad.

A long time ago I read - probably in DCTF - that when the eight man game was played in Texas there was a means for the six and eight masn teams to play against one another. Ronnie, can you describe how that was done?

Bill
I've never heard of 8-man football teams playing 6-man teams.
I know that until some time in the 1970s there was no state championships for these two classifications. The best a team could hope for was a regional title. Then the UIL gave them each a state championship tournament then did away with 8-man altogether.
There is one old boy out in Odessa that might know the answer to your question but he's been stove up and not answering emails or phone calls.
Intriguing question for sure.

Ronnie,

I don't know either and I hope your contact in West Texas feels like responding soon. Maybe (probably ?) it was only during the regular season to help scheduling in sparsely populated areas.

As you probably know, the UIL website shows state champs for six man and eight man from 1972 to 1975. It also shows a class B, which I'd forgotten about, from 1972 - 1979. Some of the "B" winner names are very familiar: Big Sandy, Celina, and Wheeler for example.

Anyway, the implication is that the regional status of the six and eight man games ended after the 1971 season.

I think I've seen a list of six man and or eight man Regional Champs from that era but can't find them just now.


http://www.uil.utexas.edu/athletics/arc ... pions.html