The Houston Chronicle printed an article in 1994 about the 100th Anniversary of Texas High School Football in Texas. I wrote them and said, “You did pretty well because you just missed it by one year; it began in 1893, the same year that the University of Texas first played a football game against Texas A & M.” I never got a reply from them.
I excerpted part of an article that was printed in the Galveston Daily News, November 19, 1893, and included it in my book, My Heroes Have Always Been Loboes. It mentioned that American Ivy League schools were playing football by the year 1876. Football was being played in California, Nebraska, Colorado, and the Midwest before it come to Texas in 1893. The Houston Chronicle knew all this, except their article was claiming that high school football did not start in Texas until 1994. According to the Galveston Daily News, both Galveston Ball and Central High had begun high school football by 1893 (Central High was a black school).
But maybe I was wrong and also the Houston Chronicle was wrong about the beginning of football in Texas. The Dallas Morning News printed an article, November 10, 1896, page 8, “Foot Ball History.”
