I am willing to debate what was "official" UIL districts in 1938, as the one document I have is from the UIL and undated...and it is this document that all sources (including this website..."only 55 schools participated in 6man football") cite as the official number of schools playing 6man in 1938 as 55
In fact over 120 schools in Texas played 6man in 1938...now which ones were UIL sanctioned is up for debate. (Stephen Epler article in the UIL Leaguer from "Texas Leads in 6-Man Football" Feb 1939 issue, page 1)
I have two examles at hand to prove this UIL document was printed very early in the fall of 1938 and that maybe not all districts and school had reported in by the time it was printed:
Example 1:
The UIL document in question lists this as district 4: Blue Ridge, Floyd, Josephine, Merit, Nevada, Princeton, Prosper (district chairman A. Richardson, Blue Ridge) no winner is signified by being underlined (which only 4 of the 8 districts are).
In fact via newspaper accounts we know that this was District 4 – Blue Ridge, Floyd, Princeton, Nevada, Josephine, Allen, Murphy...and Allen won the district...Merit and Prosper didnt field teams at all...
Example 2:
The UIL document in question lists 5 schools as agreeing to the UIL rules but not in any district (Hobbs, Ben Bolt, Dowdy, Draw-Redwine, Pyote)
Yet 3 of those schools show up in districts, Dowdy, Hobbs, and Pyote. Hobbs we know were district champions and in fact the Abilene Reporter News mistaken wrote an article claiming Sylvester won that district and a few days later printed a retraction saying that Sylvester was not sanctioned by the UIL and was not a member of the district.
So needless to say the mythical "original 55" is HIGHLY DOUBTFUL because we know at least two of those schools listed didnt play...and we know that many more than "55" played six-man in 1938