SixFan19":10ptj1xb said:
Did you say "dropping down" to six-man? lol Eight-man never had a very strong hold in Texas and I can't see a valid reason or enough interest for its return. Six-man won out over eight-man for some reason. The fact is that these schools do not want to break from their tradition, from traditional football to play a stripped down version of the game. That is a 100% acceptible reason to me. I am not one of those that thinks we need to be recruiting schools to play. When it becomes a priority in their community it will happen as it happened for most of the schools that play six-man today.
The interesting thing about the 8 man era was that it was tried in a central Texas district first in 1957. That district, which had Pflugerville, Hutto, Prairie Lea, Kyle Smiley, Nordheim, and Liberty Hill, played 8 man in all district games and a few non-district ones, but went back to 6 man for the playoffs. The next year these guys all went 8 man, along with an East Texas District (New Wvaverly, High Island, Sabine Pass, et al), North Central Texas (Oklaunion, Harrold, Lindsay, Gunter, Prosper, Caddo Mills, Pickton, etc. and most of the West Texas 6 man districts went 8, except for the extreme western ones (Marathon, Ft. Davis, Toyah, Barstow, Pyote, etc) and the northernmost Panhandle district (Miami, Cotton Center, Nazareth, Three Way, Morse, Mobeetie, etc).
1957-1959 was also when a LOT of former 6 man teams in East Texas moved to 11 man, and many used 8 man as a stepping stone, Like Pflugerville, Hutto and Jayton. Some declining 11 man schools went 8 man, like Whitharral and Follett. but most of the small schools stuck with 6 man, and most of the declining enrollment former 11 man schools like Gordon, Strawn, Walnut Springs, Iredell, Lueders, and Moran went to 6 man and stuck with it.
