Tuesday, November 17, 2009

My buddy Glenn sent me an email a few days ago, asking for my support.

The email read "My brother was the quarter back on the best team in six man (empirically measured of course) in the late 1960s. Back then, 6 man only went to Region. They won their region and then my brother went on to be the QB at the All Star 6 Man football game that Spring."

Glenn grew up out in West Texas, where communities are small and they don't usually have enough boys to put up an eleven man team. So six-man football is the only kind of football available to many of those kids. But in a state that lives and breathes high school and college football, six-man is the bastard child of team sports. So I think it's really cool that the University Interscholastic League is finally tryin' to give some of these guys some credit.

The UIL was created by The University of Texas at Austin in 1909 to provide leadership and guidance to high school debate, theatre and athletic teachers and programs around the state. Since then it's grown into the largest organization of its kind in the world. You can read more of their history here.

Did I say bastard child? Try to find a picture of a six-man team on the UIL web site. I couldn't, and I scrolled through a lot of pictures. Lots of my kids in Florence participate in debate, theatre and sports events with the organization today, so I knew what it was, but not the full scope of it's history and activities.

Currently, as a part of their Centennial celebration, the UIL is sponsoring a poll to decide who should be listed as the all time best players in a range of high school sports in the state. Some of the voting is closed, but you can still click over and vote for the best six-man football team for the state of Texas.

The poll is set up at their web site, here, and it asks you to chose a hand full of players for what they'll call the All-Century Six-Man Football Team.

Anyway, if you're of a mind to, click on the link, scroll down and vote for Larry Kueck. And vote for anyone else you know, or maybe some folks you don't know. But please do vote for Larry. It'd be cool if he made it to the All-Century Team. Glenn thanks you for your support. Cheers!

4 comments:

BRUNO said...

I'd never heard of any such variable, but I sure as hell would like to see it!

(Psst---the Cowboys could've used some of this tact last Sunday, couldn't they?)Now, what team was that, on the other side? Didn't the name start with a "G"??? Hmm. Can't seem to recall??? LOL!

Yeah, when I saw the final score, I just thought: "Man, I hope Jeff likes CROW!"

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

I was a member of the SFLA* for about 5 years. I sure would like to see a "Hall of Fame" for us!

That league was probably responsible for my knee and shoulder pain today, not to mention my "stove up" thumbs and fingers!

BTW, did you know the Boy's Town Cowboys were the Cowboys before that Dallas team borrowed the name?

*Sandlot Football League of America

PRH said...

I know Kansas had 8 man teams when I lived out that way...6 man would be unique. Trying to figure out the Blocking scheme gives me a headache just thinking about it!

FHB said...

Bruno - Damn dude, just pry open that wound, won't ya. Yea, my team sucked it up. I was half expecting them to. This is usually about the time in the season when their offensive line gives up and starts thinkin' about takin' some time off. And yea, Denise loved it, and we got calls from several of her kin folks who enjoyed it too. But that's life. I told her after the fact, if we end up meeting again in the playoffs, this ugly little memory might come back to bite GB in the ass. Who knows.

Mushy - Cool. Well, there's another project for ya. get a new SFLA Facebook site started and see if you can drum up some other old geezers with sore parts. I never did play, but all my cousins who did are similarly afflicted. They were all young studs back in the day, but now most of them can't walk strait.

Pat - yea. It reminds me of when we'd play touch and you had to wait a few seconds before you could charge after the QB. I used to always love doin' that.