Give Permian High Football the Boot

The amount of money in the budget for the football team greatly outweighed the amount of money in the English department budget. A whopping $6,750 was spent on the team’s medical supplies, while a mere $5,040 was spent on the entire English department. Additional expenses of $6,400 to quickly receive film prints of the game and nearly $70,000 for transportation by chartered jets to away games complemented the already expensive football program. The charter jet for the game against Marshall was $20,000 alone. The English department did not receive a computer until the football team had received its second. English teacher Larue Moore was a highly qualified English teacher with impressive credentials. After twenty years of teaching experience and a master’s degree, her an

The football program placed a large amount of stress on the academic program and the education of the students. The average SAT score at Permian was a significant amount below the national average (138). Football players were passed through their classes by the teachers, regardless of the amount of effort they put forth or the grade they should have actually received. Don Billingsley stated, “I don’t do much on Fridays” (129). Teachers did not want to place any strain on the football team by bothering the players with homework or causing a star player to be suspended from football for his poor academic performance. A teacher would have been shunned by the entire town for causing a player to become suspended, and as a result, causing the team and the town a disappointing season. Some players also received academic assistance from their peers. Like the teachers, the majority of the students were just a big of football fanatics themselves. The football players had a glorious image in the school and were on top of the hierarchy of the student body. Because of this image and motivation to help the team succeed, the students were happy to help the players.

Race relations were worsened by the football program. Although some believed football in association with the attempt for desegregation helped to erase the issue of race, this was far from the truth. The approach to desegregation was based on gerrymandering the school district to benefit Permian High by including good football players of different races in its boundaries. A more successful desegregation would have included a more equal division of races in each school. Lawyer Lucius Bunton commented on this desegregation policy, “That woul

Some topics in this essay:
Don Billingsley, Permian Panthers, Confederacy African-Americans, Coach Gaines, Larue Moore’s, Lucius Bunton, Odessa Instead, Hispanics African-Americans, Larue Moore, Gary Gaines, football program, football players, english department, football team, amount money, obsessed football, living past, players girls, don billingsley, coach gaines,