If you have ever watched Friday Night Lights, the book, the movie, or the TV show, you already know that Texas high school football is practically a religion in this state. But here is something that will make every El Pasoan stand a little taller. The tradition of Friday night football under the lights did not start in Odessa. It did not start in Dallas or Houston or anywhere in Central Texas. It started right here in El Paso.
The Lady On The Hill
Sitting high on a mountainside at the foot of the Franklin Mountains, overlooking central El Paso and the border with Ciudad Juarez, is one of the most beautiful and historic high school campuses in the entire country. El Paso High School, known as “The Lady on the Hill,” has been a landmark of this city since 1916. And tucked inside its campus is R.R. Jones Stadium, a venue so historic it looks like it belongs in ancient Rome.
The stadium is considered the birthplace of Texas Friday Night Lights, as R.R. Jones hosted the very first Friday night football games in the state of Texas in 1928.
The Night El Paso Made Football History
On September 29, 1928, before the largest crowd of football fans ever assembled in El Paso, the El Paso High School Tigers beat the Alpine Ross Cubs 26 to 0. The game drew over 10,000 fans to the huge bowl, while hundreds more lined the two hills known as Poverty and Deadbeat Hills. The field was lit with 80 bulbs of 300 watts each so every play could be seen from the stands.
El Paso High School Facebook
El Paso High School Facebook
Think about that. 10,000 people showed up in 1928, in the desert, on a Friday night, to watch high school football under the lights. El Paso was ahead of everyone.
Ancient Rome In El Paso
R.R. Jones Stadium became the first stadium in the state of Texas to have permanent outdoor lighting for sporting events. It also hosted the first three Sun Bowl games from 1935 to 1937. It has been named one of the top high school stadiums in the entire country by USA Today, ESPN, and CBS Sports. In 2010 ESPN called it the best high school stadium with “Best Resemblance to Ancient Rome.”
Meanwhile the rest of Texas spent decades catching up to something El Paso built nearly a century ago.
El Paso Has Always Been First
The next time someone from Dallas or Houston tries to claim Texas football as their own tradition, you have receipts. The lights came on in El Paso first. The crowd showed up in El Paso first. And on a Friday night in 1928, a high school football game on a mountainside in the desert started a tradition that the whole state would spend the next hundred years making famous.
You are welcome, Texas.
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