TEXAS, USA — The Lone Star State is known for its love of the Friday night lights and that love has translated into some grid-iron greats.
And we aren’t saying that because we are biased. According to the Dallas Morning News, no state has more native-born players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame than the State of Texas. We stand at 36.
And it doesn’t stop there. According to Pika Kasino Suomi, a Finnish gambling site, Texas has the highest number of former and current professional players, the most combined games played of any state as well as the most combined touchdowns.
This is not exactly a new phenomenon either. The Lone Star State has been dominating the football field since before World War II.
According to an ESPN analysis of college football recruits, Texas had the most in 1940 with 126 players tapped to play college ball. The history goes even further back with the first high school to play football in Texas named as Galveston’s Ball High School all the way back in 1894.
High schools in Dallas and Houston picked up that torch, establishing unofficial teams. And let’s just say Texas took to high school football like a duck to water. The most expensive high school football stadium in the Lone Star State, according to the Houston Chronicle, is Cy-Fair ISD’s FCU stadium at Berry Center with a capacity of 11,000. The whole project cost $80 million. A sign of just how seriously we take those Friday night lights.