Jacksonville Public Library

The kids got it right, how the Texas all-stars kicked down racial walls, Jim Dent

eng

Includes index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The kids got it right

bibliography

827257022

Jim Dent

how the Texas all-stars kicked down racial walls

"Jim Dent takes readers to the heart of the Texas gridiron with the incredible story of the state's high school football intergration. In the summer of 1964, a high school all-star team lost the most significant football game in Texas' proud history to the Pennsylvania Big 33 squad. Three months later, Coach Bobby Layne met with the governor, determined to prevent another loss. His important request: authorization to recruit black all-stars for his new squad. It was an ambitious plan: Texas high school football, launched in 1910, was dominated by white players, even though the state was flush with great black stars, some of whom would become the most notable players in the history of the NFL. And Layne's scheme never would have worked without two very special young men --happy-go-lucky quarterback Bill Bradley, and his Big 33 roommate, Jerry "the Jet" Le Vias, a speedy receiver who was also the first black athlete to sign to a letter-of-intent with a Southwest Conference school, SMU. Bradley looked out for Le Vias--one of only three black players chosen for the team--uniting the integrated team. Together--and with Layne's indomitable will to win--the two led their team to triumphant victory in Hershey park. With this moving story, reminiscent of Remember The Titans, Jim Dent once again brings readers to cheers and tears with a truly American tale of leadership, brotherhood, and good old Friday Night Lights style football"--, Provided by publisher