Six-man Football - History

History

6-man football was developed in 1934 by Chester (Nebraska) High School coach Stephen Epler as an alternative means for small high schools to field a football team during the Great Depression. The first six-man game played in Texas was on September 29, 1936 between Sylvester High School and Dowell High School at the high school football field in Rotan, TX. Sylvester won the game 14-0. In 1938, Prairie Lea High took on Martindale High School in a six-man football game played as a demonstration game to see if the Texas UIL would adopt it as a sanctioned sport, which they did, and by spring of that year about 55 schools were playing the game. This number had doubled by 1939 and at one point in the 1960s there were more than 160 six-man teams in Texas. On October 5, 1940, Windham High School from Windham, Ohio defeated Stamford Collegiate of Niagara Falls, Ontario, 39-1 in the first international six-man football game. Jack Pardee, who played in the 1950s at Christoval High School in Texas is a 6-man player who played and coached in the NFL. Chicago Bear Ed Sprinkle, who played six-man football at Tuscola High School in 1939, is another former Texas High School 6-man player who played in the NFL.