High school football is one of the identifying institutions of twentieth-
century Texas. It is not unusual to see youthful football players 
placed on the same pedestal as the cowboy, oil man, or other icons 
of the Lone Star State. In fact, it is shaped in the image of its 
coaches who are, by and large, an enigma to most of us. We think 
of them as caricatures, men who are alternately revered and vilified 
(usually depending on how many games they have won recently), 
but they have always been members of a traditional, closed society, 
and we do not really know them in their complexities.

    Pigskin Pulpit opens the Texas high school coaching profession 
to historical scrutiny for the first time, examining this breed of men 
who shaped the game—and generations of players—in their own 
images. Tracing side-by-side the development of the game and the 
coaching profession from its beginnings to today, author Ty Cashion 
explains how this avocation wove itself so tightly into the fabric of 
Texas culture.

    Football fans and critics of the game alike will be drawn into this 
probing, analytical study that is sure to become a Texas classic.

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TY CASHION, the author of many books and articles on Texas 
history and culture, is professor of history at Sam Houston State 
University in Huntsville.