MOJO Football

Rating: 8/10 (17 September 2006)

As a 1965 graduate of Permian I would like to add a few comments that I think are pertinent to understanding the book and movie. As a new school (opened 1959) we were competing with the best from around the state from the start. I don't know of many schools in Texas that won their first of many state championships in their first 6 years. FNL does do a good job of relating the importance of high school football in Texas and what it meant to Odessa. By 1965 we had witnessed the assassination of President Kennedy, the growing military involvement in Vietnam and the beginning of integration in our schools. We were not referred to as Odessa Permian back then, just Permian or PHS or the Panthers. We did not use the term MOJO as it is known today but somehow in the back of my memory it seems I had heard it used before but maybe not. We were a conservative, patriotic and close-knit group of students. We prided ourselves on our accomplishments not only in sports but academia and music. PHS probably saved my life in Vietnam. Because of the education I received I qualified for the only guarantee the Marine Corps offered back then: Aviation Electronics Training. By the time-frame of FNL, many of my classmates had children attending Permian and the pride never went away but grew stronger with acceptance of minorities and the educational foundation upon which our school was built. And that is the key to understanding "Odessa" Permian;we were one as a school and student body and we did our best to excel in everything. You will never find any stronger tie, student to student, to school and faculty, than the Permian Panthers.