Coach Wood is willing to surrender. The men in the drugstore are aware that co-captain Ronald Isom has just been given a new position as offensive guard, and they nod their heads seriously. It is played at a feverish pitch and to win. But in Brownwood and in some other small towns in and out of Texas, the game represents something different. Parents hold their sons back a grade in grammar school so they will be bigger and stronger when they finally try out for the team.
Physical punishment is applied routinely when players break training rules.
The coach is the most important man in town. He is teacher and counselor. He is role model and, in the case of Gordon Wood, the winningest coach in the history of high-school football, he is legend. And I thought it was funny. But then, the more you hear it, the more it becomes part of your thinking.