History Talk: Michael Hurd
Sports writer and historian Michael Hurd will discuss Black History in Texas high schools at the Grace Museum 6-8 p.m. Aug. 13 in conjunction with the museum’s “We’ve Got Spirit” exhibition. Hurd’s book Thursday Night Lights features Woodson High School’s football team along with other segregated schools in the Prairie View Interscolastic League from 1920-1970. 

We’ve Got Spirit: School Pride
April 2026 through August 2027
In continuation with the celebration of the opening of Abilene Heritage Square, The Grace Museum is staging an exhibition that highlights clothing and other artifacts from Abilene area junior high and high schools, colleges, and universities.

By Loretta Fulton

Thursday night is the perfect time for Michael Hurd to talk about his book on the history of black high school football games in Texas. The games were played on Thursday nights because Friday nights were reserved for white teams. 

Hurd’s talk will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Grace Museum. His book, Thursday Night Lights: The Story of Black High School Football in Texas, was published in 2017 by the University of Texas Press.

His presentation is in conjunction with the current history exhibit at the Grace, “We’ve Got Spirit: School Pride.” The exhibit, which will run through August 2027, contains memorabilia from area high schools and colleges.

McMurry College School Sweater, circa 1920s, left; Simmons College School Sweater, circa 1924, center; Abilene Christian College School Sweater, 1928, upper right; Simmons College The Bronco Yearbook, 1920, lower right. From Grace Museum exhibit.

Hurd was in Abilene in February 2018 as speaker for the Texas Author Series at the library. Special guests at that presentation were former members of the Woodson High School Eagles football team, among them Rev. Andrew Penns, pastor of Valley View Missionary Baptist Church. 

At that talk, Hurd explained that he was inspired to write the book after attending a Prairie View Interscholastic League coaches hall of fame ceremony in 1997. The league was formed before the University Interscholastic League allowed black schools to be members, beginning in 1967. Prairie View A&M University, northwest of Houston, was the premiere university for black students before integration. 

Michael Hurd

In the talk at the library, Hurd said that the PVIL wasn’t formed to support athletics, but rather to support academics and arts programs.

“It was about education, community, history, and heritage,” he said. 

Hurd, a former sports reporter for the Houston Post, the Austin American-Statesman, and USA Today, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He is an author, historian, and retired director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture at Prairie View A&M University. 

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene