Team of the Century

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Team of the Century The Greatest High School Football Team in Texas

By Al Pickett

Fifty years ago Abilene High School, under legendary Coach Chuck Moser, became a football dynasty in Texas.

Moser moved to Abilene in 1953 at age thirty-four. What followed were seven of the most amazing years in the rich history of Texas high school football. The 1954, 1955, and 1956 teams won state championships. From 1954 to 1957 the Eagles won an incredible forty-nine consecutive games. Abilene captured six district titles in a row in a rugged West Texas league known as the Little Southwest Conference. In Moser’s seven years, Abilene won seventy-eight games and lost only seven.

In its 1999 wrap-up of the twentieth century in Texas, The Dallas Morning News designated the Eagles of 1954–57 as the “Team of the Century” in high school football.

Veteran sports writer Al Pickett explores how Moser worked his magic to galvanize an entire community in support of his program and turn an otherwise ordinary group of high school kids into the best football team in Texas history.