by Debbie Z. Harwell Alumni from Yates and Wheatley came to the unveiling of the historical marker for the Turkey Day Classic, which stands on the University of Houston campus at the site where the Turkey Day Classic was played from 1942 to1966. Photo courtesy of the University of Houston. The nation’s biggest high school rivalry football game took place on Thanksgiving Day in the heart of Houston, […]
By: Jorge Palomo While the Turkey Day Classic dominated Jack Yates High School sports history, other athletes and teams, led by outstanding coaches, made historic runs of their own in boys and girls basketball, baseball, track and field, and other sports. In the early twentieth century, Houston’s segregated public schools competed in the Texas Interscholastic League of Colored Schools formed in 1920, which changed its name in 1923 to Prairie View Interscholastic League (PVIL), under the Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View […]
Rx: Public History By Debbie Z. Harwell In 2006 our late oral history director Ernesto Valdes interviewed many people about Houston’s relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. Dr. David Persse, Public Health Authority for the City of Houston and Physician Director for Houston Emergency Medical Services (EMS), told him things turned out very differently than what […]
It has been over 50 years since the last Turkey Day Classic was played, yet still to this day the game is the conversation among Jack Yates and Phyllis Wheatley Alumni alike. The classic initially began as a rotation of holiday games between Yates, Washington, and Wheatley High Schools in 1927. By 1946, the overwhelming […]
Follow