Six-man football is played by schools that often have fewer students than a big-city high school has on its football roster. That makes it all the more remarkable when a six-man player reaches the NFL. Two Texans stand out.
Jack Pardee: Christoval to the College Football Hall of Fame
Jack Pardee (1936–2013) started his football career as a teenager in Christoval, Texas, where he starred on the six-man team. He went on to Texas A&M, where he became an All-American linebacker, and then to the NFL, earning All-Pro honors with the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins.
His coaching career may be even more unusual. Pardee became the only head coach to lead teams in college football, the NFL, the USFL, the World Football League and the Canadian Football League. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986. People who knew him often pointed to his six-man roots: in a wide-open game where every player does everything, you learn to read the whole field.
Ed Sprinkle: “The Meanest Man in Pro Football”
Ed Sprinkle (1923–2014) played six-man football at Tuscola High School in 1939. After college at Hardin–Simmons and the U.S. Naval Academy, he joined the Chicago Bears and played twelve seasons in the NFL. Known as “The Claw,” he earned a reputation as one of the most feared pass rushers of his era and is credited with drawing attention to defensive players at a time when offense got all the headlines.
What six-man teaches
Six-man players rarely get to specialize. The same player might take a snap, catch a pass, return a kick and play defense on the next series. That versatility, plus the open-field tackling the game demands, is a big part of why coaches respect six-man athletes.
Most six-man players will never play college or professional football, and that was never the point. Stephen Epler invented the game so that small-town kids could play at all. Still, every so often, a player from a town of a few hundred people shows the rest of football what the six-man game can produce.
More history: From Hebron, Nebraska to Texas Friday nights.
Sources
- Six-man football overview, Wikipedia (player biographies)
- College Football Hall of Fame records