Texas Bowl

The Texas Bowl Committee will honor past football greats from the state of Texas during the Texans game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, August 28.

The 2008 Texas Bowl Gridiron Legends class includes Jackie Sherrill, Mickey Herskowitz, Ecomet Burley, Ken Burrough and Jack Pardee.

A star player at Lufkin High School and a Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Burley went on to play for six seasons in the Canadian Football League. As a principal and superintendant in local middle and high schools, he developed a reputation for turning around troubled schools.

After an All-America career at Texas Southern, Burrough helped transform the 1970s Houston Oilers into the “Luv ya Blue” era. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection during his time with the Oilers.

Herskowitz covered local and national sports for the Houston Chronicle and Houston Post for over 50 years. He also won many awards for his sports journalism and was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.

Pardee played for coach “Bear” Bryant’s famed Junction Boys at Texas A&M where he earned All-America honors. Pardee spent a great deal of his coaching career in Houston, first with the Houston Gamblers of the USFL, then at the University of Houston and ultimately with the Houston Oilers.

As head coach at Texas A&M, Sherrill started the legendary “12th Man” kickoff team and built the Aggies into a national powerhouse in the 1980s. Sherrill guided the Aggies to a 52–28–1 record and three Southwest Conference titles in seven years.