Chances are you are you wearing something that is the product of a crop that millions of Americans in the South and the United States have picked, harvested, and planted for over 300 years.

Cotton.

Many songs have been written about it, especially if it was by a person who picked cotton as a kid. My Great grandfather picked it from the time he could walk until his hard work and education led him to North Texas State and then East Texas State. If you go up to Lubbock through US Route 84, you will see literally thousands of acres of cotton still being planted, harvested, and sent to textile mills all across the world to keep up with demand. Hunt County and much of Northeast Texas, because of the rich blackland dirt was a great place to plant this “cash crop” as were many places in the deep south. It has a deep history and many people made their living just to put a roof over their head and food on the table on this crop before industrialization and the progress of Texas becoming less agricultural and more commercial and industrial.

That said, there is a monument that is in the heart of Dallas that pays homage to that history and that is the great Cotton Bowl Stadium. It is a piece of college football lore, and Texas football lore. Before the Dallas Cowboys played at Texas Stadium in the 1970’s, they played in the Cotton Bowl for a decade. When Major League Soccer came to Texas, the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) played their home games there, and when the 1994 World Cup was hosted by the United States, The Cotton Bowl played host to several matches in that Summer of ’94, and it also plays host to State Fair Classic where HBCU and SWAC blood rivals Grambling State and Prairie View A&M meet up and not only battle on the field during the game, but during the halftime as the two amazing bands for both schools rock the house and make the environment that much more exciting and brings 10 million dollars of revenue to the city of Dallas during that weekend, and of course, the biggest game in Texas all year, the Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma.

When it comes to East Texas A&M’s history in this storied football cathedral, it has been a mostly solid one. The Lions first played West Texas State in the 1948 season and defeated the Buffs 13-7. Two years later, they met Austin College for a neutral site game and defeated the Kangaroos 40-15 during the 1950 season. The Lions would not return to the Cotton Bowl until 1974 where they started a 4 game agreement against Prairie View A&M, a matchup the Lions won every season by scores of 26-0 in 1974, 42-19 in 1975, 35-27 in 1976, and 38-10 in 1977.

31 years later, under the direction of then Athletic Director Carlton Cooper, the ETAMU football program decided to play one home game a year against a pre-determined Lone Star Conference foe in the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair. The first game was against East Central Oklahoma and was a true neutral site game as the Cotton Bowl is roughly 55-60 miles from Commerce and 160 miles from Ada, Oklahoma, where ECU was located. I have been critical of Cooper, but this one of his great ideas, and something I wished would have stayed. The first game drew 10,000 fans, many seeing the Cotton Bowl for the first time ever. It was a way to reach out to the alums in DFW, to the community that Harvey Martin grew up in, and also a way to expose Division II football players to a grand scale stadium. 2009 would see one of the most thrilling but heartbreaking losses in Lion history, as the Lions lost in overtime to an Abilene Christian team, ranked # 1 in the country, that nobody gave them a chance to beat in a cold, rain soaked day that resulted in a 20-13 ACU win. 7,200 fans showed up for that game, and in the final Harvey Martin Classic in 2010, the Lions fell to Angelo State 31-10 in front of a mostly empty stadium. That was the final neutral site game the Lions would play in Dallas as The Lone Star Conference, swayed by Jerry Jones’ checkbook, decided to host 4 games in AT&T Stadium in Arlington as part of the Lone Star Conference Classic, with the Lions going 2-2. It was my first time to see a game in JerryWorld, and my gosh was a stadium it is, but nothing beats the nostalgia of a hollowed stadium like the Cotton Bowl.

With so many teams playing at Cowboys owned stadiums, why not play a game in a stadium that has so much history and prestige behind it? NFL games have been played there, national champions have been crowned there. One of the things that I was told by a former Lion player is that one of the reasons they enjoy playing major FBS Schools is because it gives them exposure to play in a major stadium that seats tens of thousands of fans, and gives them that experience. If an FCS or DII University in California had the chance to play one game annually in the Rose Bowl, don’t you think they would take it? I have no doubt they would. A beautiful fall day where tailgating would be in the state fair parking lot? Talk about fun.

When I discussed this with some people, one person who played for the Lions back in the 2000’s had grandparents that lived there for 30 years. He told me that he felt like unless there was a heavy police presence and it was a daytime game, it wouldn’t be safe. He knows far more about Fair Park than I do since he spent most of his childhood there, and I know enough, but the OU/TX games and the State Fair Classic usually go on without a hiccup, why not us? Bring enough police presence, do what is needed to keep everyone safe, and I don’t see a reason why there would be some inordinate risk to playing there. Would have a tremendous opportunity for recruiting in DFW and show the strong ties that the Cotton Bowl has with Lion football. I say pick a game during the state fair, and lets play some football and if you build it, they will come. It’s not like there isn’t plenty of room, and forget about playing in Arlington or Frisco. Those places are nothing more than carney acts built by Jerry Jones, but the Cotton Bowl, that was built by Texan grit and greatness and is a monument to all of those things, and this is something money can’t buy, even Jerry Jones’ money.