Michael Norris Photo Illustration / Amarillo Globe-News This year, the Amarillo High Sandies and Tascosa Rebels start their sixth decade of competition.

What Makes a Rivalry?
With apologies to David Letterman, here are the 10 top reasons.

State or national pride, such as Auburn vs. Alabama and USA vs. Russia.

Conference dominance, such as Ohio State vs. Michigan.

Bad blood, such as the Yankees vs. Red Sox ... or is it Giants vs. Redskins?

City bragging rights, such as Cubs vs. White Sox.

Excellence across an era, such as Indianapolis vs. New England.

Getting disrespected, such as an opponent stomping on the Texas Stadium star.

Biggest game of the year in the state, such as Oklahoma vs. Nebraska.

Dislike of one player or coach, such as Bob Knight vs. the world.

The desire to beat the unbeaten, such as taking down Tiger Woods in the final round.

One play, such as the Immaculate Reception from the 1972 Pittsburgh vs. Oakland playoff game.
A rivalry is a stew that can be made with many ingredients. It can be healthy or it can make the blood boil. It can ebb and flow or it be can be a continuous crashing of waves on the rocks.

Rivalries R Us.

"I think they're healthy if they're handled in the right way," said Tex Nolan, Amarillo ISD athletic director.

Former Amarillo High coach Larry Dippel says rivalry games "generate school spirit. It brings out everyone, even more than for a championship game."

He said an old cliché holds true, that a team's record is not important in a rivalry game.

"I've been heavily favored and lost, and I've been the underdog and been able to win. You just look forward to the competition,'' Dippel said.

Canyon ISD Athletic Director Brent McCallie agrees.

"It means a lot to these two schools," he said of Canyon and Randall, whose rivalry game returns after a two-year hiatus. "There's a good feeling about us renewing the game."

Three and three-tenths miles separate Amarillo High, the oldest school in town, and Tascosa, which opened for the 1958-1959 school year. By that time, AHS had won four state football championships. But the Rebels won the first game between the two schools, 28-12, and a rivalry was off and running.

The schools have played 51 times. This year, the Sandies, who own a commanding 32-16-3 record in the series, and Rebels start their sixth decade of competition.

"It's always a good game," said Nolan, who has been with the AISD for 18 years.

Dippel, who participated in 31 Tascosa games, said it's hard to pick out one game over another. However, he remembers his first game in 1975 (a 21-13 Tascosa win). It came after AHS defeated preseason favorite Caprock.

"We were feeling pretty good and Tascosa was struggling," Dippel said. "I came out to Dick Bivins and there were 15,000 people in the stands that Saturday afternoon. I probably wasn't as prepared as I should have been. I was young."

Heath Parker, the current Tascosa coach, said the AHS-Tascosa rivalry is notable because it's a community event.

"The game itself is no different. It doesn't matter if it's Lefors vs. McLean, or Texas vs. Texas A&M," he said. "But the uniqueness to Amarillo is the rivalry goes so deep since you aren't an isolated community. You have third-graders and fourth-graders talking to you about it all. You hear about it all year when you are out."

Parker coached at Pampa against rival Borger. It's a great rivalry but doesn't equal Amarillo-Tascosa.

"With Pampa-Borger, it was over after the game, unless you saw somebody from Borger at the rodeo," he said.

Dippel said the community aspect is what puts the Sandies-Rebels game above others.

"I think it's because they know each other so well. They go to the same churches and to the same schools" before high school. ''Their parents know each other," he said. "I think the familiarity adds to that game."

The AHS-THS game has been preceded by a week of hijinks, officially known as "Spirit Week" but more widely known as "Hell Week."

"The players and the coaches, they both want to win a football game. The other stuff has nothing to do with it," Nolan said. "It's an excuse to be mischievous for a few people. If nothing happened, it still would be a good game."

Sandies coach Brad Thiessen has won his first two games against Tascosa. He already has enjoyed the big game.

"It adds more intensity to the week than normal," he said. The "added things," he said, "drops it down a little bit. But as far as just the game goes, it's a great week."

Perhaps as exciting has been the AHS vs. Palo Duro series, which began the year after PD opened its doors the fall of 1955. After 52 straight years, the series will be suspended this year with the Sandies holding a 28-22-2 record, thanks to winning 14 of the past 17 games.

The Canyon-Perryton rivalry ends after six years because the Eagles are returning to 4A.

Rangers coach Neal Hugg said Perryton, like other schools with smaller enrollments in their 3A district, wanted to beat their former rival.

In 2006, Canyon outlasted Perryton, 35-27, in a game that determined the district champion.

"It was the only Saturday game in the Panhandle and a lot of coaches were able to go," Hugg said. "There was a big crowd, it was for the district championship, it was very exciting."

Canyon won four of the six meetings but Perryton outscored the Eagles, 136-124.

Some rivalry games are hard-earned, some teams give it away. Others go beyond description.

In 2005, Randall missed two extra-point attempts but then hit a field goal with a second to play to edge Canyon, 28-27.

Last fall, Pampa had Borger all but beaten, leading 35-7 in the fourth quarter. But that was before the Bulldogs recovered two onside kicks and stunned the Harvesters with 29 fourth quarter points to pull out a 36-35 win in the final half-minute. It would be Borger's only win of the season.

Because towns in the Panhandle are spread so far apart, the top of Texas perhaps has fewer deep-fried rivalries than other areas of the state. To the south, "The Little Southwest Conference," the district containing Abilene Cooper, Midland Lee and Odessa Permian, for years provided some of the most intense games in Texas high school football history.

Closer to Amarillo, games matching Borger and Pampa, Sunray against Stratford and Valley against Silverton are accentuated because the schools are no more than 30 miles from each other.

Canyon ISD members Canyon and Randall are relatively new rivals. Though Randall opened 20 years ago, the football series began only in 1994 and was suspended after the 2005 game, Randall's last-second win that snapped Canyon's 12-game regular season winning streak.

Canyon trails in the series, 6-5. The 2002 game was called at halftime due to lightning.

McCallie, who was formerly in Dumas and has seen plenty of Randall and Canyon over the years, said hitting the pause button on the game, and that it now counts in district standings, will make this year's matchup more interesting.

"There will be a little more weight on the game. For some kiddos, it'll be their first rivalry game," he said.

Although the Canyon-Randall game went away for a few years, other rivalries have died completely. Changing districts or classifications hurts rivalries.

Closing a school kills a rivalry.

Phillips had many great football teams before the high school closed in 1987. The Blackhawks won the Class 2A championship in 1954 and had winning streaks of 30 and 22 games. For years, Phillips was everyone's rival.

"It is very odd," Kyle Lynch, the Canadian coach who played at Phillips, said about not having a homecoming game to go to. "Phillips had such a rich tradition."

This year, Lynch's Canadian team, which won the 2007 2A state title, will be everyone's rival.

Amarillo High this fall will not play Pampa, ending an annual gridiron battle that was played out 84 times. AHS had room on its schedule for only one nondistrict game before entering district play.

The Sandies vs. Harvesters rivalry dates back to 1921 (a 47-0 Amarillo High win). The teams did not play three years - 1926, 1982 and 1983 - but met three times in 1922.

It was a lopsided series that included district and nondistrict games, with Amarillo winning 62 times.

Amarillo and Lubbock High still battle this fall as members of the new 10-team District 2-5A.

According to Globe-News records, AHS and the Westerners first played in 1916 (a 12-7 Amarillo win), did not play in 1917 because of World War I, and played in 1919 (a 19-2 AHS win) before influenza ended the Sandies' season after two games.

That series is the longest for Amarillo High, continuous since 1924. The Sandies have ruled the South Plains, not losing to the Westerners since 1973 and leading the series 74-13-1.

It's no surprise, then, that AHS has the most playoff appearances of any 5A school (46) and Lubbock High the second-longest playoff drought (32 years).

One common denominator among Panhandle rivalries is that none play for a prize.

West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico, a pair of Lone Star Conference rivals, play for a rustic wagon wheel. Minnesota and Michigan fight long and hard for the Little Brown Jug. In Lubbock, Monterey and Lubbock High have played for the Silver Spurs for 52 years.

However, after Tascosa's shutout win over Amarillo High in 1991, Rebels fans were seen driving around town with a bumper sticker that simply read, "9-0."