Odessa Permian vs. Plano and the Friday Night Lights connection

The 5th Annual Jerry Jones Classic pitted two programs that had a connection dating back years

Odessa Permian played Plano Aug. 30 in the 5th Annual Jerry Jones Classic in Frisco. The high school is known for being the school featured in the 2004 movie "Friday Night Lights." / Cody Thorn

The 5th Annual Jerry Jones Classic, for the first time, featured a team from West Texas during the Aug. 30 football game.

Odessa Permian made the nearly 6-hour trek to the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco. Plano secured a 27-17 win over the Panthers during the game.

Related: Plano beats Odessa Permian in Texas high school football opener at the Jerry Jones Classic: Live score recap

Permian is the school featured in a 1990 book written by H.G. Bissinger, called “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream.”

The 1990 book actually focused on the Permian Panthers’ 1988 season, which ended with a loss to Dallas David W. Carter High School in the semifinals. 

The book was a New York Times bestseller.

It later spurred "Friday Night Lights", a movie featuring Billy Bob Thornton as head coach Gary Gaines in 2004. It depicted life in the West Texas town that not only focused on football, but also the socio-economic surroundings of the town and the football-crazed culture. 

The latest matchup 

The game Aug. 30 in Frisco had some interesting connections between Plano and Odessa Permian that date back years.

Permian won a state title in 1984 and lost in 1985. The next time the Panthers reached the semifinals came in 1987, but Plano won 29-21.

The Panthers reached the finals in 1989 and 1991 — but missed the playoffs entirely in 1990 — winning both games and Aldine and San Antonio Marshall, respectively

Permian made the playoffs again in 1994, but lost in the semifinals to Plano, 10-0. Plano would win the state title that year.

Permian made the finals in 1995 and lost. The Panthers haven’t been back to the semifinals since.

Ratliff Stadium, shown in the 2004 movie "Friday Night Lights," is the home field of Odessa and Odessa Permian. / Shad Powers/The Desert Sun

Movie/TV connection 

Gaines had two stints as the head coach of the Panthers, first from 1986 to 1989, before getting a college job with Texas Tech in 1990. He was 46-7-1 in that span and won the state title in 1989.

He returned to guide the Panthers from 2009-12. The legendary coach, a Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Famer, died in 2022 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2017.

One of the characters in the movie was John Aubrey, an Odessa Permian high school booster/fan who told Gaines [Thornton], “Everything's going to be just fine. Everything's all right as long as we win state,” in the movie.

Aubrey was played by Brad Leland Williams, but he goes by Brad Leland as an actor.

Leland would later become Buddy Garrity, also a high school booster, when NBC turned the movie "Friday Night Lights" into a television series focusing on the Dillon Panthers in Dillon, Texas.

So where am I going with this? 

Leland is a guy who definitely has connections to both teams that played Saturday in Frisco. He probably should’ve been the one doing the coin flip because of this connection — and he probably wouldn’t have been booed like the other guy.

Born in Lubbock, Leland and his family would move and he ended up in Plano. He played football at Plano High School for Texas High School Football Hall of Fame coach John Clark, who was 107-17 at the helm of the Wildcats.

Leland was part of the Plano 1971 state championship team, but a knee injury ended his playing career the following season.

An excerpt from the book, “Football and Integration in Plano, Texas – Stay In There Wildcats!” showed that Clark may have provided the push Leland needed to find his success under a different set of lights.

“I stood there, crying my eyes out. I told Coach Clark, ‘I know my knee’s done.’ It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. I’d never quit anything in my life. But the coach said, ‘Brad, you’re a good actor. You go and pursue that. But if you ever feel like you’re ready to go, your locker is always there. You know you love acting – go get it, son.’ “

As the late Paul Harvey often said, now you know the rest of the story.