Six-man football

The first game was played on Thursday, September 27, 1934, at the Hebron, Nebraska Athletic Gridiron, with a crowd of almost 1000 watching.

[1] He was an All-American linebacker at Texas A&M University and a two-time All-Pro with the Los Angeles Rams (1963) and the Washington Redskins (1971).

Prior to his NFL career, Sprinkle won three letters in football and two in basketball and earned All-Border Conference while at Hardin–Simmons University in the early 1940s.

He played for twelve seasons with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League and is credited with calling attention to the NFL's defensive players.

His ability to rush opposing quarterbacks, however, made him a defensive specialist, earning four Pro Bowls.

Six-man American football scoring is the same as for eleven men, except on the point after touchdown (PAT) attempt and the field goal.

These rule changes were made because of the difficulty of successfully getting a kick off with so few blockers on the line compared to the number of defenders.

In Canada, a 35-point mercy rule is used that changes the clock to be constantly running rather than ending the game immediately.

The sport is also played by high schools in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming, and in parts of Canada.

As of 2013, no leagues (professional, semiprofessional, or amateur) play the game past the high-school level.

The Arena League plays on a standard indoor American football field but without goalposts (and thus no kicking).

Underwood authored what is considered to be the definitive strategy and play book for the game, Six Man Football, published by Bright Sky Press.

A player during the 1960s and coach of the first Texas State Six-Man Championship team in 1972, Underwood provides a thorough dissertation on the small-town sport from both analytical and historical perspectives.

Another Bright Sky Press book, published in 2003, Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football, is a collection of photographs that capture the spirit of the game and its players.

In 2009, Dee Kelly, wrote a fictional book, A Good Man's Sin, based on a boy moving from the city to the country and playing six-man football in Indian Gap, Texas, before making it to the NFL.

A Texas-6 CBS documentary looks at the 2019 Strawn, Texas Greyhounds, who had won four titles and were trying to repeat with the coach who made it all happen.