In future Lake Travis football coach Don Cowan’s words, football didn’t yet have the heart of the Lake Travis community.

“Football has been important to people at Lake Travis for a long time, but maybe it wasn’t important to the right people,” Cowan said.

At least one football skeptic got elected to the initial Lake Travis school board. Jackson recalled making his official presentation and budget request for football and being told in no uncertain terms that his plan was off-base.

“In the spring of 1982, a lot of people and most of them on the school board didn’t want us to play football,” Jackson said. “When I made my presentation to the school board about what we needed to do to get football started, I said I needed to order 50 helmets. One school board member, the only woman on the board at the time, stood up and said that, ‘There will never be 50 kids come out for football.’ I wonder where she is today and if anyone’s taken her to see a game today.”