Commerce High School plays it's first true "Home" Game

[TheLionWire]

Commerce TX-As the sun sets over the Blackland Prairies of Northern Hunt County where Texas geography itself changes as East Texas ends and North Texas begins, this 10,000 person town an hour northeast of Dallas and 45 minutes south of Oklahoma gathers in a brand new football stadium to celebrate a new beginning that very few towns would be celebrating, especially a town that has seen football success the way Commerce, Texas has. With a High School that has won 2 Class AAA State Championships and a College across the Highway that has won 2 National Championships, one as recently as 2017, this town has seen it's share of good football, but for the 500 or so students at Commerce High School, this is something they have never experienced, a true football home game. 

Commerce High School's Tiger football team is a tradition rich program that produced former NFL All-Pro and Dallas Cowboys Quarterbacks Coach Wade Wilson, along with All Conference Performer Justin Rogers down the road at Dallas's Southern Methodist University. Wilson was notable in that he took his talents not across North Texas, but across the highway to East Texas State University where he was an NAIA consensus All-American and almost won East Texas State (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) it's second NAIA national title in 1980 and played his home games on the same field in high school as he did in college. When Commerce's Memorial Stadium opened in 1950, a monument war memorial to the 78 East Texas State students that perished in World War II, not only did the college powerhouse play it's games there, but the high school did to, entering into an agreement that lasted for 74 years. Until tonight. 

Commerce High became a powerful Texas program during the 1990's as they won Class AAA state championships in 1999 and 2001 and were state finalists in 1995 and 1997. The immense success during that time invigorated a town as their college's football program was taking a sharp downturn. One Commerce resident who runs a downtown antique store used to joke "We had a lot more people in that stadium for Commerce High's team than the College's program during that time. It was full on Friday nights and empty on Saturdays. Nowhere in America would that be the case except in Commerce, America."

When East Texas State became Texas A&M-Commerce, all the money that one would think would come with joining the A&M system never came and it was never promised, even though some say it was. Some say "the check has been in the mail since 1996." TAMUC's Memorial Stadium was a one sided stadium from 1974-2009, making for some interesting situations. Israel Mathis, who played in the early 2000's said, "It was cheap bermuda grass that was one sided and if you didn't watch where you were walking, you could walk off the track easily and take a bad step and bam, broken ankle. It was pretty tough." 

One former Commerce Coach remembers in 2001 when the top 5 ranked Tigers took on a state ranked Forney team that featured the fastest high school sprinter in the nation as their feature back. "They say that the one sided stadium seats 10,000 people, if it does, we easily had 12-13,000 fans. You had people sitting on the open grass on the opposite side of the field, the streets were blocked off, the main highway was jammed, even the local DFW station came to cover the game and it was bigger than any college game we had seen in a while." 

In 2010, Texas A&M-Commerce renovated Memorial Stadium with new safeplay turf, a large video board and jumbotron, new locker rooms, and the rebuilding of 3,500 new seats to the east side of the stadium with a new press box on the east side of the stadium, but this was when the Tiger program was turning from mighty to mediocre, and also the time Texas A&M-Commerce's program was finding their mojo again. It was clear that the Lion football program was going in a different direction than it's Tiger counterparts. 

Community members in Commerce had long had a good relationship with the University, but there was a belief it was time to make their own moves. In November of 2021, Commerce School District voters passed a 67.5 million dollar bond package that would build a new middle school, renovate their current high school that had been built nearly 25 years ago, new tennis courts, a new fine arts center, softball and baseball field upgrades, all of which were needed greatly. 

The question asked in local coffee shops and donut counters was "how in the world does a high school in Texas pay thousands of dollars to use a stadium that really isn't that great of a college stadium? Much less one that has 2 state championships and has produced NFL players?" The rest of the bond package took care of that. Two years ago what was once a Northeast Texas Blackland grass field is now a multipurpose venue that is used by the CHS football teams for practice and the CHS Marching Band for practice as well. With an artificial surface and a covered field, it is as close to having an indoor facility as you can get without actually having an indoor facility. That facility opened in the Spring of 2023. Then, the CISD voters decided to give the Tigers the one thing they have never had, a stadium of their own. New stands, new press box, new fieldhouse, a new track, a new surface. All of it is new. 

On a warm Mid-September night, The Tigers run out to play Whitesboro. In a back and forth affair, the Tigers lose a tough drawn out game 27-24. But this loss is different. Rather than loading up on a bus to go back to the opposite side of town, the players can find their family and friends, and finally after everyone is ready to go, walk into a fieldhouse and locker room on their campus. On campus. Never sounded better. It may have been a loss, but it was on their field, 74 years in the making. 

Their own home field. 

Photo Credit-Daniel Starks, Commerce High School Graduate and Dalexity Flight.

[chevyman]

Great write up there. Being from Winnsboro, there is a lot of history there between the two teams none more exciting the 3rd round matchup in 2001 with the eventual champion Tigers but also in 2004 when it came a monsoon during the day and by the end of the game there wasnt a green patch of grass left. Looking forward to visiting you guys next week and see the new facilities. Well deserved.

[micotrav]

Congratulations to the Commerce Tigers.  The team of the 90's and the team that went for two, playing for a State Championship, that is a decision that may have been wrong, but was one that I will respect forever. I was there, watching from the stands, great game.  Royse City and Commerce had some great games back in the day. 

It is long overdue that "Tiger Nation" should have their own stadium. I've always thought that, even though some stadiums are too extravagant, but a school's football stadium is their home and are the identity of the team. Commerce has a lot of tradition and their program will thrive again, I'm sure. 

The stadium looks awesome and I know that your school and community are proud as well. 

Go Tigers!