DQ Big Game of the Week preview: Bay City vs. El Campo

This week’s DQ Big Game of the Week is 114 years in the making! The Bay City Blackcats and the El Campo Ricebirds have been battling since the year Ronald Reagan was BORN! It’s the same year Orville Wright flew over North Carolina for a world’s record 9 minutes (no report if peanuts were served during the flight). But down in the southern part of Texas just off the coast, it was a football rivalry that was flying. It is the oldest continuous rivalry in the Lone Star State; 114 total and 98-straight. Interesting, too, because unlike many of the great state rivalries, these schools and towns are NOT right next to each other. Bay City is a good half hour drive from El Campo, but it sure feels like a good neighborhood knockdown.

It's been fairly even for much of the century as well. However; not as much lately. In fact — not at all! El Campo has won 11 straight games in the series dating back to 2005. That means the last time Bay City won this game these seniors were in Kindergarten. Much of that recent success for ECHS is straight from THSCA Hall of Honor coach Bob Gillis, who made 14 playoff appearances in his 21 years as a head coach in Texas, and led the Ricebirds to the 2012 Class 3A Division I state final.