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Nothing is certain except death and taxes. But in Texas, let's add football to that list. The latter came into question, however, on one fateful day nine years ago when a major holiday interfered with a high school football game. The solution? To simply move the holiday, of course.
It all went down in October 2014 in a town called Decatur, located about 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Halloween fell on a Friday — which put a wrench in the works for some Friday night lights action. The Decatur City Council voted that week to move Halloween up a day to October 30, according to a report from USA TODAY at the time.
Former Decatur Mayor Martin Woodruff was in favor of the change, which was suggested by Police Chief Rex Hoskins at the time, because the Decatur High Eagles had their last home game of the season scheduled for that Friday night, which also happened to be Senior Night. Hoskins said a third of the local police force would be needed at the game; younger kids, too, instead of trick-or-treating.
An old tweet from Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy shared a screenshot of a local newspaper's article from 2014:
The Decatur City Council on Monday voted unanimously to move the city's trick or treat observance to Thursday, Oct. 30, to avoid a conflict with the Eagles' final home football game the following night, Oct. 31. Trick or treaters heading out into the city's neighborhoods after the game would likely be out past midnight and create an unsafe situation, Police Chief Rex Hoskins told the council. Also at the police department's request, the council agreed to designate Deer Park Road as one-way, northbound, between Eagle Drive and Preskitt Road from 5:30 to 10 p.m. that Thursday to help ease traffic problems in some of the city's more popular trick or treating areas.
It looks like the change worked out for the Eagles, who went on to beat Gainesville 29-25 that night.