Over Time
Whatever happened to the Permian High School Panthers made famous—and infamous— by Friday Night Lights? They turned the page.
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Chad and Tracy Payne
They were high school sweethearts who started dating the summer before their senior year. He was a starting linebacker; she never missed a game.
Since then: They married in June 1990 and chose to remain in Odessa, where she studied accounting at Odessa College and he supported them by working for his dad at Seacoast Machine.
Now: He’s a foreman at Westech Seal. She’s an accountant at Cumulus Broadcasting. They have two daughters: Britni, who is eight, and Micailie, who is six. And they still have season tickets to Panther games.
What he remembers about that season: “The big one we lost against Carter. You know how those bad memories stick in your mind. But I don’t think they were the best team we played. Marshall was, and that was another close game we lost.”
Their opinion of the book: Tracy: “We were most upset about the negative impression it gave the football team and the whole town.” Chad: “Having Buzz down here made you feel more important than you were. People put too much trust in him.”
Gary Gaines
In Gaines’ first season as head coach, Permian won seven games but failed to make the playoffs. Fans responded by planting For Sale signs in his yard. Three years later, though, all was forgiven: In 1989 the Panthers went undefeated, bringing home the school’s fifth state championship trophy and earning the title of national champs.
Since then: In 1990 Gaines became an assistant at Texas Tech. He returned to the high school game in 1994, when he took over at Abilene High.
Now: In his twenty-ninth year of coaching, he’s the head coach at Central High School in San Angelo.
What he remembers about that season: “We finished the regular season tied with Midland High and Midland Lee, but only two teams could go to the playoffs. I drove to a truck stop in the middle of the night, met the other coaches, and we each flipped a coin to see who was out. As I recall, my coin ended up on the other side of the room. Man, was I glad that it came up our way.”
His opinion of the book: “Buzz said he wanted to write about how football brought a community together, and I’m disappointed that he failed to focus on the positive aspects of the program. I don’t have any apologies to make for that team, and I enjoyed coaching in Odessa.”
James “Boobie” Miles
Miles was going to be the Panthers’ star running back his senior year, and he was recruited by such schools as UCLA, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma. But a career-ending injury in a meaningless preseason game wrecked those dreams. In frustration, he would quit the team with just one game left in the regular season.
Since then: He tried to play ball at Ranger Junior College, but he wasn’t the same athlete. He has looked for work in Dallas and Atlanta, but “something always leads me back to Odessa,” he says.
Now: He’s a maintenance worker at a friend’s barbershop. He and his wife, Shalay, have two children: Jatashia, who is three, and Joe Angel, who is two. They are expecting twins in December.
What he remembers about that season: “The play during that scrimmage against Palo Duro, the one that busted my knee. You know, it’s still killing me. I just wanted to play football, go to Nebraska, and make the NFL. Now I regret the whole thing.”
His opinion of the book: “I think Buzz put it down just like people said it, and I think a lot of people were surprised they got quoted.”
Don Billingsley
After growing up in Oklahoma with his mother, Billingsley moved to Odessa to live with his father after his freshman year in high school. He did it, he says, so he could play football for Permian. He wanted to be a Panther tailback, just as his dad had been in the sixties. “My whole family went to Permian,” he says.
Since then: He attended East Central Oklahoma State University in Ada, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and a master’s in counseling.
Now: In April he married his girlfriend, Melanie Fannin, and they moved to Dallas, where he works as a mental health counselor.
What he remembers about that season: “After we beat San Angelo in the final regular season game, some of the guys on the bus ride back had radios, so we listened to the coin toss. All the work that went into that season, all of those hours spent at the field house, and going to the playoffs came down to that. We were tense, nervous, and quiet: You could hear a pin drop. And when we found out, everybody just went nuts.”
His opinion of the book: “I’m glad that Buzz wrote it. For him to just focus on five or six guys, and for him to choose me, I feel really fortunate. It’s like a living annual. Of course, he didn’t get everything right: I fumbled only twice that season.”
Jerrod McDougal
A bruising, undersized offensive tackle, McDougal played with more heart than anyone. And, as a famous picture from the book shows, no one took the loss to Midland Lee more personally.
Since then: “For a few years afterward,” he says, “I just isolated myself and buried my head in the sand.” In fact, he did what a lot of people thought he’d do: He went to work at his father’s company, M&P Construction, which is based in Crane.
Now: This spring he moved to Bandera to work at Roger Stevens, a soil conservation company his father recently acquired. He takes night classes when he can, and one day he hopes to become a coach.
What he remembers about that season: “At the Carter game, the officials in Austin asked if we wanted ball dryers. Ball dryers! We never had to have ball dryers; it never rains in Odessa. So hardheaded Gaines told them, ‘No, we don’t need them.’ Carter got all our dryers, and the ball weighed, like, fifty pounds. Our quarterback couldn’t throw it.”
His opinion of the book: “I didn’t want Buzz there. As flattering as it was, he was a distraction. I’d heard that it was gonna be controversial, so the first time I read it, all I looked for were lies. But I couldn’t find one. I cried the whole way through it.”
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