. Language Francisco de Villagra Earl Campbell the "Tyler Rose" played football for John Tyler High in Tyler before playing for the Texas Longhorns and the Houston Oilers Don Meredith who famously played for the Dallas Cowboys played at Mt Vernon Dez Bryant a football player from Lufkin formerly played wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys before signing with the New Orleans Saints (then getting injured three days afterwards) Adrian Peterson a star running back for the Minnesota Vikings played high-school football in Palestine Other high-school sports are popular in East Texas including basketball baseball volleyball softball and track. 10.5.2.1 Vaccination policy Bus stop in Houston 1956 3.2 Sports and outdoors.
. . Statehood The Praetorian Building in Dallas completed 1909 was the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi and the tallest in Texas, In 1940 Houston was a city of 400,000 population dependent on shipping and oil the war dramatically expanded the city's economic base thanks to massive federal spending Energetic entrepreneurs most notably George Brown James Elkins and James Abercrombie landed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal wartime investment in technologically complex facilities Houston oil companies moved from being mere refiners and became sophisticated producers of petrochemicals Especially important were synthetic rubber and high octane fuel which retained their importance after the war the war moved the natural gas industry from a minor factor to a major energy source; Houston became a major hub when a local firm purchased the federally-financed Inch pipelines Other major growth industries included steel munitions and shipbuilding Tens of thousands of new migrants streamed in from rural areas straining the city's housing supply and the city's ability to provide local transit and schools For the first time high paying jobs went to large numbers of women blacks and Mexican Americans the city's African American community emboldened by their newfound prosperity became a hotbed of civil rights agitation; the Smith v Allwright Supreme Court decision on voting rights was backed and funded by local blacks in this period.[page needed]. .
The Berry Patch Pro Child Care Center