At 3 a.m., Margo Goodwin was sitting in her lawn chair outside the Highland Park ISD administration building.
Highlander Stadium hadn’t yet been constructed, but bonds that would secure the right to buy season tickets were going on sale. The longtime fan wanted to be certain she would have seats when the new home of Highland Park football opened in 1980.
“It’s just fun to see all those young people out there, whether it’s the band, or the Belles, or the football team, or the managers, or the young men who carry the flag when there’s a touchdown made,” said Goodwin, who later served as mayor of Highland Park. “They’re all doing their best and giving it their all.”
Goodwin wasn’t alone — dozens of other fans were there with her, waiting for the opportunity to see the neighborhood kids they’d watched grow up proudly take the field.
“This isn’t just football. It’s supporting the Scots,” explained Mike Boone, who’s been in the stands since he was a student in the 1950s, when he helped radio broadcasters identify the players. “We have an old saying, ‘Once a Scot, always a Scot.’”
Boone started watching the Scots in the wooden stadium. When he had a chance to buy seats in Highlander, he paid a high schooler to wait on his behalf, offering an extra $20 if the student snagged one of the first five spots in line.
“He spent the entire night and was there at 8:15 in the morning in line, in the third or fourth position, and he earned his $20 bonus,” Boone remembered. “But I wasn’t the only one. Other people were doing that. Somebody beat me by three places.”
Cheering for the Scots isn’t just about rejoicing when they win — though they often do, triumphing over teams that are bigger and faster on paper.
It’s about watching them learn the skills they’ll need to succeed as adults: discipline, teamwork, good sportsmanship, and how to accept both victory and defeat with class, Boone said.
“(The coaches) were teaching us more than about football. They really taught us about life,” Boone’s son, Michael, remembered of his time on the Scots football team. “They were just makers of men.”
Michael said that, even though he was never one of the team’s starters, the community’s support made him feel like a king. Today, he has his own season tickets in Highlander Stadium.
“You just get so excited to see these kids, these young men, giving it everything they have,” he said. “They’re good athletes, but in the grand scheme of things, they’re average athletes. They work so well as a team together, and that’s why they win.”
Longtime fan Kay True has had football tickets since the late 1970s.
True watched her daughters cheer for the Scots and her son play football. She kept her seats while she cheered for her two grandsons, who were football players, and two granddaughters, who also cheered.
“It’s like a small town, and everybody sees each other,” True said. “A lot of people don’t even have a player or anybody in school anymore, and they still go.”
Goodwin and her husband continue to be in the stands at Friday night home games, where they get a “tube steak,” her husband’s name for a hot dog, and watch the team, whose members now include one of her grandsons.
“We are very proud of the boys and girls that get out there,” she said, adding that she plans to keep going to games for as long as she can. “It’s just the place to be on a Friday night.”
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