Local Sports

Tyler Morning Telegraph sports editor Phil Hicks will be honored Saturday at the 29th Annual Prairie View Interscholastic League Coaches Association Banquet in San Antonio.

Hicks is this year’s Media Hall of Fame Inductee.

Robert Brown, PVILCA board chairman, said Hicks was chosen because of his support in covering former PVIL coaches and athletes over the years.

The Hall of Honor and Hall of Fame Banquet is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the Hilton Palacio del Rio, 200 S. Alamo.

Tickets are $40 for adults and $7 for children.

Tylerite Robert Taylor, a 1972 Olympic gold medalist in Munich, was inducted into the Hall of Fame at last year’s ceremony in Fort Worth.

The PVILCA has been honored by the Texas Senate for “preserving the past and remembering the glory years of the Prairie View Interscholastic League.”

According to the University Interscholastic League, the Prairie View Interscholastic League played a leading role in developing African-American students in the arts, literature, athletics and music from the 1920s to 1967 in Texas. The League served as governing body for extra-curricular activities for Texas’ African-American high schools.

Some of the famous PVIL students include the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, and football players Gene Upshaw, Charley Taylor, and Joe Greene.

The PVIL began to merge with the UIL at the start of the 1967-68 school year and disbanded at the end of the 1969-70 school year.

Phil Hicks
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