In a town like Odessa, football came first, and academics came second. There was no such thing as Pass to Play. At Odessa, if you were a good football player, if you contributed to the team in a positive manner, you were going to pass, and you were going to play. Academics was not something that was important to the school. As long as the team was winning and being successful every year, then it did not matter whether they were going to class or not.