ARLINGTON, Texas —Gordon head coach Mike Reed considers himself a student of six-man football.

His first class was in session when he moved to Gordon, Texas, as a high school sophomore and found a lifelong teacher in Nelson Campbell. Campbell was Gordon High School’s head coach for 23 years. When he retired in 2004, he was the winningest six-man coach of all time with a record of 247-61-2. And while they didn’t go on Reed’s record, he’d earned many of them driving around the state scouting for Campbell, drawing plays on a yellow tablet.

Fast forward to 2025, and he has a PhD in six-man football. And at the beginning of this season, he scanned the faces of a senior class that had lost one game since fifth grade, knowing they had a chance to make history.

“We had a goal - to be considered the greatest six-man football team of all-time,” Reed said.

In a 69-22 win over Rankin in the Class 1A DI State Championship Game, the program’s 44th consecutive win, Gordon made quite a case. Of course, Fort Hancock won four straight championships from 1988-91, compared to Gordon’s three from 2023-25. But no team has ever been this dominant.

On Wednesday afternoon, Gordon ran 16 offensive plays for 351 yards, averaging 21.93 yards per play. With nine touchdowns, they scored more times than they were tackled. And the craziest part? Rankin actually put up a better fight than most opponents. The Red Devils were just the third team all year to make Gordon play a third quarter before a 45-point mercy rule.

“Seeing that speed on the field for the first time, I was cutting jokes during the game,” Rankin head coach Garret Avalos said. “Because I’m just like, ‘Man, I don’t know how to help you.”

Avalos isn’t the first coach whose last line of defense was a laugh. If you combined all the drives from Gordon’s three championship wins, Gordon failed to score once.

The Longhorns have two Division I football players on the roster.

Stryker Reed, an Air Force commit and Coach Reed’s son, touched the ball 66 times the entire year and scored 34 times; that’s 52 percent of the time he touched the ball. His final game was no different, earning Offensive MVP honors after rushing for 160 yards and four touchdowns on seven carries. He also completed two passes for 53 yards.

Ry Reed (no relation), an Army commit and son of assistant coach Shad Reed, finished his senior season with 27 touchdowns on 57 touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Brayden Walters, a third player who’s received significant college interest, earned the game’s Defensive MVP with 11 tackles, an interception and a tackle for loss.

While Gordon’s stats suggest they’re the greatest six-man team of all-time, Coach Reed wasn’t willing to concede that it was the best team he’s coached of all time.

“Man, I don’t know, our defense was pretty good last year,” Reed said. “It’ll be a lot of fire pit talks that we’ll have when these guys grow up and come back.”

In a way, Gordon’s third state championship celebration was the most reserved yet. They knew these were the good old days they’d talk about for the rest of their lives.

“When you go to a theater and finish a movie, you’re like, ‘Man, I wish I could go back and relive that,’” Stryker said. “Well, the credits are rolling and it’s time for a new movie.”

But this third championship will stick with the Gordon community long after the house lights have come on.

On May 18, an EF1 tornado with wind speeds up to 105 miles per hour devastated their town of 495 people. The school, which this community revolves around, was hit the hardest. Facilities were destroyed. Coaches’ meetings moved to a portable instead of a fieldhouse. Workouts were held at a car dealership rather than a weight room.

But as the football team began picking up the pieces of their lives, they realized they were building back stronger than before.

“If you can trust them to come out and help rebuild your house and clean stuff off your yard, then you can trust them to pick up a route you’re passing off to them and fill the right gaps,” Stryker said.

And if you couldn’t stop Gordon’s six-man football team before, there wasn’t a chance they could be stopped with a town of hundreds behind them.

“Our whole community had our back,” Ry Reed said. “They were willing to go fight for us. So we’re willing to go fight for them.”

So maybe this third championship trophy’s biggest impact wasn’t propelling Gordon to become the greatest six-man football team of all time, but rather honoring the resilient community that built them.

BOX SCORE

Rankin Passing

Rankin Rushing

Rankin Receiving

Rankin Defense

Gordon Passing

Gordon Rushing

Gordon Receiving

Gordon Defense