SAN ANGELO, Texas — The Angelo State University Friends of the Porter Henderson Library and West Texas Collection will host a special guest presentation by Michael Hurd, author of "Thursday Night Lights: The Story of Black High School Football in Texas" on Wednesday, April 20, in the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive.
"An Evening with Michael Hurd" will begin at 7 p.m. in the University Center's C.J. Davidson Conference Center and is free and open the public.
Hurd will discuss "Thursday Night Lights," which was named one of the Texas Observer's "30 Best Texas Books for 2010-19."
Also director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture at Prairie View A&M University and managing editor of the Texas Black History Preservation Project (TBHPP), Hurd is regarded as an expert on the history of football programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
He is also the author of:
- "Black College Football: 1892-1992"
- "Collie J., Grambling's Man with the Golden Pen"
In 2007, Hurd joined with award-winning journalist Roxanne Evans to start the TBHPP to comprehensively document the almost 500 years of African American presence in Texas. The TBHPP research is presented as an online encyclopedia.
Also a journalist, Hurd's career spans more than 30 years and includes work for USA Today, the Austin American-Statesman, Yahoo Sports and the Houston Chronicle. According to an ASU press release, he has covered a wide variety of major sports events of the NFL, NBA, NCAA and the Olympics and also researched and written extensively about Texas Black history and the histories and issues regarding HBCUs.
A Vietnam veteran, Hurd received his journalism degree at The University of Texas.