Prior to Pampa’s home opener against Plainview, Thomas, the lone area football player who can boast a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had his high school home field named after him. Thomas, who played three years at Pampa after one year at White Deer, will be forever immortalized at Pampa High, as Harvester Field was renamed Zach Thomas Stadium.
The festivities were about 3 and a half hours total prior to kickoff, starting with a pep rally in the McNeely Fieldhouse where Thomas and his family were recognized.
It capped a fitting year-plus celebration of a remarkable career which began in the Panhandle nearly four decades ago. Thomas was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the summer of 2023, named to the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame a few months ago and Friday night had the field where he played his home games as a Harvester named after him.
That Thomas became the player he was, as a linebacker at Texas Tech and in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins, is owed to his background as a Pampa Harvester, something he hasn’t forgotten.
“At White Deer I learned a lot,” said Thomas, who was a freshman on the 1988 White Deer team which won the 1988 Class A state championship. “I learned how to win. There was a senior class and my brother who taught me a lot, but coming over here to a bigger school, my friend Rob Porter told me ‘You’re no prima donna here.’ It just drove me. If they’re hard on you, they see talent in you.”
The famous focus Thomas displayed as a defender on the field at Tech and Miami for 12 seasons and for a year with the Dallas Cowboys, was developed at Pampa. Thomas never was considered a “specimen” due to a lack of height and a perceived lack of speed, which turned out to be deceptive.
What scouts never seemed to measure with Thomas was heart.
“It might sound a little arrogant, but ever since I played football it was the only thing I was really good at,” Thomas said. “I had so much confidence when I was on the field. Because I was so obsessed with it I tried to better myself every day and that made me so superconfident. I always felt like I was getting doubted and that drove me as well. I look back at it and I couldn’t have had a better path.”
“I’m a Pampa Harvester for life,” Thomas said. “God bless Pampa, Texas, now let’s go win this game.”
Thomas acknowledged that there was some luck involved in his rise to area football legend, starting with those who surrounded him, such as his older brother Bart, and later, Cavalier and his coaching staff in Pampa.
Often hailed as a classic overachiever, Thomas got the most out of his talent at every level. That was the hallmark of his game which developed in the Panhandle.
“This town’s tough,” Thomas said. “I took this town for granted with all the friendliness everybody here has and how they all care for you. It was that window of time and that sacrifice we made at Valhalla (Pampa’s gym) that impacted me for life.”
There was a recounting of what may have been the most memorable hit of his entire career at Harvester Field, when he knocked Hereford quarterback T.J. Head onto the track and out of the game. Thomas says the impact of the hit was exaggerated when it’s said he knocked Head into lane five.
“It gets better every year,” Thomas said.
This past year has been an opportunity for Thomas to recount that story, among others, with former teammates at every level at which he’s played. He’s been recognized near and far for his gridiron exploits as one of the top defensive players of his generation.
Thomas acknowledges that the tales get taller as the years go by and that he valued the camaraderie as much as anything he did on the field.
“That locker room is missed,” Thomas said. “There’s a brotherhood and that’s irreplaceable, so when you get back together again that’s what’s special about football. Being at that pep rally and hearing the band, that just fires you up. It was special to me and it was great for my family to be there because my kids never saw me play.
“The one thing I’m proudest about was being a great teammate. It doesn’t matter if your name is up on a sign or if you’re in the Hall of Fame if you’re all about yourself. I don’t think you can find a person who can say I was a bad teammate.”
While at Pampa High, Thomas did everything he could on the field to be a valuable teammate, and that often meant never leaving the field. He was a two-way starter for the Harvesters and fullback and middle linebacker.
“At the Hall of Fame, I was starstruck when I saw Emmitt Smith,” said Thomas, referring to the Cowboys legendary running back. “I just remember trying to emulate him as a kid in the early 90s running through tackles and I wanted to be that guy. I went to Texas Tech to play fullback and I saw Bam Morris there. He was only a sophomore so I said I’d switch to the defensive side of the ball because I wanted to play.”
Having been through opening games so many times in his career, Thomas didn’t go out of his way to try to deliver an inspirational speech to this year’s Harvesters playing their first home game, not to mention the first game at Zach Thomas Stadium.
“Being the first home game you don’t need too much of a pep talk, but it’s how to be a great teammate,” Thomas said. “That’s what you play for. That’s what you’ll remember in the end.”