Conroe, TX: Davy Crockett High School's Tiger Stadium
Location: 30.318432, -95.456558
Address: 1100 N Thompson St, Conroe, TX, 77301
Status: Now a parking lot / empty field
Elvis Date: August 24, 1955
I Visited On: July 15, 2023
Photos 1-4
Site history
The school was built in 1926 as Davy Crockett High School with the Tiger Stadium/football field in the back. In 1964, the city built Conroe High School and a new football field off of Highway 105 to replace the smaller Davy Crockett High School and Stadium; with this, Davy Crockett HS’s name was changed to William B. Travis Junior High School, then William B. Travis Intermediate School (what it is today). Sam Houston Elementary School was built beside Travis in 2007, and around that time, Tiger Stadium was demolished and half the field became a parking lot, while the other half is an empty field waiting for a playground.
Photos 5-6
Elvis at Tiger Stadium
The performance was planned for a Wednesday, which isn’t the best day to draw a big crowd, so the Hayride put out some radio ads in Houston that morning and afternoon, hoping it would help the event’s attendance.
Horace Logan was the emcee for this performance, as well as a number of others for Elvis and the Louisiana Hayride, and while they were setting up that afternoon for the show that night, a man named George Jones showed up and asked to talk to Horace, who later recalled, “He was young and kind of skinny with a crew-cut, and he looked to me like he was still in his teens, although I found out later, he was actually 24-years-old and a Marine Corps Veteran.” At the time, George was signed on with H.W. Daily’s Starday label, a label Horace was vaguely familiar with and he knew Daily wouldn’t sign on someone with no talent, so he told George he could open the show that night.
Another opener for the show was Mary McCoy Coker (pictured), a local Conroe legend and radio personality on KMCO since age 12–she had her own daily half-hour show where she played guitar for the first 15 minutes and deejayed for the last 15 minutes. When the Louisiana Hayride was traveling around in ‘55, Mary was in Dallas appearing at the Big D Jamboree in Dallas, but she came down to perform with the Hayride in Shreveport, and it’s there that she first met and shared the stage with Elvis, Jim Reeves, and The Browns, among others. At the Conroe performance, she was backed by Scotty and Bill, who she had on KMCO for a live radio interview earlier that day.
Regardless of attendance doubts, hundreds of screaming fans came to Tiger Stadium that night to see Elvis and the others. For his grand entrance, Elvis circled the stadium in his pink and black Cadillac, but within minutes, Elvis gave everyone a huge scare. The stage that night consisted of 2 flatbed trucks side-by-side; when Elvis was leaping up to the flatbed trailer, he tripped and hit his head. Horace said, “We had quite a scare that night, as it turned out. He knocked himself out cold, and we had to delay the start of the show for about 10 minutes until we could get him conscious and make sure he wasn’t seriously hurt. When he sat up and shook his head and said he was okay, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.” And, regarding Elvis’ fall, Mary said, “I don’t know how he performed that night with a huge goose egg on his forehead, but he didn’t disappoint the fans.”
Photos 7-9 & 10 & 11-13
*Black & white photos are all c.1955
*Color photos were taken in July 2023
Sources:
Photo Sources:
Opening photos (pictures 1-4), credited it me - July 15, 2023
Aerials photos of school (5-6), credited to Google Maps, early 2000s and 2023
Tiger Stadium stands & full-view of school c.1955 (7-8), credited to Montgomery County Library Genealogy Department
Front of Davy Crockett High School c.1955 (9), credited to Sally Copley at the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County, TX
Elvis and Mary McCoy (10), credited to Mary McCoy
Elvis, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and DJ Fontana on stage at Tiger Stadium on August 24, 1955 (11), credited to Mary McCoy
Elvis with fans at Tiger Stadium on August 24, 1955 (12), credited to the City of Conroe
Elvis with Barbara and Charlotte Dampier on August 24, 1955 (13), credited to Suzanna Finstad's Child Bride
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