MERIDIAN, TEXAS (KXXV) — On October 21, the Meridian ISD Board of Trustees approved two resolutions to rename the athletic facilities at Meridian High School, as announced by Meridian ISD on their social media.
The stadium will be named "Frank Pollard Stadium" and the Track & Field will be "Coach Al Williamson Track & Field".
Frank Pollard, an alumnus of Meridian High School, became the highest scorer at the state track meet in 1976 — he then went to Baylor to play football and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pollard played for nine seasons in the NFL.
Al Williamson was head coach at Meridian from 1967-1977. The boys and girls teams won the state track meet in 1977.
Williamson and his drafting class would design and build Meridian ISD's first track.
In their announcement on social media, Meridian ISD gave this statement:
"Coach Williamson passed away in 2008 but his legacy lives on in the thousands of lives he touched through the years. We have been honored to have Frank Pollard at the stadium now named for him at our homecoming game and our game against Mart. As you can see, he is an inspiration to our current and future Yellow Jackets! I want to thank Mr. Pollard for allowing us the honor of using his name and for coming out to support our Jackets!"
Meridian's last home game of the season will be against Goldthwaite on Friday, November 1.
Alumni and anyone who wears a Meridian shirt will be admitted into the game for free.
