Gov. Abbott honors film produced by Lindale High alumnus

Published 7:00 am Saturday, August 28, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott has officially recognized a movie that a Lindale High School graduate produced telling the story of a Texas orphanage football team’s famous triumphs.

Houston Hill, a 1998 Lindale High alumnus, with his business Santa Rita Film Co. produced “12 Mighty Orphans,” which was released in June. The film features actors Dallas native Luke Wilson, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw and Wayne Knight.

Hill, who lives in Hideaway with his wife and their 2-year-old son, said Texas state legislators were shown the movie at the Paramount Theatre in Austin last month.

“It was really cool to have everyone at the historic Paramount Theatre, and just to have everyone come together, Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “It was pretty special to have them all there in the same room celebrating the movie.”

Hill said Santa Rita Co. received Abbott’s proclamation honoring them last week.

“It’s very cool. We didn’t show the film expecting to get recognition from the governor. It’s a little bit surreal, very exciting,” he said. “It was a tremendous honor to get from the Capitol.”

Because of the proclamation, Hill said the film was marketed to various theater locations for re-release this past weekend. The movie is set to go to digital, DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday.

“12 Mighty Orphans” is about the Mighty Mites, the football team at a Fort Worth orphanage during the Great Depression that went from playing football without shoes to reaching the Texas State Championship game.

The football players gained national attention, including from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, because of their resilience and determination.

Abbott’s proclamation notes that one of Texas’ extraordinary stories is the Mighty Mites and their “unstoppable coach” Russell.

“This real-life legend of orphans is a tale that reflects the values our state and nation were built upon — determination, faith and irrepressible courage,” the proclamation reads. “Their meteoric rise from hardship to hard-won success illustrates the valuable lessons of teamwork and commitment and remains as exceptional an example of Texas’ pioneering spirit today as it was almost 100 years ago.”

Abbott also writes how the writer-director of the film and Santa Rita Co. co-founder, Ty Roberts, was born in Midland.

“‘12 Mighty Orphans’ pairs Texas talent with our robust film industry, and, in doing so, carries on a long legacy of Texans telling Texas’ stories to inspire, captivate and unite us,” the proclamation states. “As you celebrate the release of this film and look forward to new and exciting projects, know that the time and resources you have dedicated to sharing one of this state’s most touching stories of courage and grit will continue to inspire greatness in future generations of Texans.”

Since the movie’s release, Hill said the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“People have seen it two or three times. People seem to be really responding to it and those that wanted a feel-good movie,” Hill said.

He said a lot of high school football teams have seen the movie to get motivated for the upcoming season, including his alma mater.

“Lindale High School took their team to see the movie to kind of get them pumped up for the season. It seems to be all ages responding to the film,” he said.

Hill added making a movie about football was surreal because of his connections to high school and college football.

Growing up, Hill lived in Wills Point and played football. But when his coach Mike Meador accepted a position at Lindale, Hill and his family moved to Lindale to continue Hill’s football career as a quarterback.

After graduation, he moved on to Texas Christian University, where he played football until he was injured. He then began pursuing a film career and graduated from Texas State University with a degree in literature and media studies.

“To make a movie about football in Fort Worth right down from where I was, it’s very strange,” Hill said. “I never would have dreamed that I’d be making a football movie — one like this that had Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall in Fort Worth where I had been a freshman in college 20 years earlier.”

Hill said it’s an honor to be recognized by anyone especially for a movie he and others spent many years working on.

“To be recognized by the governor, it’s a wonderful stamp of approval on projects on stories we want to tell,” he said.

He also really wants to make some East Texas stories, including two planned to begin filming next year.

One is a movie about what happened when Kilgore College put on the play “Angels in America,” which depicts homosexuality and the AIDS crisis, in 1999. The production led to protests from the area and nation, and the county commissioners voted to pull funding from the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Hill said the film will be shot in summer 2022 and be called “Angels in East Texas.”

The other film will be a science fiction drama called “Lazarus” and will be filmed in the first part of next year.

Raquel Torres contributed to this report.