For The Amarillo Globe-News, John Mark Beilue has written a remembrance of a bygone place that still holds a lot of nostalgia for some former residents.
Phillips, Texas, was founded near Borger during the heyday of the oil boom in the 1930s. The town swelled in the 1950s with Baptist and Methodist churches and businesses like the Jolly Drug, the 66 Cleaners and the Ostrum Grocery.
The Phillips High School football team became known as a fearsome panhandle powerhouse, racking up a career record of 172 wins and only 23 losses, and winning a state championship in 1954.
But in 1980 a massive explosion at the Phillips oil refinery spelled the beginning of the end for the town. Residents were evicted, and 470 homes were moved to Borger and elsewhere.
The former town now sits behind a security gate, and the football field that saw so much glory has been converted into a parking lot.
