The 1989 high school football season began...

The 1989 high school football season began with a prayer despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on such invocations in three Southern states.

Coach Dub Polson of Marfa, Tex., said before Friday’s game against a team from Eunice, N.M.: “As long as we’re supposed to be a God-fearing nation, I think we’ll always have a prayer.”

The Supreme Court in May refused to review an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that banned organized prayer before football games in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The court ruled that organized prayers delivered over a public address system violated the constitutional amendment requiring separation of church and state.