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1987: Not the best year
Comments 0 | Recommend 01987: Not the best year
The Odessa High Bronchos went 2-6-1 in 1987 while crosstown rivals the Permian Panthers went all the way to state - but fell to Plano in the championship game.
In a story followed around the world, a Midland infant, Jessica McClure, fell into an abandoned water well and was trapped for 59 hours. The rescue attempt united the Permian Basin. A worldwide television audience watched as workers, who normally drilled oil wells, dug a shaft beneath the baby. On Oct. 22 "Baby Jessica" emerged from the well in reasonably good condition, considering her ordeal.
Though it was not a banner year, oil prices stabilized at about $18 a barrel and fostered a mood of mild optimism in a town dependent on the fortune of the oil industry for its financial survival. A recovery that began in May brought back about 700 jobs in Odessa, and helped to reduce an unemployment rate of 14.9 percent in January to 7.8 percent by December. Nevertheless, continuing financial wariness in Odessa may have contributed to the defeat of an $18 million bond issue for the renovation of Ector County Coliseum. The issue failed on Dec. 1, by a vote of 7,160 to 5,085.
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