Friday, October 4News That Matters

What is Texas Gamefowl Chicken

When you search for the meaning of “Texas chicken” on Google, you will be provided tons of fried chicken from Texas. If you are a cockfighter living in Manila or any part of Luzon and are looking for a gamefowl to buy, you just used the wrong keyword.

Texas gamefowl meaning in cockfighting vocabulary

In the Philippines, where cockfighting is a multi-billion dollar industry, Filipinos, especially in Tagalog-speaking provinces in Luzon, refer to gamefowl as Texas or teksas. The local term is “manok panabong”, “panabong na manok”, or just “panabong”. However, this is not the case in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. Texas is seldom used. Locals call gamefowl “inog-bulang” in Ilonggo/Hiligaynon or “manok pang bulang” in Cebuano. “Bulang” has two meaning in Hiligaynon (1). cockfight or sabong (2.) gaffe or tari. In short, Texas is not a chicken breed.

sweater-texas-gamefowl
Sweater, a popular “Texas” gamefowl bloodline

Origin of the term “texas chicken” in cockfighting

Texas is always called red junglefowl but is also used in all gamefowls. There is no documented history of why this term refers to gamefowls in the Philippines, but the following is the best possible theory.

Many of the first American breeders that are known today were from Texas. These include but are not limited to Bobby Joe Manziel, Sr., Walter Kelso, Cecil Davis (Red Kelso), Sweater McGinnis (Sweater), and Harold Brown (McLean Hatch).

Bobby Joe Manziel Sr., from Gatesville, Texas, was one of the first Americans to export gamecocks and breeders to the Philippines. Other names on the list became popular bloodlines, especially Kelso, Hatch, and Sweater, which originated from Texas. 

Since early Filipino cockfighters had difficulty memorizing the bloodlines, they just called all imported gamefowls from the US “teksas” and the term just carried from generation to generation.

So, if you are from Luzon and looking to buy a fighting cock online, don’t use Texas chicken” as a keyword when searching online. Instead, use “gamefowl for sale” or “manok panabong for sale” to get the best result. 

Texas or teksas is just a generic term for gamefowls. It’s like using “Colgate” when buying toothpaste, referring to other brands.

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