Since 2012, Mansfield has held its St. Paddy’s Pickle Parade and Palooza, organized by the all-volunteer nonprofit group Pickled Mansfield Society.

The North Texas city is known as the “Pickle Capital of Texas,” but it shares part of its history with Fort Worth.

Mansfield’s history with pickles actually starts with mayonnaise and salad dressing.

In 1924, resident Mildred Dalton made mayonnaise with egg yolks leftover from baking and her husband Jessie Otis Dalton, a Fort Worth grocery store owner, started selling it in his store.

Mansfield Historical Museum and Heritage Center records indicate Jessie Dalton’s grocery store was located on Magnolia Avenue, museum manager Jessica Baber said.

After the mayonnaise success, the Daltons started “Mrs. Dalton’s Salad Dressing” and opened a small factory where they made jars of pickles and condiments to sell.

This line of pickles and condiments became known as the brand Best Maid Products.

“They were Mansfield residents and the brand got its start here, the company got its start here in their house,” Baber said.

In 1979, the J.O. and Mildred Dalton Endowed Scholarship was established at Texas Tech University in honor of the Best Maid founders. The scholarship is awarded to a Food Technology major with a minimum 2.0 GPA or in the upper 25 percent of their class if they’re an incoming freshman.

Today, Best Maid is still owned by the Dalton family.

Best Maid is based in Fort Worth, the city where the Daltons sold their condiments. The headquarters are located at 1401 S. Riverside Dr.

Fort Worth may not be the “Pickle Capital of Texas” but pickles still hold a special place in Cowtown.

The Best Maid Pickle Emporium is located at 829 W. Vickery Blvd. and sells Best Maid merchandise and, of course, pickles.

Martin House Brewing Company introduced its Best Maid Sour Pickle Beer in 2019. The Fort Worth brewery also sells Best Maid Spicy Pickle, Bloody Mary, Chamoy Drip and Bread-N-Butters beer which can be bought at H-E-B in a variety pack.

While Best Maid is based in Fort Worth, Mansfield was named the Pickle Capital of Texas in 2013 by the 83rd Legislature.

Mansfield’s status as the birthplace of Best Maid and its Pickle Parade and Palooza distinguishes the community as the home of a pickle brand. The legislature said the city’s association with pickles qualified Mansfield for the designation.

This story was originally published March 16, 2023, 4:00 AM.

A new mixed-use project with a price tag of up to $500 million promises to bring development of a scope previously unseen in Mansfield.

Chisholm Flats has staked out a 54-acre site for the project, located at the northeast corner of Lone Star Road and Highway 287. The expansive development, called the Village at Southpointe, boasts offerings including medical office, upscale multifamily and restaurant and retail space.

The Village at Southpointe will create an anticipated 637 new jobs, according to information provided by Chisholm Flats.

The city has backed the project with incentives including a TIRZ reimbursement and Chapter 380 economic development agreement. The project will feature extensive civic plaza space, and city documents point to the upcoming site as a likely entertainment destination.

PHOTOS: $500 million development coming to Mansfield

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Chisholm Flats

The development is projected to generate $64.6 million in ad-valorem revenue over the next 30 years for the city. PlainsCapital Bank is providing debt for the project and Chisholm Flats isn’t using outside equity.

Upon completion, the Village at Southpointe will feature between 800 and 1,000 multifamily units, between 80,000 to 100,000 square feet of medical office space and restaurant and retail space designed to recruit destination dining. Boutique hotel and corporate office development are also on the table. The final amount that developers are projecting to spend on the project will be between $350 and $500 million.

“There will be nothing like it in Mansfield,” said Dave Berzina, partner at Chisholm Flats.

Berzina heads the company along with Robert Jonas, also a partner at Chisholm Flats. Berzina previously worked with the Fort Worth Chamber, and Jonas has worked as a developer and lawyer.

When the duo got together to start developing, the first thing they did was drive around for hours on end looking for sites. They found the property in Mansfield during one of those car rides.

A Chicago-based firm previously owned the site. That firm’s forte was residential, and the company knew the site was better suited for commercial development.

Once the Chisholm Flats started working with the city for the eventual development, it became clear that the original zoning for the site didn’t work and ran counter to what the city wanted to see on the property. Together, Chisholm Flats and the City of Mansfield worked to create an updated plan for the land.

“Thankfully, the city was willing to work with us in getting some higher value zoning on the site for some multifamily to bring some density,” said South Cole, principal at Apogee Partners and project manager for the development. “They had an appetite for some nicer commercial on site, which we knew would require the density. It was a pretty big ask from the city, but also a pretty big offer from the city.”

The zoning process was extensive, but the final zoning for the site allows for more density than what's typical. Chisholm Flats had to shoulder the carrying costs, but the city was an active partner.

“It’s definitely a very engaged city council and city management staff,” Cole said.

Chisholm Flats had to give up millions of dollars worth of potential development to include the core civic space within the project. The project will feature an extensive walkway system and architectural features such as a water mill.

“We’re trying to do a really nice job and put in some destination restaurants,” Jonas said. “In order to (get) destination restaurants, you have to have a really nice destination place for them to come to. … That’s why we’re giving up millions of dollars and spending millions of dollars (on) that civic space.”

Mansfield has seen a wave of development activity recently. Admiral Legacy Investments is planning to develop 240,000 square feet of office space in Mansfield, called The Mansfield Innovation Community, or The MIC, which will serve as the epicenter of the Mansfield Innovation Corridor. The city is investing heavily in the deal, intent on fostering significant industry growth in the community.

The city recently passed incentives for a project that could eventually host film production and create over 2,000 full time jobs.

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Mansfield Record

Downtown Mansfield goes green on St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s not just the luck of the Irish or a fear of getting pinched that makes the historic area colorful.

On March 17-18, Mansfield celebrates its status as the Pickle Capital of Texas (unanimously voted by the State Legislature) with the World’s Only St. Paddy’s Pickle Parade & Palooza.

The two-day event brings thousands to the Main Street for beer keg races, a baby parade, pet parade, pickle-eating and pickle-juice drinking contests, Mindy Lu pie-eating contest, food and retail vendors, Pickle Playground, plus live music from Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute band Texas Flood, Mansfield’s own Southern rockers LanceBattalion, Penny & the Flamethrowers and Run 4 Cover.

Action kicks off Friday night with a cornhole tournament, beer keg races and live music, then hits the ground running Saturday morning with the Pickle 10k, 5k and fun run.

The highlight of the event is the Pickle Parade, reigned over by the Pickle Queens, Mansfield’s red-headed well-preserved audacious royalty.

“The Pickle Parade is a must-have experience for all ages,” said Mansfield’s newest Pickle Queen Karen Schrock. “It’s a magical weekend that begins the moment you cross over the bridge on Main Street; you can feel the welcoming atmosphere as if Mansfield itself were saying, ‘Hi! So glad you came!’”

The free event, produced by the all-volunteer non-profit Pickled Mansfield Society, began in 2012 with a group of friends that wanted to put on a quirky, family-friendly parade for their community.

“This event was birthed out of a love for the people of Mansfield which quickly grew, as love does, and each year it continues to embrace all who come to visit,” Schrock said. “Every activity is a beautiful gift to all who participate, and we have something for everyone! From the original gems to the newbie sparkles, the Pickle Queens are more than beauty and bling, we are heart and soul. Every volunteer is energy and devotion. How could you not feel welcomed?

“Come celebrate with us, check out all the fantastic activities, enjoy the live music, savor the amazing food, sign up for the run and the pickle contests, but most of all, come see what love gifted, you’ll be glad you did,” Schrock said. “Don’t forget to bring your friends and family, share the love!”

Free parking is available at Alice Ponder Elementary, Worley Middle School, R.L. Anderson Stadium, and a free shuttle will run from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. from Legacy High School.

For more information, go to pickleparade.org.

No trip through Texas is complete without a taste of brisket and a touch of football talk.

I got healthy servings of both in visiting the state last week to look into the impact Matt Rhule made on its high school coaches and players in his three seasons at Baylor.

Not all that I gathered around Dallas-Fort Worth and areas to the south made it into my story about Rhule’s plan to increase the Huskers’ recruiting presence in Texas. Before the page turns to spring practice, which opens Monday in Lincoln, here’s the most interesting material among the leftovers:

GO DEEPER

Why Matt Rhule is re-prioritizing Texas talent at Nebraska

• I’ve heard the question often asked over the past three months about Rhule’s Year 1 blueprint. Before his second-season jumps in 2014 at Temple and 2018 at Baylor, Rhule’s first teams won two games and one, respectively. Can Nebraska expect something similar in 2023?

Temple, it should be noted, left the Mid-American Conference to compete in the Big East one year before Rhule arrived. Then, it endured another shakeup in his first season as six members of the league, including the Owls, merged with four outsiders to form the American.

Baylor was in worse shape, reeling from scandal as interim coach Jim Grobe tried in 2016 to keep the program viable without the ability to maintain recruiting. When Rhule was hired in December of that year, Baylor, somewhat infamously, counted one commitment in its 2017 recruiting class.

So I asked Joe Martin, executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association, about the condition of the Baylor program when Rhule came on board. Martin, a high school head coach in Texas for 18 years and member of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, lobbied against Rhule in favor of a Texan for the job at Baylor. And Martin received a front-row seat as Rhule attempted to grow his connections in Texas through the influential THSCA.

Martin visited Rhule early in Waco and returned multiple times to watch portions of his spring-practice season.

“I thought there were several high school teams that could have beaten them at that point,” Martin said. “The talent did not meet the eye test, walking in the indoor (facility) and watching them.”

Nebraska, clearly, finds itself in a better spot.

• Within a year at Baylor, Martin said, it all changed. But how?

Rhule’s commitment to teaching stuck with Martin after his first visit to practice. Rhule stopped drills and brought the team together to talk about his expectations, regardless of their talent deficiencies. He preached aggressiveness.

On Martin’s second visit that spring of 2017, he said Rhule “had those kids believing in him.”

“He created a culture of working hard and believing in each other and being a good teammate through all the things he did in practice and off the field,” Martin said. “He has a real unique way of commanding the room with these kids — and them believing it.

“It should be pretty easy as a kid to believe in Matt Rhule today. When he got to Baylor? Maybe. But now, he’s been where they want to go, and he knows how it works. For kids to buy into what’s going on at Nebraska should be easy and automatic.”

• Martin’s son, incidentally, works for Rhule at Nebraska as a special teams analyst. Josh Martin coached last season at Little Elm (Texas) High School after 11 years as a college assistant coach, including four years as the tight ends coach at SMU.

Rhule also hired Garret McGuire, the son of Joey McGuire, as receivers coach. Joey McGuire went from Cedar Hill High School to Baylor in 2017 and took over at Texas Tech last season.

There’s another Texas family connection on Rhule’s staff in Sydney James Hulme, hired from Ole Miss to work in operations and coaching support. Hulme is the daughter of Jeff Hulme, the coach at Mansfield (Texas) Legacy. Jeff Hulme coached at Waco Midway, the district in which Rhule and his family lived, during Rhule’s time at Baylor.

Hulme liked Rhule enough to endorse the long-distance move of his daughter.

“He seems comfortable enough where he can handle about any situation,” Jeff Hulme said of Rhule. “If he needs to go hang out with the guys and wear boots and jeans, drink a beer, he can do that. But if needs to go wine and dine the big-time boosters and have a glass of Cabernet, then he can do that, too.”

GO DEEPER

How Matt Rhule's Nebraska staff hires fit his M.O.

• It’s difficult to understate the importance of Rhule’s decision at Baylor to hire Joey McGuire, David Wetzel and Shawn Bell.

Rhule tried at Baylor, too, to hire Bob Wager, the new tight ends coach at Nebraska. McGuire, Wetzel and Bell all served as head coaches at Texas high schools — from the DFW metroplex to the Austin and San Antonio areas, respectively.

“For us,” said Susan Elza, Rhule’s chief of staff at Nebraska and former athletic director for the University Interscholastic League in Texas, “we were like, ‘Wow, he’s putting a lot of trust in people we trust.’”

Said Jeff Hulme: “Everybody was a little nervous when he got the job, just knowing where he came from. But that didn’t last long.”

The McGuire, Wetzel and Bell hires “spoke volumes to the Texas high school coaches,” Hulme said.

Dave Aranda, who replaced Rhule at Baylor in 2020, retained all three of them. Wetzel serves as associate AD for football relations. Bell is the Baylor quarterbacks coach.

It matters for Nebraska because Rhule has followed the same plan in Lincoln, hiring Garret McGuire, Wager, Elza, Josh Martin, Sydney Hulme and director of football relations CJ Cavazos, a Texas Tech graduate.

“He followed the routine that’s made him successful,” Jeff Hulme said. “That’s what good coaches do.”

• Wager’s impact at Arlington Martin was greater than he let on in his introductory interview session at Nebraska last month.

He was a leader within the school district. Wager helped set protocols for students around the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and to raise money through a bond issue for the construction of indoor facilities at several high schools.

When Wager returns to Dallas-Fort Worth as a recruiter for Nebraska, prospects and high school coaches will take notice, according to Martin High senior Jeremiah Charles.

“It’s definitely going to hold weight,” Charles said. “People know his name.”

Charles’ teammate Ismael Smith Flores signed with Nebraska in February. Both players joined the football program at Martin as seniors after focusing on basketball. Wager and his son, Gage, who will walk on at Nebraska, convinced Charles to return to the sport in 2022. He played as a freshman in 2019.

Gage Wager resembles a younger Garret McGuire. They grew up around football as the sons of Texas high school coaches. Gage said before the Nebraska job materialized he and his dad “talked about going to college together.”

The timing worked out well. Gage turned down offers to walk on at Texas and Texas Tech to join his dad in Lincoln. He heads to Nebraska with the intention to serve as a team leader, Gage said, no matter his position — similar to the role that Garret McGuire filled at Baylor.

Could coaching fit into his future? It might, Gage said, but he’s got aspirations in business, too. The younger Wager also recognizes that he’s fortunate with the opportunities presented to him so far in football.

“This is a very special place,” he said of his high school. “And I’m sure Nebraska is a very special place. But if I get into coaching, I know there are places that are not like that.”

(Top photo: Reese Strickland / USA Today)

It’s always difficult to defeat a team three times in the same season as the Mansfield Summit boys basketball team was tasked with on Tuesday night in facing district and cross-town rival Mansfield Timberview.

But the Jaguars were up to the task and even made it look easy.

The Wolves made a game of it early, but in the end Summit, No. 11 in the final Class 5A state poll put out by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, ran away with a 61-37 win in a 5A Region I quarterfinal at Mansfield High School.

“These guys have been here and have been around the block,” said Summit coach Emund Prichett, whose team defeated Timberview by 30 and 20 points in two district games this season. “I knew they were going to be a special group when they came in and if anybody could do it these guys could do it. They’re resilient and they’re tough.”

Summit (32-4) will head to the 5A Region I tournament in Wichita Falls where it will take its third consecutive crack at No. 7 Amarillo (33-4) in the regional semifinals. The Sandies, who defeated Summit 72-65 a year ago and 60-51 in 2021 in the same round, will face off with the Jags at 4 p.m. on Friday at the Yeager Coliseum.

No. 9 Fort Worth Wyatt (20-10) will meet No. 18 El Paso Chapin (29-6) in the second semifinal at 6 p.m.

“The experience we have with all our seniors is really important,” said Summit guard David Terrell one of five seniors on the team, four of which get the majority of the playing time. “We’ve been there against Amarillo and we play them in the next round so it should really be a good game.”

It was a bit of the changing of the guard as Timberview (19-15) has been one of the most dominate teams in the state in Class 5A in recent history.

The Wolves won titles in 2017 and 2019, reached the state semifinals in 2020 and were just about to take the court when the tournament was canceled due to the covid outbreak. Timberview was the state runner up a year ago.

The Wolves raced out to an early 8-2 lead on a lay in and then three pointer both by Christian Jones in front of another three by Tyler Turner at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter.

The Jaguars took an 11-10 lead on a basket by Richard Lemboye off an assist by Terrell with 1:18 left in the first quarter. Summit would never trail again.

Terrell and Lemboye took the game over early in the second quarter. Five of Terrell’s seven first-half assists were to Terrell for point blank shots under the basket. The duo sparked a 14-2 run to give Summit a 30-16 lead with 33 seconds left in the first half.

“It’s tought and I’m glad I don’t have to stop it,” said Prichett of his dynamic duo. “I get to watch it in motion and I don’t have to stop it and it’s a tough thing to stop. They’ve been playing together for a long time, they’re buddies and they trust each other.”

“Richard [Lemboye] and I have been playing together since about the second grade and it feels great to be playing with him still,” said Terrell. “It’s fun playing against those guys over at Timberview. I talk to them every day so it’s fun competing with them.”

Frenck Emmou privided the scoring punch for Summit with a game-high 27, while Terrell provided the spark. Terrell finished with eight assists to go with 10 rebounds, but his three electrifying dunks, as part of his 10-point scoring night, got the crowd in a frenzy.

Lemboye provided the assist on Terrell’s first flush during the 14-2 run that gave the Jags a 20-14 lead. Terrell tomahawked another one down with 58 seconds left in the third quarter to put Summit up 41-27.

Timberview cut the lead to 11 with 7:19 left in the game on a basket by Turner, but Emmou scored 13 points the rest of the way, seven from the free throw line, to put the game out of reach.

Terrell put an exclamation point on the game getting free and driving down the lane for a dunk to provide the final margin.

Lemboye had 18 points for the Jaguars while Emmou pulled down seven boards. Turner finished with 16 points while Jones chipped in 11 for Timberview.

“We had more adversity than anybody knows and even anyone around us knows,” said Timberview coach Matt Workman whose in his first year at the helm of the Wolves after being a long-time assistant at Timberview. “We graduated everybody. We’re super young, but we still had a few really good seniors this year that kept us going for us to get this far.”

Workman pointed out that his team was 5-12 at one point and that pretty much everyone had counted them out, except for the group in the Timberview locker room.

His team had its ups and downs, but bought in and decided to fight and went 14-3 the rest of the way.

“There’s probably only four or five more teams at Timberview that have done more than this team has done,” said Workman. “They kept the bar high. The few seniors that we had played their butts off. Tyler Turner, Amare Momoh and Xavier Johnson deserve a lot of credit.

“Hats off to Summit, they’re tough and they’re good. We didn’t like the way it ended, but it is what it is. Our future is bright.”