October—Means—RIVALARY!

When the month of October hits, it usually means that football rivalries are renewed, and that the blood runs to a boiling point, and it spills out onto a gridiron!

Well not sure about the blood boiling part, but can assure you that the rivalry between schools are alive and well in Texas!

Every Second Saturday of the State Fair Of Texas, the rivalry between the institutions of the University of Texas and Oklahoma University, find themselves center stage on the field inside the Grand Dame herself, The Cotton Bowl!

A stadium in a city that is neutral between Austin, Texas and Norman, Oklahoma, about 3 hours drive from each school, and the fans, students, alumni, and just plain football fans show up inside the 90,000 plus capacity building, to create what merely looks like the Red River running right down the 50 yard line stripe!

Half the stadium dressed in the Crimson and Cream of Oklahoma, and the Burnt Orange and White of Texas. The Longhorns and the Sooners!

They have played this game in Dallas since 1929 and inside the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park since 1939. These two teams have met for 113 times, a couple of years twice in the same year. 1901 and 1903, in Austin and Norman each, they didn’t play in 1918, ’20. ’21, for four years from 1924, thru 1928. The Neutral site of Dallas and the Cotton Bowl will have these two teams play until 2025, and even though there has been talk about moving it to a home and home situation, the City of Dallas will most likely make a bold play to keep these two schools right here in Big D and at the State Fair of Texas for many more years to come.

However, the rivalry as we once knew it, going back the last 40 or 50 years or so, is not as intense as it once used to be.

If you are a native Dallasite, and you grew up during that era, you have memories of Downtown Dallas on the Friday before the game, with both sides, walking up and down Commerce street, and throwing up the Hook ‘Em Horns or the other side putting the HORNS DOWN. You would hear “TEXAS!!!! FIGHT!!!!” or “BOOMER SOONER!!!!”

The masses were made up, mainly of the natives who would show their allegiances to either school, but most likely, not be either a student or alum, just a fan!

ON those Friday nights, one could walk up and down the downtown street, watching police officers in later years, dressed in riot gear, prepared for the absolute worse, with fights and glass bottles being thrown or used as weapons, or having people trying to tip over cars. Yes this is YOUR town going berserk over a football game, that hasn’t even been played yet.

One could be arrested that night, spend that night in the city jail just up the block from where the party was going on, at Commerce and Harwood, and most likely not get out until well pass game time.

That’s where the REAL fun took place. See if you were smart, you would go into the jail to bail these poor souls out of jail, by purchasing their game tickets so they could have enough cash to bail out of jail! WORKED EVER TIME! And at times GOOD SEATS!

As the decades moved passed the 60’s and the 70’s and a little bit into the 80’s the party sort of ran  its course, the crowds were not as rowdy, they would hold staged “pep rallies’ in the West End of Downtown Dallas, with the Cheerleaders and the Bands holding court. The crowd would still chant “TEXAS!!!!!!! FIGHT!!!!!!!” or “BOOMER!!!! SOONER!!!” but that would be about it, no more fighting among the masses, no more throwing of bottles or using them as weapons.

Those days are long gone!

However the intensity inside the Cotton Bowl hasn’t changed, the two teams like up inside the tunnel that leads unto the field, and you can hear the smack talking, and the “jaw jacking” between the two teams, just before they run out onto the field!  

This years game was one that they will be talking about for years to come, how the Number 7 Oklahoma Sooners came into the Cotton Bowl undefeated, and looked like the team that would make their way to the National Championship rounds, and the Texas Longhorns came in at number 19, with a questionable start to the season against Maryland, then they reeled off 4 wins in a row, including beating Tulsa, USC, TCU, and Kansas State.

So all eyes are now on the Cotton Bowl, where Kyler Murray the quarterback of the Sooners and a home town football star from Allen High School in Allen, Texas (just 40 minutes north of Dallas) and transferred from Texas A&M to Oklahoma, has already signed a baseball contract with the Oakland A’s, and plans on playing baseball, but until then, he puts on the pads and the helmet and leads the Sooners. It’s a classic story with all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with it.

Murray led his high school team to state championship, led his Eagles to a come from behind victory in the State Semi Final game against one of the larger inner city schools in Texas, Skyline out of Dallas ISD.

Down by 20 plus points in the second half, it was Kyler that put his high school team on his back and led them to the resounding victory. While in High School he as undefeated in a total of 43 consecutive games, and THREE ---count them—THREE State Championships while he played there!

The KID doesn’t know how to lose!

Well that is until that fateful day in Dallas, when another quarterback out of Austin, Texas named Sam Ehlinger stepped up and showed that he is the leader of the Longhorns and did just that, even though his team was tied at 45 with the Sooners in the fourth quarter, and a turnover late in the game by the Sooners gave the ‘Horns a chance, and that’s all they needed, when they trucked out a Freshman kicker, a Freshman holder, and a Freshman long snapper onto the field, and from 40 yards out, places the ball right down Broadway to seal the deal for Texas and beat the Sooners 48-45.

Oklahoma on Sunday after the game, fired defensive coordinator Mike Stoops (brother of Bob Stoops, former Oklahoma Sooner head football coach) and will replace him this week. The main reason behind the firing is that the Sooners defense for the first time gave up not only more points, but also more total yards by an opposing team, and it was time for them to part company.

Texas jumped 10 spots in the polls from number 19 to number 9, and the Sooners dropped from number 7 to number 11 and pretty much out of the top 4 running for the National Championship Playoffs.

There are rivalries that are beloved and dear, to most people the top three rivalries are Michigan vs Ohio State, Army vs Navy and Texas vs Oklahoma.

Though there is one rivalry game that isn’t played anymore, and its because the two schools aren’t in the same conference as they were for 118 years. Texas vs. Texas A&M. The tradition of that rival game is one for the books.

You have “Yell Practice” at midnight for the Aggies, and the “HEX” walk for the Longhorns the Bonfire for the Aggies to show the BURNING DESIRE TO BEAT VARSITY, and of course the Longhorns fight song mentioning the Aggies by name, oh and so does the Aggie War Hymn for that matter. They are the ONLY TWO Schools in the NCAA that DO mention each other in their respective fight songs!

High Schools have theirs as well, there are times when the W. T. White Longhorns would play the, THEN, Thomas Jefferson Rebels (since changed their name to Patriots) Where they once placed a dead cow in the student parking lot, and placed a Rebel Flag in it! Made their point, there were others like Dallas Skyline and Dallas Bryan Adams had their rival game, or Plano and Plano East, the cross town rivals are always the best, what about the J. J. Pearce and Richardson High School, they are truly about a mile or apart, and it’s the Back Yard Brawl, or even Lake Highlands and L.V. Berkner and their battle of the stadium, called the Bone Yard!

Those are great rivalries and they make for great and intense story lines, and make for great fodder for newspapers and talk shows, however the real story is how the athletes handle it, and do they remain friends with their rival after the game, and after the season, and at times when they might even play for the same team!

Sometimes its just a game! And its Just a thought!

Open Season 2018

No not dove or deer season—FOOTBALL SEASON!

The week that saw high school and colleges open up their 2018 football campaigns, with certain match ups that make you scratch your head, and others were set up between ranked college teams and had meaning in the polls!

For the high schools, exciting games to kick it off with, a double overtime victory for a school out of the Richardson schools, J.J. Pearce out lasted the Knights of Frisco’s Independence high school 38-37, with a dramatic end of the 2^nd over time!

Independence was able to get a touchdown to come with one of the Mustangs, but tried for a two point conversion, which they were able to get, but there was laundry on the field, and they had to back it up and they went for another tie, but the kick sailed left and the Mustangs ran off the field as if they won a playoff spot! However, who could blame them!

Other match ups, had Fort Worth Dunbar took on Dallas Kimball in their first game of the season and lost by 2 points to the Knights! Just exciting football overall in the metroplex. The South Oak Cliff Golden Bears were able to outlast, what once was a powerhouse out of Dallas ISD the Skyline Raiders, but after their 23 year streak of going into the post season last year, the Raiders are having a tough time regrouping, since their head coach Reggie Samples left and went to Duncanville High School.

The sting of a lost, no matter what level of play you have, be it the Pop Warner games, or High School, or even College- Pro, it never feels good or settles in your soul right.

The College games though that’s a different story, with match ups like number 23 Texas going up against unranked Maryland, at Fed-Ex field in Landover, Maryland.

The Longhorns last year in Austin hosted Maryland and lost 41-31, this year they go into the stadium after hearing all the hype of how, the Terrapins were disarray, with their coach suspended, and the lost of a freshman lineman Jordan McNair who died from heat stroke during workouts and practice in the summer.

Emotions work in the favor of that team, to “Win one for the Gipper” mentality, and for the most part, that’s what the Terps did. They came out of the tunnel waving a #79 flag—holding his jersey as they go to the coin toss, then leave a whole on the left side of the offensive line to take a Delay of Play penalty—in which the Longhorns Declined, and showed a great gesture of sportsmanship.

Then storms blew in to stop the game for about two and half hours, and that takes a bit of the rhythm and makes it skip a beat or so.

The storms also interrupted other games on the opening weekend of College Football, like The Ohio State game against Oregon State, that game was stalled at half time while thunder storms rolled through, but that didn’t stop the Buckeyes from beating the Beavers handedly.

Then in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Cornhuskers were set to take on Akron, only to have the storms last more than a few hours, and so ESPN thought about postponing the game until Sunday, but that didn’t last very long as both teams decided to just cancel the game all together and just pack it up and go home.

Auburn ranked number 9 in the nation was able to beat the # 6 Washington Huskies, and like it was pointed out earlier, ranked teams with something on the line to play well, will move up in the rankings while others will slip. With other teams that are ranked taking on lesser competitors, such as Southern taking on TCU, and lets face it, it was a money game for Southern.

On Sunday night, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the LSU Tigers were taking on the Hurricanes of Miami, in the Advocare Classic, and in doing so, the #25 Tigers upset the # 8 Miami Hurricane 33-17, making the top 25, after the 1^st week of competition all jumbled up.

Not too mention the Monday night affair with the Seminoles of Florida State hosting Virginia Tech, and losing! So again a top ranked team losing to lower ranked team, and the scramble continues.

What can we expect in the coming weeks? Who knows, the one thing about competition is that nothing is predictable…. Lets face it, the only thing you know is to be certain, is “you tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you pull the mask of the ol Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Slim”….. (sorry to the late Jim Croce’)

Week two of College and High School Football and the first week of The NFL gets underway, and once again we will watch the games, and yell for our teams, and even yell at our TV’s because of something that didn’t go the way we expected, but all in all, we do remember its just a game!

Its just a thought.

The 2018 CIF Season of the Texas Revolution ...Turn Out The Lights!

…. This party’s over! Yes, that is the song and that is the season of the 2017 Defending CIF Champions Texas Revolution!

The 2018 year, might have had a target on their backs when they opened their season against the Dallas Marshals, but change and more change was about to happen for this team.

It started out with the head coach of the champions, Victor Mann, leaving to go and coach the team he beat in the championship game in 2017, The Omaha Beef.

So that takes back to last September, and the Revolution were looking for a new head coach, they tapped Carlos Cavanaugh, the former Offensive Coordinator, and so the process begins.

Players change,  no longer running the team from the Quarterback position would be the Hall of  Famer, Chris Dixon, with the running back and Rookie of the Year, Michael Dyer, the former Auburn and Louisville standout.

Changes, that was the theme for the 2018 Revolution, they were in for lots of changes for the season.

In August, before everything else was set in motion, the team moved from Allen, Texas, where they called the Allen Event Center home for five seasons, they moved to their new home base,  of Frisco, Texas and the Dr Pepper Star Center. This arena holds hockey for the Texas Tornado, the basketball team of the NBA’s “G” League,  Texas Legends, and the Dallas Stars Hockey practice facility, and is now the new home of the Revolution.

With these changes, the team is in gear to create some excitement, and the exhibition game on the 24^th of February they opened up against the NTX Savages with a win 49-14. However, after that, it went downhill quickly—four in a row losses, including to the cross town rival Dallas Marshals.

Coach Cavanaugh could not get this ship going in the right direction, three different quarterbacks, and a slew of different wide receivers, and going back to Darius Fudge at running back, but nothing seemed to work for this team.

IN the fifth game of the season, a change was made. After word came, that Coach Mann was released from the Omaha Beef, and had returned to N. Texas, the CEO of the Revolution, Tommy Benezio, was able to bring back the Champion Head Coach Victor Mann to the team, and with hopes of setting the course in the right direction.

First game back, not so good, but then again, only a week back with the team, and other changes had to be made, including, finding a quarterback to steer the ship.

Finally they found the right guy in Andrew Jackson. Seemed that he was able to find a rhythm, with finding targets like Clint Solomon, and LaDon Hudson, bringing back last year’s spark plug, Joe Adams, and lets not forget Brett Reece Jr.—and again the running back of Darius Fudge, and Jordan Brown, the offense was in good shape, the defense, led by Linebacker Frankie Solomon, and Tre Harlan, Meshak Williams, and a host of others.

Once again change was happening, when during the four game winning streak, one of the wins was a forfeit, with the Dallas Marshals ceasing operation, and not able to complete the season.

One of the losses in the beginning of the season was to the Marshals, in fact, it was opening night, 38-37, after that it was one more game that they faced their cross town rival, and beat them soundly, almost getting a shutout, however the third game that was set to be played, by then the Marshals had folded up.

That only allowed four teams in the South, and it was decided that no matter what the record was going to be, the Revolution was going to make it to the play offs.

On their way to that post season, they still were able to manhandle their conference foes, the Amarillo Venom beating them not only soundly at home, but also on the road  and again in the first round of the playoffs, then they were able to beat the division leading Duke City Gladiators, also at home, but it seemed that the Gladiators had the Revolution’s number.

With a convincing shut out (the first for an arena team in recent memory) 37-0 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Setting the stage in the event that these two teams were to meet up in the playoffs, and for the right to go to the Champion Bowl IV, and it all comes down to a game that started out looking like a rout.

The Gladiators open up the scoring quickly 15-0 before the Revolution get on the board, and try to make a game out of it, before the half.

The Second Half started and the Revolution got the ball to start it off, and were able to score and tie the game up, but that was about as close as they were going to get, because the Gladiators started to score and keep the Revolution at bay.

When the smoke cleared, the reign of the Revolution came to an end, and the Gladiators are headed to the Champions Bowl IV presented by Baymont Inn & Suits.

Their opponent, the Sioux City Bandits who have 13 division titles and THREE Championships in their hip pocket, and looking for number four. The Game will be played on the weekend of the June 30^th, and most likely will at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, NM. With the Gladiators going into the game with a 12-2 record against the Bandits 11-3.

An exciting season for the Revolution, but now its time to regroup, and get set for the 2019 season of Champions Indoor Football- the off season will be full of changes once again!

Just a thought.

The Class of 2018 Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame

On Tuesday the 8^th of May, 2018, the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association inducted 6 new members into the Hall of Fame, that was held at AT&T Stadium, which is the site for the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, and those six members included two legendary coaches, and four players.

John Robinson former Head Coach of the University of Southern California, Houston Nutt, former Head Coach of both the University of Arkansas and Ole Miss, along with players such as Wallace Triplett from Penn State, the 1948 Classic against SMU, Quentin Coryatt from Texas A&M who was in the 1992 Classic against Florida State, The Oklahoma Sooner Roy Williams who was in the 2002 Classic against Arkansas, and the Heisman Trophy winner, Ricky Williams out of the University of Texas.

Each one of the inductees have a story, each one has a memory or two that they shared, but the common thread among all of them, was that, the Cotton Bowl Committee that welcomes the teams, treat them better than most other Bowls, that would include the Granddaddy of them all the Rose Bowl.

Speaking with the former USC Coach John Robins, he said that “they had the best week that I could have ever imagined. The Rose Bowl, (now don’t quote me on this) they don’t treat you that good. “  Robins went on to say that the friendships that were made then are still there today, and even though they have been friends for all these many years, Robins says, that no one has gotten older.

Houston Nutt, brought two teams to the Cotton Bowl, the Razorbacks of Arkansas when they took on the Oklahoma Sooners, only to lose 10-3, then brought his next team to the Classic, the Ole Miss Rebels who closed out the Ol Dame of the Cotton Bowl Stadium against Texas Tech, then opened up AT&T Stadium against Oklahoma State, we spoke to Coach Nutt, and asked him about the distinction of closing the old one and then opening the new stadium, he said that every time he thought about it he “got chills”.  It brought back memories about the old stadium where he played and coached in games there, then to come to the new AT&T Stadium to bring in the new era of the Cotton Bowl Classic. Nutt goes on to say that the most important thing that he remembered doing for his team is that, he wanted to bring them into the building and let them practice, and in doing so, be in awe of that 60 yard Video Screen that sits above the field. For his players to get it out of their system that they are on the big screen and can see every pore of their face, just to get all of that out of their system before they had to take the field against the OSU Cowboys.

Former Penn State running back Wallace Triplett, from the 1948 Classic, where the Nittany Lions took on the SMU Mustangs, only to lose to the Mustangs on that January day. The House that Doak Built belonged to the defense, as both teams scored only 13 points each to end that classic in a tie. Triplett didn’t make the trip to Arlington, Texas for the induction ceremony, but his daughter and grand daughter represented him, and represent they did well. Both women spoke of Triplett’s humbleness, and that even though he was the first African- Americans ball players to be drafted by the NFL, he was still struck, how the prejudice played around him outside of the world of sports. Triplett’s family said that he barely spoke of his time playing football, both for Penn State as well as for Detroit Lions, where he was picked in the 19^th round of the 1949 Draft. Triplett has a room that is enshrined to him in a town just north of Detroit, that has his ol number 12, as well as his Army Uniform.  Artifacts of a man who loved the game of football, but also knew that after his playing days were over, he needed to be a father and a husband to a family.

The big Linebacker out of Texas A&M, Quentin Coryatt, a man, who after his playing days has a hard time with talking to large crowds of people. You notice this when he is standing in a room, and he starts to have anxiety, there is nothing wrong with this condition, another famous football player had the same symptoms, and he became a recluse to a point, and was able to overcome this, his name is Earl Campbell. Coryatt, made his way for the ceremony, but not during the little one on one sessions with the media. Seeing him though, reminds you of his days when he played for the Indianapolis Colts and the one year for the Dallas Cowboys, considering his accolades of being named All Southwest Conference in 1991 for the Aggies, and a College All American that same year, being named to the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame was just a natural for him.

The Oklahoma Sooner, former Dallas Cowboy, and Cincinnati Bengal, Roy Williams, as he was being asked questions, the one that came up was his fondness memory of his appearance in the Classic, when he went up against Arkansas in 2002. Williams’ response was a little surprising, but then again not really. He spoke of the visit to the Children’s Hospital, and to the Shriners Hospital, seeing the kids, and brightening up their days, but more so, how the kids encouraged him and the players from both sides of the ball. Williams went on to say that the hospitality of the Cotton Bowl staff was “over the top”. Williams remarked about the gifts that were given the players, and being that he was a poor kid growing up, here is all of these gifts, and for the most part, he says he still has them, and when he sees them, reminds him of his time in the New Years Day Classic.

The other Williams that was inducted into the Hall of Fame was the Heisman Trophy Winner for 1998, the running back that broke Tony Dorsett’s College Career Rushing Record, and also finding a way during the season to pay homage to the man that claimed to have built the mystique of the Cotton Bowl, Doak Walker the Heisman Trophy Winner from SMU. Ricky Williams was a one of a kind football player.

Recruited out of San Diego by head coach Mac Brown, the running back was a showcase player for the University of Texas during his playing days. Coach Brown talked Ricky into returning to the 40 Acres in Austin for his Senior year, and in doing so, solidified his foundation in the hearts of Longhorn Fans, and in the writers who voted for him to win not just the Heisman, but also the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Doak Walker Award, just to throw out some hardware for his efforts. Williams says that his Cotton Bowl experience was capped off, when he ran for a touchdown against Southern Mississippi on that January 1^st 1999, cloudy, misty, cold day in Dallas. The touchdown, Ricky says, had to be something special, because he had planned to strike the “Heisman Pose” after he scored. It just so happened, that the run for that TD was a 37 yard scamper and as soon as he hit pay dirt, the pose was struck, the cameras all were there to catch it and make it a scene to remember. What made that run even more special, was the fact that it was 37 yards, and if you think about it, Thirty Seven yards. 37 is the number that Doak Walker wore in his football career at the Hill Top known as SMU. Williams’ jersey number 34 was retired by the University along with Earl Campbell’s number 20, the only two Heisman Trophy winners to represent the University of Texas.

The ceremony was hosted by the voice of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, Brad Sham, His remarks about the class that was being inducted, of how remarkable each player and coach was to the Classic, and how each one of the inductees could have been a showcase all on their own, but in this particular class the six that went in, were a Class all of their Own.

It's just a thought. 

Did the DISD Get it WRONG?

Simple question, and maybe even a more simpler answer!

YES!

Lets face it, the first class of the DISD Athletic Hall of Fame has some pretty heavy members going in.

Ernie Banks (Booker T. Washington High School) Larry Johnson (Skyline) Dave Stallworth (Madison) Davey O’ Brien (Woodrow Wilson) Tim Brown (Woodrow Wilson) Jerry Rhome (Sunset) Chryste Gaines Courtney ( South Oak Cliff )

These are just a few of the names, and as you can tell, like I said, they are heavy weights! HOWEVER! They are missing one! ONE!

There are 10 going in all together in this first class, but the one name that is missing,most likely the greatest track star of all time, and he didn’t even make the first cut!

He ran for Skyline, then he ran for Baylor, then he ran for the USA in the Olympics! In 1992 in Barcelona, he couldn’t compete in his individual races due to food poisoning a couple of weeks prior to the races, but he did come back and ran the 4x400 relay in which he set a world record in his leg of the race and help the team win a Gold Medal.

Then came 1996 the Centennial Olympics that were held in Atlanta, Georgia where Michael Johnson, ran both the 400 and 200 races and won both in World Record Time, and to beat that.. before the 96 Olympics he has secured world championships along the way! HE was THE premier runner during the decade of the 90s!

So aside from being from Skyline High School, and though Larry Johnson was already going in, it made no sense that two football players were going in from the same high school as well. Woodrow Wilson, which by the way, is the ONLY public High School in the Country to produce TWO Heisman Trophy Winners. (there goes my trivia question and answer). But none the less, if The Wildcats can have two go in, why can’t Skyline?

I mean of the track and field division there would be three going into the hall, because Michael Carter from Thomas Jefferson High is going in as a Football Player, but he also was track and field (Shot Put) then of course Chryste Gaines Courtney is going in from SOC as track, so what would have been so terrible if Michael Johnson also went in?

IF, and I do mean IF! Michael Johnson is not in the immediate next class of inductees to the DISD Hall of Fame, there is going to be a very loud THUD at the Administration building!

This is a great honor and all, however, you have to understand why some of us are a bit upset, forget the fact that Michael Johnson was from Skyline, hell even if he went to Pinkston, or Lincoln, or W.T. White, I still would be upset over the slight that this Hall showed him. I am a sports person, I have broadcast sports in the DFW area for almost 20 years, and have done high school sports from East Texas to North Texas and have seen some great athletes come through the area, not just from the DISD, but from Richardson, Plano, Highland Park, Allen, Frisco, and plenty from the Ft Worth ISD as well!

There are deserving players all across the DISD, and I am hoping that the Superintendent and his committee will eventually decide that not only Michael Johnson belongs in this Hall, but maybe some other greats-- E. King Gill from Adamson High School-- also known as the 12th Man of Aggie Land!

What about Doug English from Bryan Adams High School, who played for the University of Texas then later for the Detroit Lions and was an All Pro, how about Abner Hayes who played at Lincoln High School who played for the Dallas, Texans (AFL) and then the Kansas City Chiefs (AFL), Dwight White who went to Madison and was part of the Steel Curtain of the Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl Champion), what about a couple of stand outs with Golf, like Betty Jameson from Sunset, who created the LPGA, or from W.T. White’s Scott Verplank who is on the PGA tour, and 2007 winner of the Byron Nelson Golf Championship.

These are just a handful of notables from DISD that are deserving, but none more so than Michael Johnson, who holds world records, and Olympic records when he ran.

So the next time you put together a list of people deserving to be in a hall of fame, you would think that they (the committee) will put into nomination some of the names listed above!

Its just a thought!

2017-- 12 Months to Reflect

As the year comes to an end, and another begins, we are reminded of what we have been through and what we are hoping will be a bit better than the last!

For me, its about survival. Plain and simple. I survived 2017.

It started right after the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, where Wisconsin beat Western Michigan, and I had left AT&T Stadium, drove back to the Downtown Dallas Omni Hotel, and, its there, that I didn’t feel well.

Well lets back that up a bit, I hadn’t been feeling well for a bit of time now, and it came to a head on New Years Eve, at the Anatole Hotel. I had gotten on the bus to go back to pick my car up, and my lady, wanted me to go to the hospital, because I was having pain in my chest, and couldn’t catch my breath. Then on top of that, her Mother called in the middle of the night to inform us that my date’s father was dying in Bonham, Texas at the V.A. hospital.

So naturally, she’s upset, and I having to deal with my own situation.

So now we have New Years day, (that’s on a Sunday) and we once again are doing a show from the Downtown Omni, and getting ready for the next day.

I go to the game, and it’s afterwards that I really feel the effects of whats going on inside of me. I go home and I start to cough, and can’t control it, and its not getting worse, and I know what it is, and I make the call to 911, and have an ambulance come and get me. They arrive, and I am outside of my apartment, and the last thing I remember is seeing red and blue lights, they haul me to Baylor Garland, and with in the six minutes it took them to make that trip, I coded (died) in the ambulance. They brought me back, and once in the ER I coded again, but this time, something occurred.

I don’t tell this story much, and when I do, it makes people treat me differently.

The story goes, that in the ER, when I coded, all I saw was black, no bright light, no heavenly music, no follow me towards the light, no lifting my body, or my soul from my body, I did see coming out of the darkness, were two images, as the got closer to me, and I was able to focus on them, it was my parents. Both had died in the 80’s. My father spoke to me, and with his deep baritone voice, informed me that “It wasn’t my time” and I was brought back.

Five stents later in my heart, 18 days in the main hospital and another 12 days in “In-Patient” rehab, I was out and staying with a friend who volunteered to keep me at her house while I recovered. (13 days). I am grateful to her and to all of my friends and family who came to my aide during the first three months of the year.

In June, we are broadcasting the Championship Bowl game for the Champions Indoor Football league, and where the Home Team, Texas Revolution were playing the Omaha Beef in Allen, Texas.

After the game, I had collapsed on the field, and had to be rushed to a hospital where my blood pressure was out of wack!

That started a chain reaction of events, of having a stress test, then Angio-Plasty done and then being informed that I am in need of open heart surgery, and that one of my arteries has closed off so badly that they tell me I have a “Widow Maker” in me.

So on September 11th, of 2017, 9 months and 9 days after the heart attack, they are cutting me open and doing a quadruple-bypass on me, and another 6 days in the hospital, and another 14 days in Rehab, and today, I am out and in Cardio Rehab in Plano.

During this entire ordeal, I have had good friends stand by me, and help me get better, Doc Moorefield J.R. Schumann, Richard Levy, George Scott Allen III, Jerry Tipper, Doug Walsdorf, Pete Puckett, Dr. Jay Capra, my lady, Amanda Rowan, Shelly Dorzinski Amy Anderton, my sister Shelley Wylie, her husband Daniel Wylie, my nephew Andrew. This list is on and on! Suffice to say, there are a ton of people during this past year, that came into my life, and were already there, but became a bigger portion of what I was needing!

Some say that what I have gone through, is a lesson in the fact that G-d is not finished with me on this earth. Some would say, that even though the doctors gave me a 50/50 shot of living, my friends were the ones that informed Doctors and anyone else with in earshot-- I am not a quitter, and that I am a fighter!

I am all of that, I know I am, but at one point I didn’t know how serious I was and that I was on borrowed time.

Now a year later, I am stronger, and I am better-- with in the year of getting healthy, my friends have all gotten better as well. One of my friends, well she needed to find her heart, and did, and now is on the road to which she is in love again! (been a long 12 years for that to happen) so I am grateful that my heart attack, she was able to repair her’s and fall in love again!

In the process of that, the lady in my life, grew to love me more, and tried to protect me, and came to my aide. I am the one that is scared of what life would like with a ready made family! I have had that trip before, and it didn’t end all that well! So I am a little afraid of that and it might be unfair, but it is what it is!

I lost my life, not once but twice, and in doing so, I appreciate the sunlight in the morning and the warmth of the colors at sunset! I enjoy the life that I have, and want to keep it, and maybe give something back. I just don’t know how, and I don’t know what is expected of me.

There are those who say that I gave them their craft, their lively hood, there are some who say that I was the one that gave them a direction to live. There are even some, who tell me, that it is because of me that I am reason they are also still here, that they didn’t give up when they thought they couldn’t go on any more!

To my friends, and family that have stood by me these last 12 months, we have had a trying time. I wish there was more to this story than, I got ill, went to the hospital, got fixed, went to rehab, and fought to get back to normal, only to be set back and have to go back into the hospital for another surgery, and still fighting to get back to being myself.

Thank you all for your support, for your prayers, for your constant vigil of watching over me.

I have faith, and I have family, and I have friends. Those are the three “F”s that I tell those who have had adversity in their lives, and now I have to inform myself, that I have to keep my course!

May the NEW YEAR be a sight brighter to you, and bring you all a fulfillment you had never had before!

Here’s to 2018! AMEN!