By the time you read this, I’ll have either turned 40 or will be a scant few hours away from the big mile marker.
While a number of thoughts have run through my mind over the last week or so, ranging from the need to get in the best physical shape of my life to how much fun my 40s will be because of my kids to trying to determine whether 40 is the new 20, the new 30 or the new 40, there’s been one realization I’ve had that has been more fun than any other.
For whatever reason, it occurred to me that since starting my internship with the Texas Sports Information Department in the spring of 1994, I’ve spent more years of my life (23) covering the Longhorns on a professional basis than I have the rest of the rest of my years of living combined (17).
That this fact became a fact years ago doesn’t matter. What matters is that I ended up spending a lot of time in the last week thinking about the good ol’ days, the good ol’ bad days, and everything in between. In the process, I thought it might make for a fun trip down memory lane for everyone.
Therefore, I give you in chronological order the top moments of the first five years I’ve was on the Longhorns beat as an SID intern to paid SID staffer to TV intern to TV producer/reporter to recruiting guy to wide-eyed online media member.
Enjoy.
January 11, 1994: After 3 ½ years as sports editor for the McCallum High school newspaper, I was convinced by a good friend named Scott Russell to spend my final semester in high school taking an internship within the AISD internship program, bypassing a final semester working for The Shield, instead working inside the Texas SID office. For the better part of the previous 3 ½ years, Russell’s family had been taking me to UT football games in an effort to convert me away from my Baylor roots. After growing up worshiping Baylor football, my first day inside the second floor SID office of the old Bellmont Hall was a major crossroads moment of my professional career, even if I could have never guessed it.
March 1, 1994: Don’t ask me how it happened, but a little more than a month after starting my internship inside the UT SID office, I was officially accepted into The University of Texas as a student. The only condition of my acceptance was that I had to take another semester of Spanish, which means that I was the original Du’Vonta Lampkin … well … except for the part where I took the class at ACC and officially enrolled in January.
April 9, 1994: My first big event as a student intern for the SID office was the Texas Relays, but before I arrived to do my intern duties, I competed in an AISD track meet for kids not good enough to come close to competing in the Relays. After failing to qualify for the finals of the discus, I went straight to DKR in the clothes I wore to the Relays, which included a purple Kevin Johnson Suns jersey and a pair of equally noticeable purple shorts. As I arrived at the stadium, I ran into Scott Russell, who was wearing a dress shirt, slacks and a tie. Oh boy. In one of the great ironies of the last 23 years, I was sent home to change clothes by John Bianco, who was good enough to overlook my precociousness displayed at that very moment.
December 9, 1994: While leaving the SID office on a Friday afternoon, I bumped into a fellow SID worker named Paula, who was one of the top officers in the Texas Angels football support group. As part of her duties in the Texas Angels, she was hosting a JUCO prospect by the name of Ron McKelvey, who I small-talked for about five minutes in the hallway. Nice guy.
January 26, 1995: On the night of my first published game program article (Carl Simpson feature) as a member of the Texas SID staff, I sat next to an NBA scout during UT’s 99-92 double-overtime win over DePaul. In the middle of the game, I observed the scout write a note about Texas guard Terrence Rencher in his notebook that stated Rencher wasn’t a clutch player. As fate would have it, Rencher and fellow Texas guard Roderick Anderson joined myself and a few Texas Angels at a Bennigans after the game and I ended up passing along the scout note to Rencher while we were eating. Now, I don’t want to take credit for Texas winning the 1994-95 Southwest Conference title, but after that conversation Rencher went on a monster run down the stretch of his senior season, as the Longhorns won nine of their final 11games.
March 17, 1995: While working for the NCAA as an official stat person during the Austin regional of the NCAA Tournament, I sat during the entire game about five feet from Purdue coach Gene Keady, who on at least a half dozen occasions spit indirectly in my general direction, including twice in the face.
May 7, 1995: Using the money earned from my work for the NCAA, I purchased two tickets to The Eagles concert at Memorial Stadium. My date to the concert totally punked me out by meeting up with some other guys, which means that Keady spitting in my face was totally not worth it.
June 20, 1995: Less than two weeks before KEYE-TV switched from Austin’s first independent station into its new CBS affiliate, I agreed to became an unpaid intern for Andy Liscano and Noah Finz in the station’s new sports department. Approximately a month later, I was notified I couldn’t intern for the TV station and work for the SID office at the same time. Forced to make a choice between the two, I left my paying job at the SID office for the unpaid position at KEYE.
Without Liscano, I wouldn't be where I am today.
September 22, 1995: In an effort to get to South Bend for the UT/Notre Dame game (KEYE wouldn’t pay to send Liscano to cover the game), the station made an agreement to trade transportation to the game for Liscano and a photographer in exchange for the station doing a story on the UT band while at the game.
October 14, 1995: My first Texas/OU game ends in a tie and every single person in the Cotton Bowl wanted to fire a head coach
October 21, 1995: Phil Dawson kicks a 50-yard game-winning field goal against Virginia that landed just over the goal post a few yards away from where I was standing.
December 2, 1995: The Longhorns win the final SWC title at Kyle Field, as Ricky Williams introduces himself to the entire nation as a true game-changer. After the game was over, a riot broke out on the field as members of the A&M corps and other A&M students jumped a gathering of Texas fans that had come down to the field from the stands to celebrate the victory. While in the middle of the chaos, I watched an assortment of assaults and near-fights between Texas and Texas A&M players. It’s a good thing this happened pre-social media because this would have been a national story 20 years later, but ultimately it became a footnote in history.
December 30, 1995: While driving to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, word on the radio is that there’s an issue with a player on the Texas team named Ron McKelvey … I mean … Ron Weaver. Hey, I know that dude.
March 30, 1996: After watching the awful Sgt. Bilko on the opening Saturday of the movie’s release, I walked out of the Great Hills Movie Theater and bumped into John Mackovic, who relayed to me just how much he loved the movie.
August 1, 1996: A tip from Jerry Scarborough sent a team of three of us from KEYE to a hotel at the DFW Airport where we staked out Cal-State Fullerton coach Augie Garrido, who was interviewing for the Texas job. As he approached the hotel desk in slippers very early that morning, we approached him with our camera in the front lobby and interviewed him about the job. Less than an hour later, KEYE broke into programming to break the news that Garrido was the new Texas coach and we raced back to Austin just in the nick of time to be present for the introduction press conference.
September 21, 1996: RIP, Randy Kinder.
December 3, 1996: One day after Texas starting quarterback James Brown suggests that the 21-point underdog Longhorns might beat Nebraska by 21 points, John Mackovic goes out of his way to tell the local media he doesn’t want to discuss Brown’s comments under any conditions, which immediately leads to the following discussion between Mackovic and a KEYE-TV video photographer …
Photog: Coach, I just want you to know that I like Brown’s confidence. That’s what I’d want to see from my starting quarterback.
Mackovic: (blank stare) I thought I said I didn’t want to discuss this.
Photog: Ok, but I just wanted to say that I like it.
Mackovic: (incredulous stare) I said I don’t want to talk about it.
Photog: Yeah, I know what you said.
Mackovic: You understand, I don’t want to talk about it?
Photog: I do, but I like it.
*More incredulous staring*
Four days later, Brown led the Longhorns to a 37-27 win over Nebraska in St. Louis.
January 12/19, 1997: In what stands as a landmark moment in the history of recruiting coverage in the Austin media market, KEYE becomes the first TV media outlet to make recruiting a very important piece of our coverage. In doing so, we started to stake out interviews inside the Marriott hotel, which is where the school used to have the recruits stay on their official visits. In the first couple of weekends of coverage, we broke the commitments of players like Quentin Jammer and Adam Dunn, while also obtaining interviews with the likes of David Warren and Roylin Bradley. At a time when others were charging updates on their 900 number, we were releasing the information for free on the KEYE website.
March 6, 1997: Moments after a win over Brock in the state basketball tournament, we follow the Wortham basketball team to an all-you-can-eat buffet, so we can record an interview with future Texas Longhorn lineman Leonard Davis, while he ate a massive lunch on camera.
September 10/11, 1997: A couple days before the UCLA game, Doc Craven invited Texas defensive coordinator Bobby Jack Wright to speak to our Coaching Philosophy class. When it turned into a Q&A session, one of the students on hand had the guts to tell Wright to his face and in front of several Texas players that Wright shouldn’t have been speaking to the class, but instead preparing for the game against the Bruins. It made coming back to the class a few days later after the 66-3 game even more uncomfortable knowing that he would be there, but the guy skipped class the entire next week.
September 15, 1997: In an interview with KEYE-TV, Inside Texas founder Robert Heard told Liscano that the decision to fire John Mackovic following the 66-3 debacle after the season had already been made. The very next day, a very unhappy Mackovic told Liscano in a one-on-one discussion after practice that he was pretty pissed about Liscano interviewing Heard the day before.
December 3, 1997: “I’m stunned, I’m pissed, it’s Mack Brown.”
Those infamous words via Austin 360 message board poster “texlarry” were made online and the Longhorns online universe went absolutely bonkers. With the help of “texlarry,” KEYE-TV was able to break the story among traditional media that Mack Brown was going to be the new Texas head football coach.
December 4, 1997: Mack Brown is introduced as the new Texas head coach at the Erwin Center. For a very brief moment, we exchange hellos for the first time. When we see each other again a few months later, he not only remembered my name, but he knew details about me that I was sure he wouldn;t have known. He really is a Jedi-Knight when it comes to rembering people and detaild about them.
January 11, 1998: As we had done at KEYE the previous year, we were at the team hotel on the first recruiting big weekend of the Mack Brown era. Earlier that week, I had spoken with Texas City defensive back Ervis Hill about doing an interview whenever it was convenient for him and the other three recruits that comprised the Texas City Four. When I arrived at the hotel and called Hill, he told me he was coming right down. Forty-five minutes later, I called him at his room to see if everything was okay and Hill told me they were coming down in the next 10 minutes. About a half hour later, I called up to Hill’s room and there was no answer. Moments later, hotel security showed up in the lobby and told me we needed to leave because one of the guests had complained to the hotel that I was bothering them. Later that following week, I called Hill to find out what in the world had happened and he told me that another member of the Texas City Four had decided that none of them were going to come down for the interview and ended up making a big deal out of me calling them.
That was the last time we ever hung out at the official visit hotel to get interviews of the recruits as they were leaving visits.
April 8, 1998: After breaking both the Auguie Garrido and Mack Brown hires at KEYE-TV, the biggest blunder I’ve ever been involved in occurred, as we reported that Washington head coach Bob Bender was set to replace Tom Penders as the new Texas basketball coach. Although we had multiple sources on the story, including someone in the Texas SID office that notified us that an official press release announcing the hire had already been made, Bender announced two days later at the Washington team banquet that he was staying put.
It was the only time in four years of working at KEYE that I ever got called into the news director’s office because of a mistake we had made in our reporting, but the one time it happened was an all-time doozy.
October 10, 1998: On the morning of Ricky Williams’ “Doak Walker Game” in the Cotton Bowl, my car blew its engine in Georgetown on the way there and I wasn’t able to attend the game. It wasn’t until 2005 that I personally witnessed a Texas win in the Red River Shootout.
November 7, 1998: Eli Manning makes his official visit to Texas and after Archie had invited us to interview Eli on the field earlier in the week, we approached the Manning family on the sideline, introduced ourselves to everyone, had a little small-talk and then we did the interview. Moments later as they walked off, Cleve Bryant runs all the way across the field so he could both read us the riot act and threaten to strip the station of all future credentials if we ran the interview. We let Bryant know that we weren’t trying to start any trouble and that we wouldn’t run the interview. That was the first time I personally ever dealt with Bryant in such a capacity, but it certainly wasn’t the last.
November 27, 1998: Ricky Williams breaks Tony Dorsett’s all-time leading rushing record against Texas A&M on a 60-yard touchdown run into the south end zone. If you watch the TV replay of the run, you can see my legs in the end zone as he celebrates (see :44 second mark of video below)
January 1, 1999: I receive a phone call from a source that tells me that Chris Simms to Texas is a “done” deal.
A few weeks later, the worst-kept secret in recruiting became a reality.
January 27, 1999: Moments after informing his mother of his decision, while I eavesdropped via a wireless microphone attached to his shirt collar, North Shore linebacker Cory Redding announces his commitment to Texas over Arizona, which secured the No. 1 recruiting class in the country for Mack Brown in his first full recruiting cycle at Texas.
Sometime in March of 1999: Bobby Burton and Jim Heckman, two of the true founding fathers of Rivals.com, interviewed me at Waterloo Ice House on Burnet Road about joining their company. An offer of 2K per year, a new laptop and a trip to Hawaii while covering the 2000 Hula Bowl was enough for me to take a leap into the new world of online media head-first.
No. 2 – Ranking the running backs in the Big 12 ...
Heading into the 2016 season, I’d rank the running back units in the Big 12 like this:
1. Oklahoma (Sam Perine/Joe Mixon)
2. Baylor (Shock Linwood, Johnny Jefferson and Devin Chafin)
3. Texas (D’Onta Foreman, Chris Warren and Kirk Johnson)
4. Iowa State (Mike Warren)
5. West Virginia (Rushel Shell)
6. Texas Tech (Justin Stockton)
7. TCU (Sewo Olonilua and Kyle Hicks)
8. Oklahoma State (Barry Sanders Jr. and Chris Carson)
9. Kansas State (Charles Jones, Dalvin Warmack and Justin Silmon)
10. Kansas (Ke'aun Kinner and Quiv Gonzales)
No. 3 – Scattershooting on the Longhorns ...
… There might not be a better linebacker prospect in the nation that Kennedale’s 2017 superstar Baron Browning. Getting him on campus this weekend in the aftermath of the state track meet is a perfect example of why having the state track meet in Austin is one of the most underrated weekends of the year for the Longhorn football program.
… One of the best aspects of the Texas program right now is the way Charlie Strong handles offering kids around the state of Texas. No longer is an offer to Texas treated like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket, which allows the Texas coaching staff to handle recruiting in such a more outward and open way. The hurt feelings around the state are severely limited and that needed to happen. Charlie knows how to play the game.
… One of the must-haves in this 2017 recruiting class is PA Memorial’s Kary Vincent. Don’t sweat the position … just get him on campus.
No. 4 – Not backing down on my Jarrett Allen prediction...
I’ve been saying it for more than a year now, all of my years in the industry tell me that this kid will commit to Shaka Smart.
It’s just a matter of time and not if… at least that’s what I believe.
No. 5 – Buy or sell …
(As always, all of these questions were submitted by actual Orangebloods subscribers.)
BUY or SELL: With a new head coach in baseball next year, Texas is poised for resurgence in all three major men's sports, culminating in making an appearance in at least two of the College World Series , the Elite Eight, or the football championship playoffs by end of 2018 school year?
(Sell) That leaves essentially two calendar years to accomplish all of that. There’s too much work to do in all three sports to assume that kind of success in that short amount of time.
BUY or SELL: At least one of the starting safeties will be benched by years end?
(Buy) Patience. It won’t take that long.
BUY or SELL: Place-kicking problems cost us two games this year?
(Sell) Maybe one, but if they end up losing two on those issues alone, this is not going to be a good season.
BUY or SELL: Given how much higher our expenses are than other universities, do you see cost cutting in the future?
(Sell) The only thing that will ultimately cut costs is lost revenue. College athletic departments are about spending as much money as possible, so that it appears that there’s not enough for the athletes.
BUY or SELL: You wouldn't change anything about your last 40 years or how they turned out?
(Sell) I would have been much braver and with more confidence around the girls in my high school.
Co-Signed,
Almost every male on the planet.
BUY or SELL: Texas will have two freshmen All-Americans again in 2017?
(Buy) I think Zach Shackelford is almost a given because so few freshmen around the nation start at center as true freshmen, which means Texas needs only one more young player to emerge this season and there are plenty of candidates for that spot.
BUY or SELL: The best conference fit for Texas - both academically and athletically - is the Big Ten conference?
(Sell) Pac-16, baby. Better media markets, better road trips and better overall platform for the Longhorns.
BUY or SELL: No school has a set of current NBA players that could beat this team: Starters: DJ Augustin, Avery Bradley, Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tristan Thompson; Bench: Cory Joseph, Jordan Hamilton, PJ Tucker, Myles Turner?
(Sell) With all due respect to your question, the Kentucky Wildcats can field the following team:
PG: John Wall
SG: Eric Bledsoe/Brandon Knight
SF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
PF: Anthony Davis
C: Boogie Cousins
Bench: Karl Anthony Towns, Nerlens Noel, Enes Canter, Julius Randle, Rajon Rondo, Willie Cauley-Stein, Devin Booker and Trey Lyles.
BUY or SELL: We close with at least 7 of the top 10 in LSR?
(Sell) Not unless this team goes 9-3 or better.
BUY or SELL: We'll get a podcast before your birthday, buy or sell?
(Sell) Soon, but not that soon.
No. 6 – Texas Baseball Weekend in a Gif …
No. 7 – 63 days and counting …
We’re a little more than two months away from the start of Big 12 Media Days.
One way or another, Art Briles will have to answer questions about his program.
There’s nowhere to hide, Art.
Orangebloods will see you at the Omni in Dallas.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… My heart wants to pick Oklahoma City to beat Golden State in the Western Conference Finals, but my head keeps telling me this series mght be over in five games. The key to this series will be the Oklahoma bench not getting taken to school by the Warriors’ bench. The Thunder is +17 against Golden State when its starters are on the floor, but when even one of them goes off the floor, all hell broke loose in favor of the defending champions.
… Kevin Durant isn’t leaving Oklahoma City… at least not yet. I’d expect a two-year deal with OKC with a player option after one season. He’s too loyal of a guy t leave that team after a trip to the conference finals.
… Cavs over the just-happy-to-be-there Raptors in four.
… Attaboy, Deangelo Williams, who returned home to Charlotte to help provide 53 mammograms for women in need. After seeing his mom die of breast cancer, Williams has made it a life mission to make a difference to those who need help.
… The Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays do not like each other. Too bad these teams won’t see each other again for the rest of the regular season.
… Is Carlos Beltran a Hall of Famer?
… Luis Suarez is a goal-scoring soccer god.
… What in the world happened to Tottenham in the final weeks of the season? Yikes, that’ll leave a mark.
… Stipe Miocic might not be a heavyweight for all-time, but he knocked Fabricio Werdum into last week with an off-balance punch to win the title. Cleveland finally has a champion.
… Cyborg is scary. Just retire, Ronda.
No. 9 – Game of Thrones - Live blog stream of conscious thoughts...
The following are my stream of conscious thoughts on season-six, episode four of Game of Thrones.
********SPOILER ALERT ***********
********SPOILER ALERT ***********
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a, Shouldn't Kit Harrington's name be listed first on the credits? I mean... he is Jon Snow. He deserves better than fourth billing.
b. Holy hell, Sansa and Jon together at last! That'll be a game-changer for Jon. Best hug in the history of television.
c. Sansa isn't having this soft-hearted Jon Snow.
d. Um, Ser Davos, meet Brienne. She wants to make sure you know she killed your man Stannis. Got that? #GOTgirlpower
e. Grey Wor is a better politician than he gives himself credit for.
f. I get the sense that Jorah's blaze of glory into the afterlife will be quite spectacular.
g. Margaery has more Cersei in her than she could ever know. She's a formidable player in the Game of Thrones.
h. Man, I f'ing dread every single scene with Ramsay in it.
i. RIP, Osha.
j. Jon Snow needs a slump buster.
k. Viva, la Mother of Dragons! That girl is b-a-d.
********END OF SPOILER ALERT ***********
********END OF SPOILER ALERT ***********
********END OF SPOILER ALERT ***********
No. 10 - And finally…
If my 40s are marked by little moments like this for the next 10 years, I have a feeling that this might be my favorite decade yet.
While a number of thoughts have run through my mind over the last week or so, ranging from the need to get in the best physical shape of my life to how much fun my 40s will be because of my kids to trying to determine whether 40 is the new 20, the new 30 or the new 40, there’s been one realization I’ve had that has been more fun than any other.
For whatever reason, it occurred to me that since starting my internship with the Texas Sports Information Department in the spring of 1994, I’ve spent more years of my life (23) covering the Longhorns on a professional basis than I have the rest of the rest of my years of living combined (17).
That this fact became a fact years ago doesn’t matter. What matters is that I ended up spending a lot of time in the last week thinking about the good ol’ days, the good ol’ bad days, and everything in between. In the process, I thought it might make for a fun trip down memory lane for everyone.
Therefore, I give you in chronological order the top moments of the first five years I’ve was on the Longhorns beat as an SID intern to paid SID staffer to TV intern to TV producer/reporter to recruiting guy to wide-eyed online media member.
Enjoy.
January 11, 1994: After 3 ½ years as sports editor for the McCallum High school newspaper, I was convinced by a good friend named Scott Russell to spend my final semester in high school taking an internship within the AISD internship program, bypassing a final semester working for The Shield, instead working inside the Texas SID office. For the better part of the previous 3 ½ years, Russell’s family had been taking me to UT football games in an effort to convert me away from my Baylor roots. After growing up worshiping Baylor football, my first day inside the second floor SID office of the old Bellmont Hall was a major crossroads moment of my professional career, even if I could have never guessed it.
March 1, 1994: Don’t ask me how it happened, but a little more than a month after starting my internship inside the UT SID office, I was officially accepted into The University of Texas as a student. The only condition of my acceptance was that I had to take another semester of Spanish, which means that I was the original Du’Vonta Lampkin … well … except for the part where I took the class at ACC and officially enrolled in January.
April 9, 1994: My first big event as a student intern for the SID office was the Texas Relays, but before I arrived to do my intern duties, I competed in an AISD track meet for kids not good enough to come close to competing in the Relays. After failing to qualify for the finals of the discus, I went straight to DKR in the clothes I wore to the Relays, which included a purple Kevin Johnson Suns jersey and a pair of equally noticeable purple shorts. As I arrived at the stadium, I ran into Scott Russell, who was wearing a dress shirt, slacks and a tie. Oh boy. In one of the great ironies of the last 23 years, I was sent home to change clothes by John Bianco, who was good enough to overlook my precociousness displayed at that very moment.
December 9, 1994: While leaving the SID office on a Friday afternoon, I bumped into a fellow SID worker named Paula, who was one of the top officers in the Texas Angels football support group. As part of her duties in the Texas Angels, she was hosting a JUCO prospect by the name of Ron McKelvey, who I small-talked for about five minutes in the hallway. Nice guy.
January 26, 1995: On the night of my first published game program article (Carl Simpson feature) as a member of the Texas SID staff, I sat next to an NBA scout during UT’s 99-92 double-overtime win over DePaul. In the middle of the game, I observed the scout write a note about Texas guard Terrence Rencher in his notebook that stated Rencher wasn’t a clutch player. As fate would have it, Rencher and fellow Texas guard Roderick Anderson joined myself and a few Texas Angels at a Bennigans after the game and I ended up passing along the scout note to Rencher while we were eating. Now, I don’t want to take credit for Texas winning the 1994-95 Southwest Conference title, but after that conversation Rencher went on a monster run down the stretch of his senior season, as the Longhorns won nine of their final 11games.
March 17, 1995: While working for the NCAA as an official stat person during the Austin regional of the NCAA Tournament, I sat during the entire game about five feet from Purdue coach Gene Keady, who on at least a half dozen occasions spit indirectly in my general direction, including twice in the face.
May 7, 1995: Using the money earned from my work for the NCAA, I purchased two tickets to The Eagles concert at Memorial Stadium. My date to the concert totally punked me out by meeting up with some other guys, which means that Keady spitting in my face was totally not worth it.
June 20, 1995: Less than two weeks before KEYE-TV switched from Austin’s first independent station into its new CBS affiliate, I agreed to became an unpaid intern for Andy Liscano and Noah Finz in the station’s new sports department. Approximately a month later, I was notified I couldn’t intern for the TV station and work for the SID office at the same time. Forced to make a choice between the two, I left my paying job at the SID office for the unpaid position at KEYE.
Without Liscano, I wouldn't be where I am today.
September 22, 1995: In an effort to get to South Bend for the UT/Notre Dame game (KEYE wouldn’t pay to send Liscano to cover the game), the station made an agreement to trade transportation to the game for Liscano and a photographer in exchange for the station doing a story on the UT band while at the game.
October 14, 1995: My first Texas/OU game ends in a tie and every single person in the Cotton Bowl wanted to fire a head coach
October 21, 1995: Phil Dawson kicks a 50-yard game-winning field goal against Virginia that landed just over the goal post a few yards away from where I was standing.
December 2, 1995: The Longhorns win the final SWC title at Kyle Field, as Ricky Williams introduces himself to the entire nation as a true game-changer. After the game was over, a riot broke out on the field as members of the A&M corps and other A&M students jumped a gathering of Texas fans that had come down to the field from the stands to celebrate the victory. While in the middle of the chaos, I watched an assortment of assaults and near-fights between Texas and Texas A&M players. It’s a good thing this happened pre-social media because this would have been a national story 20 years later, but ultimately it became a footnote in history.
December 30, 1995: While driving to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, word on the radio is that there’s an issue with a player on the Texas team named Ron McKelvey … I mean … Ron Weaver. Hey, I know that dude.
March 30, 1996: After watching the awful Sgt. Bilko on the opening Saturday of the movie’s release, I walked out of the Great Hills Movie Theater and bumped into John Mackovic, who relayed to me just how much he loved the movie.
August 1, 1996: A tip from Jerry Scarborough sent a team of three of us from KEYE to a hotel at the DFW Airport where we staked out Cal-State Fullerton coach Augie Garrido, who was interviewing for the Texas job. As he approached the hotel desk in slippers very early that morning, we approached him with our camera in the front lobby and interviewed him about the job. Less than an hour later, KEYE broke into programming to break the news that Garrido was the new Texas coach and we raced back to Austin just in the nick of time to be present for the introduction press conference.
September 21, 1996: RIP, Randy Kinder.
December 3, 1996: One day after Texas starting quarterback James Brown suggests that the 21-point underdog Longhorns might beat Nebraska by 21 points, John Mackovic goes out of his way to tell the local media he doesn’t want to discuss Brown’s comments under any conditions, which immediately leads to the following discussion between Mackovic and a KEYE-TV video photographer …
Photog: Coach, I just want you to know that I like Brown’s confidence. That’s what I’d want to see from my starting quarterback.
Mackovic: (blank stare) I thought I said I didn’t want to discuss this.
Photog: Ok, but I just wanted to say that I like it.
Mackovic: (incredulous stare) I said I don’t want to talk about it.
Photog: Yeah, I know what you said.
Mackovic: You understand, I don’t want to talk about it?
Photog: I do, but I like it.
*More incredulous staring*
Four days later, Brown led the Longhorns to a 37-27 win over Nebraska in St. Louis.
January 12/19, 1997: In what stands as a landmark moment in the history of recruiting coverage in the Austin media market, KEYE becomes the first TV media outlet to make recruiting a very important piece of our coverage. In doing so, we started to stake out interviews inside the Marriott hotel, which is where the school used to have the recruits stay on their official visits. In the first couple of weekends of coverage, we broke the commitments of players like Quentin Jammer and Adam Dunn, while also obtaining interviews with the likes of David Warren and Roylin Bradley. At a time when others were charging updates on their 900 number, we were releasing the information for free on the KEYE website.
March 6, 1997: Moments after a win over Brock in the state basketball tournament, we follow the Wortham basketball team to an all-you-can-eat buffet, so we can record an interview with future Texas Longhorn lineman Leonard Davis, while he ate a massive lunch on camera.
September 10/11, 1997: A couple days before the UCLA game, Doc Craven invited Texas defensive coordinator Bobby Jack Wright to speak to our Coaching Philosophy class. When it turned into a Q&A session, one of the students on hand had the guts to tell Wright to his face and in front of several Texas players that Wright shouldn’t have been speaking to the class, but instead preparing for the game against the Bruins. It made coming back to the class a few days later after the 66-3 game even more uncomfortable knowing that he would be there, but the guy skipped class the entire next week.
September 15, 1997: In an interview with KEYE-TV, Inside Texas founder Robert Heard told Liscano that the decision to fire John Mackovic following the 66-3 debacle after the season had already been made. The very next day, a very unhappy Mackovic told Liscano in a one-on-one discussion after practice that he was pretty pissed about Liscano interviewing Heard the day before.
December 3, 1997: “I’m stunned, I’m pissed, it’s Mack Brown.”
Those infamous words via Austin 360 message board poster “texlarry” were made online and the Longhorns online universe went absolutely bonkers. With the help of “texlarry,” KEYE-TV was able to break the story among traditional media that Mack Brown was going to be the new Texas head football coach.
December 4, 1997: Mack Brown is introduced as the new Texas head coach at the Erwin Center. For a very brief moment, we exchange hellos for the first time. When we see each other again a few months later, he not only remembered my name, but he knew details about me that I was sure he wouldn;t have known. He really is a Jedi-Knight when it comes to rembering people and detaild about them.
January 11, 1998: As we had done at KEYE the previous year, we were at the team hotel on the first recruiting big weekend of the Mack Brown era. Earlier that week, I had spoken with Texas City defensive back Ervis Hill about doing an interview whenever it was convenient for him and the other three recruits that comprised the Texas City Four. When I arrived at the hotel and called Hill, he told me he was coming right down. Forty-five minutes later, I called him at his room to see if everything was okay and Hill told me they were coming down in the next 10 minutes. About a half hour later, I called up to Hill’s room and there was no answer. Moments later, hotel security showed up in the lobby and told me we needed to leave because one of the guests had complained to the hotel that I was bothering them. Later that following week, I called Hill to find out what in the world had happened and he told me that another member of the Texas City Four had decided that none of them were going to come down for the interview and ended up making a big deal out of me calling them.
That was the last time we ever hung out at the official visit hotel to get interviews of the recruits as they were leaving visits.
April 8, 1998: After breaking both the Auguie Garrido and Mack Brown hires at KEYE-TV, the biggest blunder I’ve ever been involved in occurred, as we reported that Washington head coach Bob Bender was set to replace Tom Penders as the new Texas basketball coach. Although we had multiple sources on the story, including someone in the Texas SID office that notified us that an official press release announcing the hire had already been made, Bender announced two days later at the Washington team banquet that he was staying put.
It was the only time in four years of working at KEYE that I ever got called into the news director’s office because of a mistake we had made in our reporting, but the one time it happened was an all-time doozy.
October 10, 1998: On the morning of Ricky Williams’ “Doak Walker Game” in the Cotton Bowl, my car blew its engine in Georgetown on the way there and I wasn’t able to attend the game. It wasn’t until 2005 that I personally witnessed a Texas win in the Red River Shootout.
November 7, 1998: Eli Manning makes his official visit to Texas and after Archie had invited us to interview Eli on the field earlier in the week, we approached the Manning family on the sideline, introduced ourselves to everyone, had a little small-talk and then we did the interview. Moments later as they walked off, Cleve Bryant runs all the way across the field so he could both read us the riot act and threaten to strip the station of all future credentials if we ran the interview. We let Bryant know that we weren’t trying to start any trouble and that we wouldn’t run the interview. That was the first time I personally ever dealt with Bryant in such a capacity, but it certainly wasn’t the last.
November 27, 1998: Ricky Williams breaks Tony Dorsett’s all-time leading rushing record against Texas A&M on a 60-yard touchdown run into the south end zone. If you watch the TV replay of the run, you can see my legs in the end zone as he celebrates (see :44 second mark of video below)
January 1, 1999: I receive a phone call from a source that tells me that Chris Simms to Texas is a “done” deal.
A few weeks later, the worst-kept secret in recruiting became a reality.
January 27, 1999: Moments after informing his mother of his decision, while I eavesdropped via a wireless microphone attached to his shirt collar, North Shore linebacker Cory Redding announces his commitment to Texas over Arizona, which secured the No. 1 recruiting class in the country for Mack Brown in his first full recruiting cycle at Texas.
Sometime in March of 1999: Bobby Burton and Jim Heckman, two of the true founding fathers of Rivals.com, interviewed me at Waterloo Ice House on Burnet Road about joining their company. An offer of 2K per year, a new laptop and a trip to Hawaii while covering the 2000 Hula Bowl was enough for me to take a leap into the new world of online media head-first.
No. 2 – Ranking the running backs in the Big 12 ...
Heading into the 2016 season, I’d rank the running back units in the Big 12 like this:
1. Oklahoma (Sam Perine/Joe Mixon)
2. Baylor (Shock Linwood, Johnny Jefferson and Devin Chafin)
3. Texas (D’Onta Foreman, Chris Warren and Kirk Johnson)
4. Iowa State (Mike Warren)
5. West Virginia (Rushel Shell)
6. Texas Tech (Justin Stockton)
7. TCU (Sewo Olonilua and Kyle Hicks)
8. Oklahoma State (Barry Sanders Jr. and Chris Carson)
9. Kansas State (Charles Jones, Dalvin Warmack and Justin Silmon)
10. Kansas (Ke'aun Kinner and Quiv Gonzales)
No. 3 – Scattershooting on the Longhorns ...
… There might not be a better linebacker prospect in the nation that Kennedale’s 2017 superstar Baron Browning. Getting him on campus this weekend in the aftermath of the state track meet is a perfect example of why having the state track meet in Austin is one of the most underrated weekends of the year for the Longhorn football program.
… One of the best aspects of the Texas program right now is the way Charlie Strong handles offering kids around the state of Texas. No longer is an offer to Texas treated like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket, which allows the Texas coaching staff to handle recruiting in such a more outward and open way. The hurt feelings around the state are severely limited and that needed to happen. Charlie knows how to play the game.
… One of the must-haves in this 2017 recruiting class is PA Memorial’s Kary Vincent. Don’t sweat the position … just get him on campus.
No. 4 – Not backing down on my Jarrett Allen prediction...
I’ve been saying it for more than a year now, all of my years in the industry tell me that this kid will commit to Shaka Smart.
It’s just a matter of time and not if… at least that’s what I believe.
No. 5 – Buy or sell …
(As always, all of these questions were submitted by actual Orangebloods subscribers.)
BUY or SELL: With a new head coach in baseball next year, Texas is poised for resurgence in all three major men's sports, culminating in making an appearance in at least two of the College World Series , the Elite Eight, or the football championship playoffs by end of 2018 school year?
(Sell) That leaves essentially two calendar years to accomplish all of that. There’s too much work to do in all three sports to assume that kind of success in that short amount of time.
BUY or SELL: At least one of the starting safeties will be benched by years end?
(Buy) Patience. It won’t take that long.
BUY or SELL: Place-kicking problems cost us two games this year?
(Sell) Maybe one, but if they end up losing two on those issues alone, this is not going to be a good season.
BUY or SELL: Given how much higher our expenses are than other universities, do you see cost cutting in the future?
(Sell) The only thing that will ultimately cut costs is lost revenue. College athletic departments are about spending as much money as possible, so that it appears that there’s not enough for the athletes.
BUY or SELL: You wouldn't change anything about your last 40 years or how they turned out?
(Sell) I would have been much braver and with more confidence around the girls in my high school.
Co-Signed,
Almost every male on the planet.
BUY or SELL: Texas will have two freshmen All-Americans again in 2017?
(Buy) I think Zach Shackelford is almost a given because so few freshmen around the nation start at center as true freshmen, which means Texas needs only one more young player to emerge this season and there are plenty of candidates for that spot.
BUY or SELL: The best conference fit for Texas - both academically and athletically - is the Big Ten conference?
(Sell) Pac-16, baby. Better media markets, better road trips and better overall platform for the Longhorns.
BUY or SELL: No school has a set of current NBA players that could beat this team: Starters: DJ Augustin, Avery Bradley, Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tristan Thompson; Bench: Cory Joseph, Jordan Hamilton, PJ Tucker, Myles Turner?
(Sell) With all due respect to your question, the Kentucky Wildcats can field the following team:
PG: John Wall
SG: Eric Bledsoe/Brandon Knight
SF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
PF: Anthony Davis
C: Boogie Cousins
Bench: Karl Anthony Towns, Nerlens Noel, Enes Canter, Julius Randle, Rajon Rondo, Willie Cauley-Stein, Devin Booker and Trey Lyles.
BUY or SELL: We close with at least 7 of the top 10 in LSR?
(Sell) Not unless this team goes 9-3 or better.
BUY or SELL: We'll get a podcast before your birthday, buy or sell?
(Sell) Soon, but not that soon.
No. 6 – Texas Baseball Weekend in a Gif …
No. 7 – 63 days and counting …
We’re a little more than two months away from the start of Big 12 Media Days.
One way or another, Art Briles will have to answer questions about his program.
There’s nowhere to hide, Art.
Orangebloods will see you at the Omni in Dallas.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… My heart wants to pick Oklahoma City to beat Golden State in the Western Conference Finals, but my head keeps telling me this series mght be over in five games. The key to this series will be the Oklahoma bench not getting taken to school by the Warriors’ bench. The Thunder is +17 against Golden State when its starters are on the floor, but when even one of them goes off the floor, all hell broke loose in favor of the defending champions.
… Kevin Durant isn’t leaving Oklahoma City… at least not yet. I’d expect a two-year deal with OKC with a player option after one season. He’s too loyal of a guy t leave that team after a trip to the conference finals.
… Cavs over the just-happy-to-be-there Raptors in four.
… Attaboy, Deangelo Williams, who returned home to Charlotte to help provide 53 mammograms for women in need. After seeing his mom die of breast cancer, Williams has made it a life mission to make a difference to those who need help.
… The Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays do not like each other. Too bad these teams won’t see each other again for the rest of the regular season.
… Is Carlos Beltran a Hall of Famer?
… Luis Suarez is a goal-scoring soccer god.
… What in the world happened to Tottenham in the final weeks of the season? Yikes, that’ll leave a mark.
… Stipe Miocic might not be a heavyweight for all-time, but he knocked Fabricio Werdum into last week with an off-balance punch to win the title. Cleveland finally has a champion.
… Cyborg is scary. Just retire, Ronda.
No. 9 – Game of Thrones - Live blog stream of conscious thoughts...
The following are my stream of conscious thoughts on season-six, episode four of Game of Thrones.
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a, Shouldn't Kit Harrington's name be listed first on the credits? I mean... he is Jon Snow. He deserves better than fourth billing.
b. Holy hell, Sansa and Jon together at last! That'll be a game-changer for Jon. Best hug in the history of television.
c. Sansa isn't having this soft-hearted Jon Snow.
d. Um, Ser Davos, meet Brienne. She wants to make sure you know she killed your man Stannis. Got that? #GOTgirlpower
e. Grey Wor is a better politician than he gives himself credit for.
f. I get the sense that Jorah's blaze of glory into the afterlife will be quite spectacular.
g. Margaery has more Cersei in her than she could ever know. She's a formidable player in the Game of Thrones.
h. Man, I f'ing dread every single scene with Ramsay in it.
i. RIP, Osha.
j. Jon Snow needs a slump buster.
k. Viva, la Mother of Dragons! That girl is b-a-d.
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No. 10 - And finally…
If my 40s are marked by little moments like this for the next 10 years, I have a feeling that this might be my favorite decade yet.
