I never really had a great desire to be a coach and after a couple of experiences in my life I determined that there was no way you could pay me enough to be a coach! One occurred at Howard Payne about 1980. I got a phone call from the then Howard Payne coach, Harold Mayo, and he said, “Dallas, have you ever wanted to coach”? I don’t know what I said, but he said “I have this idea. We’re going to have a Spring game this year at Howard Payne. We’re going to equally divide the teams talent wise and I’m going to have you coach one team and Bill Stovall of the Brownwood Bulletin is going to coach the other. We’ll divide the coaching staff as well”. I said, “Why not? Sounds like fun”.
It was a Saturday night at Old Lion Stadium, two equal teams and Bill and I calling the plays. Actually, we would tell one of the assistant coaches what we wanted to run, and they would signal the play in for us. I knew we had about forty seconds to come up with another play and get it in, but I had no idea it was that hard to do. Have you ever seen those big department stores at Christmas time when they open the doors and the crowd just floods in? I kind of felt like that. There was so much going on around me I couldn’t think – I didn’t know what to do! I think my team got beat like 35 to 6. I kept looking to the other sideline and Bill was always smiling and I wasn’t. But I learned a lot of lessons. Mainly, it takes a lot more time than you think it does to get a play in from the sideline to the huddle. They also don’t give you nearly enough time outs. You get three in a half, and I think I used three in the first five plays we ran. Trust me, coaching is a whole lot more difficult than you think it is.
My other experience was 1970. Glen Whitis had just left us to take the Hardin Simmons basketball job and Howard Payne hires a guy named Ken Henson. His brother Lou was well known as the Coach at New Mexico State. Later on, at the University of Illinois, he gained national prominence. At New Mexico State the year prior, UCLA in the middle of their dynasty, beat them in the regional finals by only about five points. Before the season started that next year, like in October, Ken and Lou decided to scrimmage so the team went to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Ken asked me if I wanted to go, and I jumped at the opportunity. So, we go to Carlsbad and played in their high school gym. No tickets were sold but the word got out and there was a sell-out crowd. Before we started, Ken motioned me over and said, “Here, sit next to me”. Since it was a scrimmage, it was legal. What an experience that was! The game was going so fast I was just totally lost.
The only thing I knew that was part of the game were the officials. So, every once in a while, I’d yell at one of them, very quietly. It ended up really a very good ballgame, like three or four points.
Those were my only two coaching experiences in those sports and I enjoyed both, but I never wanted to try it again!
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].