A few weeks ago I had a really wonderful experience. It is one of those “once in a lifetime” things. Let me start with my good friend, Jay Allison. He spent his early years in May, then eventually came to Brownwood. He played football but he played baseball before that. When he was 13, 14, 15 he played for me and he usually introduces me as “his coach”. He became a Brownwood Lion and was a good football player. When he graduated, he decided he would walk on at Baylor. He went from a walk on, to a scholarship, and by his junior year he was starting, then his senior year he was one of the Captains of the football team. He earned a law degree at Baylor and became involved in the oil business, moving to the Dallas area. He founded an oil company there and Jerry Jones became part of it.

Jay’s mother was a good friend and most people knew her where she worked and boy was she ever a worker! She eventually went to assisted living and was very active there. Jay would come to see her often and I would run into him there or he would stop by the house. Anyway, we stayed fairly close. He has a suite at Baylor Stadium and also Cowboy Stadium and has he’s invited us to join him there on

occasion. When his mother passed away several weeks ago I was honored that he asked me to speak at her funeral.

He and his wife came by the house the day before the funeral and we talked about it. I said, “Do you have any people coming”? He said, “Aside from the people here, people from my company, and ‘so and so’ and ‘so and so’.” I said, “I don’t guess Jerry’s coming”. He said, “No, I don’t think so”. I show up at the funeral and get seated on stage and when I looked down to my right, on the second row, there’s Jerry Jones.

I didn’t run and grab him or hug him or whatever. I just stayed in my place. The good Lord took care of me because every time I would look at him when I was talking I couldn’t see him. There were flowers that had him blocked from my view. When the funeral comes to an end everyone went down the side to where the food was for lunch.

Jay, Jerry, and the two gentlemen with him go down the other side across the way by themselves and I assumed he was gone. As my wife and I started out, I looked down the connecting hallways in the church and there he was. Jerry yells out, “There he is” and I stopped and looked at him, then he walked toward me and I walked toward him along with my wife. We shook hands and he said, “You did a good job and I enjoyed it”. I said, “Thank you very much”. Jay came over and the three of us had a conversation. I got to spend ten minutes or so with him before he left. I didn’t think anything more of it.

About a week later, Jay is back in town to take care of some business and he and Jenny, along with her mother Edna Reid, come to our house. He has a box with him and he gives it to me and I open it up. It’s a Dallas Cowboy helmet, full size. It’s an actual helmet. On this helmet is a signature “Jerry Jones”. Then he prints a message on there. Under Jerry Jones he’s got “Hall of Fame 17”. On the back side of the helmet he’s got “To Dallas Huston”. Underneath that he’s got “Go Lions, Go Yellow jackets, Go Cowboys”. That was his gift to me and I was blown away. Jay had stepped outside to take a phone call and when he comes back in he says, “Somebody wants to talk to you”. He turned the speaker on and there’s Jerry Jones! We end up having probably a thirty minute conversation between him, Jay, and me.

So, to be honest with you I wasn’t a big Jerry fan before he called, but after he called and that thirty minute conversation, and that time at the funeral, I’m a fan. That probably means they won’t win five games this coming year, but I sure hope they do!

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].