I read something the other day that kind of shocked me. I think this is seventeen consecutive times that Brownwood has been in the playoffs. That’s a long time. Not as long as some people, but that’s a long time for us. I forget that the team that we have this year, most of them didn’t play last year. So, we put too much on the current team when you don’t give them a chance. Some teams get to go to the playoffs every year like Brownwood and it makes it kind of tough when they lose in the opening round, or second round, or third round of the playoffs and “Y’all lost! Good grief”. Well, they have to remember that we did get in the playoffs and that’s a good thing, although it’s certainly not the most important thing in Brownwood. Most important is to win State and they haven’t done it in a long, long, long time.
Anyway, that’s beside the point, and that’s assuming we have a point to make and I hope we do. Brownwood in 1960 was the first year that we really breathed on our own so to speak. We had a decade or two of, well, we just weren’t very good. I think we had a total of one playoff game through history or something like that, but believe it or not, we were a good team that got even. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good time in Brownwood back then. We had very little history in football.
I think our only claim to fame was in 1954 or something like that and we played Big Spring out here in the old stadium. Big Spring! We didn’t know if they were any good and I found out later they were. We actually led Big Spring 12-0 after the first two drives of the ballgame and then they got mad or something. They ended up beating us like 54-12 or something like that. Big Spring to me was just – unbelievable! They did things I didn’t think you could do with a football. I was about twelve years old but when you’re twelve years old and skinny, and dried up, Big Spring looked like the Dallas Cowboys, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing today, but they looked like “professionals”. I mean they were huge – HUGE – and they whipped us.
Ironically that’s who we play Friday. Big Spring isn’t like that old squad. They finished third in their District and that’s an extremely weak District. So, Brownwood is favored and should win. Then we play Canyon (Canyon or Randall), not Canyon West Plains or whatever it is. They’ll be the third round opponent. Anyway, I’m ahead of myself here, I don’t think we can sweep all three of those. If we do, let’s play Stephenville again and try to do a lot better!
Until next time, so long everybody.
***
‘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].