Football scrimmages are not what they used to be.

I’ve been watching those things for nearly 60 years, and the difference between the old days and today is almost unbelievable.

When Gordon Wood came to Brownwood in 1960, I’m not sure what everyone else was doing, but our scrimmages were guarded like Fort Knox. Gordon would not tell anyone who we were scrimmaging or where. I have even had people tell me that for most scrimmages, the players did not even know, and Gordon was adamant about never playing one at home.

In 1963, I was placed on the Lion broadcast crew and thought I had become pretty important. Coach Wood though, put me in my place. I went to see him the morning of our first scrimmage and when he found out I was going, he was excited – but not for the reasons I thought.

He had told me they were to scrimmage that night at 7 in Sweetwater. So, sure enough, I headed to Sweetwater that evening. When I got to the Mustang Bowl there were no buses, no fans, and no coaches or players. I knew that Gordon was probably having a big laugh, but I was not happy.

I went into his office the next morning and he said, “Hey (with a big grin on his face), how was Sweetwater last night?” Now, in the years following, I went on some wild goose chases with that man, but thankfully, he never sent me on another one.

Of course, in his later years in Brownwood he loosened things up a little bit, but not much. But how things changed.

Randy Allen showed up in 1986 and he literally threw the gates open. His first scrimmage was at home and they had the concession stand open, the band playing, cheerleaders jumping, and everything else you can imagine at a scrimmage.

By the way, those two men had totally different styles but emerged as two of the greatest coaches in Texas High School football history. So I guess either way of scrimmaging is OK.

One of my favorite scrimmage stories was told to me by Coach Wood about his first team in 1960. I have no idea who Brownwood scrimmaged first that season, but whoever it was literally wore us out. The coaches were very unhappy.

That scrimmage in 1960 was scouted by Jerry Millsap from San Angelo Central, a former HPU coach. The Central game was already a blowout on paper. Brownwood was preseason ranked No. 7 in an eight-team district and only had a couple of returners coming back. San Angelo Central was coached by Emory Ballard and was ranked preseason No. 1 in what now would be 6A.

Millsap scouted the Brownwood scrimmage and Coach Wood said he reported to Ballard, “Coach, I’ve just seen the worst high school team I have ever seen, and I would advise you not to scout them next week because they are pitiful.” And, Coach Wood said he wasn’t lying, because we had indeed looked pitiful.

But then came scrimmage number two.

I believe we were scrimmaging Austin High in Austin. Coach Wood said that for about half of the scrimmage we looked as pitiful as the week before. But then, a fight broke out and he said it was a donnybrook, and the kids began playing well after the fight. He said that on the bus ride back to Brownwood that night, Coach Southall leaned over to him and said, “Hey, I think we have a team.”

That next week, we opened the season at home and led Central 28-0 at halftime. The final was 34-6 and the legend of Gordon Wood and the good times at Brownwood High were off and running.

Today, I want to take this opportunity, whether you scrimmaged the new way or old fashioned, and sincerely wish all of our area high school teams nothing but the very best in 2021.

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