Time to go back in history a bit – I said a bit but it’s about as far as I go back with the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets and the Brownwood Lions. I started in ’63 with the high school and ’64 with Howard Payne and I guess it was ’64 or it may have been ’65, but I have a quick story. It’s a football story.
The story is about a guy who is in a car following the team bus and all we’re doing is going to El Paso and we leave on Friday for a football game. It’s the first of September and the first of September is VERY hot! So, it was extremely hot. Anyway, when I get in the car I notice that the air conditioner is going out and it went out a few miles down the road. We were playing New Mexico State, an NCAA Division 1 team now, just like they were then. We were NAIA and we played on a Saturday night. This is Friday when I’m going out there. There were a couple of people in the car with me, I can’t even remember who, but it is getting hot – stifling hot. I’ve got all of the windows rolled at least a little bit down just trying to get some air because boy, it was hot! We were trailing a forty seat Arrow Coach Line bus and we made it to El Paso then the team went on to Las Cruces which is just a little bit down the road. We stayed in El Paso. We ate some supper and I got sick. I was sick all night, all the next morning, and sick until about mid- afternoon. Mid-afternoon came and I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I had thrown up so much and was so nauseated but in the afternoon it got better so we went to the stadium.
I told the bus driver what had happened. He said, “You got poisoning from our motor because you were riding the bumper”. He said, “Back off a little.” I said, “Well, I was scared I’d get lost.” He said, “How are you going to get lost in the middle of the desert? Trust me on this.”
Anyway, it was a wonderful evening. We ended up losing by seven and that was an upset and we were thrilled to death! They were thrilled to death by the way we had played. I have no idea about the trip back but the trip out there – I would have given anything for some medicine.
I’ll let you ponder this one about the heat in the Texas desert, the heat in El Paso, and by the way, it wasn’t any better in Las Cruces. I have never made that trip again. I don’t miss it at all.
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].