Prayers of university presidents and school superintendents for commencement exercises to be executed as planned often are short-circuited.    Some leaders are extremists–the kind who decree that neither blaring air horns nor unseemly yells will be

Stephen F. Austin State University, newest member of The University of Texas System, has a storied basketball history, but in football–for a few seasons, at least–not so much. Such was true for the 1959-1960-1961 football

   Dilemma horns seemed to gore when I contemplated this week’s piece. I could have ridden (written?) off in either direction and still wound up with words to spare. Would I write about what I miss

My grandkids might understandably say of me, “Oh, Poppy, you are so yesterday.” And they are so right, clearly on target if they encase me with the “day before yesterday” crowd. Whatever, they often kid

It would be daunting for researchers half his age, but it didn’t stop Dr. Ray Van Cleef from reconnecting with his baseball players from six decades ago. The longtime Texas community college administrator couldn’t resist

I’m sure Will Rogers was a friendly guy, even if the quote usually attributed to him has been taken out of context. During an interview, he mentioned prominent men he’d met, all of whom he

Way back when, I agreed to serve as judge of pageants held annually in Fort Stockton and DeLeon. I–and another couple of judges–were to select queens of the Water Festival and the Peach and Melon

They generally give us the benefit of the doubt even when we are dead wrong, wagging their tails while licking the hands that feed them. In their way, they pledge unending devotion, no matter what.

   During growing-up years, I don’t remember hearing much talk about splashing on sweet-smelling stuff.    Surely it was poetic injustice, what with cotton-picking heating up many of my kin who labored in the fields, not

Higher education gets news coverage in both mass and social media, and much, I’m sure, is true. Technology is changing it at warp speed, and the old descriptions we used to toss about no longer

The Texas High School Coaches Association–organized by 28 coaches in 1930–now has a membership of some 24,000. It also has an education foundation that introduced the “Grant Teaff Coaching Beyond the Game Award” a decade

Minnie Pearl–queen of country humor for a half-century–”country-talked” her way into our hearts, mostly from the stage of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. Nowadays, the $1.98 price tag dangling from her hat is but a distant