I have great memories of May, Texas. Preached a couple of revivals there the past few years. I’ve had the opportunity to speak at several graduation ceremonies over there. Enjoyed those people. But my first memory of May was back in the early 70s.

It involved my old friend Dan McGhee (or Maggie or Magoo or whichever of his many nicknames fit the moment). Dan, of course, came to Howard Payne to play basketball in the 60s from Indiana. He was a great high school player and actually signed with the University of Louisville.

That didn’t work out the way he wanted so he left, went home, and joined the Navy. It didn’t take long for him to make the Navy all-star basketball team. A fellow basketball player on that team was Dan Smith. Smith, when he finished his tour in the Navy, came to Howard Payne to play and a couple of years later, McGhee followed him. Fred Davis joined in and Howard Payne’s golden years of basketball were off and running.

Dan McGhee had an outstanding career at Howard Payne. An All-American and one of the best passers and pure outside shooters I’ve ever seen. But more importantly, he was a friend of mine. A real good brother-type friend for several years. We wrote a lot of stories together that cannot and should not be told or read again, and won’t be by me.

Dan got his first coaching job out of college at May High School as head basketball coach and also an assistant football coach. That led to Dan calling me one August and saying, “Hey, I got my first football coaching gig. Come on out because May is scrimmaging tonight.” I said, “Okay.” So I went to May that evening.

Before the scrimmage I walked out on the field to talk to Dan and as I talked to him I said, “ You know, you’re not going to believe this Dan, but this is the first six-man game I’ve ever seen.” He said, “ Yeah, me too!” He had a ball in May and won a lot of games and made a lot of friends in that area. Then he moved on. He had really good coaching tenures with several other teams, most of them in the Panhandle area of Texas.

Dan, of course, came back to Brownwood several years ago and we kind of reunited for a while, both of us older and wiser.

My favorite memory of Dan was in the Walmart parking lot a few years ago. He came over to talk and, when through, he hugged me and told me he was proud of me. I knew it had nothing to do with sports. It was because of my faith. And, it was the same faith that carried Dan to the finish line a couple of years ago. I loved my friend and really do miss him.

Now, my memories of the first six-man game I ever saw are not so vivid. I don’t even remember if May outscored their opponent in the scrimmage, but it was fun to watch just like they are in 2021.

Go May Tigers!

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].