In 1959 Gordon Wood and Morris Southall were in Victoria, Texas coaching high school football. They desperately, after two years, wanted to get back to West Texas and there was a job opening that really, really appealed to Gordon in particular. That was the head job at San Angelo Central, and he applied. He was pretty well guaranteed by the President of the School Board that it was a done deal. But, the day before the School Board meeting to decide on the head coach, Emory Ballard of Breckenridge applied. Turns out, that head of the School Board was also a good friend of a man by the name of Darrell Royal, who coached at the University of Texas.

Royal, who was very close to Wood, had no idea that Gordon had applied for the Central job. So, when the San Angelo people called to ask his opinion, they started the list of applicants with Bellard and Royal said, “Give him the job! He’s the one for you”. And, that’s exactly what the School Board did. They took Royal’s recommendation and hired Ballard.

Well, in the following days, Royal found out that Wood had applied and he was devastated. He called Gordon to try to make it up to him. He told him, “Had I known that you had applied I would have recommended you, but I had no idea. Is there anything I can do to make up for it”? Gordon said, “Well, the only other job that I know of in West Texas that’s open is in Brownwood. Would you mind calling them and recommending me”? That’s exactly what Royal did and the rest is history.

If you know Brownwood’s history, you know that Gordon Wood came to town in the second semester of the ’59-’60 school year and an amazing football story began – at least for Brownwood. Wood had already won two State Championships at Stamford and he immediately won his first at Brownwood in 1960. By the way, not too long after Gordon got here, Royal came and spoke at the Lion football banquet.

Back then, the Lion banquet was always held in the Roof Garden on the twelfth floor of the Brownwood Hotel. He came and spoke and when he did, he said, “I just want you to know that I am solely responsible for Gordon Wood coming to Brownwood and bringing you all of this success. I hope you’ll give me credit”.

Gordon, of course stayed through the 1985 season as Head Coach, and stayed in Brownwood until he passed in the early 2000’s. But, his beginning almost never happened here. By the way, ironically enough, Brownwood’s first game under Gordon Wood was against San Angelo Central which was heavily favored. Bellard, of course, was the coach at Central and Gordon’s bunch wore the heavily favored Bobcats out 34-6.

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].