I’m not going to be terribly specific on this because it happened back in 2006. Steve Freeman was the Head Coach of the Brownwood Lions and boy were we ever struggling. We had a pretty good ball club but they had just run into some people they couldn’t handle. Fact is, we went into the last game of that year with only three wins – three wins in nine games.
So here we are at three and six, but we are playing Waco Midway in the last game of the season. Now in the District standings we’re a game out of fourth place where Midway is and then another team in the District was one up on us as well. We play Waco Midway – last game of the season – at home and we save our best for last. We outscore them 60-10. Oh, by the way, we had to beat Midway by whatever it was, 15 to 20 points, to even have a chance of getting into the playoffs. We beat them by a bunch and we had done what we had to do.
Now they were even with us and the other team that was above us lost so here we are with a three-way tie for fourth place. Right after the ballgame representatives of all three teams that were tied head to Evant, Texas. If you don’t know where Evant is, you find Center City on your way to Waco and it’s on beyond there and Evant is where people from all three schools met. Of course we had our “secret weapon,” a youngster by the name of McLane Moore. Among all these men, McLane made the call for us. He was our good luck charm. I don’t remember if he called heads or tails but I do remember the screaming erupting from Evant as it was being broadcast on the air, and I knew somebody had won and it turned out it was Brownwood! McLane made the right call and the other two were out so Brownwood, with a four and six record, moved on into the playoffs.
We got Ennis in the first round and we tossed with them, won and played them at Gordon Wood – and killed them! Then in the second round, we’re up in Fort Worth whipping a Dallas team, and then the third round we come back to Brownwood and play North Dallas High School. We win that one as well. So, we had won three straight in the playoffs and now we are seven and six and in the Regional Finals. We go to Waco, Baylor Stadium, and we play a very good Waco High School team which won our district and they beat us fairly comfortably. This time we swore it would be different and it was a different score, but Waco High still beat us and went on deeper into the playoffs. We were out with a record of seven wins and seven losses.
One of the more memorable seasons that I’ve ever been a part of. I will tell you this, most seasons that I broadcast – I was disappointed that we didn’t do more than we did. That season back in the ‘90s was certainly NOT one of those. That season, I was so proud of those kids because we got all we could out of that season. Given a chance, we took it as far as anyone could. Those kids that were on that team learned lessons that very few others have.
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].