Gordon Wood loved chili, but I have no chili stories, so ribs will have to do.

Several years ago, Brownwood and Aledo were in the same district. This was before Aledo had their beautiful state of the art stadium that they have now. This is when they had the old wooden stadium toward downtown.

The first game I ever broadcast in that stadium, I was a little shocked when I walked into their press box. It was a little different. Everyone was in one long room. I’m talking their radio station, our radio station, our sports writer, their sports writers, the clock operators, scoreboard operators, the PA man – everyone was in that same big room.

When I walked in that night, I was overwhelmed by a fabulous smell. We had just eaten a pre-game meal, but this was still tempting. As I got to our broadcast spot, there it was. A large, slow cooker plugged in behind me on a shelf, and the slow cooker was full of beef ribs, and they smelled absolutely fantastic. Turned out to be one of the more difficult games I ever had to do because I was so distracted.

Of course, everybody in the press box had access to the ribs. It seemed about half the fans did as well. By the time the ribs were finished cooking, I was on the air, so I didn’t have time to eat a plate full of ribs, no matter how much my mouth was watering. So, I just sat there and suffered while everyone else was grabbing a couple of ribs, standing around me and eating them.

I didn’t really have any problem with the broadcast until Coach Wood came venturing into the room and he smelled the ribs and the old man acted like an old dog that hadn’t eaten for a month. Coach was in retirement but still went to every game. That night, when he got his ribs, he didn’t want to lose his place by the ribs so anytime something happened on the football field he would bend down and look at the play, then get back up and eat some more ribs.

Of course, every time he bent down, he was over my shoulder looking at the ballgame. It didn’t take too long until I noticed by shirt looked like it was bleeding because his ribs were dripping but he continued to eat. I even mentioned it to him. “Hey, back up or move down. You’re getting the stuff all over me!” He laughed and continued to do exactly what he had been doing, dripping rib sauce all over me.

After the ballgame, I couldn’t wait to dive into the cooker – it was empty! As we left the stadium, I told our crew to get to a convenience store quick because I was starving. When I walked in I’m sure I scared the clerk to death because I looked like I had been in a knife fight. (BBQ sauce does look a bit like blood).

I ended up with like a bag of potato chips that night instead of those ribs. When Aledo is mentioned nowadays, people usually think of great football teams. Me? I think of ribs.

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].