It was in the early ‘70s, I’m not exactly sure of the date, but I do know for a fact that Ken Henson was the basketball coach at Howard Payne and Johnny Rodgers was his assistant. It was about mid-season and we were in Huntsville playing Sam Houston State. At that time in the Lone Star Conference you played on Saturday night and you played on Monday night. So on the road, we were in Huntsville on a Saturday night playing a very good Sam Houston team. We were also very good, as was Stephen F. Austin, and maybe one or two other teams. But this ballgame, it was one of the strangest, most unusual games that I’ve ever been a part of.
Ken got a technical foul a minute and a half into the ballgame. Then, we got another technical about thirty seconds after the first one. Johnny, the assistant coach, gets it. He also picks up our third one and he has to exit the ballgame. (2 and you’re out) Well, he didn’t have to exit the game, but he did have to move out of his seat and up into the stands. I can’t remember how many technical fouls we had called on us in the first half, but probably three or four. Let me interject here that the officials got rattled. I don’t think I have ever been a part of a game in college where I saw officials cheat. I have seen some of them get rattled though and these in Huntsville were rattled. This was back when there were two officials. In the second half it just gets down right chaotic. Fact is, it got so ridiculous that officials late in the ballgame called a technical on us and one of their players came up behind one of the officials making all kinds of gestures and we still get the technical. We had eight with about a minute to go. Then, the game just gets ballistic! Number nine, number ten, and number eleven. Johnny continued to be the only ejection from ballgame, but I think everyone, except maybe me, got a technical in that ballgame. The final tally, we got eleven technicals and they had none. We lost the ballgame and lost it by a bunch. The officiating was just beyond description – beyond anything I had ever seen on a basketball court.
We turned around two days later, and I had spent the time between the ballgames just thinking about what I was going to say before that Monday game in Nacogdoches. I finally decided, instead of a pregame show, I was just going to dump it out – exactly how I felt and I did. I felt better. I don’t think the team even knew that I had done that on the air. We get back on Tuesday, fact is we came back after the game so it was well after midnight, close to four or five o’clock when we got back into town after that ballgame. Now the players, I’m sure, probably worked out that day. I had a job at a radio station so I had to do what I did at the station. While I’m there on that Tuesday, I get a phone call from Groner Pitts’ wife, Johnnie Beth. She said, “Dallas, we’re having a little get together at 5:00 at our house and want to make sure you are invited”. I said “Okay”, so I show up and Ken’s there, Johnny’s there and seems like maybe all of the coaches were there and several fans. There were probably twenty people there total. We ate a little snack and before we left that night Groner said, “Coach, I have a little something for you” and he went into one of the rooms in the house. When he came out he had a box that had eleven fowls in it, and by fowls I mean like some kind of bird. There was a box for each of us and each box had eleven birds – FOWLS. We took the boxes home. I never even ate mine. I think I dumped it in the trash. That was one of the most memorable games that I ever saw.
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].