You know, sometimes I think I need to retrace Howard Payne basketball a little bit because there are not many people who remember the “good old days”. Howard Payne was a dominant team when I started back in the early 60’s and really until the early 80’s they were a dominant team. Most of the time, twenty plus wins a season. I guess I need to talk about it a little more often because it’s not like that anymore. I’ve talked about us playing UT and playing trips on the road, and all kinds of different stuff, but I guess the thing that bothers me more than anything else right now is that it almost looks like everything has slipped out of our hands and gone elsewhere. Now we’re in the American Southwest Conference which is getting smaller and smaller and it’s going to have to be reshuffled again. We have very few “arch enemies” so to speak. Hardin Simmons, that’s about it and they’re a good one. I only wish when we play Hardin Simmons in Brownwood it would be like a wild rivalry game, but I’m not sure those even exist anymore. I guess somebody’s going to have to show me.
Now, I’m not doing this because Howard Payne’s men are at three wins this year and the women have won two. I trust the coaches! I trust Presley and I trust Nadir. It doesn’t have anything to do with coaches. We’re going to get players in here and when we do we’re going to get a better team and I hope we’ll get two teams that will be back in the battle for a conference championship SOON. Why? Because I don’t like this like it is! I’m not sure what “like it is” means anymore. When I started in the old Lone Star Conference, Howard Payne knew how to play. They won something like 20 or so games a season for like twenty something years in a row. They knew how to play. They could play the University of Texas. They could play the University of New Mexico, etc.
Now, I know all of those things are behind us, and that’s okay, but can we win? Well, we proved it in football the last couple of years! But can we win? Absolutely! Why are we like this right now?
I don’t have the answers, but I do know this – at one time we had cheerleaders that led cheers and performed during the ballgames. We had crowds that hung banners all over the place. I’m not talking about real banners, I’m talking about fake or “home made” banners. We had fans that went ballistic! I mean ballistic! We had a band at the games! We had all kinds of things we don’t have right now. Why do we not have them? Somebody tell me! Why don’t we have bands at the games anymore? Why aren’t the cheerleaders on the floor leading the crowd in cheers? Why don’t we have those banners up in the coliseum anymore? I mean I could ask question after question after question. I don’t know the answer. Somebody’s just going to have to sit me down and say, “Hey old man, here’s why we don’t do any of that any more”. The coliseum used to be a rocking place. It used to be a fun place. It used to be a show. That was even before they had men and women’s games. It was just men’s basketball, but it was one of the biggest shows in town! This town, I guess, has forgotten, and maybe doesn’t even want to remember anymore.
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].