So sometimes, when my brain is not locked in on any one subject, I just start wandering around in the world of sports and remember things as far back as I can. I’ve always been a sports fan because my dad was and I couldn’t play sports like he did. Frustrated by that, I loved watching.

Watching back then isn’t like it is today. In other words, if I wanted to watch the Rangers or the Astros, I’d flick on the TV and watch what I wanted to. That wasn’t the case back when. Fact is, when I was a kid there were no major league teams around here. The closest we got was St. Louis maybe, but we had no Houston Astros until the early 60’s and no Texas Rangers until ten years after that.

Football, we had no professional teams when I was a kid. No Super Bowl either. The NFL Championship was on a black & white TV with no replays. We didn’t even get the Cowboys until about 1960. Fact is, I think the Dallas Texans were the first pro team in Texas and within a year the Cowboys came and when the Cowboys came the Texans moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs. Of course, the Houston Oilers came in about the same time.

In basketball, there was no NBA anywhere close to the State of Texas. Now you’ve got the Rockets and the Mavericks and the Spurs, but nothing like that back when. None of that stuff was on TV. I mean, none of it was on TV. If you got in the playoffs you’d see a game or two maybe. It’s just not the same, not the same in any regard really.

I remember back when they had all of one game a week on the radio – radio! Unbelievable! Kern Tipps was the play-by-play guy and that’s it. They had one game and he did the Humble Game of the Week. Then we got another guy, who was it, Connie Alexander maybe, and he was the backup. So you had a Game of the Week and then if you had a blackout or something they’d have a second Game of the Week. Kern Tipps , the best I’ve ever heard. He passed away about 60 years ago. Unbelievable play-by-play guy. Then we got real fancy, I mean REAL fancy. You didn’t record any TV programs back then. On television, once a week they had the Humble Game of the Week on TV and Kern Tipps did the voice for that.

Oh, and games? We had some great games! I mean GREAT games! Dicky Moegle played at Rice. He was running for a touchdown one day down the sideline and somebody from the other team – may have been Alabama – ran onto the field and tackled him and gave him a touchdown. LSU – I don’t know why I liked them back when I was a kid. Maybe it was their names. The Bengal Tigers. Maybe that was the whole deal with them. It was LSU and a kid named Billy Cannon. Billy Cannon was a great running back. SMU in basketball had a big guy named Jim Crebs who played the middle, and in football, there was Meredith.

My memories of these people are not great by any stretch, but I just remember them and I have such great memories when I think of them all. They are special! They were, and for some old people like me, they still are.

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].