Many years ago, I found out the hard way that sports legends can be just as intimidating... More...
Many years from now, I’m sure there will be Baylor fans who will look back at this 9-3... More...
As I stood at the very end of the long jump runway at Dement Field awaiting my final preliminary jump, I spotted my dad among the spectators... More...
Almost a half-century ago and far away from the bright lights and cheering fans at high school and college football stadiums, there was another annual ritual playing out more quietly on sandlots in just about every Texas town across the state. Huge numbers of boys... More...
Fans that have followed Baylor football fortunes (or misfortunes) for decades have naturally come to expect that soon after fleeting successes, the other shoe will surely drop and our golden carriage will turn into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight. Legions of longtime Baylor fans have learned to distrust success.
One would assume that a coach that has brought such immediate respect to a downtrodden program in his short tenure should have easily won over the entire fan base long ago... More...
There was something distinctly familiar and authentic about the voice and accent I heard on a recent... More...
VICKREY: AS INSTANT REPLAY TURNS 50, VIEWERS CAN OFFER VERNA REPEATED THANKSHouston Chronicle
As I thumbed through my copy of Tony Verna's entertaining memoir, "Instant Replay," I became... More...
HOLLYWOOD IS IN A STATE OF FRENZY OVER STEVE KERRPalisadian Post
April 7, 1988
Hollywood has gone Tucson. No folks, that’s not backwards. Lately, the patrons at Mort’s Deli in Pacific Palisades could care less about the local movie stars whose pictures adorn the walls here. The latest rage isn’t all that glitzy. He is a local boy turned college basketball star... More...
ALL FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL
I can’t remember the precise date of our anniversary, but I must have taken traditional vows like everyone else did: “I take you to be... More...
THAT ELUSIVE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON
The cute girl sitting in the row of seats directly in front of us suddenly turned around and began hugging me in the wild jubilant celebration that ensued after our star running back crossed the goal line for the winning touchdown.
That moment more than 50 years ago is as vivid to me now as if it had happened yesterday. The combination of the thrilling playoff victory and a beautiful classmate whirling me in triumphant revelry was almost too head-spinning for a 17 year-old boy to fathom.
I grew up in the town of Galena Park and was a member of the senior class which got to live out the ultimate Texas dream when our high school football team advanced all the way to the state championship game... More...
A DIFFERENT SORT OF BAYLOR ATHLETIC LEGEND
When I first arrived at Baylor University in 1964, the legend of the Bears’ All America football star Lawrence Elkins had already been indelibly written, and had cast his rather significant shadow across that campus after leading... More...
HOW TO CURE BAYLOR'S BOWL HANGOVER
Waco Tribune-Herald
For the second consecutive year, avid Baylor football fans have been forced to deal with the disappointment of a bitter post-season bowl loss, but Thursday’s late-game Cotton Bowl collapse against Michigan State was a particularly tough pill to swallow.
After owning a 41-21 fourth quarter lead, the Bears watched their game momentum slip away and benevolently... More...
BAYLOR-SMU THE RIGHT RIVALRY TO CHRISTEN McLANE STADIUM
Each fall season during the late 1940s, college football fans across the Southwest gathered around their living room radios so they could listen to celebrated announcer Kern Tips describe the dazzling feats of perhaps the greatest player of his generation... More...