WVD

In the Fall of 1994, my good friend Drew and I went to watch our Texas Tech Red Raiders play TCU in Fort Worth. We’d gone down to see his family in Lufkin for Thanksgiving, and we headed back up for the game. We had a great time, though the game didn’t go so well, as the Frogs sacked our QB ten times enroute to a 24-17 win.

We were kinda bummed, so we stayed in the Metroplex and got a hotel room and commenced to looking for things to do, and settled on a minor league hockey game, the Fort Worth Fire against the Tulsa Oilers. As was my custom, I bought a game program, and noticed that the games were broadcast by a man about my age who also did play by play of other events in the neighborhood. It was a bit of a defining moment for me—if he can find work broadcasting games, then so could I. I knew this was what I wanted for myself, I just didn’t know how to go about breaking into the business.

I had started working as a weekend board monkey at an AM talk radio station—running ESPN radio, Cowboys football, Rockets basketball and Rangers baseball, and in asking around, I learned about Woody Van Dyke, who had a bit of a network set up and aired area high school games. I recall having to make two trips to see him that first day, having forgotten something. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1995, I began working for his Sports Ticket Radio Network. This started a string of 14 straight years where I covered high school football on Friday nights. Every night, every game was special, even if it didn’t seem like it at the time.

Woody was one of my first mentors in the radio business. I learned earlier this week that he died at the age of 74.

He gave me a chance and helped me get my foot in the door in Lubbock radio. I wasn’t broadcasting, yet, but I didn’t care-- it was a start in my chosen profession. My first assignment was as a studio host, calling around for other scores and coming on for updates. Ahead were trips to Dick Bivins Stadium in Amarillo, Kimbrough Memorial Stadium (aka The Buffalo Bowl) in Canyon, and Ratliff Stadium in Odessa to cover high school football, as well as trips to Roswell and Plainview, and points beyond and in between. I got to meet people like Joe Fan, a big name to El Paso types, Steve Dale (Jack’s son) and Thomas Howard, who was a linebacker for Texas Tech and the Kansas City Chiefs. I worked baseball and football for parts of three seasons, eventually getting an on-air opportunity my third year.

One particular trip stands out—might’ve been the 1997 playoffs, Friday night and Saturday afternoon games for Woody and me. I remember having trouble for that first game, and I still have no idea how we got on the air to beam that Shallowater/Stanton game back home that evening. Woody rang the alarm and got someone down there so that Saturday’s game would be free of concern. This was Lubbock Coronado against Permian. The same Permian I’ve spoken about here before. The same PHS that owned my alma mater, Andress, as well as every other school to advance out of El Paso. So my hatred of all things Mojo was (is) deep. Now there’s a universal gameday rule that there’s no cheering in the press box. People are trying to do their jobs. I was new to the biz and broke that rule, as CHS beat the Panthers 20-7. Woody understood and followed this rubric and tried to calm me down while doing the game.

Good times, great experiences, and great experience. They all helped me get my first full-time radio job in Levelland, Texas in 1998. I couldn’t have done it without him.

Thanks, Woody.