Honor Them While They’re Here | Engel Angle

I love my dog, but she won't leave me alone.
Mac, Engle, Fort Worth, Star Telegram, Engle, Engle, podcast. Here are the Sunset Lounge.
Thanks for joining me as always. No guest through this episode.
However, this is an episode that covers a topic that's very, very special to me,
very important to me and something that I have harked on for quite a while.
I'm going to continue to do so on this format.
But, before I get to that, I do want to share a funny anecdote or a neat anecdote on about funny anecdote,
about a man who influenced another man whose life recently ended.
Talking, of course, about Academy Award-winning actor Robert DeVal.
We recently lost Robert DeVal a few days ago. He was 95.
And I don't think I can really say anything about DeVal that hasn't already been said.
I like one of, oh god, millions of other people loved DeVal's work. I never did meet him.
However, I was invited to a movie premiere in Fort Worth for the screening of 12 mighty orphans.
That movie was shot in Fort Worth, and Robert DeVal had, I think what can be best called a cameo,
he was giving, he was giving a credit and a very, very small part of that movie.
And he shared the screen with Martin Sheen.
It was the first time Martin Sheen and Robert DeVal had been on screen together since they had,
obviously, starred in Apocalypse Now, which came out in the 70s.
Now, DeVal's part, like I said, in 12 mighty orphans was very, very small,
but he did show up to the premiere.
And at the time when I saw him, I had one of those, oh my gosh, that's Robert DeVal moments.
He was much older, he was in his 80s at the time, and he was quite small.
That's very short, man.
And that's one thing consistently that I have noticed when I have had the opportunity to interview actors and actresses
is just how small they are. They're not tall, big people usually at all.
And what makes sense, right, if you go back to high school and think about the people who get involved in theater and the arts,
they got involved in theater and the arts because they probably didn't have the frame for it
to get involved in athletics, and they also had a creative streak in them that they wanted to express that
on the stage rather than they could on a field or a court.
Now, Robert DeVal's work speaks for itself, starting lots and lots of movies.
The particular role that he had in 12 mighty orphans was his third to last appearance in a motion picture, like I said.
It wasn't a very big part, but the movie that he is known for or one of many other than the Godfather
very much had to do with Texas.
And I'm talking of course about the 1989 television miniseries Lonesome Dove.
Anybody who was around to watch Lonesome Dove when that aired first on CBS recalls what an enormous deal it was.
This was way before the idea of binge watching anything.
You went to watch movies on VHS, you rented movies at the time, you went to Black Buster and spent a whole time scouring the aisles for just one title,
hoping it was in, or you went to the theater and the idea of having movies on demand on your television was just foreign, it didn't exist.
And typically at that time, made for TV movies such as Lonesome Dove had a really low mark to hit.
Usually they weren't very good.
Now there were some exceptions, of course.
Brian Song about former Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo starring James Khan and ability Williams as Gail Sears.
That one, that was a made for TV movie that really sort of was the gold standard for a long time because usually made for TV movies were kind of hokey.
And they didn't have the production value of a major motion picture, which is one of the reasons why you seldom saw major Hollywood actors star and
made for TV movies, usually.
However, Lonesome Dove was the exception.
And if you look at all these different series now that are on your streaming device, streaming apps like Netflix or Apple TV or Hulu or anything else,
well, we don't think anything of it now to see Matthew McConaughey or Idris Alba, Nicole Kidman, or any number of other prominent names now starring in series that only show on our TV screens.
Well, back in the 80s, that was a really rare occurrence.
So when Robert DeVal had a starring role along with Tommy Lee Jones and Lonesome Dove, you knew it was big.
And this was one of the cases where the movie was just as good as the book, which is probably the same thing that could have been said in the 70s about Robert DeVal's film The Godfather,
which was based on the bestselling book by Mario Puzzo.
The bestselling book, Lonesome Dove, was written by native Texan Larry McMurtry.
And if you didn't, if you don't already know it, Lonesome Dove tells a story of two cowboys, Robert DeVal and Tommy Lee Jones, who decide to leave Texas and start a ranch in Montana.
And it's the story of that travel and that trip.
And it's full of, oh, heartbreak and excitement and disappointment and all these different emotions because the characters were so well drawn and they were so well portrayed by all of these normally big time Hollywood people that would not have been necessarily associated with television projects.
I'm talking about Danny Glover, Diane Lane, Angelic Houston, also in it was Robert Eurick and of course Robert Eurick at the time was still mostly associated with TV.
So of all the characters that Robert DeVal ever played, his turn at Lonesome Dove as Gus McCray is probably the one that he is most known for along with his parts and apocalypse now and the Godfather as Tom Hagen.
In my mind, DeVal's performance as Gus McCray was his greatest work and like anybody else, I was a big Robert DeVal fan.
And the reason why I'm sharing this is because years later, Robert DeVal said that the person he, he based Gus McCray on is former TCU quarterback Sammy Baugh.
Now for those of you who don't know Sammy Baugh, Sammy Baugh was the original original first celebrity superstar football player.
I don't know about the first, but among the first that rock per me, Sammy Baugh was a member of the first class and the first the first class that the pro football fame.
Sammy Baugh is from Texas and he played college football and baseball at TCU before he went on to become a great football player for the Washington Redskins where he played every position including punter and then he went on to star briefly in Hollywood movies.
Sammy Baugh retired to I don't think the word nowhere does justice for where Sammy Baugh retired. He retired in a little town five hours west of Fort Worth called Rotan or OTAN don't bother looking it up and do not bother going out there to see anything that said this is where Sammy Baugh lived.
Sammy Baugh retired there became a rancher he raised cattle played a lot of golf watched a lot of football and he was cowboy he was a cowboy through and through and when somebody said to me recently that DeVal mimicked or pardon me outlined his portrayal of Gus McCray based on Sammy Baugh, I thought it totally forgot about that and it made me think about one of my most prized interviews that I've ever had.
And that is when I went out to Sammy Baugh's house in 1999 and I'm here to say that Rob DeVal mailed Sammy Baugh that when I went back and I watched a few highlights of Lonesome Dove after DeVal died and it made me think oh my god that is Sammy Baugh.
So my story was Sammy Baugh was a very nice man and he had one rule pretty much about doing interviews or anything like that which is you come to me.
I'm happy to sit there and talk to you and chew the fat but you got to come to me so you got to want it to interview Sammy Baugh you had to want it.
So at the time I was a freelance writer and somebody gave me his number and I called him and he said yeah come on out and he gave me his address and I had to look it up on a map.
There was no computer to look it up on there was no cell phone there was none of those things that would have made that trip so much easier.
So I drove out there and by the time I got close and within an hour I thought there's no way this is right.
This can't be right there's no way a football celebrity lives out here in the middle of this prairie desert there's just no way.
And I get through the main part of town turn left and I'm driving down this very narrow one way highway through the middle of nowhere and I see this little small mountain off into the distance and there is my right turn.
Drive back and there's a very small house on what appears to be a lot of open acreage there was a horse just sort of standing there by a tree next to a very small house.
I guess the house was a couple thousand square feet nothing big single story knock on the door and there's a woman sitting on a kitchen counter part of me kitchen table.
Doing a crossword puzzle a reading newspaper I can't remember I introduced myself she said go ahead daddy sitting right back in there.
And I go walk in the room and there is Gus McCray there is Sammy boss sitting in a recliner with the baseball hat on.
Chewing tobacco got a dip in his mouth and he stood up I introduce he's stood up I introduce myself shook his hand and we talked for two hours.
It was surreal because you just don't expect to be sitting next to this guy for two hours and just talking to him about everything and he's telling me all these different stories.
And more I thought about it that time and again this was before cell phones I didn't record I didn't record it on a video camera or cell phone camera there's no there's not many pictures from it nothing.
And I'm sitting there looking in this living room is a very modest living room that was kind of dark there was nothing on the walls.
That indicated who this man was nothing that there was no giant picture there's no jersey from the red skins no jersey from TCU nothing like that.
There's big TV there I should even say big TV just TV where I watch football games.
And he sat there and he told me and told a bunch of stories and when I think about what Robert devolved did to play Gus McCray he was Sammy ball.
So eventually as the conversation continued I eventually realized okay I've been here long enough it's it's time for me to leave.
And he wasn't rude I want to be real clear about that Robert devolved was not permanent.
Sammy ball wasn't rude it was just I realized it was time I've been there long enough.
So I thanked him profusely and he escorts me down the back hallway before where the washer and dryer was and then that dark hallway is very narrow hallway.
He turned the light on and that's where that's where the pictures were that's where some of the awards were there weren't many.
And the thing that I remember about it was I don't think I'd ever met anybody that famous that accomplished who is as unimpressed by it all like Sammy ball was.
And as I was leaving he said you want anything to drink and I said sure what you got so open the refrigerator and I said yeah I'll take a doctor pepper.
So he takes the doctor pepper and before he gives it to me he shakes it up real good he said here you go.
And he laughed and he had these these these his lips kind of curled around his teeth a little bit.
And I did something that I don't normally do I had a autograph something for me and it's a book in some place I don't even know where it is anymore.
But I thanked him very much and that was a very unique experience and something that I cherish to this day because not only did I get to meet Sammy ball I got to meet that's my grade two.
Rest in peace Robert devolved.
So now I want to focus on the topic that I really want to talk about and that is the case of a Hall of Famer who has not and I am fearing will not receive their recognition for a brilliant Hall of Fame career ever.
And I am not talking about University of North Carolina football coach Bill Bellachick.
In the last month or so of all of the Hall of Fame stories to come out the most angry response has been the omission of the pro football Hall of Fame not inducting.
Bill Bellachick into its 2026 class.
And I will be the first one to admit yep the Hall of Fame got that one wrong.
There's no reason why Bill Bellachick having established himself in his 20 seasons in New England with all of those different Super Bowl winners is anything but a Hall of Famer in his first chance to get in.
It was caused embarrassment for Hall of Fame voters it caused embarrassed for the Hall of Fame voting process that Bill Bellachick whatever you want to think about him as a person however he treated the media in his 20 plus seasons in New England even dating back to his time in Cleveland.
Whatever those whatever that was that man's resume says he should be in Canton at first eligibility but he didn't because of a flawed process and a flawed the whole things flawed do I think certain people voted against him because of the whole spy gate yes I do.
But what I really think happened is that you only have unlimited number of voters between 50 or 60 and the coaches are put in the same pool as the senior nominated candidates for have that right.
So some voters who did not vote a man made made a point to say listen I didn't vote a man because there are some other guys who are waiting their turn in line and if they don't get my vote now they're not going to get it at all.
And I know Bellachick is going to get in next season and I understood that I understood that but when I really but when it really showed is just how flawed the processes and there's no way to get a Hall of Fame vote vote right there you're always going to screw it up in some way shape or form inevitably somebody's going to be left out inevitably somebody's feelings are going to get her and invariably every single time former players will sit there and how and say there's no way media members should be voting it should be former players.
And I'm here to tell you right now I'm not sitting here telling you all my colleagues in the media get this one right all the time they don't I will be the first one to tell you that no one will get it wrong like former players one they don't keep up with it into they will vote for their friends that will be a friends of friends Hall of Fame ballot if you leave it to the devices of former players you want to include a couple a couple yeah that's fine but if you just have it be a field of former players voting.
For their friends as former NFL player and current Hall of Famer Randy Moss has suggested it will be an embarrassment and it will be far worse than it exists today.
Whatever you want to say about Bill Bellachick the man is a Hall of Famer he built a Hall of Fame career in his time as the defensive coordinator with Bill Parcells with the New York Giants where they won multiple Super Bowls and certainly in his long tenure of building multiple dynasties
with the New England Patriots he did not win all of those Super Bowls just because of Tom Brady that silly they work together Bill Bellachick is a Hall of Famer he didn't get in now he will next season and that that wrong will be corrected however the case of Bill Bellachick is nothing compared to the case of another great coach who deserves their time in a Hall of Fame and still is waiting to get it.
Hello it's Mike Riner of your dark companion here let me ask you are you looking for something to fill the long dead air hours of your day.
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get woven into interesting conversations so step inside the green door have a seat at the bar and get in the groove with those shows and so very much more.
So there's one particular person that I have lobbied for to get into their particular Hall of Fame and that is the basketball Hall of Fame
which is in Springfield Massachusetts I visited one time that was several years ago and my first impression was holy cow does this place need a lot of work.
My feelings about that as a tourist destination have nothing to do with this particular subject and that is a person who deserves their chance to be inducted into that Hall of Fame today yesterday preferably and I'm talking about a coach who has more wins.
More wins than any other coach in basketball in the United States I'm talking college NBA ABA high school you probably don't even know who it is.
Her name is Lita Andrews Lita Andrews was a girls high school basketball coach for 52 years in Texas and she finished with 1,416 wins 1,416 wins over 52 years.
She retired in 2014 and she is not in the basketball Hall of Fame now for those of you who don't know the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Massachusetts honors any level of basketball people who participated on any level of basketball referees media coaches executives general managers players men's women's high school college pro and internationally.
So if you contributed to the evolution of the game of basketball and deserve to be recognized as one of the best and most significant to do it you are to be honored by that Hall of Fame and Lita Andrews has not been honored by it and I am sick over it to be honest.
Now I learned a tough lesson about the basketball Hall of Fame several years ago it was shortly after I visited the basketball Hall of Fame to cover an induction ceremony for at the time the winningest boys basketball coach in history.
I'm talking of course about former Fort Worth Dunbar boys basketball coach Robert Hughes and coach used had waited many many years to be finally inducted to the Hall of Fame and when he did he was well into was 80s
and he respectfully I say this was right on the edge of not being able to enjoy it we lost coach used several years ago and one of the things that was important to me the coach used was inducted to the Hall of Fame was he was able to do it in time where he could enjoy it we can enjoy it with his family and quite frankly he knew what was going on and he did.
He had slowed down considerably by that point but he knew where he was he knew he was on the platform with everybody else and he got his he got his moment and he got his orange jacket which he very much deserve deserve and on that trip a reporter from Connecticut approached me he introduced himself and he said hey by any chance do you know Rick Carlisle.
Rick Carlisle at the time was the head coach the Dallas Mavericks and I said yeah I actually know coach Carlisle pretty well why do you ask and he said as I want I really would like to see his former NBA coach get in the Hall of Fame and I said I'm like okay well there's a couple of them I said which one he said Bill Fitch and I said yeah absolutely what do you need he said talk to him and see if you might you know work on his behalf and I'm like what do you mean work on his behalf
I'm just sort of because this process at the time was kind of foreign to me as it relates to the basketball Hall of Fame I said okay so fast more to month to and after practice I go to coach Carlisle and I said hey by any chance do you know this reporter a guy named Bobby and I said can't remember his name I said he's out of the northeast and Rick says you mean Bobby Schoen I said yeah that's it you know he said yeah I know I know Bobby Schoen he said what do you need I said well he mentioned something about coach Fitch Bill Fitch was a long time NBA coach one champ went to the chair I went to the
NBA finals with the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets and turned around a lot of other franchises had a great career and I said he mentioned something that you would like to see him get in the Hall of Fame he said yeah would you write something about it I said yeah when you want to do it he said well I can't do it right now but would you come to my office sometime I didn't think anything of it I said yeah just mention to me the next time I'm out there
once and months and months paths pass and so it's after an average practice and I said hey Rick do you want to talk he said yeah do you want to do right now it's a sure
so he invites me into his office after practice and we sit and talk for about 90 minutes now for those of you who are
familiar with Rick Carlisle who is now the head coach of the Indian Pacers
its personality can be a little odd I like to Rick a lot is a very very smart guy almost too smart and but he could be
isn't unique personality and but in that in that particular day I had him talking about a subject that
mattered to him a lot so we talked for 90 minutes and I said what do you need for me on this he said I need
you to write a column why Bill Fitch should be in the Hall of Fame and I'm thinking myself you've got to
be kidding me like well what what am I going to do and he said all it takes is one person to see it
and to get it on their radar and they they might put him in that's how the basketball Hall of Fame works
nobody knows who the voters are for the basketball Hall of Fame nobody anybody else any other
Hall of Fame you know who the voters are in basketball you don't because they want to keep the voters
anonymous so people won't try to lobby for their candidate I understand it I don't like it so Rick
and I particularly proceed to talk about the case for his former head coach and I said Rick why does
this matter to you so much and he leans back in his chair and he kind of smiles and he said because
Bill gave me my first shot at this and in that moment I understood why it mattered so much
that Bill Fitch was getting older and he wanted to see his guy his mentor his friend a person who
opened the door to this magical life and career that he's enjoyed for decades get his day
with the orange jacket in Springfield Massachusetts and I said so what do you want to do
and I said well and he said what do you think we should do I said well I can write something but
you need to hook me up with a former player of his is there any former player of his that maybe
didn't like him but respected him I said yeah Ralph Samson I said oh Ralph he sits there and
proceeds to call Ralph Samson a star of the 80s whose injuries cut short would have been a brilliant
career otherwise proceeds to call him on speakerphone he says I'm gonna have Mac Angle call you
tomorrow done and he said can you think of anything else and I said do you know Bob Ryan he said
yeah I think I know Bob Ryan Bob Ryan is a foremost columnist in Boston for decades known
throughout that region for his commentary also a visible member of ESPN as a guest commentator
for a long time on the sports reporters and I said you should call Bob Ryan he sits there while
we're in his office and he calls Bob Ryan I said Bob would you mind and he does the whole
spiel about lobbying for Bill Fitch and Bob says yeah that's a good idea I will so I wrote about
it I wrote that column that appeared in 2019 January of 2019 I wrote a column on behalf of Bill Fitch
and the fact that he should be in the Hall of Fame called him at his home in Conroe Texas couldn't
have been nicer he was a little bit older and sure enough seven or eight months later Bill Fitch
is inducted into the Hall of Fame and Rick Carlisle was there to celebrate it I was very happy for
that do I think I had anything to do with it I have no idea but that's how that Hall of Fame works
so I have been writing and lobbying anybody with an ear hoping maybe they're a voter for the basketball
Hall of Fame on behalf of Lita Andrews because if there's one thing that I have seen in Hall of
Fame induction ceremonies that breaks my heart is when you see the inductee enjoy get their moment
and they're dead a posthumous induction drives me crazy it's why I've said at this point don't
even bother putting Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame the man is dead he didn't he would and I realize
maybe like baseball president Trump everybody else is okay he's not banned anymore cares the man's
gone he will not get his day in Cooperstown however flawed that whole thing was he's gone so what's
the point and my thing with coach Andrews or anybody getting up there is like if you're going to do
it do it now so they can enjoy it and that's been my thing with Lita Andrews she's in her late 80s
and if you are going to do it do it now but of course the basketball Hall of Fame blew this
opportunity most recently she has been a finalist five times five times she's been a finalist
and she's never made the final announcement and it drives me crazy because unlike all the other
coaches most all of them or people who are celebrated for pushing the game of basketball to the
state of aware it enjoys today which is the second most popular sport in the world behind soccer
Lita Andrews had to create the game had to create the sport for girls Lita Andrews was coaching
basketball 10 years before Richard Nixon passed title 9 into law think about that the game the game
wasn't even supposed to exist for girls when Lita Andrews was coaching it for them she saw a basketball
evolved for girls from three on three half court to full court and the the development and the
players she made it possible she was the one watching the jerseys she was the one cleaning the
floor she was the one finding the referees she was doing all of that and if if anybody deserves
to be in that Hall of Fame a Hall of Fame mind you that inducks a ton of people if anybody deserves
it is her she's in six other Hall of Fame's six including the high school basketball Hall of Fame the
Texas sports Hall of Fame and the women's basketball Hall of Fame 88 years old and she is she had 34
consecutive years with 20 plus wins she won a state championship she won god knows how many
district and regional championships and all that different stuff last year called I called the
friend and I said do you by any chance have a number for Jerry Kalangelo Jerry Kalangelo was a
significant member of the basketball Hall of Fame he is influencing the game he is a Hall of
Famer in his influence in the rise in the popularity of the sports speaks for itself sentiment text
message or I called him one of the other and I thought well just take a shot and I called him and I
said I couldn't believe it when he called me back I was actually shocked when he called me back
and I said this person should be a Hall of Famer or anything else I can do and he said no I mean
you can you can write something and try to get the word out about it but you know we we keep this
process and he was he was very um he defended the process he did not want the voters known because
that way their judgment could be tainted which I understand that I get it it irritates me but the
part that irritates me more is that you have this candidate whose resume speaks for itself is a
mile long has a list of achievements that is equal to or superior than any number of people who
have already been honored by that Hall of Fame who have their orange jacket and she doesn't have it
there's something fundamentally wrong with that and I tried to appeal to Mr. Kalangelo I said listen
she's getting older if you're going to do this we got to do this now I understand sometimes
it's heartbreaking to see these people get in and they're very you know they're a lot older sometimes
they're they don't know what's going on they're they're in a wheelchair whatever I'm like
it's we've got to find a better way to that and unfortunately my efforts last year
didn't work out she was a finalist didn't make it this year she wasn't even a finalist
and um you know I've talked to her family members about it they know obviously I care about
the subject very much because there are certain people for whom if it weren't for their efforts
any number of things wouldn't be where it is today and they have been recognized
celebrated and they had their day yet Andrews did everything a coach could do
made the game possible develop kids graduated them won a state championship and has more wins
than any other coach in basketball 1,416 and she's not a Hall of Famer that's ridiculous
and it puts the case of Bill Pellichick in a totally different light if Lita Andrews ain't
going to get in right away then I think Bill Pellichick will live if he has to wait one more year
it's the next time
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