One-Legged Punts, Ticket Firings & High School Football’s NIL Future | Dougie Anderson | Ep 270

Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Rhyner, sports talk. Baseball.

Baseball. Baseball. Baseball.

With the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright.

Yeah. Okay. Now I get it.

We had a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little light parked right outside the window.

The Texas Rangers win the world series. Alright. Alright.

Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't. Wait.

You said tip. Yeah. Tip.

Okay. With a p. I would...

Keep jamming. The ticket the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off set.

Is this a cool night or what? I love somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches.

Give me Whopper junior or give me death. Oh, man. I wish I would have been a Whopper junior.

That story would have been great if it would have only been a Whopper junior. It's still pretty funny as is. And if we told it about five seconds later.

Probably. But that's okay. Yeah.

What the hell? The moment's past. The moment has passed.

Just like a Whopper Junior would. You gotta gotta stay in the moment in this world. The moment past.

Yep. However, this moment has not passed. And in this moment, it is time for another episode of Your Dark Companion.

Warmest greetings to all of you out there no matter where you may be, no matter how or even when you may be receiving this podcast transmission. We're going live at five today, so you may be watching us live or maybe you're rolling on it. You're gonna watch it, I don't know, three years from now or whatever.

The beauty of it is whenever you want it, it'll be there. Because in the world of the podcast, there is no time. Things live forever.

Mhmm. You don't have to go away for a commercial break unless you just want to. Well, and hopefully stay tuned during ours.

Yeah. About halfway through the show. We've got one here.

Yeah. The dreaded and fear. Just fight through it.

Yeah. Alright. Today, I've been looking forward to this because, you know, as you make your way through this world, you meet a lot of people, you get to know them, and, you know, they have some plus or minus impact on you at the time, but there are some who once that time has passed and you look back on them, you find...

And you start to you start to view them a little bit differently than you may have then. And that is the case for me with this guy that we have on today because he was with us at the ticket for a good while. Then he went off to make his own way.

And, I've come to admire the number one, creativity. Number two, flat out silliness. Number three, stick to of the...

Stick to itiveness. This this guy has shown over the years. You used to hear him doing the ticket ticker back in the day.

He is Doug, sometimes known as Doogie Anderson. Yay. Hello.

Hello. How are you? I am doing great.

I am happy to be inside the domicile of The Dark Companion. That's great. That is great.

It's good to see you. It is good to see you as well. Alright.

Now, you're gonna have to bring us up to speed because I know very little about what you're up to these days. I know you're doing high school football. Mhmm.

And you have been for quite some time, and you've you've found a niche with this. Yeah. It's been, I I would say, the one constant in my broadcasting career that has really been there through thick and thin.

I do the high school football game of the week, which is now in its twenty first season over the air live in Dallas Fort Worth. We started off on TXA twenty one. We were there for about fourteen years.

We moved over to CW thirty three. It's been about six years there. Mhmm.

And we are now in our first season on Fox four plus, which is KDFI channel twenty seven in the Metroplex and also on the Fox local app. Where you can also find Just Wondering with Norm Hitzges. Yes.

Nice. You may. Yes.

You can find Just Wondering with Norm Hitzges. Texas Wesleyan. Yeah.

That's pretty awesome, greatness of Texas Wesleyan football. Yes. They're pretty all in on football.

They are. You know, that brings up something that you're probably qualified to speak of because I'll bet you've noticed it too. Man, it seems like the TV stations, the local affiliates around here are really bullish on sports these days.

I would I would agree with that. Yes. I mean, there was a time when when you couldn't get a Mavericks game or, I mean, just an average spare Mavericks game or a Rangers game or a Stars game or anything else over broadcast TV.

They had to go to HSE or Fox Sports Southwest or, you know, I mean, they had a place out there for those things, but they were all... It was all all a cable thing back then. Now all of a sudden, they're on over the air TV.

The... And and I can't speak from a great deal of authority on this, but I feel like one of the things that shifted over the last several years has been the idea that, okay, the network is going to buy the rights to these events and then they're going to go out and send their salespeople out and sell the sponsorships, the money off of it, where now you're starting to see more of the team will be like, hey, we can make the money off of this, we will sell the advertising, we'll just buy the airtime Yeah. And we'll go out and do that.

Yeah. And and then that's something that, you know, used to go on every now and then back in the day, although not that often. Maybe that's what's in play.

Maybe that maybe that's what's going on out there now with this. Maybe these these teams are they see the wisdom of getting their game out there on over the air TV. They buy the airtime and and do it that way.

I don't know. It it just just seems like a sudden current present phenomenon that popped up out of nowhere. Well, I think with the way everything's been fractured and, you know, like Fox Sports Southwest blowing up or Mhmm.

I guess I should say, was it Bali than FanDuel Southwest Right. Blowing up and just all the different, you know, avenues, it just makes more sense, like you guys said, just if you're a team, why would you want to trust that the, you know, network is going to be helping your broadcast and your production when it's just like, let's just spend the upfront money, build out our own broadcast truck or control room or whatever, and just, you know, sell it to the highest bidder and go from there. That's been the case with our game on Fox four plus is we operate pretty much on a self encapsulated system where we go out and do it, we produce it, we sell the advertising for it, or I don't, somebody does, thankfully.

And and and we get to do it on the air. So, yeah, it's been a thing that's worked out pretty well. Who do you do the games with?

I do the games with my broadcast partner now of twenty one years. His name is LaDaren MacLean. And LD, as we call him, was actually, if you wanna go back to 1993, and I was a senior sports director at the University of North Texas at KNTU, and I did Lewisville Fighting Farmer football in their state championship season of '93.

LaDerian McLean was a sophomore wide receiver on that team who made a big catch in the state championship game, by the way. Many years later, he went on to play at the University of North Texas. Many years later, when Jeff Watts came to me and said, we're gonna do this over the air high school football game of the week, go find yourself a color analyst.

The first call I made was to Hank Dickinson at the University of North Texas, who taught the sports broadcasting class. And I said, hey, who's who's a former athlete that could do this, could actually speak intelligently about football, have a little personality? And he gave me a couple of names and one of the names was LaDaren McLean and having known him from doing Lewisville play by play, he was my first call and it'd be my only call.

I I I met with him, we clicked immediately, even he had never done it, but I said, all you gotta do is just talk football. And basically, know, I'm sure you do, you know the Rudyard Kipling poem about six serving men. Actually, don't.

Oh, okay. I can't recite it, it's basically, keeps six serving men they taught him all he knew, their names are what and when and why and how and where and who, right? I said, LD, you take care of the how and the why and I'm gonna take care of the who, what, when and we'll be fine and we have done it that way.

You see, it's masterful bon mods like that that have put him where he is. That's what I was hoping we would get out of here. There was no doubt.

That's the kind of thing you're known for. Well, thank you. I will take that as a compliment, but you don't realize that a lot of these things I learned from you.

Right? And and so I'm giving you credit because and I was thinking about this on the drive over, it's like, I wanted to make sure I got this out. You are to me like Willie Nelson in a way, in the sense, you're not that old, but in the sense that, okay, a million people can sing the same song.

Willie Nelson will sing it and it's like no other song, no other version of it that's ever been done. And that's kind of the way you just speak in general terms. Nobody speaks like you and so being around you in the early days of the ticket, I I picked up on that, I think, a little bit, and it's kinda been with me and has grown as I've grown, you know, through all these years.

So I... I really appreciate that. That's that's very high praise.

Well, it's in... It's earned. It is earned.

That's pretty neat. Yeah. See?

Told you, Shupi. I know. Hey.

As I've said before, just hearing you talk makes me happy. The way you say things makes me happy. Yep.

It has brought me much joy cutting up audio of you talking and playing it back in different ways Yeah. Different formats. Like backwards with certain words edited in.

Oh, I don't know what you're talking about. No. No.

No. Of course, you don't. So this has been going on for some time with you now.

Yes. And and that it's... First of all, it's great, and I can attest to this because it happened for me, but it's great to find a niche in a field that you really care about and really are into and be able to take it, run with it, make it into what you want it to be, and have it last for a while.

That's what you've done here, man. Well, I appreciate that. It...

High school football play by play has been something that I I was not expecting to fall in love with, but at the University of North Texas, you know, that's how you broke in. You did Lewisville High School football. My first ever on air assignments were doing games with Rich Phillips on Lewisville football in 1992.

He was play by play, I was color, And then the next year, I was play by play and the new guy came in and did color, Carlos Lial, the late great Carlos Lial, as a matter of fact. And and being a part of that, going to Max Goldsmith Stadium in Lewisville, seeing how fans bonded around the team, seeing how the team bonded with each other, and and the spirit that just encompasses high school football, it was something that really got into me and just stayed there. I've done lot of play by play.

I've done college play by play for the American Conference, for Conference USA, for the Southland Conference. I was counting it up the other day. I've done play by play for one sport or another, not necessarily football or basketball, but for one sport or another, I've done play by play for every division one college in Texas except for Baylor.

For some reason, Baylor's the only school I haven't hit yet. Baylor has eluded you. But but I've...

But the one thing that has stayed true to my soul is that high school football for some reason. And it's just... I dig it, you know?

And it's like Jim Croes, he said, if you dig it, do it. And if you dig it a lot, do it a lot. So that's what I do.

He was no fool. Was no fool. Knew what he was talking about.

So what else you got going these days? Anything that we need to know about here? At the moment, not presently.

Just enjoying being being a dad to two great young ladies, being a husband to a wife You're a girl dad, I am a girl dad to the max. Yes. Bona fide 100%.

Yes. They're great. One just graduated from the University of Tulsa and she is a nurse in Tulsa, a registered nurse at the best hospital in Tulsa from what I'm told.

And the other is out in San Rafael, California at Dominican University, just north of San Francisco. And she is a dance and English double major and she dances with a company called Lions Ballet out there in San Francisco. So...

Excellent. Yeah. She's she's quite the quite the dancer.

Tell us a little bit about your path to the ticket. Would love to. Because I don't know if you remember this story or not.

I've told it... I may not. I have told it many times to many people, but I'm not sure if you remember it.

My path to the ticket goes back before the ticket existed to 1993 when I was the sports director, as I mentioned, at KNTU. As part of being a sports director, you got to be the guy who got the press pass from KNTU Mhmm. To various sporting events.

And one of those events would be the Texas Rangers. And this was back at Old Arlington Stadium. In in the summer of ninety three, I was covering a lot of games because I had a press pass, so why not?

And and I was going down there and every now and then another sports person from K and T would join me, come with me, and we went one night and we went down into the clubhouse to talk to Kevin Kennedy. And I've never been one that's been shy about asking questions. Will always ask a question, right, wrong or indifferent.

And I was in there asking questions of Kevin Kennedy. So we leave the manager's room, we're going to the locker room and I say to my guy who's there with me, my buddy, I said, man, Kevin Kennedy, he really had some good answers. And I hear this voice behind me and it says, well, he woulda had better answers if you'da let him finish.

Yes, yes, that was. And I turn around and because I am a 23 year old smart ass at this time, I say, I did let him finish. And you said, no, you damn sure didn't.

And I said, well, I damn sure did. And then you had kinda huffed and I kinda huffed and then we went on our separate ways and the prophetic part about that was as we were walking to our cars, me and my friend, I looked at him and I said, Man, I hope that guy can never hire me or fire me. And lo and behold, when when we get word that there's this thing called the ticket, you know, we're all excited about it and then we find out you're the guy that kinda is the gatekeeper on that and I'm like, man, I guess that's my chance.

But fortunately, I knew some other people who worked at the ticket. Yeah. And one of those people told me that there was going to be, I was not a day one guy, as you know, but I was there within the first, I would say sixty days of the ticket.

There was a there was a weekend overnight board up position open. And and I was working for USA Radio Network in Farmers Branch on the weekends at the time, like producing news stories and things of And that I said, man, I'll take it. If you can get me in, I'll take it.

And so got in, great Pepe Harris hired me for the weekend overnight board op and I did that for the summer of ninety four. I was in there every weekend running the board. I heard had...

Heard when you had Rick Arnett on a little while back. Yeah. And Rick was talking about the bottle rockets and everything.

Rick Rick and I actually knew each other at KD and T fourteen forty in Denton because I worked there as well when I was in school. And and he and I would talk. He actually gave me my first on air anything at the ticket.

It was called the weekend sports calendar, and it was it was like a was like a I don't even remember this. Oh, crap. Well, you wouldn't remember it.

You wouldn't remember it. It was like a minute long voicer of, hey, here's what's going on in the Metroplex this weekend, you know. The rangers are playing, you know, the Toronto Blue Jays and this and that.

And so he let me do this and they played it on the bottle rockets. And that was my intro into on air work at the ticket. And then I had an opportunity where, like, one of the weekend ticker guys didn't show up one day.

And so they said, you know, Dookie, can you do... Well, I wouldn't call Dookie then, but it was like, hey, can you go in there and do tickers? And I was like, sure, I'll do it.

Know, and I jumped in there, did a few tickers until the guy showed up and I used that. Who was the guy? Do you remember?

I do not remember. His name was Bill. I don't remember his last name.

Just remember his first name was Bill. A reason. Yeah, but I had gotten to the point where I had that, I had a few other things that may be going on, but then I graduated in the summer of ninety four from UNT And I went to Spence Kendrick, we were at a remote, I think it was the Hard Rock Cafe.

And I said and I said, Spence, know, hey, I just wanna let you know, I've graduated, I'd really love to stay on, but I gotta get a full time gig somewhere, you know, and so if there's anything you can do, I'd appreciate it. If not, I understand, you know, but I'm just letting you know. And Spence said, let me see what I can do.

And a few days later, a couple days later, Jim Short, the program director came to me and he said, hey, we're thinking about adding a third ticket taker guy to the weekdays. Because at that time there were just two guys. It was Mark Followell and it was David Burrow.

Mhmm. And one did morning till midday and one did midday till evening. Yeah.

And they said, we... We're we're thinking about splitting, putting a little window in there for somebody who can do tickers and go cover games and that kind of thing. Would you like it?

I'm right out of college, man. I'm like, are you kidding? Of course.

You know? And and so that was how I started my way in the ticket. Were you doing like midday tickers or...

Midday tickers. I was doing them... Guess it was at that time for a very brief time, it was the musers and yourself, musers and hardline.

Yeah. And and, yeah, I would do tickers for you guys in the middle of the day. Wow.

And then go cover games at night and... Go cover games at night. Cut tape, you know, come back, cut tape, all that kind of stuff.

Give the sound bites to the guys and everything for the morning. And, yeah, that that was my way in the world.... Entree.

That was my entree. And I stayed in it for about two years until spring of ninety six. And in spring of ninety six, they made a budgetary move and it was the the first of my my three leavings of the ticket.

Oh, god. I didn't know that. Yeah.

I I I've I've worked at the ticket in three incarnations. And I was I was let go twice. I left in my own accord the final time.

But but yeah, I was I was let go. They said budgetary, fine, whatever. The fortunate thing about that was I believe the laddie was the program director at the time, Mike Thompson.

He really kind of hooked me up because at that time, and I don't remember if it was CBS or not, but somewhere along the way y'all got married to KRLD and and TSN. Y'all were being shared by the same corporate company or whatever. Yeah.

And they... That was, I believe, the first time we were sold was to them. Okay.

Yeah. And and and they and Laddie called me said, I want you to call this guy Randy Brown over at KRLD and go talk to him. Well, what had happened was they moved the sports princess, Kate Delaney over to KRLD.

Yeah. But she was still doing her show on the ticket airwaves for the time being. And I was sent over there to work for Texas State Network, do their sports updates, things of that nature, and work the tickers on her show.

But we were over at the ballpark in Arlington. We weren't at the Yeah. Ticket studios.

And that eventually kind of split and when it split, she stayed with KRLD and started doing her show over there. I just went to work full time for KRLD and TSN doing sports, covering games, doing the sports updates of that nature, hosting Rangers post game shows, which was a great break for me because that ultimately gave me the background that I needed to get a talk show back at the ticket, which was always the ultimate goal, right? The ultimate goal from the time I got out of school was get a talk show at the ticket.

That was mission number one. That's what everybody wanted to And fortunately, I actually got the opportunity when we got the ender, which was myself and Mark Followell, which we did after your show for about a year and a few months. Yeah.

And man, time of my life right there. Time of my life. Until they didn't renew the contract.

And then that was off to another thing, you know, whatever. And then after that, weekends. I did some sports shows on the weekends on the ticket.

I did sports... Ticket Sports Saturday. I did a show called the Doogie Show for a while.

Nice. Yeah. It had a theme song sung by Psycho Dave.

Oh my god. I wrote it and Psycho Dave sung it. Did you happen to have that laying around don't have that laying around.

I can bear... I can I can recall it somewhat? It was like, he's kinda fat, He's kinda short.

He's been fired from the ticket twice, but now he's back talking sports. How long till he's fired thrice? And that was the that was the theme of the Dookie show.

Wow. Man. Man, I forgot how chaotic things used to be around here.

Yeah. It was pretty loose back then, it sounds It very loose back then. There was a lot of flying by the seat of the pants and and just a lot of I remember that.

I remember a lot of that, but there was there a whole lot more going on up there, a lot more than I thought it was. I think there was a... You know, the the the management was was quite invested quite invested in what happened between 6AM and 7PM or 8PM.

They were not so invested in what happened Yeah. After that, you know. Ticket after dark.

Yeah. They they they were just like probably most radio station managements back then. I'm I'm sure that, you know, everybody else was the same way, although maybe not to that extent because it seemed like, you know, after 07:00 at night, they just didn't give a damn, you know.

And and... I mean, the give a damn level just disappeared. And and, you know, we did the show, and I felt like we did a good show, Mark and I.

I mean, I felt like the end was was good. Yeah, I did too. But you know, we did have...

We did not have the the miracle of the FM signal at that point, '96, seven, which I think would have helped us a little bit. And it was nighttime, there was a playground, it was an experimental ground and Bruce Gilbert had every right to use it that way and he did. He brought in people to see if they would fit or not fit or click or not click and that was just the way it was.

But but I mean, but really, you know, thirty years later to say, who can say, yeah, I was a talk show host on the ticket. I mean, you know, that's that's pretty freaking cool. Yeah.

So That's that's got a little swag to it. It's got a little something behind it. Right?

It does for sure. God, man. That that...

That's that's just a torrent of things that I've forgotten about. That's a lot of memories, I would imagine. Boy.

Like, I've heard of some of these things, and I think I vaguely remember, like, when I was an overnight weekend board off, like, going through the Enco, and I vaguely remember hearing that Psycho Dave song that he did, but, god, that hadn't rattled my brain pan for twenty years either. A lot of the time, if I would be out late at night on weekends, I would just drop by the studios to see who was in there, see if I knew them, first of all, which most of the time I didn't. Mhmm.

And just see what was going on, but nothing... I I guess it all leveled off after a while, and and nothing ever did, really. There was nothing really going on outside of normal late night weekend broadcasting.

Yeah. Especially once you get into the network programming and all that. It's not like there's a whole lot of wackiness going on.

It's just one ticket board off that's maybe running over to 933 to double check the signal and power and all that over there. And when I was the weekend board up, I had literally one job, and that was fire the ID at the top of the hour, and that was like it. I mean, that was pretty much, if I did that, I was You do that, we get to stay on the air.

God, those were crazy days. Unlike now. Yeah.

Everything's normal now, right? Well, I suppose, I guess, but everything's a little more homogenized for sure, yeah. And you gotta, I guess, mind your p's and q's a little bit more than we did back then for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. A little buttoned up.

It's not like it used to be for sure. So do you have a, like, a day gig or something like that? Absolutely.

I I about over a little over five years ago, I started working for a company called Pulte Homes, which is a nationally known home builder. Heard that. We are very, very extensive here in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

And it's actually the same company that Mark Elphet buying works for. Oh, really? Yeah, he is in the sales end of it.

He and I am I am in customer care, I help people with warranty issues and help them resolve things if they have questions about their home and things of that nature, which I love actually, to be honest with you, because I'm helping people one thing, which is kind of cool, I really enjoy that. I get to be in different neighborhoods every day, I do not have to go to an office, I do not have to sit behind a desk, I work out of neighborhoods, so I'm traveling a little bit here and there, and meeting new people every day and the challenge is different every day. And it's also offered me quite a bit of, you know, flexibility in the sense that if I do want to come over here and do this or if I want to go do a football game on Thursday night or whatever, then as long as I'm getting my stuff done, that's cool.

It's cool. You Did tell everybody you were coming here? I did not.

I figured they can find out when they find out. Alright. This is Doug Anderson, aka Doogie.

We'll get into his nickname in a in a moment, I think. With us here at... On YDC today.

You chill out over there for a couple seconds if you want. Is this the mid show read? I've been waiting half the show for the mid show read.

Well, I couldn't have said it better myself, but it's time for the dreaded and feared mid show read. Alright. Let's see.

We're ready to go with this thing? Think I hope so. Is going.

Alright. Okay. Alright.

Let's see. We have, these to edify yourself today. Don't DIY your football watching scene.

Dudley's Sports Grill is there for you. They should be your football watching headquarters. Dudley's is located on Henderson just to the Southeast of Central Expressway.

And look, let me tell you. If you're looking for a place to watch ball, you probably want something to eat. They got it.

Probably want something to drink. Oh, they got that too. And if they got a few foxy ladies around, well, that would be such a bad thing now, would it?

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They're at 2975 Highway 66. Great place to watch ball. Great place to hang out.

Just a good hang all the way around. It is the greatness of Dudley's. Yes.

But that's not all. Oh, okay. That's not all.

Because every Tuesday from 05:30 to seven, you can join the Sunset Lounge at Scout in the Stadler. The Stadler being the well known forever residence slash hotel, whatever it is these days, in Downtown Dallas on Commerce Street. The greatness of the Stadler used to be the Stadler Hilton.

Now it's just the Stadler. And if you're one of the first five people to give the bartender the password, and the password always is football. Football.

Football. That is the password. You do that, you get a free drink or free valet service.

Now I know what I would opt for between those two things, but we're not talking about me. We're talking about you. We all know you like to get sauced.

Stick around after for Ziggy with beer thirty sports o'clock. Half price valet is available for everyone every Tuesday, 05:30 at Scout. Let the adventure begin.

Come see us for three wide at Scout at the Stadler. And we need to actually go ahead and let people know they had a buyout for next Tuesday. So next Tuesday, we will not be there.

Oh, they had a buyout for next So we get a, that means we have a bye week. There you go. Yeah.

Okay. Exactly. Alright.

Buyout. Buyout. We got a bye week.

There'll be no three wide next week, but just you wait till the week after that. It's gonna be insane. Oh, man.

Mhmm. Talk about coming back big. We are coming back bigger than ever.

I mean, it'll be pretty big with Norm, Grego, and Mac Engel. That's a pretty salty trio. Dang.

Right? The Engel Angle is gonna be there. I'm telling you.

Yeah. Alright. So that's pretty hefty.

That is Yeah. Quite impressive indeed. I'm gonna have to crash that myself.

I dare you. You dare me? Yeah.

Okay. Use that code word football, Shoopy. And we're Oh.

I dare you to crash Dudley's this Thursday tomorrow when a Maximo will be done. Alright. Okay.

Can do that. Interesting. Can do that.

No doubt. I think we can be talked into this. Yeah.

Oh, bless you, Ashley. What? The hell?

Was that a sneeze? It was a mouse. It was something.

That is not an Ashley type of noise. I feel like it would usually just accompany an f bomb or something. It should've done one with us.

Alright, Doogie. Let me ask you this. Yes.

As we get back to our guest here. Yes. The great Doug Anderson, also known as Doogie.

You heard him doing the ticket ticker for many years on the ticket. He is, the overlord of high school football or at least the broadcasting of same around here these days. That's what he told us to say.

Yeah. He did. Yes.

And thank you for that. Yeah. Yes.

He did. He did. I'm only too glad to hold up our end of this of this dictum of yours.

Has NIL crashed high school football yet? It is knocking heavily on the door. It it is not there in its full blown capacity yet, but it certainly is rearing its ugly head, as you would say, toward that end.

A lot of stories this year about guys transferring and being able to or not being able to play at the schools they transferred to. Lewisville had that issue, Denton Rhyner had that issue, Argyle has had that issue and there's a lot of that going around. There are some...

NIL stuff is not a thing yet in Texas high school football, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see it come that way, you know, sometime in the near future. Why all of a sudden is it so easy to transfer? Well, it's because, I guess, if I had to guess, and I try...

I know this is a little naive of me, but I try to keep my nose out of that area of it, you know, as much as possible because it just sullies the feeling that I have about Texas high school football. I'm not trying to bring you No, down no, it's fine. There there are a lot of things actually that go into it.

College, well, college NIL is one of them. I mean, with the money out there for college athletes, if... Let's let's take for an example, a guy who didn't transfer but could have, Drew Messamaker at...

He's now at Oklahoma State, quarterback at Oklahoma State. Yeah. He was at North Texas.

Mhmm. But when he was in high school, he did not start at quarterback for his high school team. They had a guy who was a division one commit who was starting.

He could have transferred somewhere in order to get more people to look at him as a quarterback in the hopes of getting a scholarship and that NIL money. He actually stayed at the school he was at, which is pretty honorable, you know, and and kind of just played it out. And it worked out for him because he was noticed by Eric Morris who kept brought him up to North Texas and, you know, one thing led to another.

But there's a lot of that that goes around it. A guy might not be getting the opportunity or getting the looks that he thinks he needs. And so he will go to a different school to try and, you know, up his value from the college level.

Now there are really honest reasons or basic reasons like your your dad gets a job in a new town Yeah. And he's gotta move, you know, and they move to a different area or whatever. Now see, back in the day for me, and I know this is going way way back, back further than anybody likes to think about, including me.

But back then, the only way that you got to move from one school to another is is that. Right. If you moved in...

Physically moved in to the district and could provide proof of residence, but I mean, nobody ever asked for it Right. Back then. But if you could...

If you were a resident, if you lived in that district, then you got to go to that school. That was the only way. Well, you also have nowadays, you've got very wealthy parents who have more than one property, you know, and and they can put a property in a town where they happen to need a good linebacker or quarterback or whatever, and lo and behold, now they live there and you got a new guy on your team, right?

And that goes on quite a bit, so. Wow. There's 5 Star Road in Toledo too over at at it.

It. You know what she's talking about? Yeah.

Tell me. She... 5 Star Road.

Yes, Vallito is very well known for having a successful program year in and year out. And they've been known to have guys that all of sudden their dads or moms got great jobs in that town and they ended up there. They all live on the same street.

Yeah, that's what she's talking about. They all live on the same street called 5 Yard Road, guess. 5 Star Road, yes, sorry.

Like I said, that's some stuff that I sometimes prefer to just to keep my little virgin, high school football heart pure of and not think about too much. But yeah, it's there. It's harder and harder to avoid.

Yeah. Is it worse than basketball? Now do these kids in high school still have to make grades and stuff like that?

Oh yeah. Mean, yeah. They gotta be enrolled in the school and they have to make passing grades just like anybody would, The kids have to make the grades or is it like, are they actually putting in the, don't wanna Tyler getting into some leads that I don't I apologize....

Too much on that. But... As long as the grades are good.

Yes. They are supposed to have good grades in 10 class and be be up and up. Fair enough.

It's a crazy world out there. Inside the schools. Yeah.

It's a crazy world out there. I guess everybody's got their own their own way. Mhmm.

That's like, I guess, anything else in this world. I suppose so. Alright.

Who are you looking at to win state this year? Mhmm. Well, out of the out of the North Texas area, there's two teams that stand out.

North Crowley, which is very strong out of the Fort Worth area. They have been good for a few years now. They won state a couple years ago.

They are talented, especially on defense. And then on the Eastern side of the Metroplex, I believe it's gonna be the Allen Eagles who are back now. They they had a run-in the Kyler Murray years that was unbelievable where they just didn't lose any games at all.

They went down for a little bit, and now they are looking like they're back. They got a sophomore quarterback who we saw a few weeks ago named Ty Snell who is the the next Tyler Murray type player Yeah. There.

And they've got a tremendous defense, and I think that they will definitely be a team to watch. So Where does this leave the poor little DISD these days? Well, DISD and Fort Worth ISD, unfortunately, don't have a lot to hang their hat on.

At least with DISD, you've got the greatness of South Oak Cliff. South Oak Cliff is a is a contender and has been for several years, and I would not expect anything different this year. So Why are they able to play with these bigger schools, at least compete with them, if not beat them, but at least hang with them.

And other schools are not. Well, I I think it's a buy in. They they...

The coaching staff there led by Jason Todd has got those guys to really buy in. They they call themselves the Mecca, and they they are the Mecca for Dallas of high school football. Right?

And and everybody wants to be a part of that. The guys that come... They go to that school, that play there, they all buy into it.

They... In coaching, he's got a great staff that knows how to coach those guys upright, and and they go out there and play the right way, and and they can get it done. So that's that's all I could say.

It's my best answer. Where does this lead the poor Kimball Knights? Poor Kimball Knights.

Your Kimball, your your Carter's, and your Sunset's, and and those Carter? Yeah. Any of those schools, yeah, are not not...

They're struggling. They're they're they're struggling these days. They can't hang with soccer.

No. No. No.

No. So Hammered, like, 90 to, like Yeah. There's been some there's been some very lopsided games when soccer plays the fellow DISD mates.

Oh, man. They suck them. Those games used to be such big events, big happenings when those schools would play.

Kimball Sunset, Sunset Soccer, all of it, man. Yeah. And then Didn't you miss the Beatles for one of those?

I did. Yes. That's right.

I remember that. Miss the Beatles because I thought it would be better for me to go to the Kimball High... Hillcrest game that night despite the fact that I was in junior high and had no business at all in a high school football game.

A high school girl. Yeah. You you knew that your way in this world was through sports and the Yeah.

The edification of yourself thereof. So that's what you did. Right.

I I would like to think of it like that, but, no, that's that's not the way it was at all. He's trying to help you, Shoopy. What?

He's trying to help you. I know, but I mean, I I have to face up to this stuff. Fair enough.

You know, I have to face the facts. Yeah. And I years later.

Yeah. And I have to admit to my... The error of my ways back then.

As we all do. Yeah. Well, Doogie, you got anything else you need to talk to us about?

Is that it? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. We were gonna talk about the nickname Doogie and what what that... What happened with that.

And and I don't I don't know exactly any any great story about it other than one day I had hung around enough and had been in front of your face enough that you decided I needed a nickname and that nickname would be Doogie. I guess because my name is Doug and Yep. And that was the outright of that.

I think... Was it because of Doogie Anderson MD? Or Doogie Howser.

Yeah. Well, that's probably where I got it from. That that was probably a a shortcut, but I figured we needed a a doogie up there and that would have been you.

Yeah. Yeah. That was me.

Everybody got a nickname and I will gladly take that one as opposed to something else that somebody might have because I know Greg O wanted to call me Flounder after the Animal House character. Gordon wanted to call me Mutant Boy. What?

Mutant? Boy. Okay.

Good boy. Gordon didn't take to him very well. Apparently not.

Excuse me, you know, at first, yeah, at first Gordon was not a big fan and we actually got to be pretty decent friends over time there. And actually, in recent years, I've actually texted a couple of times and he kinda said, Hey, you were always great. I'm sorry about some of the things that I put you through, you know, back back in the day.

So that was very nice. That was that was very nice. He's got a lot of owning up to do with a lot of people.

Still in progress. The first the first show that I ever worked on live, I was bored up for The Rant and I I remember that show well. Hell yeah.

Yeah. That's a that's a hell of a thing to jump into as a bored up. Yes.

I only got to do it a couple times, but it's a lot. You you were you were not the same after that. For sure.

I imagine that was a pretty good work over there. Yeah. No.

Was... Doing that rant. You realize that this was not a a normal thing and that there were certain elements at play that you just had no real understanding of or nor did you really want to at that point.

Yeah, you just tried to let it gloss over you. Just try to survive it. But, yeah, that was that was the doogie and that was that was pretty much it.

So I was I was happy to have that name, like I said. How do you feel about those times these days when you think back about them? I I look back with fondness.

It took me a while, actually. I'll be honest with you because once once I got let go the second time, once the ender ended, that was a pretty devastating thing for me because I did not know where to go and I didn't really know what to do. And I remember getting a phone call from you and you said, well, whatever you do, stay in the game.

Just stay in the game, you know, somewhere. I was like, okay, well, I'll definitely try to do that. I mean, I'm gonna...

That's my goal. And I went to what was ESPN Radio at the time, interviewed over there at ESPN and the program director there just flat out said, he goes, Well, I mean, obviously you've done a lot of work. Obviously, you've got chops, you know, or whatever.

But you're so ticket. You're so ticket. I don't know if it would work over here.

And I'm like, man, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, you know, the ticket doesn't want me anymore, so I gotta do something. And fortunately for me, the thing that I had done in college and the thing that I had kind of kept doing was that high school football.

Yeah. And TSN needed somebody to run their high school football operation because it wasn't just you know, doing games over there. Was, you had weekday, you had a weekly preview show, you had a weekly scoreboard show that was statewide.

You had a lot of programming that surrounded high school football. And so that allowed me to kind of keep my nose wet, doing things. And that eventually turned the corner to me going to work for Jeff Watts doing play by play, which started off with high school, but then expanded, like I said, to college.

And it just became a thing, you know. It became a thing that I did, and it's lasted for over twenty years now. So that's been, you know, a great blessing.

Just for the record, I don't know who's running ESPN radio at that time, but I think that you were one who could've who who could've... You know, they say a leopard can't change his spots. I think you could've.

I think you could've altered yourself to where you would've been a good fit there. Well, thank you. And and I...

One thing that I've always kinda felt like was a a strength, you know, I'm not... You know, obviously, what you guys did, the the vibe that you guys had is is so hard to recreate with anybody. It can't be.

It can't be recreated. But one thing that I could do was be versatile. I mean, if you needed me to do something Yeah.

There was a decent chance I might not be the best at it, but I could do it. Yeah. You know, if you need me to do a sports update, fine.

You need me to host a talk show, fine. I did traffic and weather together on the eights for a while, so I could, you know, I could do stuff. Yes.

And and I don't have any problem with that. So... You still can do stuff, man.

You can do stuff. Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

And I... Yeah. I was gonna say I got a couple things for Doogie.

Oh, you do? Okay. First is a Facebook comment.

David Crum says, The Ender was always one of the best of the non main lineup shows, which is very sweet. Appreciate that. A very nice thing.

That always warms my heart. I hear people when I hear people that that did had some sort of happy interaction with the ender, I'm always happy about that. It fills my heart with joy because we really did put our our heart and soul into that show while we did it and wanted nothing more than to just make that thing go and have it be at least respected.

It wasn't gonna be, were like I said, we were at night, we were on a low watt AM signal, we weren't gonna dominate the Metroplex or anything like that. Well, you have a lot to overcome. But if we could be respected and if we could be remembered for something, then that makes me very happy.

And then one other thing is I work with a long time buddy of yours, Chris Childs at my day job. Yes. He was the, I believe, director for Yes.

Directed lot of our high school football games. And I know y'all traveled together. He told me a story about your interaction with, I believe was the founder of Raising Cane's.

Yes, yes. This was before Cane's really blew up. But yeah, we went to a Cane's one time and everybody was, all the guys on the crew that had been to Cane's were talking about how great Cane's was and this Cane's, you got to try Cane's and everything.

Was like, well, what do they got? Chicken fingers. Okay, what else?

No, that's it. It's chicken fingers. Well, what they serve with it?

Fries. Nope, just fries and you get a piece of Texas toast. Go, what about like, you know, sauces or whatever?

Because surely they've got like a variety of sauces. Nope, one sauce. You get one sauce at Cane's.

I'm like, well, why do I want to go to a place that's only got the one thing, right? And I mean, the sauce was okay. I did try it, it's fine, but I was just not, I didn't understand the concept of this is just the one thing and everybody loves it and this is what you do.

Now Now that's another thing that I think you and I have a bond over is that if there's a thing that everybody does and everybody's supposed to do, I want no part of it and I'm not gonna be there. And I think you're kind of the same way. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I am. Yeah.

I mean, just for the sake of being different, that's good enough for me. You know? Always has been, always will be.

And so with the Cane's thing, was it that? Oh, yeah. Sorry, What other sauces do you have or do you offer anything?

No, this is the one sauce I'm like, well, I I want to mix in some gravy or something, you know, and he didn't want any part of that. This is like a sponsor for your programming, right? Was it?

The one time they might've been. Okay, yeah. And I may have had to get it.

Yeah, just kind of like take a back seat on that and just kind of, you know, tow some company line on That's one thing I'm not 100% clear on, but yeah, the details are fuzzy, but I think that might have happened. Yeah, was at least my understanding from Chris, so. I I thought thought it was fun.

We'd go to Buc ee's when we were on the road. Yes. Okay, that's right, I'm sorry, I also need to get that.

I'm not a Buc ee's guy. I don't wanna be in Buc ee's. I don't wanna I don't wanna spend any time in Buc ee's.

I don't wanna see anybody from Buc ee's. And Same. I I yearn for my next trip to Buc Ee's.

Yeah. Y'all are diametrically opposed on this. I I I know that.

Okay. So we do disagree on that one. Yeah.

Yes. We do. Y'all can still be friends, but...

Yeah. Can still be friends. Y'all will not be meeting at a Buc ee's.

No. Can still be friends, but I'll never want you... I'll drag you to Buc ee's.

I promise you that. I mean, he might be. Juki just won't be joining him.

Uh-oh. Had a football question. Oh.

Okay. Duncanville. Okay.

Are they still in Yes. Duncanville is still good. They have they they dropped a couple of games this year.

And so the... When you have a place like Duncanville and the success that they've had recently, if you don't go undefeated in the regular season, they think something's wrong. What's the matter with Duncanville?

Because they didn't go undefeated. They didn't go 10 and o. That doesn't mean they're bad, and that doesn't mean they won't make a significant playoff run.

There's just been some games that they haven't won this year, and there's been other teams that have been as good or better. Waxahachie this year is is a very good team. Waxahachie is very...

They are up this year. They're... They've got a lot of talent, very good team, and they actually beat Duncanville, the other day.

So, you know, it's it it... It's not... It's gonna happen.

You know, good teams are gonna lose some games, but fortunately, you know, in the high school ranks, four teams out of each district make the playoffs. You've got a whole six weeks to figure out who's the best. And if you're the one standing at the end of those six weeks, then you've earned that title, and and that's what's great about it.

Who is the best South Side school this year? Would you say it's Duncanville or or Waxahachie or DeSoto or who? In terms of the best school or the best program Yeah.

The this year, probably probably Waxahachie. In terms of who's got the chance to win a state championship, I would say probably Sauk, just because of the divisions that they play in. And...

But, yeah, you gotta keep an eye on those guys because they're good. Waxahachie is really good. So...

Sauk, of course, South Oak Cliff. Yes, I'm sorry, the Golden Bears. I'm clear you did that.

So one last question, don't have any idea what you'll know about it, but Denison. Oh. Wow, Denison.

I have not really had a chance to study Denison in a while. I could honestly not tell you if they're great or not. When I was working for the Texas State Network and we did a statewide thing, I was very up on the state and all the teams around the state.

And we called 30 coaches a week doing previews and stuff with these coaches from all over the place. So I knew a lot of them, but these days I typically tend to focus on just what's in front of my... On my plate, you know, which is the Metroplex teams.

And so I I have a little more idea about those. My own personal favorite Who... Who's your favorite coach?

Is our quarterback. Oh, okay. Also Who's your favorite coach these days?

Gosh. There's there's a lot of good coaches and there... And there's a lot of ones...

But I mean the one you like the best. Right. I understand what you're saying.

I'm trying to think... Trying to do a little tap dance here while I think about it. Okay.

I wanna put you on the spot. Don't wanna hurt anybody's feelings or anything. But I've I've always, you know, always really enjoyed talking to to Reggie Samples at Duncanville, even though he doesn't really give the media much of the time of day, but he's he's also...

He's very fun. No, I haven't had a chance yet. I I tell you what the the...

I'm drawing a blank a little bit. He doesn't give the media the time of day, but he's fun? Yeah.

Yeah. Just because he's a he's a character, you know, and he just a no nonsense guy and he just old school, you know, I like the old school guys quite a bit. A lot of the guys that I was very much like my favorite coaches have gone on and now doing, you know, other things.

My favorite coach back in the day who was great to us was Joey Maguire, who's now at Texas Tech. Yeah. And so we...

I I loved doing his games, doing Cedar Hill. In fact, he did color with me on a couple of football games when Cedar Hill got knocked out of the playoffs. And it was great.

Fun? No. Oh, man.

Yeah. It was great. Because he very much obviously knows the football pretty well, but he was also very much a personality and, you know, loved to talk and loved to have fun.

And so he would be, you know, absolutely one of my favorite guys. The guys that we're doing this week, if I can plug the game. Sure.

We are doing Saxi and Wiley East. And that is a district championship game. They are both undefeated in district play.

So nine six a is on the line tomorrow night up in Wylie. And we'll be live at seven on KDFI channel twenty seven, Fox four plus, and the Fox local app. So tune in if you would.

But Red Barons is the coach at Saxey, and he's been there for twenty three years. He's the only coach Saxey's ever had. And Marcus Gold is the coach at Wiley East, and he has done a tremendous job turning that program around.

And, those those two guys were great to talk to this week. Talked to him this, you know, this past week and got ready for this game and it was... Yeah, they're great.

They're fantastic. I can't believe Wiley has gone directional. Yeah.

You got Wiley East and you got Wiley and I don't think there's anybody else for right now up there. There's no Wiley North or South? No, I don't believe so.

Now I could be wrong about that, I'd have to check just to make sure. Wiley Junior? No, I went to Denton High and when I was in school, Denton High was the only school in town.

Now you've got Geier, you've got Rhyner, you've got Braswell, and who knows if they're gonna make another one, but yeah. Braswell, I've never even heard of them. Yeah, didn't Braswell.

And the crazy thing about it is those were all guys, Rhyner was named after Billy Rhyner, Geyer was named after John Geyer, think was, and Braswell's named after Ray Braswell. They were all like administrators and principals and stuff when I was in school. And now they've got these buildings named after him.

Can I tell you a quick Billy Ryan story just because I think you'll find it interesting? Sure, I thought you never would. Well, thank you, Shippy.

I appreciate that. Now, Billy Ryan was an administrator at and he was a principal, he was a former coach, principal administrator in the Denton ISD, very renowned figure there in Denton. He had cancer in one of his legs and he had to have it amputated.

And my dad, who went to Denton High as well and grew up in Denton, was... You know, played when Ryan... Billy Ryan was a coach, you know, and everything.

And and my dad told me the story that Billy Ryan, even with one leg, could punt a football 40 yards. Good lord. This is what my dad said, and I just got the mental image of how does a one legged guy punt the football.

Yeah. I mean, how's that even work? Which leg is hitting the ball?

Well, no. It's gotta be the foot. Right?

Well, maybe. Think anyway. I...

He jumps. It's like karate kid or something where he jumps, he kicks and he fall, he comes back down with the leg. Sorry.

I just knocked over your ranger hat there. Was a hell of a kick. A two leg kick.

That has that has troubled me for now twenty some odd years or thirty years. How does a one legged guy punt? I think that's a that's...

You know, if you're gonna be troubled by a question or a con... That's not a question. That's a a whole concept.

If you're gonna be troubled by a whole concept like that, that's a good one to be troubled with. Absolutely. So You picked a good one there.

Good job. Thank you. Now I'm gonna be thinking about it.

It's good to talk to you again. It is a pleasure. Good to cross paths with you and we thank you for doing this, man.

Man, I loved it. I was so happy when Gruber's called and asked if I wanted to do it because I listened to it and I'm like, man, I just have, you know, I just have a lot of respect for you for one thing. I've I've always thought your your scene was unique and and different and something that I I was into.

And it was just a real pleasure to get to, like you say, cross paths with you again and talk to you, man. It's awesome. Well, I appreciate you too, man.

I see that you are a guy who does his own thing regardless of what anybody else thinks about it. Much respect there and much respect for the great job you do on high school football. Well, thank you.

It means a lot. Alright. That is a doogie with us today.

And that's it for little YDC today. This is episode number 270. Yes.

We're almost there. Damn. Forget it.

God. When will it stop? I really make jokes like that.

Sooner than you think. Oh, come on. But if you like what we're doing until it does stop, what we need you to do is get us out there, share us on your social media.

Don't expect us to do everything for you. You know? We share it on our social media.

What about you? What are you doing for us? That's what I wanna know.

Share us on your social media. I don't think we're asking too much there, are we? No.

No. We're not. I guess not.

Do it. Just shut up and do it. Till next time.

Bye. Go to the... Alright.

I'm gonna go take my pants off. Your Dark Companion is a Stolen Water Media presentation.