“Man, get yourself to the Grand Canyon. The thing that got me was sitting on the edge of that big old thing. Those rocks. Man, those cliffs and rocks, they’re so old. It took so long for that thing to get to look like that. And it ain’t done, either. It happens right while you’re sitting there watchin’ it.” – Danny Glover in “Grand Canyon”
Hey, how ’bout that? I wrote a book. And it’s about Austin College. Shocker, I know.
My time at AC was a life changing experience, but the transition to Sherman did include one challenge. Collegiate athletics in my hometown of College Station was big and loud. Not so at my new home, a small D3 college that was barely in the Lone Star State. Kyle Field in 1988 felt like a world away.
But at one of those Roo football games, I learned something extraordinary. Texas A&M was a part of AC athletics history, going as far back as the 19th century. After yet another victory at Jerry Apple stadium, I walked to Abell library to confirm. Yup, my little alma mater was a big dog during a time when most Texas colleges did not even exist.
That initial interest had to be postponed, however. Graduate school, career, marriage, and family were higher priorities. Besides, a digital age to facilitate this interest had yet to arrive. That all changed in 2015.
I took a trip back to Sherman with Roo buddies that year. I snapped a photo of my daughter Malia running across Jerry Apple stadium, and calculated to my horror that every student on campus was not alive when I was a student. But I also began to revisit those interests I held back in 1988. Life gave me more time to dig into them, and the digital revolution made that digging convenient and fun.
So, I started to tell some stories.
They were small at first, directed towards AC friends from my days in Sherman. They were exclusively athletics, as that was my original interest. Over time, however, something pretty damn awesome took place. A small community grew, full of Roos who graduated in the decades both before and after my own. That community had a big impact on the story telling. The stories became longer & better, and began to cover a wide variety of AC topics outside of athletics.
By 2020, it was time to write the book. At first, I wondered whether I had enough material. Shoot, was that silly. After tossing the weak stories and keeping the strong ones, I still had a word count of 240,000. Yikes! Moby Dick is only 210,000! Now I have a new problem; the darn thing is too big.
But that problem was neatly solved by turning the one book into two:
Book #1: Roo Tales: The Stories of Austin College Athletics
Book #2: Roo Tales: The Stories of the Oldest Small College in Texas (still working on the title)
Book #1 is done, and available for purchase as an E-book or in Paperback. The Amazon links (and the book’s Table of Contents) are included in the comments. Book #1 is a collection of long-form stories about AC athletics. I’m grateful to Austin College Athletics Director David Norman, for writing the foreward. Coach Norman is synonymous with AC athletics.
Book #2 will be wrapped up in 2021. I’m grateful to Dr. Shelton Williams, who has agreed to write the foreward; Shelly was a huge part of my academic AC experience. Book #2 will be a collection of short stories that fall into one of three categories:
Roo History (International, National, & State)
Roo Rivals (AC history with competitor schools)
Roo Legends (Individuals within the AC Athletics Hall of Honor)
There are many contributors to both books; all have been acknowledged and sourced (look for yourself in book #2 if you aren’t in book #1). Two individuals, however, stand out for their work: Dr. Light Cummins, former AC professor of history, and Willie Jacobs, former Jerry Apple Stadium PA announcer and long-time friend of AC athletics. Time and time again, a story would involve revisiting something written by Light or Willie. Both books would be mere shadows of themselves without their substantial efforts.
A huge thank you to Dr. Paul Parrish. He’s not just a Dad, he’s a distinguished professor of English and my editor. I learned early as a kid in grade school that every writing sample delivered to Paul Parrish would be returned vastly improved. That lesson remains true for this book.
And how about Dianne? She’s not even an AC grad y’all. Yet her patience was unending as I spent time writing a book that is neither in her wheelhouse nor will turn her into a millionaire. How can we repay her? Well, you can help me by making her feel like an adopted member of the AC community. Hon, you’re are Roo now.
When it came time to choose a book cover for “Roo Tales: The Stories of Austin College Athletics,” I went with one of my own photos. The one I took of my daughter sprinting for a score back in 2015. After all, many of the stories in the book took place on that ground. At Jerry Apple Stadium. In Hughey Gym. Or on the old Cashion Field which ran between the two. But most importantly, that photo is where this book adventure began in 2015.
So, what’s next? Well, the fun I suppose. Thank you in advance to those who purchase; your online reviews are encouraged as well. Suggestions are also welcome from those of you with experience promoting books; I plan on finding online Texana / Athletics groups with interest in these topics. Very excited about future public book events in Sherman and elsewhere, once our nation’s public health is in order.
Today, Austin College is just another rock in the national higher education landscape that is the Grand Canyon. But Roos should be proud of their rock. Most of those Higher Ed rocks are relatively new. Not the Austin College rock though. The Austin College rock is old. It took so long for AC to get to look like that. And it ain’t done, either. It happens right while you’re sitting there watchin’ it.
That old rock has a lot of stories to tell. I’m a lucky man to get to tell them. Go Roos.
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