Kevin Sherrington

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When he was still a young sports writer trying to make it in Waco, Dave Campbell came up with an idea for a magazine.

He approached beer distributors in town and asked if they'd buy some ads. Count us in, they said.

We'll buy an ad. One.

Among all of us.

And thus died any grandiose plans for a bowling magazine.

Fortunately for football aficionados in this great state, young Dave did not give up on his quest to make some extra cash.

Always on the lookout for summer sports reading material in the late '50s, he'd lamented the dearth of space afforded college football, especially the Southwest Conference variety. Even Notre Dame rated scant coverage. What little you could find came directly from colleges or less reliable sources. The copy had more holes in it than Clyde Barrow's getaway car.

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Dave Campbell wanted an outlet for college football, so he built a magazine about football in Texas.

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And so young Dave came up with a plan that didn't rely on local beer barons, an iffy bunch anyway, this being Waco in 1959.

"If someone could send reporters to each campus, get fresh interviews and up-to-date information," young Dave thought to himself, "he'd have something."

So he huddled his staff: Al Ward, Jim Montgomery and Hollis Biddle. The foursome wrote all the copy, including sections on every public high school that played for the state title. Texas' Jack Collins would be the cover. Biddle helped young Dave lay it out on Reba Campbell's kitchen table.

The first edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football came out in 1960 to such acclaim, young Dave received telegrams from all over the state. Bowled over, he printed another 20,000.

Just one problem: Turns out he didn't need that many more. Or any, for that matter. All they had to do was redistribute what they already had.

Young Dave lost $5,000. The next year, he lost $3,000. He figured he was getting rich.

The breakthrough came in the '65 issue, with Texas Tech's Donny Anderson peering from the cover. The issue was the first with a retrospective, written by Dallas' Steve Perkins, on the best SWC football since World War II. If that didn't reel them in, the magazine also offered a cash prize to the winner of the best prediction on the SWC race.

By the mid-'60s, young Dave, emboldened by the success of his enterprise, had also started Arkansas Football. At one point or another he published magazines on the Cowboys, Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints as well as monthly newsletters.

"I had stuff scattered all over the house," he said.

When I wrote for Texas Football in the early '80s, the pay was agreeable, considering the work involved. But the money didn't matter. OK, it mattered, but not enough to turn it down. We considered it an honor to work for Dave Campbell. His magazine was the bible of Texas football, and the founder was our father figure, a terrific sportswriter in his own right, an encourager to a gang of punks generally harrumphed by an older generation of sportswriters.

Now 84, Dave isn't so young anymore. But he's as tall, lean and warm as ever. He sold his magazine in 1985, not that you'd know it. Succeeding owners were never so foolish as to try it without him.

He's making the rounds this month to promote the unveiling of the 50th anniversary edition. Texas' Colt McCoy is on the cover. Like its predecessors, the magazine covers more football than ought to be allowed.

From the founder's perspective, the last half-century has been a wonder, particularly considering what might have been if he'd gotten his first choice.

"If those beer distributors hadn't been so tightfisted," he said, "there might not be a Texas Football."

Bully for them, Dave. And here's to you.