07/04/2009

Athletes, teams, fans embrace social networking

TROY OXFORD / DMN artist

Social media sites are still in their infancy. But they've gone from an uncertain novelty where anyone can post a picture or quickly write a few words to a popular conversation tool among athletes, teams and fans. That transformation has taken only a few months.

07/03/2009

Raising NCAA trophies lifts outlook for other Texas A&M teams

AP photos

Texas A&M celebrated national championships in men's golf (upper left), men's track and field (bottom left) and women's track and field.

Athletic director Bill Byrne sees the NCAA championships won by Texas A&M this spring as having an impact far beyond those three sports, writes DMN national colleges columnist Chuck Carlton. A&M placed 13th in the 2008-09 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings, behind only one other Big 12 school (Texas).
 2008-09 Directors' Cup All-Sports standings (.pdf)
 Blog: Colleges
 Buy: Texas A&M gear

06/27/2009

25 Years of SportsDay's All-Sports Awards: Carroll, HP in class by themselves

Southlake Carroll (left) has won Class 5A award six out of the last seven years, and Highland Park has claimed seven straight awards in 4A.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1985, SportsDay introduced the All-Sports Awards as a way to determine which area high schools had the best overall athletic programs. Well, success breeds success. Southlake Carroll (Class 5A) and Highland Park (4A) have again won the 2008-09 awards in their respective classifications.
Download: 5A/4A area district point totals
More on Carroll
More on Highland Park
Blog: High schools

06/28/2009

Casual anglers can succeed with right approach
A reader sent an e-mail recently, asking me to address the best techniques for fishing from the bank, so here goes.

06/20/2009

Dave Campbell's vision of football still going strong

DMN file photo

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

Always on the lookout for summer sports reading material in the late '50s, writes DMN columnist Kevin Sherrington, Dave Campbell lamented the dearth of space afforded college football, especially the Southwest Conference variety. His answer: Texas Football.
 Blogs: Kevin Sherrington | Colleges

North Texas at center of college football universe

TROY OXFORD / DMN illustration

With the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and efforts to attract more big games to Fair Park, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is making a run at becoming the nation's capital of college football, both financially and on the field.

Revenue streams from Cowboys Stadium contracts run deep

VERNON BRYANT / DMN

Cowboys Stadium opened its doors for business with a June 6 concert.

Contract provisions for college football games at Cowboys Stadium vary widely, allowing some teams to share ticket revenue while paying others fixed guarantees, according to copies of contracts obtained by The Dallas Morning News through open records requests.
 Blog: Dallas Cowboys
 More Cowboys Stadium coverage

Texas Rangers are packed with value

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

With owner Tom Hicks (front) willing to sell a majority stake in the Rangers, team president Nolan Ryan says he might want to take a look as part of an investment group.

More people have been flocking to see a winning Rangers team this season, and they've been spending more money at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. That could make the team more attractive to potential buyers.
 Blog: Texas Rangers
 Buy: Rangers gear | Tickets

06/13/2009

Golfer's trek to Bethpage yields U.S. Open insight

Courtesy photo

Tuan Nguyen, who usually shoots in the high 70s and low 80s, scrambled for an 88 from the blue tees on Bethpage's famed Black course.

Tuan Nguyen was on a mission. Nguyen, from Murphy, Texas, had honed his game on daily fee golf courses. Now, he was determined to play one of the most famous and demanding - Bethpage State Park's Black course in Farmingdale, N.Y. It's the site of this week's U.S. Open.
SportsDay Golf Picks Challenge
Link: U.S. Open official site

06/14/2009

Quality control: Maddux helping Texas Rangers' staff deliver
The hottest coach in Dallas-Fort Worth is sitting in the first-base dugout at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, deflecting praise, crediting others and punctuating every sentence with a spit of chew.

Full speed to the end for Texas A&M's Boyd
Growing up in Dallas in the '20s and '30s, the hard-living son of a fiery Baptist preacher, Joe Boyd couldn't save himself, much less anyone else.

06/13/2009

State's expanded records program opens new door for many anglers, especially kids
Kaylee Nicholson of Athens and her best friend, Sidney Bruyere of Blooming Grove, were among a crowd of 800 who turned out for a National Fishing Day event at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center near Athens.

06/07/2009

Texas pitchers share enduring legacy
Chuck Hartenstein endured a nagging thought as he watched Austin Wood pile up inning after no-hit inning.

06/06/2009

Spawning sunfish make ideal targets for young anglers and fly fishermen
Just in time for summer vacation fishing, sunfish are spawning in North Texas lakes and ponds. The most common sunfish species are bluegills, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish and green sunfish. Some species are capable of crossbreeding, however, and you sometimes wind up with a variety of hybrid sunfish.

Richardson runner shines at Komen race

BEN TORRES / Special to DMN

The pack of runners takes off from the starting line for the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Plano.

For an unprecedented sixth consecutive year, Elizabeth Jekot finished first among breast cancer survivors at Saturday's Susan G. Komen North Texas Race for the Cure. She ran in memory of her mother, who died of the disease May 7.
 Race photos

05/31/2009

Cowboys Stadium construction manager balances big budgets, small details

TOM FOX / DMN

Although the first major event at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington is only days away – George Strait will headline a concert Saturday – last-minute preparations are still intense.

By the end of this summer, all four major professional sports teams in North Texas will be playing in buildings Jack Hill shepherded through the construction process.
 Blog: Dallas Cowboys
 Explore the new stadium
 Video: Cowboys Stadium: From the ground up
 Download: Details on Cowboys Stadium: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

05/30/2009

Is Nowitzki's ex reformed, or is this just a con?

Courtesy photo

Cristal Taylor faces a 2006 theft of service charge in Beaumont and a 2000 probation violation in suburban St. Louis.

Before her May 6 arrest in Dirk Nowitzki's $6 million Preston Hollow home, Cristal Taylor had July wedding plans, a $150,000-plus engagement ring on her finger and was, we now know, pregnant. Did that signify personal transformation or her most elaborate con of all?
Archive: Medical records show Dirk's ex-fiancée is pregnant
Archive: Ex-girlfriend says Nowitzki called her his 'little jailbird'
Blog: Dallas Mavericks

05/23/2009

Ex-Dallas Cowboy Walker shares pain with soldiers

STEVEN DOLL / Special to DMN

Ex-Cowboy Herschel Walker (right) talks about his struggles with dissociative identity disorder with wounded soldiers at Fort Hood.

They came on canes and crutches and knee braces and walking boots, about 50 Fort Hood soldiers in all, and that wasn't the half of their wounds. They came to hear from former Dallas Cowboys running back Herschel Walker, who talked to them about pain that isn't always so obvious, writes DMN columnist Kevin Sherrington.
Blogs: Cowboys | Sherrington

Dallas-Fort Worth pro sports teams riding out recession storm

MICHAEL HOGUE / DMN staff artist

Owners of pro sports franchises, such as Mark Cuban (left), Tom Hicks and Jerry Jones (right), face challenges in a struggling economy.

The recession has had the Rangers, Mavericks, Cowboys and Stars scrambling to retain and reward their best customers - businesses that purchase suites and high-dollar tickets. It's proof that corporate America has never been more important to the area's professional sports teams.
Tickets: Rangers | Cowboys | Stars | Mavs

05/17/2009

Significant roll: Putts put great golfers on map

File 2008

Adam Scott made a 48-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to win last year's Byron Nelson Championship.

Over the next two weeks, many of the best players will be booming 350-yard drives and effortlessly shaping iron shots at the HP Byron Nelson Championship and the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. But most tournaments come down to putting.
Players to watch
Nichols | Putt guru
More: Nelson coverage
Video: Putting tips

05/16/2009

An old attic once held a Texas treasure
When word got out about an estate sale at ol' Mrs. Weems' place, two doors down, Buddy Laughlin said no, thanks.

Dallas Mavericks played well once coach, team jelled

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

Coach Rick Carlisle (with clipboard) and the Dallas Mavericks went 50-32 in the regular season after a 2-7 start.

Rick Carlisle, the Dallas Mavericks' new coach, may indeed have been an acquired taste. But the chemistry built slowly over the long, regular-season grind. By the end, the Mavericks were roundly saluted for playing as hard as they could.
Blog: Mavericks
 Buy: Mavs gear

Cast a line, catch a fish: It's almost that easy
Opening up a debate about Texas' best fishing lake is a real can of worms, pun intended. Every serious angler has a fave hot spot to promote, but all pale in comparison with Lake Zebco.

05/10/2009

It turns out Lincoln-ex was pretty good
A skinny, bird-legged offensive lineman on a bad team, Rudy Phillips didn't have any options coming out of Lincoln in 1976.

05/09/2009

Lake Tawakoni is a hybrid haven
Tony Parker's fishing rod was heeled over in a rainbow arc, line screaming from his reel. He was fast to a Lake Tawakoni hybrid striped bass, a testimonial to hybrid vigor. Think about the most famous of domestic hybrids – the mule. This fish was the 8-pound aquatic equivalent of a mule.

05/02/2009

In early days of integration, Woodrow player set the tone

MELANIE BURFORD / DMN

John Paul McCrumbley emerged as a major talent when he reached high school at Woodrow Wilson.

John Paul McCrumbly played at Texas A&M and briefly with the Buffalo Bills, but his experience at Woodrow Wilson was special. Never more so than last weekend, writes Kevin Sherrington.
Blog: Sherrington

04/26/2009

Ex-Rice star stricken by ALS out to deliver message of hope
Once an effervescent star at Rice and in the Canadian Football League, then an overachieving, 6-foot, 236-pound special teams ace on a Super Bowl champion, O.J. Brigance fights just to hold his head up these days.
 Watch video chronicling Brigance's career and his battle with ALS

04/25/2009

Right into the flow with Red River Stripers
Norman O'Neal has been guiding striped bass fishermen on the Red River below Lake Texoma since 1992. He's had some very good years of fishing, but 2009 is shaping up as one of the best.

04/19/2009

Hall of Fame honor for a baseball lifer Joe Macko
Joe Macko celebrates his 60th season in baseball this year only because it isn't his 61st, a year he lost in the mid-1960s, when he played a bear, not baseball.

04/18/2009

Texas author narrows list of his favorite hikes to 100
Just in time for nice spring weather, E. Dan Klepper has written a book outlining many of Texas' best hiking trails. It's called 100 Classic Hikes in Texas and is published by Mountaineers Books.

04/12/2009

With dad in Iraq, local boy connects with legend's story 

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

Adam Gaona Jr., a Dallas fifth-grader, and his father, an Army sergeant on leave from duty in Iraq, posed with Elvis Andrus at a Rangers game last week.

When his fifth-grade teacher said they would write essays based on Jackie Robinson's principles, Adam Gaona Jr. figured he had just the subject. He would write about his father.
 Video: Jackie Robinson essay winner
 Download: Read the winning essay

Dallas Cowboys' Procter inspired by good friend and disabled Iowa farmer

Courtesy Odens Family

Cory Procter (right) marvels at Ryan Odens' tenacity after a 2000 traffic accident.

Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Cory Procter, the mountain of a man, and Ryan Odens, whom the gawkers may view as a remnant of one, have established a solid friendship since their chance 2005 meeting at Texas Stadium.
 Blog: Dallas Cowboys
 Buy: Cowboys gear | Tickets

04/11/2009

Program helping families venture beyond city limits
There's a new Texas Outdoor Family program at state parks that's so well received, Texas Parks and Wildlife has to limit participants in how many events they may enter. Otherwise, said outdoor education coordinator Chris Holmes, you'd see many of the same people at every event.

04/06/2009

It's right now or never for Texas Rangers' Washington

Getty Images

A good April would go a long way in taking the heat off manager Ron Washington, writes Kevin Sherrington.

RANGERS SEASON PREVIEW: Ron Washington believes this is the best Texas Rangers team he's taken into a season. But the Rangers have needs. Needs that take time to take care of. Washington has a month, writes Kevin Sherrington.
More Rangers/MLB season preview
Blog: Texas Rangers
Video: 2009 preview with Nolan Ryan
 Buy: Rangers gear | Tickets

04/04/2009

Chasing rainbows goes with biologist's job 
Steve Magnelia is the Texas Parks and Wildlife fisheries biologist who heads up the rainbow trout program on the Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake. Water flowing from the deep lake is cool enough that many trout stocked into the river manage to survive the hot Texas summers.

03/29/2009

Zach Thomas: Same Dallas officer mistreated my wife

File photos

On July 27, 2008, while her husband Zach (left) was at training camp with the Cowboys in Oxnard, Calif., Maritza Thomas (center) was pulled over by Powell for an illegal U-turn near NorthPark Center.

Maritza Thomas, the wife of NFL linebacker Zach Thomas, saw a familiar face as she watched the video of Officer Robert Powell detaining Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats as he and his family rushed to a hospital to see a dying loved one. That face was Powell's.
 Blog: Dallas Cowboys
 Buy: Cowboys gear | Tickets

03/28/2009

Hard luck, but no hard feelings
When Lloyd Ruby's hometown of Wichita Falls dedicated an overpass in his honor three years ago, a few old racing buddies showed up to try it out.

Fourth-grader's determination to outfight huge marlin paid off
If Ernest Hemingway wrote about Travis Carter, the story might be called "The Young Boy and the Sea." As in Hemingway's classic tale, the dramatic opponent would be a huge marlin, but the updated story would have a happier ending.

03/22/2009

Post-Texas Ranger years boost Pudge's Hall case
It was at the winter meetings 20 years ago that the most popular Houston Astro became a Texas Ranger, writes columnist Tim Cowlishaw. It's only fair that the opposite happened this weekend, when Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez passed his physical and became an Astro.
Blog: Tim Cowlishaw

Texas A&M's Blair a man of March

AP

Texas A&M coach Gary Blair talks with Takia Starks. He has won 127 of 192 games as coach of the Aggies.

For reasons Texas A&M women's basketball coach Gary Blair still can't explain, he's had a habit of winning with the opposite gender since 1973 – and it started by happenstance.
Carlton: Baylor's Morrow
Women's scoreboard
Blog: Colleges
Photos: Blair's career

03/14/2009

Web site tests boundaries between fair and foul play in youth soccer

MICHAEL MULVEY / DMN

Since founding TurfMonster.com in 2004, former pro soccer player Matthew Shipley has seen the site grow to 18,000 members.

Turf Monster is a Web site where aficionados of highly competitive North Texas youth soccer can get up-to-the-minute scores and field conditions and promote worthwhile fundraising projects. Or you can go there to savor the latest gossip.

Spring turkey hunting preview
I'm an April fool for spring turkeys in a breeding rage, their hormones fueling a boisterous frenzy of trash-talking gobbles that reverberate through the hills and forests. Turkey calls represent the season's wild symphony, but some old pros are concerned that the upcoming turkey hunt may not be as harmonious as usual.

03/15/2009

Hard tackler at his best hitting books
When Jerry LeVias was only a sophomore at Beaumont Hebert, and already a star, a freshman trying to impress the football coaches nearly knocked him out in practice.

03/07/2009

Texas Rangers' Young will do anything for his brave high school pal
The first thing you should probably know about Carson Leslie is that even though his cancer came back, maybe for good, he remains the same happy, smiling kid.

Big one has gotten away
There was good news and bad news last week for Texas Parks and Wildlife's Budweiser ShareLunker program. The bad news is that Anheuser-Busch, bought last year by a European company, is dropping its TP&W sponsorships, which includes the highly touted lunker program.

03/01/2009

Late publicist helped make name for UNT athletics
Fred Graham didn't give "Mean" Joe Greene his all-world nickname, and he didn't originate the idea for his beloved alma mater, the University of North Texas.

02/28/2009

Elk are few in Texas yet are prized by state hunters
Texas doesn't have many free-ranging elk – probably fewer than 1,000 in the remote western mountains. Fort Worth, nonetheless, becomes the center of the elk hunting and conservation universe Thursday through next Sunday when the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation holds its 25th annual convention and outdoor expo at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

02/21/2009

College baseball preview
There's something about the Big 12 and strong arms. As college baseball opens this weekend – conference play begins March 13 – it's looking like the year of the pitcher in the Big 12.

Moment of glory went a long way
When Ken "Dude" McLean died this month of cancer at 65, he'd been a defense attorney so long, it was easy to forget the football player he'd been.

Q&A with Dale Rollins: It's all for the birds
Quail season ends Sunday, and none too soon for most hunters. It's been another difficult season hampered by extremely dry conditions.

02/14/2009

Cutting costs could give NASCAR a bumpy ride

AP

A smaller crowd in the backstretch grandstands at Daytona for Saturday's Nationwide Series race are a sign of the economic times.

Fans aren't likely to see a boring Daytona 500 finish Sunday afternoon. But columnist Tim Cowlishaw thinks NASCAR's understandable desire to cut costs for teams hitting tough times has a real chance to reduce the quality of racing as well.
Blog: Cowlishaw
Daytona 500 lineup

Bassmaster Classic preview: Up from the depths
Alabama promoter Ray Scott started the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society in 1967. By 1970, Scott was frustrated that the fledgling organization had not attracted more media attention.

Golfing great Jameson left her mark in Dallas
When she was 9 years old, Betty Jameson took a bus and a street car from her Oak Cliff home to Tenison Park, where she paid 50 cents for greens fees and another half-dollar to rent some clubs.

02/08/2009

Rick Gosselin's NFL special teams rankings

Getty Images

Leodis McKelvin was one of three Bills to score touchdowns on special teams this season.

The Buffalo Bills are the only AFC team without a playoff appearance this decade. Don't blame their special teams. The 7-9 Bills finished 25th in the NFL in offense and 14th in defense this season but first in special teams, according to rankings compiled annually by The Dallas Morning News. It was the third time in the last five years the Bills have fielded the NFL's best special teams.

02/07/2009

Friends honor Lancaster sophomore who died with ceremony at track

COURTNEY PERRY / DMN

A starting gun is fired as the coffin of Sharla Lashawn Butler begins a "victory lap" around the track at Beverly D. Humphrey Stadium in Lancaster.

About 200 people were on hand Saturday morning to remember Sharla Lashawn Butler in her final victory lap in a touching but somber ceremony at Beverly D. Humphrey Tiger Stadium. The Lancaster sophomore, a member of the track team, died Monday of complications from encephalitis.
Blog: High schools
Video: Family, friends honor Lancaster sophomore

Sprint Cup preview: Back to business

Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson won his third consecutive Sprint Cup driving championship last season.

NASCAR might wish it were 2008 again, when the Car of Tomorrow dominated talk entering the season. But the Car of Tomorrow is nothing compared with the issues facing Sprint Cup teams prepping for this season. Instead, the series story lines have read like a newspaper's business page: talk centering on mergers, layoffs and the struggling economy.

01/31/2009

Texan helped Cardinals win it all in 1947, and then he was gone
Dan Mauldin's 60-something-year-old memories of his father, Stan, are precious but rare, like gold glinting in a riverbed.

Racking up the points in deer hunting
The smoke is clearing on another Texas big-game season, and this one was impacted by dry hunting conditions. David Brimager, director of the Texas Big Game Awards, said entries into that benchmark program have been slower than normal.

01/24/2009

Bad times for teams in championship droughts

Getty Images

Kurt Warner has led the Cardinals to their first appearance in the Super Bowl.

More than 60 years and two cities later, the Arizona Cardinals' appearance against Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLIII ends the second-longest championship round drought in sports. The Cardinals last won the title in 1947.
 Info.: Ariz. | Pitt.
 Buy: NFL gear | Tickets
 Blog: Dallas Cowboys

Richardson's Dorsey is solid like a rock

G.J. MCCARTHY / DMN

Dominique Dorsey, whose right arm ends just below the elbow, is the son of a 1991 Gulf War veteran.

Richardson's Dominique Dorsey is a so-dubbed Child of Desert Storm. He is among the generation of children with birth defects who were born to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, but perhaps the only one playing a high school varsity sport with a partial limb.
Blog: High Schools

01/25/2009

Dallas Academy's 100-0 loss raises questions: What's fair game?

LOUIS DeLUCA/DMN

With the team's recent 100-0 loss to Covenant, questions linger: When is enough, enough?
Dallas Academy Bulldogs, 100-0 losers, gain national attention
Floyd: Show sportsmanship instead of condemning 100-point win
Covenant to forfeit

01/24/2009

Hardwood success is a Richardson family tradition
As a ballboy for his grandfather's national champion basketball team, Nolan Richardson IV dreamed of playing for Arkansas. He came up about 350 miles and one NCAA level short, writes DMN columnist Kevin Sherrington.
 Blog: Kevin Sherrington

For the record, big bass can surface anytime
February is the unofficial season kickoff for catching a huge largemouth bass in Texas, though you might catch a whopper anytime and just about anywhere.

01/17/2009

Steroids tests advocate disagrees with Perry

AP

Dr. Donald Hooton Sr., president of the Taylor Hooton Foundation, testified before Congress in 2005.

Gov. Rick Perry said last week that steroids don't appear to be a serious problem among Texas teens. Yet those results may prove the program's worth, said Don Hooton, the Plano man who became an anti-steroids crusader after his son committed suicide in 2003.
Blog: High Schools

With little fanfare, Wilbur Evans bolstered Cotton Bowl, SWC
Wilbur Evans was often overshadowed by partner Field Scovell, but he made a big impact on the Cotton Bowl. One of his coups was helping persuade Notre Dame to play in the 1970 game, ending a 45-year bowl absence by the Irish, DMN columnist Kevin Sherrington writes.

Devilish slider
For a wildlife enthusiast, January in the South Texas brush country is like visiting an African wildlife park. You never know what you might see when sitting quietly in a deer blind.

01/11/2009

Complete game for Dave Shepherd
Coming out of East Texas State Teachers College, and before that a cotton farm in Klondike, Texas, between the twin metropolises of Commerce and Cooper, David Shepherd had no idea what he was getting into.

01/10/2009

Rick Gosselin's team-by-team draft review

Got game, Duncanville will travel

CHRIS BERGIN /Special to DMN

Duncanville's Jamison Sterns (left) jokes with Cameron Lenzy (center) and Perry Jones at Worthen Arena in Muncie, Ind.

When Duncanville played in the T-Mobile Invitational at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., late in December, it was the boys basketball team's third trip out of state, writes Matt Wixon. Why? Because the Panthers seek stiff out-of-state opponents, and Duncanville doesn't have to foot the bill.
Video: On the road
Staying on top of studies
Duncanville roster | More

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