After Donna Tavener helped establish a volleyball program and tennis program for Women at East Texas State, the University saw that the success both programs had accomplished was worth the investment in trying to hire some new coaches. They did that in 1983 when they hired Kathy Goodlett. Goodlett was a young, smart, and intense…
A few years ago, I wrote a column called “The Joy of Hate, our 5 Biggest Rivals.” It was well received and hated by the right kind of people and the target audience. When ET was in the Lone Star Conference, we were around for almost a century and basically knew who we hated, kind…
“Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.” Those immortal words, spoken by the great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, speak of the nature of life…
When people think about the fall of 1980 at East Texas State, most people think about the Lion football team that rode the arm to future NFL quarterback Wade Wilson to the NAIA National Semifinals that finished 3rd in the nation and almost won their second national championship in 8 years, but in that time,…
Overview: In Commerce, Texas, there is a lot going on, and for a town of only 10,000 residents on the Northeast Texas Blackland Prairies, that says quite a bit. However, when what was a teacher’s college 75 years ago and a member of the NAIA is now officially an NCAA Division I athletic institution, it…
When Jim Gudger took the head basketball coaching position at East Texas State, he had a tall order, which was to turn around a team used to winning that was not winning, and turn them into winners again. After his first 4 seasons resulting in a 35-68 record, Gudger recruited and brought winning basketball back…
The 1970’s were a really good time to be an ETSU Lion. The Football team won a conference and national title in 1972 and posted a successful decade record, Men’s Basketball won 5 conference titles and went to the NAIA tournament 4 times, Track continued it’s dominance, and Women’s sports were starting to grab a…
Some of you might remember a few diatribes ago I went a bit of a controlled rant where I basically said that the music played before and during the games was tawdry, disgusting, awful, tasteless, classless, and just flat out unfriendly to the human ear. In the aftermath of that, I had a lot of…
After a challenging first four years at East Texas State University, Jim Gudger had gotten the Lions back to where they had been in the previous decades. He had them winning conference championships, making the NAIA postseason, making deep runs, and winning the conference tournament championships. He had the program among the elite in the…
I did not live through the 1970’s, but ask anyone who was there, times changed, and the ways of doing thing had changed. One thing had not changed, and that was Jim Gudger’s powerful East Texas State Men’s Basketball team. 1975 had been gotten the Lions a conference title, but not a chance to get…
Chances are you are you wearing something that is the product of a crop that millions of Americans in the South and the United States have picked, harvested, and planted for over 300 years. Cotton. Many songs have been written about it, especially if it was by a person who picked cotton as a kid.…
Basketball changes, that is just the nature of the game. Even if the game itself does not change, because after all, the whole point is to put a leather ball in a round hoop and do it more times than the other team, things still change, and in the 1974-1975 season, things were changing more…
It is hard to believe that East Texas A&M University has completed it’s transition to being a full fledged of NCAA Division I’s athletic establishment. Last night on The Call The Roll Podcast I discussed Men’s Basketball and scheduling big names came up during the podcast. It also got me thinking that now that our…
When Norman Pilgrim left Commerce after a decade at the helm with two LSC titles and two NAIA appearances, one of Pilgrim’s players, Phil Andrews took over for one season and the results was a 9-18 season. It was a time for the ET athletic department to look for a coach who was seasoned and…
Back in 2016, something happened that really showed me some of us Lions have a lot to learn when it comes to “fansmanship.” After a 5-0 start, the Lions faced the always tough Bill Maskill coached Midwestern State Mustangs. It was a game in Commerce on a beautiful fall evening and it was another big…
