I was in Austin on a Friday night earlier this month and while driving back to my Hotel I noticed that the lights at House Park were on.  I thought it might be an Austin Aztex soccer game, but it was a high school football game between the Austin High Maroons and Dripping Springs.  There was a parking spot right in front of the stadium, so I thought this was an omen to pay my $7 and watch a little Texas high school football.  The game had been delayed by a thunderstorm, so it was hot and humid and the seats were wet.  I stood on the last row behind the Dripping Springs band and the Highsteppers (the DS dance squad).  It was actually a pretty good game with several long scoring plays.

The truly depressing thing about a high school game is when half-time comes and they put 28 minutes up on the clock and even then the clock doesn’t start running until the first band takes the field and I am muttering “Start the clock.  Start the clock.”

I decide to leave the stands and watch the halftime and second half from the end zone fence.  You have a pretty good view at the goal line.  At long last the second half starts and I am standing next to a black man probably about my age.  We start talking and I tell him, “Man, this is the whitest football game I have seen in about 40 years.”  DS had maybe one mixed race player and one Hispanic.  AHS had maybe 3 black players and a handful of Hispanics.   He agreed.  It turns out, he was Skip Walker who had been a star tailback at Del Valle and later at Texas A&M.  He even led the Canadian football league in rushing 2 seasons when he played for the Ottawa Rough Riders.  He is now runs Hoover’s Cooking on Manor Road in Austin. We had a nice time talking about Austin and football and other unimportant matters. It turns out Earl Campbell was something of his nemesis.  Earl kept him from getting any consideration by UT and when he was drafted by the Oilers in 1976 – well you know who their number one pick was.   You never know who is going to be standing next to you in a crowd.  I will definitely be eating at Hoover’s the next time I am in Austin.