WEBVTT - Mick Shots: Reeling In History 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.440 The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:07.360 and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:10.280 Cowboys. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:17.160 This is Mick Shots, streaming live on Dallascowboys dot Com 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:21.640 and the official Dallas Cowboys at now. Here are Bill Jones, 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:28.600 Savannah Humoller, Everson Wolves, and Mickey Spagnola. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:34.159 Well, two of us are here today for Mick Shots, 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.680 brought to you by Miller Light here on Dallascowboys dot Com. 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:47.760 Thanks to holidays. We are not there on Monday. We're 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:53.920 here on Tuesday at the Star. Savannah and myself are here. 0:00:55.360 --> 0:01:01.520 Bill Jones is off to spring training with the Texas Rangers. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.040 Everson Walls is out of town and he never tells 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:09.720 us where he's going, so we always assume he's going 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.920 to somewhere secret spot in New Mexico. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:15.040 I don't know if he's. 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.800 Following up an Oppenheimer or what, but he's not here. 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:25.000 But we have a special guest with us today, Robert Blackwell, 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:30.440 former director of video for the Dallas Cowboys, and good 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:30.800 to have. 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:31.400 You with us. 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:32.759 Thanks thanks for having me on. 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:38.160 And we understand that Robert, after he retired finally following 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.320 the twenty twenty season, has now gotten into doing a 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:47.040 podcast of his own Real Football two ease, Real. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.720 Real Football Stories with Reel r Eel like a real film. 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:52.280 Very good. 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.280 That's awesome And where can we find that? 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.040 It's everywhere Spotify, Apple, Amazon. 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:02.240 Okay, And we're glad to have him with us on 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:02.840 this day. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.400 Otherwise, I don't know if we would have. 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.720 Done this well, I think, Savannah, what do you think 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:08.480 we could have done it? 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:09.880 I feel like we could have done it. 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.520 We were talking about, you know, trying to find a 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.200 special guest we want to have the show, and producer 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.919 Supreme texted us last week and said, we have Robert Blackwell, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:21.160 so we're excited to have you. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:21.919 Yes. 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:27.800 So anyway, just to catch everybody up on a little 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:32.440 bit of Cowboy news over the weekend or actually it 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:37.040 was Friday, I think when everybody else had off. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:38.359 We had a long weekend. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:44.919 Mike Zimmer, who's back as the Cowboys defensive coordinator. They 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:51.600 rounded out the defensive staff, hiring one final familiar name, 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:57.239 Greg Allis as assistant defensive line coach in charge. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.120 Of defensive ends. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.520 Paul gunn Is going to be the defensive run game 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:08.520 coordinator or former defensive coordinator for Cincinnati and the Raiders, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:13.160 and he's been coaching for twenty years and had been 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:18.360 with Mike in Cincinnati and Minnesota and then former NFL 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.359 player seventeen years. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.880 Jeff Zagonia has. 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:26.880 Come in and he will be the defensive line coach 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.560 and he had done that as an assistant or a 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:34.880 head defensive line coach last with the Washington Commanders. So 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.520 the Cowboys needed to complete their staff. And as a 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.200 matter of fact, I ran into Greg Ellis on Friday. 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.720 He was very happy to be here. And I'm sure 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.160 you remember did you turn his card in in nineteen 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:50.040 ninety eight. 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:54.080 Yes, I did. I was representative for the draft from 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.880 nineteen eighty eight until the COVID year, so thirty two years, 0:03:57.920 --> 0:03:59.800 thirty two years. I went to the draft, build out 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:01.480 the tournament, and you were. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.560 And what people don't understand a lot about the draft 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:11.800 is the Cowboys Draft. The whole organization is here. Uh 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:16.800 And in the days I guess before I don't know 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.560 when it would have started, but Robert would be the 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.240 Cowboy representative at the draft. They would call him on 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.920 the hotline phone and he would take the card up 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:29.000 to the commissioner. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.279 Well, you really don't. It's a misnomer. You don't take 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.480 the card anywhere. You fill out the card and they 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.800 have representatives there and they'll take it and then they 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.400 run to the next table and tell whoever's next who 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.800 you took before it's announced, right, because as soon as 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.560 your card goes in, the clock starts for them, right, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.559 you know, and they may wait three or four minutes 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:48.800 before they announced. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.080 So you didn't have to run up. Now, you don't 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:51.240 ride bathlessly, you. 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.760 Don't run anywhere. One time we did give them the 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.120 card and snatch it back. You know, you're not supposed 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:58.560 to do that, but we did snatch it back because 0:04:58.560 --> 0:04:59.480 they wanted to change. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.520 And then one year or wasn't it late or close 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:03.240 to being late? 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.120 One year was a time ran out? 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:05.680 When was that? 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:07.560 I think it was when we wound up taking Roy 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.840 Williams because they were training. We were trying to do 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.680 something and time ran out. And as soon as they 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.560 say Dallas passes, every cameraman in the area is standing 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.080 right in front of your table with a lens in 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.160 your face and you're just staring at them, you know, 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.480 And we didn't, I mean, nobody jumped ahead of us. 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.320 We've got to pick in, yeah, yeah, but that was 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:28.480 a close call, right. 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.360 Yeah, yeah, but my first three drafts on Mike Urban, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:32.440 troygg Minims fist. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:34.960 Wow, yeah, you did well right there. 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:37.040 Okay, Robert. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.480 So I was listening to your podcast yesterday, just kind 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:42.560 of getting prepared to talk to you today. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:43.440 So you did. 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.320 Forty seasons, eight hundred and thirty five games that you shot. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:49.920 How did you keep track. 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:50.400 Of all that? 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:51.080 That's a long time? 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:51.800 Just add it up. 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:52.640 You added it up. 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:54.160 Did you have to go back and get the media, 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.719 gad and you add it up? So eighty one was 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.640 eighty one was my first season, and I didn't miss 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.159 a game until I had tested positive for COVID. Wasn't 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.479 really sick and was really over it in that twenty 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.320 twenty season, But there was like three or four of 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.720 us that week tested positive and they didn't want us 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:13.240 to go the following week, and I knew I was 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:14.599 going to retire at the end of the season, so 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.599 I said whatever. So it was like maybe eight hundred 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:22.080 and thirty consecutive gamest Cowboys game. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.920 My consecutive streak ended when I had a foot infection 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.040 in twenty eighteen and I had spent a week in 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.960 the hospital and they let me off on out on Friday, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.480 and the opener was on Sunday and it was an 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.960 away game, and I was thinking, nah, I probably shouldn't 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:40.440 go to this. 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.120 Yeah, do you have your all your games counted up? 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:50.800 I had done everyone from eighty nine on until that 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:58.360 twenty eighteen season opener. Yeah, regular season and playoffs and 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:04.200 so Robert and I and there's not many left here. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:07.520 Would have been with every. 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:12.680 Head coach, right, I didn't wasn't here when Clint Murkison 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.120 was here. Murkison was still the owner, so every owner 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:17.520 and every g outright. 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.600 When I first started, he was starting to become ill. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.000 He was on a cane. Then he went to a 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.160 walker and a wheelchair pretty fast. Yes, he was the owner. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.440 When I started, I was hired Textu Ram hired me 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.280 to be the assistant in the coaching film department with 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.320 sixteen millimeter film, right, and my boss was Bob Friedman 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.920 at the time, and we shot sixty milimeter film. We 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.720 had a processor in the basement at sixty one sixteen 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.400 North Central down there, and people asked, where's your office. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.680 I said, we'd go in the parking garage underneath, walk 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:47.800 in the doors and go passed where they keep the trash. 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.480 Turn to the left and we're down there. It was 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.920 a little, nice little office. We had a great machine. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:55.880 But right did that for five years, and then we 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.840 switched over videotape and kind of slowly then morphed into 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.400 a combination of tape and digital. And now it's all digital. 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:03.920 So when the. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.480 Practice facility was at Forest and Abrams, you weren't there. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:10.520 Your office was at the well everybody. 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:14.080 Everybody was at the coaches and everybody was at Central, Central, 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:14.920 Central and Yale. 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:15.240 Yeah. 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.480 I think SMU owns the building now, right, And we 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.800 would drive seven and a half miles to practice, come back, 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.480 process the film. And if the coaches weren't upstairs, if 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.200 they were upstairs back in their officers, I'd take them 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:28.800 up there. If they weren't, I would drive. I lived 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:30.520 kind of over by the practice field. I would drive 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:31.800 and had the code to the door and I would 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.480 just set the film inside the door. So when they 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:34.440 came in the next morning. 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.960 What was what was the process of the film then 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:41.280 versus how simple it is now? 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:46.079 Well, everything everything back then was mechanical. The film mechanically 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.840 went through the camera. It mechanically went through the processor, 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:51.319 you rolled it up on a reel and what you had. 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:53.480 It was very expensive to make a copy of film, 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.680 so whatever you shot, you had one copy, and the 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.720 coaches had to share. You know, I'll take this, you 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.440 take that when you're done, give it to me. So 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:03.240 they shared back then. They don't share it anymore. 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:08.880 So, if I remember correctly, you guys after games had 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:13.160 to process it and then were you responsible for shipping 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:13.600 it to. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.360 The back Then back then you traded your game with 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.560 your next two opponents. So we had to process the 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:24.520 film and then break it down and then make two 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:26.960 or three copies of that film. So it took after 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.080 a game, after we got back to the office, it 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.520 took five hours to get all that done. So it 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.360 took a while. Even even road. 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.080 Games when you just mail it to a team, well, no, you. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.960 Don't mail back then, you had to you put it 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.600 in a fiber film box and I would take it 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:45.880 to the airport and I would either go to Delta 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.680 Dash or American Airlines Priority Parcel or whatever, and we 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.280 would put it on a flight to that city and 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:53.960 they had theirs coming on a flight. 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:55.720 To us, and you had to go to the airport 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:56.480 to pick it up. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.520 Well, a lot of times I would go to the airport, 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:00.600 drop it off and say, well, they're they're playing's going 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.120 to land in two hours, and I'd just stay there. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.720 Why would I drive all the way back from DFW 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.000 back down to Central and all the way back right, 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.559 you know? And it was a funny story. Boy, my 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.520 boss and and Nate Fine, who was the original film 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.120 guy forever at the Redskins. They did not like each other. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.840 And we would ship the film to Dulles and tell 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.839 him it's going to National and he he would he 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:24.480 would call and say where's the film? We go? Oh, 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.800 it went to National, sorry, and then he would tell 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:28.480 us it's on a flight, and it's not on that flight, 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.400 it's on the one after that, you know. So they 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:31.760 were always playing games with each other. 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:33.839 And by the way, I don't know if you know, 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.520 but Dulles and National were not close note or not. 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.480 No, it was at least an hour right drive. 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.040 And their offices are close to Dulles. 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.640 Right right, that's right, because I remember going there to 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.920 do some stuff at their practice facility and it was 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.559 real close to Dulles. So Dulles, if I remember, was 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:59.920 north of the capital you got me. National was almost 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:02.840 in watched it was in Washington. 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.880 It's almost by the wall. It's just the river. Yeah. 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.400 So I mean when you fly in to National, you 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:11.840 came over the Potomac. 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:14.520 Uh, you have to make that turn if you're coming 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:15.000 the wrong way. 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:16.679 Yeah, you're down like really low. 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:18.120 And then all of a sudden and we knew it 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.559 and people were going to hold on right and you 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.199 just make a right turn like crazy and you're on 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:23.720 the runway. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:29.880 So uh, talking about developing film, So explain to everybody 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.880 your process once you got to Valley Ranch, because it 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:41.559 ended up Savannah. Part of that process was our original 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.119 office for the website. 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.520 So what happened though when we moved, we actually took 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.840 the processor to Valley Ranch, built a really nice state 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.280 of the art lab, used it one year. 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:53.640 That was it. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.120 That was one year. One year we went to Video Tech. 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:57.720 If we had known all that was going to happen, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:59.480 we could have left it down on Central and gone 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:01.160 down there pros and just brought it back out. 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.240 So our office it was there was two levels. It 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.880 was an upstairs and a downstairs. Right was the downstairs. 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.439 You're talking about that little space we gave you back 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.280 in the back. What that was you when you have 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.160 the process, so you have to have the chemicals have 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.160 to be replenished while it's running, and you trickle that 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.280 through a little meter, little gauges and you you just 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.240 how fast the replenishers going in. But we had these 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.520 fifty gallon drums in the upstairs area that and so 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:33.079 gravity just fed it down. And then underneath where you 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.200 walk down, underneath there was where we kept they were 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.480 called cubes of the developer that you had to mix 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.680 up to put in there. So that was just the storage. 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.480 But once we vacated that area, you guys took that over. 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:45.400 It was a nice hill area underneath, right, and then 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.720 you went upstairs it was it was a cool little area. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:52.959 So the upstairs had these tubes right, were trickling the 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.559 chemicals down below. So our office was upstairs. We had 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.920 three desks up there, and then downstairs was it considered 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.599 the black the dark room or no, that was just 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.920 where we stored Oh, that was the storage. Yeah, and 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:13.800 that turned into Brad Sham's office and then our first 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:15.800 office to do podcasts from. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:17.520 Oh really back in the day. 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:19.920 And it was no windows, it was just no it 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.080 was all tiled just too dark, right, and then they 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.440 put to make the sound better, they put carpet. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.280 It was all just gray tile, yeah, it was. 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:29.720 And you shut the door. 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.440 And there were times when we'd come back from away 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.319 games and it'd be late, and I think our first 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.720 my first radio hit was at like eight or eight thirty, 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.679 and so we'd get back from the East Coast or 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:47.520 the West coast three or four in the morning. 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.640 I just go down there and sleepy, that was mine. 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.839 You gotta do what you gotta do, right, Yeah, but that, Yeah, 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.240 it was pretty spartan back then, right, it was as 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.080 it compared to what it turned off. 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.200 Please, Yeah. I mean the funny thing about the Forest 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.439 Lane facility. If you walked in the door, you kind 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:07.880 of turned to the right, and it was all the 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.520 lockers and they were just wooden, and they weren't very wide. 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.640 They were really crammed in there. And then you went 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:14.839 up the whole a little bit and it was a 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.280 very small training room. And you went up a little 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.920 bit farther and buck By Cannon had his equipment area 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:22.400 tiny tied. I don't know how you did it tiny, 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.000 But if you went to the left, there was what 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.080 they called the meeting rooms. But they were just those 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:32.240 accordion doors that magnet magnet together, so if you were 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.600 in there talking, then the person next room could hear 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.680 you talking. You know, there was no so it's crazy. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:38.680 That's all they had. 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.520 And that whole building, the entire building, would fit inside 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.880 the locker room at Valley Range. That's how big Valley. 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:46.200 Range it was. 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.520 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because I remember the team meeting room 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.400 at the practice facility. They were sitting in those elementary 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.160 school desks like you know, the one where you kind. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:00.680 Of come in from the where it's kind of like 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:01.520 hooked together. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.280 Yeah, they go, two hundred and fifty pound guys sitting 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:06.400 in them little desks. 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.520 When I started, if you were two sixty five years 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:11.640 too big to be an off right line right, you know, 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:12.640 all you too big. 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.080 That's why when Nate got there it was it was 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:20.760 a revelation because Tom didn't want a three hundred pound 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:21.800 offensive lineman. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.280 I remember the day he came, when we first saw him, 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.280 it was a training can, training can of one thousand oaks, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:27.840 you remember they were there were I think it was 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.600 a weightlifting period, and so Randy White overlifting weights and 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.400 they drive up you know, he had to drive over 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:35.960 to the practice field, right, you could walk, but yeah, 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:37.720 and he got out of they were talking to him, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.360 and Randy just stopped and was looking at him, you know, 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:42.920 just looking at me, and went over, how much do 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:43.400 you weigh? 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.920 Actually, Randy had a lot to do with them keeping nate, 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.480 because when they finally got on the practice field, he 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:55.960 told the coaches. 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.640 Hey, this this guy's got something. 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.360 Even though yeah he's you know, got nicknamed the kitchen 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:08.160 right away that he had something. But yeah, what two 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.360 sixty might have been Tom Rafferty, Yeah that was considered large. 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:14.400 Yeah in the day. Now it's a linebacker. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:20.600 So at the old practice facility, did you have a 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:22.080 tower to go up? 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:23.880 And we had it was only it wasn't even one 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:24.800 hundred yards. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.480 Right, It was maybe forty before the motel had got there. 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:31.600 Yeah, you had the building and it had that old, 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.160 dilapidated painted cowboy blue fence around a metal fence, and 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.640 at the far end when you walked outside, we had 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.760 a scaffold that you walked up. It wasn't even it 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.960 wasn't even more than twenty five thirty feet high. Today 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.040 forty is like a minimum. Oh really, yeah, it was 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.640 low and they shot one camera. It's all they shot today. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.360 I think when I left we were shooting ten right. Wow. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:01.240 So when I came, we had a handheld sixteen milimeter 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.800 camera and Coach Stallings, I had all those great guys. 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.480 When I first came, Coach Stallings had me come and 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.320 I would shoot the dB one on one from the ground. 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:11.800 I'd be behind the wide receiver. He'd go out and 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:13.640 I'd shoot that. So that was the first second camera 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:14.280 we ever shot. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:20.640 How did you ever get into the video part of football? 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.000 Well? I have a degree in cinematography and photography from 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.359 Stephen F. Austin, and while I was in college, I 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.040 actually produced a film for US Fishing Wilife Service. I 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.240 took a year off school because one of the professors 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:35.800 that I was friends with got me into that and 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.200 produced that film for Fishing Wilife Service and through the 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:43.359 grant had a sixteen millimeter camera and I did another 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.040 film in the summer of seventy six with one of 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.320 the professors. Very interesting. We traveled to the Western United States, 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.159 went to every major Indian reservation archaeological site in the 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:57.560 US Western It was unbelievable, unbelievable what we did. But anyway, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.320 and so I came back to Dallas after graduate and 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.920 my professor down there, who I still talk to today, 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:05.680 he hooked me up with another guy who was a 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:07.600 little older than me, and we shared a studio space 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:11.040 in Snyder Plaza and just did product stuff and it 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.600 was still photography and I had that and I thought, well, 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:16.520 I have this camera. I needed to do something with it. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:22.800 So I called Joe Boring. Remember Joe, No, he was 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.119 a scout. He always scout. Joe Boring, Yeah, still with us. 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:28.119 He was. 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.680 He was the last. He was a junction boy, and 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.240 he was the last four sport letterman at Texas A and. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:34.480 Mhow and he was there. 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:36.760 He was a head coach at Garland at that time. Right, 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.760 So I called Joe and I said, who films your games? 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:41.960 What's the deal with that? And I told the story 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.160 on the podcast in episode one. He said, well, one 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.399 company has the contract to do almost every high school 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.280 in DFW area. It was called Educational Enterprises and it 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.000 was down off Dragon Street by industrial fellow that owned 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.359 it was named Jake Milton. So I got on the phone. 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.080 I called Jake, explained to him the situation. He goes yeah, 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.000 let me come out. I'll drive out where your office 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.400 is and we'll talk about it. So he comes out 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:07.200 and we talk and he goes, I could really use 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:10.480 use you to do that, you know, because I had 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.840 my own camera and knew what I was doing, And 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.880 so I started shooting high school games. And he said, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.280 I just got the contract to shoot SMU football and basketball, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:23.800 so you can do that. So I shot all the 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.840 years Dickerson and James for at SMU. Oh wow, Yeah, 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.320 that was my first football was doing that Texas Stadium. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.159 They played at Texas Stadium. So through that there was 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.600 a gentleman named Roland Rainey who he actually runs the 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:40.560 Cotton Bowl now I guess he still does. He was 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.119 the facilities director at SMU, and when I didn't have 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.040 anything going on at Snyder Plaza, which is right next 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:46.879 to SMU, I'd go over to Hombee Stadium and hang 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.280