Conflagration on Avenue G

Hyde Park is a neighborhood in Austin, a couple of miles north of the University of Texas campus. With turn-of-the-century architecture, home-grown businesses and tree-shaded streets, it is a cool place to live. On the first day of 1986, I...

On UT’s Memorial Stadium

On UT’s Memorial Stadium

DARRELL K. ROYAL–TEXAS MEMORIAL STADIUM. Darrell K. Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, formerly Texas Memorial Stadium, has been the home of University of Texas football and track teams since 1924. In that year Henry Jacob Lutcher...

My 1986 tour of Mississippi

After a painful breakup with a girlfriend named Lulu, I decided to get in my car and go. The car in this case was a light blue Ford Pinto, and my destination was Mississippi. That state is not generally considered a place for tourists. On the...

Hooping it in Durham, NC

In the spring of 1978, I moved to Durham, North Carolina. My reasons for having done so seem dubious in retrospect. It was not unlike when I went to Lexington, Kentucky the year before. Both were southern college towns—the University of...

Me and the Chaps

Me and the Chaps

I was a student at Hill Junior High School in 1967 when the American Basketball Association was formed. This would be of no consequence had the Dallas Chaparrals not been a member of the league. I was an enthusiastic supporter from the start...