Did you know? Four future NFL receivers, Roger Carr, Mike Barber, Pat Tilley, and Billy Ryckman were all on Louisiana Techs 1973 national championship team. The Independence Bowl was created as a postseason game for the Southland Conference champion. Jacksonville State kicker Ashley Martin kicked three extra points to become the first female to kick an extra point in a NCAA Division I football game in the Gamecocks 72-10 win over Cumberland in 2001. Future Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III of Baylor made his first-ever collegiate start as a freshman against Northwestern State in 2008. Future Walter Payton Award winner, quarterback Jeremy Moses of Stephen F. Austin, set a single-game NCAA record by completing 57 of 85 passes for 501 yards in a game against Sam Houston State in 2008. Future NFL defensive backs from Nicholls State, Lardarius Webb and Kareem Moore each returned two interceptions for touchdowns against Northwestern State in 2007. Although Southeastern Louisiana didnt compete in football in the Southland until 2005, the Lions played a designated conference game against Louisiana Tech in 1971. Super Bowl quarterback Stan Humphries of the San Diego Chargers played at Northeast Louisiana. Louisiana Tech, which joined the Southland in 1971, didnt allow a conference opponent to score a single point in the third quarter until the 1975 season. Diontae Spencer of McNeese State returned two kickoffs and one punt return for a touchdown to tie a FCS single-game record.

Red Cashion is quite possibly the most universally liked referee in NFL history. Fans loved him; coaches respected him; players joked with him; and league executives applauded him for adding flavor with his trademark "first dooowwwnnn" call. Long before he worked three Super Bowls and became the only official ever to be named the All-Madden team, Cashion nearly gave up on his NFL dreams. He began officiating junior high games in 1952 while still a student at Texas A&M, but he was fired by the Southland Conference for being too robotic and dull. Nevertheless, Cashion scheduled a January 1972 trip to New York to meet with Art McNally, the Director of Officiating for the NFL. McNally listened politely and then delicately told Cashion there were no openings. Cashion left that day with a broken heart, believing the dream was officially over. But an NFL official was killed during the summer of '72 and McNally offered Cashion the job because he'd taken such a bold risk by traveling to New York. The rest is NFL history, as Cashion's No. 43 uniform became as familiar to many fans at NFL stadiums as some of the players. Red's feel-good life story packs a powerfully enthusiastic punch.

Both a memoir and a "how-to" for anyone who aspires to a career in broadcast journalism, particularly sports, this book calls on Mercer's vast experience and name recognition in Texas to give an insider's view of everything from play-by-play to interviewing a celebrity athlete. Mercer began his career as the voice of professional wrestling in Dallas in the 1950s, and later went on to be a play-by-play announcer for teams ranging from the Dallas Cowboys to the Chicago White Sox, in addition to a brief "hard news" stint at the time of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963.