Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / The Man Who Helped Make Dallas a Sports Town | Brad Thomas | Ep 248

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The Man Who Helped Make Dallas a Sports Town | Brad Thomas | Ep 248 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• 00:00:01:08 - 00:00:31:14 Unknown Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Sports. Talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with a big mic. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Okay, now I get it. Isn't that a lightning strike? Boys, what happened over there? Greg? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Rangers win the World Series. All right. All right. 00:00:31:15 - 00:00:55:04 Unknown Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't you said tip. Yeah. Okay. With a P, I would keep jamming the ticket. Cola. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off saying this is a cool night or what? Somebody would hear that. Oh, shit. I'm back. They just. 00:00:55:06 - 00:01:13:10 Unknown Moral of that story is of these guys come in your house. Yeah. You better watch them. You got right. You better freaking watch them. It's under. It's in a couch cushions. Well, he thinks he thinks he could have been knocked off. Could be in a jacket pocket or in a little lodge someplace on one of the. In one of the spots. 00:01:13:11 - 00:01:32:13 Unknown I mean, he doesn't think the spectrum got anyway. That's reminding me. I saw that big ring there. Is that Troy's ring that he left behind? And you all took another slid off his finger? That'd be. That'd be a Rangers replica. Oh, okay. Not the real thing. No, no, I don't think anybody but he's going to come in here wanting to take that as my shirt. 00:01:32:13 - 00:01:56:03 Unknown Look, okay, I'm not too much. No, you look great. Thank you. But. But if they do, then, you know, they could take it. And I'm not going to be calling the FBI or anybody like that on. You're not going to see a genie fix it. No, I'm not going to see Genie busk and fix it. In fact, if they come in here and take that and that's all they take, I'll be very, very happy with the with the way that went. 00:01:56:05 - 00:02:31:21 Unknown Well hi everybody. It's white Essie, ready for you again. A wonderful, wonderful day here. The Rangers have already won today. That's good. That's cool. Although I don't know what to make of this thing, but that's for another time. This is the 5th of August today. And this is episode number 248 48. Wow. 248 of these things. That's a lot of talking. 00:02:32:02 - 00:03:10:04 Unknown That's a lot of talking. It's like 248 hours of talking. That's a lot of peeps in here. It is. That's a lot of butts in that scene for five. That's right. And yes, we have the whole crew assembled. Before we start, I would like to send out a shout out to a shout out to the beyond, and hopefully my sainted mother will pick it up, because this was her birthday and she would have been 105 today if she were still roaming through this mortal coil. 00:03:10:04 - 00:03:41:09 Unknown So happy birthday Miss Danny! I and so many others love you and appreciate all you were and all you did for everybody around you except for yourself. She was one of those would do for everybody. Never for herself, for everybody else. I've got one of those. Yeah, yeah. Those are a good kind of have very, very good. We've got a guy in here with us today that I have gotten to know. 00:03:41:11 - 00:04:20:01 Unknown As we have made our way through the years, I knew of him and knew what he did long before I actually knew him and fell into his circle to some degree. Many years ago, SMU decided that the time had come once and for all for them to get good in football, and when they did, they went all in and good coaches, good players, everything. 00:04:20:03 - 00:04:52:21 Unknown But they needed a media like liaison back then. That was kind of a kind of a obscure, cloudy situation for teams around here. Everybody wanted one, everybody needed one, but nobody was quite sure what they were supposed to do. And for sure nobody could find one. Well, it just so happened that SMU hired an athletic athletic director named Russ Potts. 00:04:52:23 - 00:05:22:06 Unknown He had a guy working under him that he brought along with him named Brad Thomas. And this is the man who sits in the chair today. Yeah. Now, over the years, he and I become friends and everything. And and he invites me to his parties and stuff like that. And I'm still trying to figure out why. Because I show up and everybody all of a sudden has a question mark over their head. 00:05:22:08 - 00:05:48:07 Unknown But I thank you for that. I like your parties and I like you. How are you? I'm doing well, Mike. And it's it's cool to be here. And you are a great addition to our parties. It's been six years now that we've been in that house, and we've had a few sports watching related parties, different kinds of things, and you've been to a handful of them, and it's been really, really fun. 00:05:48:07 - 00:06:12:00 Unknown We've had I mean, from, you know, Troy to Starbuck to all the media guys in town to Mayor Kirk to Mayor Rawlings, the 10th man to walk on the moon to Everest summiters. A couple of guys have done eight marathons and eight day, seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. We've had quite an array of guests and we love it when you come. 00:06:12:02 - 00:06:35:16 Unknown Fits right in like I was. Yeah. Oh yeah, I do, don't I like I tell you, he goes big, I believe go big or go home kind of guy. He very much is at SMU. Let's talk about that now. You knew Russ Potts before he came into SMU, right? I was like his student assistant at the University of Maryland. 00:06:35:17 - 00:06:58:19 Unknown I started two years at what is now James Madison University, was Madison College. It shows how far back it goes. And then I transferred to Maryland in 1975, because I wanted Russ and I from the same hometown of Winchester, Virginia. Russ had been the sports editor of the local paper, quite a go getter. Built up the sports section of the Winchester Evening Star. 00:06:58:20 - 00:07:23:12 Unknown Everybody knew Russ Potts. I didn't know him well, but after about two years at Madison College, I thought, I want to get into sports. I remember sitting in the library one day at Madison College and writing a letter, a handwritten letter to Russ Potts, going, if I can get in with the grades I was accumulating at Madison, could I work for you as a student assistant and got a positive response and one thing led to the other transferred to Maryland, worked for him two and a half years at Maryland. 00:07:23:12 - 00:07:46:04 Unknown And then he this is like in 77, which I normally exclude, like I said earlier that decade and say the 80s, but I got to be official and I got to be correct here. He decided he wanted to. We never yes. Russ decided he wanted to be an 80 someplace. So he set out looking and hearing about several different jobs out there. 00:07:46:09 - 00:08:08:00 Unknown The SMU job became available. This is like December of 77, January of 78. And he thought that would be the perfect place for his philosophy of a big city professional competition, and how the promotion of marketing branding expertise that he had, which was aplenty. It could work. He sent me to Dallas on his dime, flew me to Dallas. 00:08:08:00 - 00:08:28:21 Unknown I stayed in the Hilton Hotel, I think over here at Mockingbird Central. Phone number is 827 4100. Probably still after all these years. And he sent me down here for 3 or 4 days of just accumulating a lot of information on how it could work. I went back, we put together all this. He became the ad. We started here in June 1st of 1978. 00:08:28:23 - 00:08:59:19 Unknown Did you know what to do and what he wanted when he sent you down here to accumulate this information? Or were you just running around trying to talk to whoever who may or may not be useful to you? A little bit of both. I mean, I knew I knew obviously, his philosophy from Maryland being, you know, promotion minded, marketing minded, major metropolitan area, D.C., where Maryland is similar to being SMU and being in Dallas, I knew kind of the kind of thing that he was looking for, and I did a lot of research on the companies that were based here and, you know, media things. 00:08:59:19 - 00:09:23:21 Unknown I'm not sure, looking back on that. I don't have any I don't have any information from that trip, but was able to get enough information together that we put together a good presentation. And they hired Russ as the ad and came to Dallas with him. They've never left, and they were like I said earlier, they were serious about about getting good in football, weren't they? 00:09:23:21 - 00:09:53:09 Unknown Yes, yes. What was that scene like? Because I remember SMU football prior to that, and it was always kind of just there, you know, sometimes it'd be okay. They were never really more than okay. Most of the times they weren't even that. And it it was there, but it really wasn't a thing. You know what started probably when the president at that time, Doctor James Lumber, probably he's the guy that hired Ron Meyer. 00:09:53:10 - 00:10:19:00 Unknown Ron Meyer had been a scout with the Cowboys head coach at UNLV in Las Vegas, became the head coach at SMU, probably 76 or so. Been here a couple of years before we got here in 78. Ron, you know, charismatic, great sales guy. Sharp players. Loved him. Great recruiter. Obviously some things happened back then that probably got a little out of hand. 00:10:19:06 - 00:10:44:21 Unknown Russ I mean Ron passed away 7 or 8, nine years ago. Now I still stay in touch with his wife, Cindy. Ron was a great friend. You know, obviously things happened back then. They probably would have done differently. But that's the way it was. That's not excuse for not doing the right thing. But he was great and he was a good man and he recruited great and great players came. 00:10:44:21 - 00:11:12:07 Unknown And obviously now things are back to where it was like then. So except it's all okay now. It's all okay now, right? Which is interesting. But yeah, Ron started the whole transformation of SMU football. So did did you guys know this? This may be one of those things that you knew, but you didn't know or you didn't want to know or anything like that. 00:11:12:09 - 00:11:35:19 Unknown But, you know, clearly there were some things that were going on that were against the rules back. I was a kid just out of college, blowing and going, selling out, knocking on doors, putting together promotional packages, bumper sticker sponsors, game sponsors, radio, things like we talked about before we went on the air. I knew nothing about that. I was a kid going, wow, this is phenomenal. 00:11:35:19 - 00:11:57:02 Unknown This is fantastic. Here we're making some big things happen. But yes, like you said, things are going on behind the scenes that were at the time shouldn't have been. Yeah. And it's bad to say everybody else was doing it. That is the case. But that's no reason for it getting totally out of hand. But hey, that's the past now. 00:11:57:02 - 00:12:02:19 Unknown They paid a significant, huge price for that huge. 00:12:02:21 - 00:12:24:11 Unknown And have they recovered? Has SMU football ever fully recovered from that. Well definitely. Now I mean it looks like it has the news doing great now. The new landscape now with the kind of support they have as much as anybody SMU can play the Nil game because of the type of support. I mean, obviously it's an affluent school. 00:12:24:11 - 00:12:48:20 Unknown It's cost a lot for kids to go there. Therefore, families, their supporters, their SMU supporters that have the kind of funds that can make this kind of thing happen, obviously, that's totally different now, and it's interesting to see how it's all going to play out, because obviously some kind of restraint, some kind of guards need to be put on this whole system because it doesn't seem to be working right now the way it should. 00:12:48:21 - 00:13:11:07 Unknown But that's where we are right now. That was a slow roll, though, getting to that point, wasn't it? I mean, for years probably, yeah, a better part of the 45 years. I know that, you know, for a long time people thought that SMU was never going to get good in football again. And I thought, well, that can't be true. 00:13:11:08 - 00:13:33:02 Unknown You know, I mean, it's they really didn't do anything that everybody else wasn't doing. And sooner or later this will all blow over. Well, sooner or later it did blow over. But that's sooner or later. Took a long time. Did a long time for it to happen? Yes. All right. Now, how did Mustang Mania come about? Oh, we started here, like I said, late June 1st of 1978. 00:13:33:03 - 00:13:58:03 Unknown I mean, it certainly is not overly creative to put Mustang and Mania together. And the reason that people are still talking about that in 2026 is because very simple. Like any good marketing campaign for any company, we were just real consistent. We were real consistent with staying with this simple little phrase. It also evolved obviously into Pony Express with Eric Dickerson and Craig James. 00:13:58:03 - 00:14:27:03 Unknown But we were real consistent with everything we did on this Mustang. And I say it now. It's almost kind of sounds childish. Mustang mania. I mean, okay, I think back in the days of Bill Walton to the trailblazers, I think there was trailblazer mania back then. Of course, it didn't quite have the ring that Mustang Mania has, but we just stayed with it and things kind of just when I look back and I thought about this last night, thinking about being here with you today, Mike, I remember June was started June 1st of 78. 00:14:27:07 - 00:14:51:08 Unknown SMU opening game that year was September 9th against TCU. We come down to Dallas and we're thinking, okay, how are we going to make a real bang first game? Well, maybe part of the research. I'm not taking credit for it, but we obviously found out that the Southland Corporation 7-Eleven was based here. Jerry Lewis did an muscular dystrophy telethon every early September, Labor Day weekend. 00:14:51:10 - 00:15:13:23 Unknown Okay, so we're starting to put all this together, so I remember this is not me. Russ went to Jerry Thompson, John Thompson, you know, the Thompson Brothers that owns Southland 7-Eleven. We got them to do. We got got put together a proposal package for South 7-Eleven to sponsor that September 9th TCU game. Jerry Lewis would be here. He'd make a presentation at halftime. 00:15:13:23 - 00:15:29:18 Unknown The Jerry Lewis Bowl, you know, all comes together. It literally when I think back on it. And I did little research last night, I had to check out a couple things. That game number one, we're playing at the Cotton Bowl and we probably put 45,000 people in there, which at that time was unheard of. So it was a great crowd. 00:15:29:18 - 00:15:47:15 Unknown I remember letting off a balloon release, which we kind of said was the Guinness Book of World Record to this day. I mean, I don't think we ever went through the right paperwork to make it against her, but but it sure was fun to say it was a Guinness World Record balloon release. And lo and behold, DK Perry of SMU returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. 00:15:47:15 - 00:16:07:18 Unknown And, you know, the balloons went up pregame. The crowd's there DK Perry, SMU, TCU and this is like this magical beginning to this whole Mustang mania. That was the year also that SMU played back to back to back three and four and five weeks later I don't think it was the second game. I think it was third or fourth and fifth game. 00:16:07:19 - 00:16:33:04 Unknown Florida, Penn State and Ohio State murderer's row type. That previous ad had scheduled for big paydays. Then SMU and that and those three games went one one and one beat Florida, lost to Penn State and tied Ohio State up there 35 to 35. So is this magical first year in you know, we're getting sponsors involved with with underwriting tickets. 00:16:33:04 - 00:16:51:20 Unknown We're giving away a few tickets. On top of that, the numbers will never be known because I'm not. It's some fun. I'm not sure there are enough zeros, but but but it was just it really was. It was just it was Ron's putting together a good, respectable team, even though it wasn't a great team, but a good team playing well on the field. 00:16:51:20 - 00:17:17:05 Unknown All of our efforts, some of the things when I think back to some of the things that we did from I mean, I remember one, you being a radio guy, I remember a guy named Bob mentor am I enter he died at 50 years old. He was the general manager of KFC radio. Someway, somehow I went to see Bob KFC and said, Bob, we need a massive amount of Mustang Mania bumper stickers. 00:17:17:07 - 00:17:37:00 Unknown He goes fantastic. So every time I mean this, this was just the thing back on. It's just amazing. Every time I would call him go, we needed 100,000 more. We need 100,000 more. It was just like it was. He'd say yes every time and we'd get 100,000 bumpers at a pop. And it happened. I don't know how many times, but numerous times. 00:17:37:00 - 00:17:54:15 Unknown And that's why they were everywhere. Now, what did they get for this? They got their name on it. 200, yeah. Yeah. Oh. I'm sorry. I should have brought one of those graves. I can get you one of those inside. Inside, the running Mustang was in Blue Cafe, and they were ever. We even did one one of those years. 00:17:54:17 - 00:18:16:01 Unknown We did a promotion for our students, and we called it like in the Beach Boys, be true to your school. And we made sure all the students had plenty of bumper stickers right at the end of the school year. And they and I, we started this off with a big ad in the daily campus student newspaper. I went down to the top of the ball reunion ball and pretended like it was very scary. 00:18:16:01 - 00:18:34:19 Unknown I had a rope around me. I had some, you know, person there, the Hyatt Regency, the Reunion Tower with me. But we were like hanging there. Like it was almost scary. We could fall off. That was the picture of me promoting. We put together an ad in the daily campus and we we encourage. We challenged our students to get as many bumper stickers as you need. 00:18:34:19 - 00:18:54:07 Unknown Here's where you could pick them up. And during your summer vacation. All these great trips the SMU students would take you put a pumper sticker in a certain spot and take a picture and then come back and we'll have a contest. Be true to your school. It's there were bumper stickers on the Great Barrier Reef, the Hollywood sign, the Eiffel Tower. 00:18:54:07 - 00:19:18:12 Unknown It was absolutely unreal. People probably got arrested for putting them in places they shouldn't have put them to this day. Occasionally you still see them. I see one on eBay right now. I mean, I mean, I mean, yeah. Cheryl Hall, well known Dallas Morning News business writer, came to a recent party, the World Cup party that we had back in two months ago, and she brought me one that she had. 00:19:18:13 - 00:19:49:01 Unknown I mean, they were everywhere. So back to the original question. It was just a combination of everything coming together like a perfectly fit glove. Respectable. Playing this massive promotional effort. Probably not a whole, not a whole lot of regard for a marketing budget. I mean, many people said that Russ would take an unlimited budget and exceed it. I mean, there wasn't I never it was it was a little bit wild, wild West. 00:19:49:01 - 00:20:02:22 Unknown And that if I felt like we needed it, it was like, do it, do it. So there wasn't a lot of it, wasn't it? Yeah. I remember somebody said, I mean, we just gave him an unlimited budget and he's already exceeded. 00:20:02:23 - 00:20:21:02 Unknown I mean, it was it, it became this kind of leads to the second year, 79, which was even getting better on the field. And this is one interesting story I thought about last night. And, you know, all the players here, obviously Brad Sham had his Sports Central show on crawled on Monday nights and Ron Meyer, that was his night. 00:20:21:03 - 00:20:45:17 Unknown Ron Meyer, the hit football coach, asked me for his night. Well, the Baylor game that previous Saturday was at Texas Stadium. Baylor won that game, and with all the massive promotional effort that we did and everything coming together, like I said, I believe about 72,000 people showed up in a 65,000 seat stadium. Therefore, 7000 very disgruntled fans were turned away. 00:20:45:17 - 00:21:04:00 Unknown And it wasn't good because but we didn't know we'd have that kind of redemption on the the giveaway tickets because you never know. Well, Russ was going to be Russ pass was going to be Ron with Ron on Brad show on that following Monday night to kind of answer the questions from mad fans going, I couldn't get in the game and I had to take it. 00:21:04:01 - 00:21:21:08 Unknown Well, on Monday, Russ happened to not feel well, either an upset stomach or I don't know. And he said, Brad, can you sit in for me tonight with Ron on Brad Shams? I've said, yeah, I mean I thought. Are you kidding me? I get to go with the head coach. I've made it. This is the ultimate. I'm on Brad. 00:21:21:10 - 00:21:44:10 Unknown We're sitting there, that studio at Carolina that night. And not one question was directed towards Ron in the football team. In the football game, everything was directed towards mad. Really ticked off fans that couldn't get in at the 24 year old promotion director and second year anyway. So there's there's so many things that were result of during of that time. 00:21:44:15 - 00:22:13:13 Unknown But it was it was a remarkable time where because of Russia's leadership and because a lot of a lot of people working together, we did some things that literally were so far ahead of its time. I mean, some basic blocking and tackling type marketing, branding, things that schools don't do today, this many years later. Not that it hasn't changed, and not that a lot of things we did were obviously prehistoric and very antiquated now, but it was just a he was that good. 00:22:13:13 - 00:22:40:12 Unknown He was that much of a trailblazer and a pacesetter and a leader in the in this emerging world of sports marketing business. And I've remember all that. And just what a what a groundbreaker and an innovator people said that he was. I never met the guy. You know, he was a little bit before my time in the game, so I never really got to meet him. 00:22:40:12 - 00:23:04:13 Unknown But people used to tell me that, you know, when you're around him, pay attention because he's one of one. He was a he was an interesting. Yeah. No question. He did a lot of incredible things. And and we I mean, we created a lot of very cool results that really made a difference at the time. What happened when the bottom fell out of the thing? 00:23:04:15 - 00:23:29:09 Unknown Well, I left I left in 1983 to kind of start me and Michael Habra, who you met, we start our own sports event marketing company that we had for ten, 11, 12 years, and we can talk about that later. On our left, Ross had taken a kind of a some type of job with the Chicago White Sox. So, you know people, there's some because the I guess the the death penalty thing didn't start, what, 8586. 00:23:29:13 - 00:23:57:08 Unknown So I'd gone I'd left to two years previous. Russ had gone. They played Bob hitch succeeded Russell I still stay in touch with he's been over my house for his party as well. But it's just that was just it was it all culminated with, you know, you've seen obviously the Pony Express video on 30 for 30. Sure. I was interviewed for that by our guy that put it together, just going blank here. 00:23:57:08 - 00:24:22:15 Unknown And I guess I didn't see anything. Yeah, I was the standard. Had a lunch with that recently. Did a great job with that. I guess I didn't say anything good enough. I got left on the cutting room floor, so that's just as well. But it did a great job with that. And it's, it's a that that particular 3430 was so good to tell that story and told that story of that time. 00:24:22:17 - 00:24:44:23 Unknown And as things turned out, SMU would be the only school to ever get the death penalty. And that raised a lot of hackles about people thinking, well, look, look what it did to them. We can't be giving the death penalty to anybody else, despite the fact that everybody else was doing the exact same thing as if you did. 00:24:45:04 - 00:25:05:04 Unknown Exactly. But the it seemed to me. And feel free to tell me what your take on this is, that people just got so eaten up with the idea of the death penalty, that there was so much talk about it that it never did happen again. Never will, never will. You know, never read much about it. It happened that one time. 00:25:05:06 - 00:25:22:02 Unknown Obviously, I seem you deserved it based on the criteria at that time. And I guess they just saw the the impact that it had for so many years when the team of course, I guess the death penalty resulted in the one year of no football and then SMU added on another year to kind of just kind of reset. 00:25:22:03 - 00:25:44:08 Unknown Yeah. And of course Greg came in and they obviously started football back. But a fall 87 maybe I guess. And then a thing now has changed and their the amount of power they have who knows who knows. But it was a it was a just a wild wild West. Time for the Southwest Conference in college football in general. 00:25:44:09 - 00:26:07:14 Unknown And it's resulted in something that. Yeah. Well if it was a wild, wild West time, then what is it now? Probably a wild, wild West on steroids because now now it's, you know, everything that SMU did back then. It's so far beyond that now. It's the way it is right now. It's not going to work long term. 00:26:07:14 - 00:26:34:05 Unknown Something has to I mean you know teams or top teams now are spending 25 and $30 million on a roster. You know, top quarterbacks making 3 to $5 million I mean it's it's this all this money is coming from alums, right? I mean most wells the revenue share from the athletic department. But a good portion of it is coming from big donors that want to see their jersey, their team win. 00:26:34:07 - 00:26:38:14 Unknown So it's some. 00:26:38:16 - 00:27:05:13 Unknown It's a little bit out of control right now, but it was out of control back then in a different way now out of control in another way. Some guardrails have to be put in place to keep, because it's still important for 18 to 22 year old kids to go to college and learn how to live and get some type of degree and learn. 00:27:05:14 - 00:27:09:17 Unknown Learn how to learn. 00:27:09:19 - 00:27:33:11 Unknown But obviously that's I mean, it's I'm not sure that's the number one priority right now. No, I don't think so. It seemed like it. I mean, it's all up to the kid because it's, it's a it is a wild, wild west now 40, 45 years later in a different way. So when did you start to get the feeling, okay, this is about to come to an end for me here. 00:27:33:13 - 00:28:03:07 Unknown Oh, probably. Bob hitch replaced Russ Potts. And Bob wasn't as in terms of his mindset wasn't as promotional marketing and branding the kind of things that we excelled at for five years. He wasn't like that. So it wasn't quite oriented that way. That way. Right. And probably to his credit at that time, because it kind of things had kind of settled and a lot of that had been done that always got to promote market and brand to some extent, whether you're a Nike doctor Pepper, Coke or SMU or any other school. 00:28:03:09 - 00:28:24:11 Unknown But it just kind of came to an end. It was just time to make a move. And what did you do? That's when my partner and I, Michael Brooks, who passed away a couple years ago, we started a small kind of sports event marketing company, and we very creatively named it Events Incorporated, which another time I didn't really I didn't beat our we didn't beat our head against a wall. 00:28:24:12 - 00:28:48:15 Unknown Too hard to come up with that. But we did ten, 11, 12 years. We did some things that I'm telling you talk about crazy stories. That's what we're here for. Well, we just we we we we would find an event, whether it was tennis, hockey, volleyball, track and field. Probably the best known is the fact I remember we started at an 83 and about 81. 00:28:48:17 - 00:29:18:14 Unknown I started to think 78, 83 know about 83 or 84, 80, 84. I thought, you know, there are a lot of northerners and northeast Easterners that have migrated to Dallas. A National Hockey League game could work in Dallas, and it would have to be at Reunion Arena because they had Ice Capades, and so they were capable of doing ice, even though there was not a hockey team here, only the the other team down in Fair Park, the Dallas Black Blackhawks had been here exactly, but no NHL. 00:29:18:16 - 00:29:45:15 Unknown So I, Michael and I started to recruit and go after. Obviously there was only one team at that time to go after, and that would be the Edmonton Oilers because of Wayne Gretzky knowing that Wayne Gretzky alone was that dominant of a player, he could sell the tickets that could make it happen. So we went on like a three year campaign to try to convince the Edmonton Oilers to come to Dallas and play a game, and the first call would be, you're crazy. 00:29:45:16 - 00:30:04:06 Unknown It can't happen. Dallas, Texas. Hockey. The ice won't be hard enough. The state. You just can't do that. You cannot do that. Yeah, that's what I think we can. I've heard that before. Yeah, I think we can do that. I remember specifically the thing that kind of there was named Bruce McGregor, who was the assistant general manager of the Edmonton Oilers. 00:30:04:06 - 00:30:34:23 Unknown And I read someplace that Mattel Toys had come out with a Gretzky doll, a Gretzky Mattel doll. And I bought that Gretzky Mattel doll, and I bought a went to the five store there at Snyder Plaza. I forgot what the name of it was at the time and bought like a horse. I remember putting Gretzky on the horse and packaging this all up and sending it to Bruce McGregor and saying, Wayne Gretzky really wants to come to Dallas or something crazy. 00:30:35:01 - 00:30:57:17 Unknown And what's funny is about that, going back to another person that we know, the guy that I randomly contacted, Mattel because I think the the doll had been discontinued, but the guy at Mattel turned out to be Randy Galloway's, and I didn't know this at the time, but I don't know. I can't remember the conversation, but he was he was related to Randy someway, brother in law or something. 00:30:57:17 - 00:31:19:23 Unknown So there was a there was a connection with Galloway anyway. But this guy at Mattel got me the doll we sent to Bruce McGregor, and it kind of maybe he liked it, thought that was created where they they ended up coming September 30th of 1986, Reunion Arena, Edmonton against Detroit Red wings. Edmonton costs $75,000 guaranteed to come down. 00:31:20:00 - 00:31:37:13 Unknown Now, mind you, Michael and I are not trust fund kids. As I said earlier, I'm still asking my deceased parents telepathically where the trust fund is. I'm not getting the answer. I would like scavenger hunt. Yeah, I'm up for it. 00:31:37:14 - 00:31:59:00 Unknown Same way with Mike. And we have won the lottery because I don't play. So, you know, you're taking a significant financial burden. This this the risk. And we paid Edmonton 75 grand. I remember the Red wings, I think cost 25 grand. The Detroit Red wings to to come down and plus expenses probably their flights. But the guarantee the cash guarantee was like 25,000. 00:31:59:00 - 00:32:16:00 Unknown We I remember we did a deal on the front row union arena. We called the Gretzky hat. The front row, only the front row going around the lower level. Front row. Not it can't be on the ice, but at that lower level, the lower concourse, we call it the Gretzky hat trick seats. And for $99, 99 was his number. 00:32:16:01 - 00:32:36:04 Unknown You got an autographed picture. And this ticket to this reception with some chips and dip, you know, that Gretzky would show up and you'd see him from a distance after the game and. And what else? Something else, like a poster or something. We literally the Detroit guarantee, the the the guaranteed money for Detroit was totally paid for by the front row. 00:32:36:04 - 00:33:01:05 Unknown Just one one row. Anyway. So that night was special. About three that was there. That was my first hockey game ever. Okay. That's that's fantastic September okay. That's September of 86. In June, July of 86, the baseball All-Star game was in Houston and I was at Houston. I was preparing for this hockey game here, but I went to the All-Star Game in Houston, and I remember watching from my hotel room that night. 00:33:01:06 - 00:33:20:11 Unknown Letterman, David Letterman, show and Letterman had these two cute little girls come out. There's a 11 year old girl and her nine year old sister, and they sang the American national anthem, and they sang something else, and they just had these brilliant voices, 11 and nine years old. I think one of the doors must have sang, sung because of Paul was, you know, the orchestra guy. 00:33:20:11 - 00:33:39:13 Unknown The bandleader, Paul Shaffer is a Canadian, so she, the little girl, also sang O Canada. So I thought, and I never even thought this is July before the September game. I never I kind of didn't think, okay, we're going to have the Canadian national anthem sung at that game. So I remember contacting the Letterman show. They put me in touch with these girls. 00:33:39:13 - 00:34:01:12 Unknown Mom Carol Ostrom was her name in Washington state. We flew the two little girls down here, Levon and nine years old. We put this entire game together. It sells out. Reunion arena. Gretzky's there. We're sitting there in the high school, and this is pretty incredible. The two girls come out, one sings the American national anthem. The other little girl at nine years old belts out oh, Canada. 00:34:01:12 - 00:34:30:10 Unknown And the place came unglued. Gretzky's there. He plays. It was one of those that was our biggest success, September 30th of 1986. And, you know, obviously on something like that, you try to keep your expenses here, but doing it first class and you hope your revenue is above the expenses, which sometimes they were below the expenses. This particular one, we walked out there with like $150,000 net profit September 30th, 1986, selling out the first game. 00:34:30:10 - 00:34:53:05 Unknown And we thought, okay, this is a piece of cake. This is phenomenal. Well, they didn't all work like that, but that would never do that. One did. And I remember one time I was an event down the Majestic Theater downtown, and I introduced some somebody I was with to Norm Greene because Norm Greene, the former owner, the owner of the Minnesota North Stars that brought the North Stars here, became the Dallas Stars. 00:34:53:05 - 00:35:08:19 Unknown I introduced my friend to Norm, Greene said. This is the guy that brought hockey to Dallas, and he kind of interrupted and goes, no, no, no, you're the guy that brought hockey to Dallas. And I thought that was so kind of Norm green to say that I didn't I didn't reap the benefits of the team when it got sold, when Hicks bought the team, I guess. 00:35:08:19 - 00:35:29:18 Unknown But that's okay. But it was nice of Norm green to say that. But I think what we did and we did games in 86, 87, 88, 89, 4 or 5 years before the stars ever came here. We did an exhibition every year, several times with Edmonton. The second year we had an Edmonton Philadelphia Stanley Cup rematch, which even better in the first game than the third game. 00:35:29:20 - 00:35:57:14 Unknown How are we going to outdo the first game? In the second game? So the third game we were going to do Edmonton and Pittsburgh. Pitt, the two best players ever. Edmonton and I mean Gretzky against Lemieux six weeks before the game, Gretzky gets traded to the LA Kings and tickets just went flat once Gretzky got trade. Even with Lemieux and Messier and Grant fewer and all the Paul coffee, all these other great, great players, Gretzky was the one guy that's got to have it. 00:35:57:17 - 00:36:18:10 Unknown But there was a great it was a great it was great to have played a small role in showing that this market, we helped cultivate this market to show that, hey, it can support hockey. And then the stars move down here. And obviously it's been, it's been did you walk away from that first game thinking that that hey I think hockey would work here. 00:36:18:11 - 00:36:38:09 Unknown Oh absolutely. And everybody else did too. Everybody else did too. I mean, I remember I has the newspaper with the great Gretzky comes to Dallas and it was like it was everywhere. Everybody was there, like you said, you were there. And I remember doing a 50 day countdown, 50 days till Gretzky comes, 40 days and 50 days out, 40, 30, 20. 00:36:38:09 - 00:36:56:11 Unknown In ten, we would send an item, bumper sticker, a pennant, a pin, a hat, whatever to all the media guys. And it's just a countdown leading up to Gretzky. And it was really big, really big. It was, it was it just showed that the market could could handle hockey and it and it should and it has and it has. 00:36:56:11 - 00:37:17:03 Unknown Yes, it has and it is. I mean, now it's really amazing to sit here and say this when I think about you, no way back then and how things were. But it's just as much a part of the sports fabric of this town as any of the rest of them. You know, it is just something that happens here, and that's that's it. 00:37:17:09 - 00:37:39:05 Unknown All right. This is the great Brad Thomas here. We'll have a little bit more with Brad here in just a bit. You can sit back for just a second and decide which story you want to tell next. But right now it is time for the dreaded and feared at mid show. Read. 00:37:39:07 - 00:38:12:10 Unknown Let's talk about your fantasy football draft. Your fantasy football draft. Not mine, not not anybody else. Yours. Is your fantasy football draft losing its allure? Is it not living up to the fantasy? Well, let's change things up this year. Let Dudley's Sports Grill host your draft party. Get your own reserved space in the lounge, a selection of food and beverages, and connect your laptop to your own TV and track your board. 00:38:12:10 - 00:38:40:23 Unknown Call and order your package today. The AP package includes two buckets of domestic beer that's two buckets flat, two flatbreads, 2 pounds of wings and chips and salsa for 6 to 8 people for only 150 bucks. Or the trophy chaser, three buckets of beer, nachos, two flatbreads, a pound of wings and order of chicken tenders and chips and salsa for 8 to 12 people. 00:38:40:23 - 00:39:18:04 Unknown Just $200 tax and gratuity not included. So don't forget to tip the waitstaff. Call Dudley's Sports Grill at 2927 North Henderson in Dallas, the number (469) 250-8810. That's (469) 250-8810. And check out Dudley's you'll like Dudley's. It's a cool place. Also, the Ye see Sunset Lounge will also be hosting our fantasy football draft at Dudley Sports Grill. If you're interested as acting and acting as a draft scout for one of our teams. 00:39:18:04 - 00:39:39:08 Unknown Or maybe you want to go on a team with one of our peeps, perhaps you just want to grab a couple of friends, bring your team to our league, get involved, or just come out and hang out. It's coming up in early August. The 2026 Stolen Water Media Fantasy Football League Draft live and you can play a part. 00:39:39:09 - 00:40:00:08 Unknown Stay tuned for all the details on that. Also, you can be an interloper on the OG. Join me Grego and shoot for an upcoming episode. You get to hang out with us for the first half and fully take part in the conversation for the second half. Now, I know you guys have always said I would love to do that with those guys. 00:40:00:08 - 00:40:20:12 Unknown Well, here's your chance. The second Thursday of each month, the OG on location at Dudleys. So come see us there again. It's on Henderson Avenue, it's live at five. So if you've always wanted to take on the hammer, well, here is your chance. You can pound your dashboard for every time you disagree with me. Or maybe you just want to tell me. 00:40:20:13 - 00:40:46:18 Unknown Tell it to my face. Well, here's your chance. Get ready to be on the air with the OG, and let's see how how high your sports flag can really fly. Man. Riding right there. Oh, we might want to also let them know Dudley's rockwall is also. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes, there is. Dudley's in Rockwall, so let's not forget that now. 00:40:46:18 - 00:41:15:17 Unknown What's it doing? They're also doing draft packages. They got draft packages out there to Lobster Fest next month and their lobster fest next month. Lobster. Also, our draft is 11th August next week and we will be providing food and around beverages for anybody participates. All right. You probably didn't hear that. But what she told me was our draft is 11 is when 11th August, 11th August next week. 00:41:15:21 - 00:41:47:12 Unknown And we will be providing what food units around of beverages for everybody who participates. So come out to our draft and see how much better your is. Yours is than mine. You'll be great. I'm not I'm not that good at this. I'm not either. Although a couple of times right now isn't so good either. A couple a couple of times though, over the years I played fantasy football and one. 00:41:47:14 - 00:42:07:18 Unknown Now I don't know how I did it, but I did. When was this? We don't know. Okay. He did well last year, but Norm was his teammate, right? Yeah. He one set of footprints. Yeah. Now Norm and I are going up against each other this year. He's going to kick your butt. And he. And he does have a co-owner bid but yeah, do I do. 00:42:07:19 - 00:42:32:20 Unknown Yeah. Yeah. Really cared about this I really they might not be much help. Come on, man, I need some help here. I need somebody who knows how to do this. I need a little help. Somebody who really wants to win needs to jump on norms option. Or if somebody thinks they can win. Come on over here. Come over to the dark side. 00:42:32:22 - 00:42:55:00 Unknown All right. Is that it? Is that it? From the dreaded feared mid show read? Hell, yeah. He scared no more. Okay. All right. Stories. Okay. The chicken. The chicken story at SMU. Go back one last okay. All right. All right. The chicken story at SMU just because. Let's do it. Yeah okay. One story about us. I forgot to say that's kind of interesting. 00:42:55:00 - 00:43:13:21 Unknown One year we brought the San Diego Chicken, Ted Giannoulias, and as a comic to sell tickets and get people there, there's at Texas Stadium. Forget who the opponent was at the time, but we had a $10,000 money giveaway at halftime. We selected people to to gather as much money as they could in a certain amount of time. And the chickens down there, you know, kind of entertaining people. 00:43:14:02 - 00:43:34:06 Unknown And it was so silver dollars, I think it was all the entire end zone and up to the ten yard line, which is filled with silver dollars, and people had to screw around trying to collect as many as they could in a certain amount of time. Well, once the time was over, the halftime started to wind down and there was still a lot of silver dollars out there on the field on that turf at Texas Stadium. 00:43:34:06 - 00:43:58:04 Unknown And literally I'm in I'm in a suit because I dressed up for the games, because I would be in one of the suites texting with sponsor something, had to work the room. Ted Giannoulias, the San Diego Chicken, and I are down on our knees, literally sweeping dollar silver dollars off to clear the field. SMU. We went over the time limit for halftime. 00:43:58:07 - 00:44:18:15 Unknown The flag was in the air, and SMU gets a penalty for delay of game. So the opening kickoff they had to kick off from their 30 or whatever. However, it was back then and it was a pretty embarrassing moment for this, the San Diego chicken of myself. And that's the last story I'm telling. That's it. That's that's it. 00:44:18:17 - 00:44:39:06 Unknown So we can go into more event sinks because, as I told you, the very successful story of the first hockey game. I can tell you a couple of things. Events, Inc. stories are very interesting, even though that was a good one financially. I can tell you about many others or some others that didn't work. We worked with the US Olympic volleyball team both in 88 and 92. 00:44:39:06 - 00:44:57:00 Unknown I believe in 88 they won the Golden sole. I think they got a bronze in Barcelona in 92 after the 88 Olympics. It was a hot deal. Carts cry, Steve Timmons and we did. We did several games. We did Moody Coliseum several games and they were great, made money. It was a great event. It was fun, action packed. 00:44:57:00 - 00:45:17:00 Unknown While I bought at that level. It was fantastic. I believe I'm confused my dates a little bit. Maybe it was after the 88 or after the. Maybe it was after 92. Forgot which one, but it was six months. There was a six month gap in between after the Olympics. I'm not sure what metal they won on the one I'm talking about. 00:45:17:01 - 00:45:33:20 Unknown There's a six month gap between the time we did two games in Albuquerque and Phoenix, so a lot of things happened in six months after the Olympics, one of them being amnesia. People forget about the hype and the gold medal and like maybe it was after so in 88 anyway. But it was we didn't do it right after you didn't. 00:45:33:21 - 00:45:56:14 Unknown The timing was everything and the timing was bad. And literally my partner and I were flying back on southwest, both in Albuquerque and Phoenix. We lost about $40,000. Both nights were flying back on Southwest Airlines, basically down $80,000. IMG, who held the rights to the volleyball team, they're calling on the letter credit literally like that day because they knew the crowd and we promoted it hard. 00:45:56:14 - 00:46:20:09 Unknown We did a great job. It just it just wasn't hot. It wasn't not timing is everything in that kind of deal. So that was as bad a story as the hockey was good. Nothing that comes to mind right away is a funny story. We did. We brought McEnroe and Connors to play an event at Moody Coliseum. And the day of the event, McEnroe, who I still stay in touch with through his agent, who's a good friend. 00:46:20:10 - 00:46:44:06 Unknown So I see John occasionally. He remembers this. He needed a haircut. He decided the day of an event in Dallas, he won a haircut. I don't know why, but anyway, so I took him. Julia, that cut my hair, or in Gail Street right near SMU. And we walk into this salon for John McEnroe. We get a little hair trim before he plays Connors that night, and a guy that I knew was sitting in the chair waiting for his turn to get a haircut. 00:46:44:07 - 00:47:02:01 Unknown He goes, hey, Brad, how you doing? I said hello to him. He said, you know, promoting any events anytime soon. You're doing anything good anytime soon. And I'm like, know I introduced him to John McEnroe. Yes. Matter of fact, macaroni and Condra playing tonight at Moody. Sam and macaroni looked at me like, wow, you must be really good at what you do. 00:47:02:02 - 00:47:19:16 Unknown Your buddies don't even know what you're doing. This guy literally said promoting any good events, anything good coming up, I went, yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact, there is. And he and then he introduced himself. Anyways, it's one of those moments that was not one of the great moments, but he was I guess. Well, but nobody gives you that kind of look like John McEnroe does that. 00:47:19:16 - 00:47:40:04 Unknown Nobody gives a kind of look like. That's a very good point. That's his battle. Look, as you can get. You're right. And I got it from him. Yes. Yeah. You're right. Wow. So what are you up to these days, man? I'm kind of an independent sports marketing consultant doing a lot of different things. And over the last eight, nine, ten years and a lot of work for SMU, 89 years. 00:47:40:04 - 00:47:57:11 Unknown Rick Hart, the former ad brought me back as an outside marketing consultant at SMU. We did a lot of good things leading up to the ACC, where they are now not working with them right now. Just finished a six month consulting gig from a longtime friend. Joe Castiglione, who was the 28 year athletic director at O, has since stepped down. 00:47:57:11 - 00:48:22:20 Unknown But from October through March, I went to Norman every week for six months, did some work there, done some work in the English Premier League, quite a kind of been involved in soccer over the last 15 years or so years. I did some work 10 or 12 years ago for Clark and Dan Hunt at FC Dallas. That led to me building a lot of relationships over in England, then work for four different English Premier League clubs, wanting them all, wanting to build their brand bigger over here in the States. 00:48:22:20 - 00:48:49:01 Unknown So I go to London a couple of times a year. Just work for the Dallas Marathon. I still do my sports business commentary on the ticket. Been doing a lot of hiking. I'm I mean, I'm like, I'm into the adventure on a very JV level. I'm into the adventure exploration world a little bit. Last few years done, Mount Everest, Base Camp, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Fuji and Machu Picchu, which I'm quick to tell people, those are hard hikes. 00:48:49:01 - 00:49:04:12 Unknown They're not the they're not the documentaries you see on Netflix with the crampons, walking the ladder, walking across the crevice. Yeah. And you don't just go out and take a walk there. No, no, that's, that's that's the that's far. See I'm JB these are hard hikes that you've got to be in shape for and a little bit of grit. 00:49:04:12 - 00:49:21:12 Unknown But it's fun challenging. It gets a lot of street cred because most people when you say those four they think wow that's pretty cool. Well I'm quick to tell them it's okay, but it's not, it's not it's not varsity level because I respect the varsity level guys and what they've done. And I know some people that have done those and it's a whole nother world. 00:49:21:17 - 00:49:39:12 Unknown So I stay real busy with a lot of different things always, you know, like we talked about before when they were just chasing a lot of different from tennis to formula one to track and field, all kinds of things. You're just worried that way. Aren't you? Just kind of. As long as I can do it. Yeah. That. Yes. 00:49:39:13 - 00:50:05:10 Unknown Connecting, building relationships, trying to assist where I can with marketing, branding, promotional type projects for entities, sports leagues, teams. How old were you when you started to understand the value of building relationships, and how if you did that, I was going to take you a little further than just about anything else would. Well, that's a good question, Mike. 00:50:05:11 - 00:50:24:08 Unknown Probably. I mean, I think Joe Castiglioni is still my good friend. I saw him last week up at Norman, another guy that we worked with closely, Steve Walt, had a very successful career at the. We were University of Maryland. The other, and Steve had a very successful year career. During the Jordan years at the Bulls. The three of us worked together in that department back a long time ago. 00:50:24:08 - 00:50:58:19 Unknown We would all say that Russ Potts from handwritten notes, of course, now it's emails and texts, but handwritten notes, interesting gifts. Birthday. Remember just the little, just the little things that anybody can do. The blocking and tackling of relationships to and follow up. That's not certainly not brain surgery, but pretty important. And it makes for a lot of it's being curious and trying to be interesting and interested. 00:50:58:19 - 00:51:24:21 Unknown And it makes for fun days. And life is short and it's it's worth, I think, trying to get a little bit better every day if you can, if you're healthy and that's everything. And then thinking big and trying to achieve cool things, they get big and acting big, man. Yeah, you've made a career out of it. You still value the handwritten note. 00:51:24:22 - 00:51:46:15 Unknown When you said that a neighbor of mine did something nice the other day for me a week or so ago, and I had these. I have some cars with nice kind of thank you type cars of my name on it and everything. My handwriting literally to write his name and go the car looks great! Thanks so much. I'm not exaggerating. 00:51:46:19 - 00:52:04:07 Unknown I mean, I love to write long emails and thoughtful letters and, you know, in-depth so I can do that. But when it comes to if I had to do a script, it would look like a first grader. I can't I can't do anything. I think I can, but but it really I mean, I sat there and looked that car yesterday. 00:52:04:07 - 00:52:20:04 Unknown I wanted to write and it's not like I'm shaking or anything. It's just it doesn't. It doesn't flow right like it used to. I don't I don't know why I'm the same way. And last week when I was in Norman with Joe, he signed a book for a friend and he wrote in this beautiful script and I was like, wow, I wish I could do that. 00:52:20:04 - 00:52:39:21 Unknown I don't think I can do that. So but you can still, it may not be handwritten, but you can still achieve the same result. Yeah, other ways, but I wish I could write and write a little better, but it doesn't seem to be coming off my fingers like it used to be when I when I was a kid, I used to have great penmanship, you know, when I was going through grade school. 00:52:40:00 - 00:53:15:02 Unknown And you laugh. But this mattered back then. This mattered a lot. All the teachers would commend me on my penmanship. Just that, even that word. You don't even hear that word anymore. I know penmanship sounds so. And I had it through junior high and on through high school and everything. I mean, whenever we had to write a paper and turn it in my teachers, I didn't have to worry about them being able to read it because I knew they could, you know, and and that, I mean, for me, that was a that was pretty big, you know, that was a start anyway. 00:53:15:02 - 00:53:30:23 Unknown Pretty much all you had to offer as a student. Yeah. Pretty much. I literally think my neighbor who I wrote that card to, I just said when the next time I see him, I think without me saying thank me, go. God, I could hardly read. If he says that, it's going to really irritate me. I may just bring up my hand. 00:53:30:23 - 00:53:52:15 Unknown Wasn't working that day, make it look like I normally do better. But it's it's it was an ordeal. Yeah. So I mean, now when somebody tells me you gotta, you gotta handwrite something, I'm just like, oh, God. Really? I mean, it's awful. It's worse than climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Trust me, it really is. It's hard. It's harder for me to write that letter. 00:53:52:15 - 00:54:15:06 Unknown Yes it is. All right. What's your next Mount Kilimanjaro? What's what's left out there for you? Well, Funny, I just today corresponded with the guy that I've gotten to know who's quite the incredible adventure explorer, and he did yesterday. He did Pike's Peak. Well, we've heard of Pike's Peak our whole life. It's a 14,000ft peak. It's a it's an ordeal. 00:54:15:06 - 00:54:37:12 Unknown It's it's like a 13 hours, I think, round trip. I mean, it's it's still pretty hard in a lot of people, he says. A lot of people underestimate it. Maybe a Pike's Peak because it's hopefully something that's doable for me, but it really does get I mean, like Machu Picchu, the four day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu down in Peru. 00:54:37:13 - 00:55:07:18 Unknown It was it was four days of taking the poncho off. And on 20 or 25 times, 100 seconds of wet steps going steps down, steps up, literally four days solid of looking down at every step you took for if you could you. It's not like it's the Everest type look on Netflix, but you can get hurt back. About a month after we went on, a younger Australian policeman fell off and died. 00:55:07:20 - 00:55:32:05 Unknown Now it does happen. It's rare at Machu Picchu. It's not like it's that people dial. Yeah, like like Everest, obviously, but it's still treacherous. And you have to train and prepare and you have to be focused. So I kind of maybe there could be another hike. That's doable. I'd like I'm looking them right now, starting tomorrow. This weekend going to be in the pool to try to get scuba certified, which I've never done. 00:55:32:09 - 00:55:53:07 Unknown Not that I'll ever be an accomplished scuba diver, but maybe be able to enjoy it a little bit. I'd like to go on some type of ocean adventure. I'm not sure what that might. It's not going to be involved, you know, deep sea scuba, because that takes a lot of training. Yeah, but I'm always kind of looking to see what might be doable for me, my level. 00:55:53:09 - 00:56:15:09 Unknown I'm sure there's something out there that. But like I said, when you say, you know, when it's funny, when you say Everest Base camp, I'm, you know, it's base camp. It's not Everest, Everest base camp. But I went to 19,300ft of altitude and that's, you know, okay. Then did summit Kilimanjaro, summit of Fuji, somebody, Machu Picchu. So you get good street cred. 00:56:15:10 - 00:56:36:13 Unknown Yeah, but but but also expand your mind expands what you feel like you're capable of doing. It makes you think that I can do one more thing. I mean, it makes you it changes your mindset about not putting guardrails and constraints and blinders on how you think, what you do, how you live. So I like that about it. 00:56:36:15 - 00:56:58:08 Unknown And hopefully I can hopefully I can keep going that as long as stay healthy and and maybe add a few more things to it. But also like we try them out, just kind of creating and thinking big. And you know what? I like that about you. Well thanks Mike. You think about you as well. That means a lot. 00:56:58:09 - 00:57:24:15 Unknown It really does because thankful that I had some good mentors, parents, Russ Potts, other people meet people along the way to challenge you to think like that. Because let's face it, most don't know. They don't. And like I said, I'm not some lottery winner. I'm not some trust fund baby. But I've been in all seven continents at least twice, 58 countries. 00:57:24:15 - 00:57:47:07 Unknown But but here's the thing. When I when I say 58 countries. Wow. You know, decent number. But guess what? There's 140 to go. Yeah. And there's limited amount of time. It takes a lot of time, a lot of money. But normal people, anybody can do a lot of these things. But when I talk to some of my buddies here in Dallas, you know, never, never been to Europe or never. 00:57:47:09 - 00:58:05:20 Unknown Not that that's the bond. I don't mean that at all, but never thought outside the box a little bit on a long hike or some mountain they need to climb. That is not a mountain. Then if I can encourage in any way to kind of go, yes you can. That's a good thing. Yeah, that's a good, good thing. 00:58:05:20 - 00:58:12:10 Unknown That's a good thing. And people have done that for me and taught me to think like that. 00:58:12:12 - 00:58:42:02 Unknown Well, I really thank you for doing this, man. Absolutely. It is great to be here. We're neighbors. Took me all of five minutes to get here. Obviously our connections, you know, go way back. Radio connections. I was going to ask, how long have you been doing a sports biz? I started that groups in 1991. Nursing story about sports biz is when I first started, back in 1990, I trademarked the name Sports Biz, went to a local attorney, got it trademarked. 00:58:42:04 - 00:59:03:04 Unknown He's smart. Well, well, one second. It doesn't end well. Oh, and trademark sports biz. Yes. Sports biz. Which before way before he was anybody was ever using it. And one time a buddy of mine at USA today, the guy that succeeded Rudy Ski at USA today media marketing column writer Guy named Michael Houston was a good friend. He still is. 00:59:03:06 - 00:59:22:00 Unknown Stay in touch with him. But my parents were Winchester, Virginia. I'd fly into D.C., and I'd always spent a day or so seeing sports people. That's how a lot of relationships from David Falk, Jordan's agent, to all kinds of people. And Michael Houston wrote the The Sports Biz column for USA today. So he's a friend. So I took my paperwork in one time and said, hey, Mike. 00:59:22:01 - 00:59:40:05 Unknown I said, you know, no big deal. But I mean, I kind of had I had this framework for media and marketing and print. He said, well, okay, let's go. Oh. Understand? So he took me up to see the sports editor of the USA today. And I thought, oh boy. So I showed him. He goes, okay, we'll stop. We'll stop it. 00:59:40:07 - 00:59:54:14 Unknown No big deal. I mean, it's not like I got no big deal in the bad part of the story is it kind of kept the price of it to renew it every year. Kept going up. One time I was in between gigs and I was like, you know, five. I don't know what it was to renew it. I let it lapse. 00:59:54:16 - 01:00:14:06 Unknown So I do not own that, that trade marketing more, which is okay. And you see it used more and more, but nobody's ever bothered me and I'm not going to bother them. But 1990, I use the word sports biz and it's been on for now, you know, 30 I mean, you know, it's it's fun little gig and it's kind of keeps your name out there a little bit. 01:00:14:06 - 01:00:33:23 Unknown It's fun to write. It's fun to kind of be always researching things going on in the sports business, which it's all about business. So it's in Dan Bennett, his birthday today. We just talked about of fact it is. Yeah. He he convinced me one time and I remember I fought it because I said I want to be on I want to be like Troy. 01:00:33:23 - 01:00:54:09 Unknown I want to have B 8:10 a.m. one day because appointment type listening. And Dan looked at me and said, Brad, you're not Troy. And they're not they're not going to care about the fact that you're on 18. You need to move it around the dial, not have one specific time, move it around the Thursday morning drive time dial or the Friday afternoon drive time dial, which I do. 01:00:54:11 - 01:01:21:02 Unknown Smartest thing I ever did. I'm glad I listened to Dan's guidance and leadership on that because because it now is all these different towns, all these different groups of people in their car here, as opposed to that same group at 7:50 a.m. or 8:22 a.m.. So that's been really cool. And that was Dan's idea 100%. And I get comments, you know, a lot people saying, I hear you're on the air all know pool about Dan Bennett. 01:01:21:02 - 01:01:40:04 Unknown So yeah. Exactly. That's why he's where he is. That's right, that's right. He knows he knows that business. All right. He is Brad Thomas. We are a little wide EC and we thank you very much for watching us today. As always. Before we go, we would like to encourage you to get us out there on your social media. 01:01:40:04 - 01:02:01:03 Unknown We're trying to grow this thing and just see how big we can make it. And you can help us do that just by doing that very thing. A nice little share on Twitter or X or Facebook or whatever, whatever you use, wherever you go for that sort of thing, you know more about it than I do. You know what I'm talking about here. 01:02:01:06 - 01:02:24:02 Unknown So do it. Thanks to Ashley Becca, thanks to the great Brad Thomas. Good to see you again, my friend Mike. Thank you so much. That's great. Bye. 01:02:24:04 - 01:02:27:07 Unknown All. 01:02:27:08 - 01:02:33:11 Unknown Pants off. 01:02:33:13 - 01:02:37:13 Unknown Your dog companion is a stolen water media presentation.