Dave Campbell I recently had a conversation with Pigskin Guru Dave Campbell who has been shuttling back and forth the state following the recent release of his 2010 Texas Football Magazine. Campbell is a former sports editor for the Waco-Tribune Herald who began publishing his magazine out his own kitchen back in 1960.

The publication has evolved since its inception now covering the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, every Texas collegiate team and about 1,300 public and private high schools.

“When we first started back in 1960, there were only about 800 high school teams,” Campbell said.

Back then, Campbell simply hoped his magazine would make it to issue number two.

“When we first started, I was strictly a newspaper man who had never dabbled in magazines or the production of them,” Campbell said. “So in 1960, my fervent hope was that we would be successful enough to continue the magazine in 1961. Yet here we are 61 years later and still going, so I guess we were doing something right in those early years.”

In that span of 60 years, Campbell and his publication have chronicled and experienced the history of the state and the entire country.

Campbell witnessed the civil rights movement of the 1960’s that revolutionized every sport including football.

“Certainly there has been such a growth in the Texas high school football ranks and many more youngsters are involved now because there are so many more schools,” Campbell said. “Since we first began our publication, we have gone through integration and that was an experience. Interest in the game fell just a bit during integration but then it came back stronger than ever, I think, as everyone realized that it has meant a whole lot in making Texas high school football bigger and better than ever.”

Rewind the Texas play clock even more, Campbell went on, and you’ll learn that football was also around during oil’s wildcatting days.

“It goes back to heritage, there was a well-noted historian who was designated to write the history of Texas,“ Campbell said. “After getting into his task rather strongly, he realized he could not do it without including football because the sport was so important to the people even back into the 1910’s and 1920’s. He came to the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in Waco and talked to some of us there about football in the early days, how it had grown and what it meant to Texans during the oilfield days.”

And yet one consistent aspect in Texas’ high school football history, Campbell continued, is how great players can still come from anywhere.

“There are great football players in every section of the state,” Campbell said. “I can cite you instances where great players have come out of small high schools and gone on to college and then established themselves as great professionals. Football greatness is just where you can find it.”

One consistent factor in building and maintaining a successful program, Campbell said, is total investment by the entire community.

“The coach has to have a program that is installed starting from the junior high level and that comes forward as they get to the high school,” Campbell said. “The players know the coach’s system and are motivated by the traditions and passions that particular area has as far as football is concerned. The team also has to have the town’s and school administration’s support with a great following on Friday nights.”

Today’s teams, however, need to learn to accept and adapt to change such as the bi-annual statewide district realignment by the University Interscholastic League.

“They (teams) have to get accustomed to their new rivals in their district whenever that is necessary,” Campbell said. “On occasion, it can interrupt traditions that have been longstanding but I think the high schools are handling it very well.”

Talking more locally, Campbell reaffirmed his preseason picks in District 31- 4A.

“We feel Corpus Christi- Flour Bluff right now is the team to beat with Calallen as a hot pursuer along with Alice and Corpus Christi Ray,” Campbell said. “But I do also want to make this point from the onset, which is that all of these predictions are made based on the information we have in March and April. So much can happen before the teams start competing for the playoffs; some players might get hurt, families may move to another part or out of the state, a kid’s interest might shift or some players may just not develop the way their coach anticipated. So it can be a real guessing game, while I think we have a good batting average, but once again it’s kind of like throwing darts at a dartboard.”

As far as the 2-A’s, Campbell said U.I.L. dividing the classifications into two separate divisions throws things up in the air.

“It makes it a little tougher in the guessing game but there are plenty of opportunities for any of those schools to rise up, surprise the form charts and embarrass those of us who do the predictions,” Campbell said.