Mack is Back

Former UT coach Mack Brown returns to college football as TV personality

Just because Mack Brown is retired from the sidelines doesn’t mean the former head coach of the Texas Longhorns is quitting the world of college football entirely. ESPN and ABC have confirmed that Brown will be joining both networks as a college football analyst when the 2014 season kicks off, appearing mostly on Saturday studio programs.

Brown landed one of the cushiest gigs in college football coverage — a fitting job for a coach who won two Big 12 championships and one BCS national championship. Brown will appear on ABC’s College Football Countdown alongside former Florida State quarterback Danny Kanell and host John Saunders. The program usually airs at 2 pm and leads into ABC’s popular Saturday Night Football, which will also feature Brown.

In addition to College Football Countdown and Saturday Night Football, Brown will cover all Saturday ABC game telecasts. And fans can bet they’ll see the former UT coach across the rest of the ESPN/ABC sports programs, including SportsCenter, College Football Live, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and more.

Known for his media savvy and folksy charm, there have long been rumors Brown would head to television after he stepped down as head coach of the Longhorns. According to USA Today, ESPN began talks with Brown about his post-coaching career almost three years ago during the launch of the Longhorn Network. On Thursday, Brown tweeted his excitement over finally closing the deal on his new career.

I am excited to join ESPN/ABC this fall to share my passion for CFB with the fans. I look forward to giving a look "behind the scenes"

— Mack Brown (@UT_MackBrown) July 24, 2014

ESPN also announced the hire of former coach Butch Davis as an analyst. Both Davis and Brown spent time as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Brown is scheduled to make his first official appearance on ESPN on August 10 when he joins Kanell and studio host Rece Davis in a report from Ohio State.

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Texas Touchdown

This new interactive exhibit captures a century of Texas football history

Photo courtesy of Dallas Cowboys

Football season is just weeks away, and a new online exhibit from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image explores more than a century of the sport's history in Texas.

Football season is just weeks away, and before Friday night lights return and college stadiums roar back to life, Texans can get an early kickoff with Game Film: Texas Football Culture in Motion, a new interactive online exhibit. The project from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image celebrates more than a century of the state's high school, college, and professional football history.

The free digital exhibit uses archival game film, home movies, television broadcasts, and local news coverage to explore how football is woven into the fabric of Texas life. Rather than presenting a collection of videos, the archive has curated an interactive experience that lets visitors discover the people, traditions, innovations, and defining moments behind the state's football culture.

Game Film encourages exploration through interactive features. Visitors can follow a timeline of football milestones spanning high school, college, and professional football, click through an interactive state map highlighting archival footage available from schools and programs across the state, or browse themed collections devoted to Friday night culture and fan traditions.

This project, unveiled July 31, was curated by Katharine Austin, a longtime curator at the Texas Archive, as part of the Texas Film Commission's Texas Moving Image Archive Program.

The interactive timeline traces the sport from its earliest days through the modern era, spotlighting milestones including:

1894: the beginning of the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry
1900: the first Red River Rivalry
1914: the formation of the Southwest Conference
1921: the UIL's first state football championship
1938: TCU quarterback Davey O'Brien becoming the first player from a Texas college to win the Heisman Trophy
1959: the founding of the Houston Oilers
1960: the Dallas Cowboys joining the NFL
1987: SMU's NCAA "death penalty"
1996: Drew Brees leading Westlake High School to its first state football championship
1999: Houston being awarded the NFL expansion franchise that became the Texans

Many later entries include original television reports and archival footage from the events themselves.

An interactive state map offers another way to explore the collection, highlighting schools, colleges, and professional teams represented in the archive.

One click reveals a silent film of Austin High School's 20-7 victory over Sunset High in the 1942 UIL state championship, while another captures Timpson High School's homecoming celebration in East Texas, complete with parade floats, marching bands, and community festivities. Other sections spotlight Friday night traditions, Darrell Royal's wishbone offense, Bill Yeoman's Veer defense, behind-the-scenes stories from the Houston Oilers, and the invention of the quarterback flak jacket.

Game Film is the latest in a series of interactive exhibits from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, joining projects including Women on the Move, Journey to the Moon Through Texas, Meet Me in San Antonio, La Frontera Fluid, and Breaking News: Rescuing the First Draft of History.

The archive's broader collection and the nonprofit both accept public donations of historic films, videotapes, photographs, and other moving-image materials, helping preserve Texas stories for future generations.

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