Sports announcer moves from press box to pulpit

CENTER CITY—Dallas Huston has learned a lesson: never say never.

A well-known radio sports voice in Central Texas for five decades, Huston had settled into what he considered his more important role as a part-time preacher. Most Sundays were booked as a guest preacher at various Baptist churches throughout the area. He also led two or three revivals a year.

By serving as a traveling fill-in preacher, Huston could reach a larger audience. He had grown as comfortable in that role as he had in the football radio booth that bears his name at Gordon Wood Stadium in Brownwood.

Sportscaster Dallas Huston calls a Brownwood High School football game at Gordon Wood Stadium. Huston has been the voice of Howard Payne University and Brownwood High School football and basketball since the mid-1960s. (Photo courtesy of Linda Huston)

One place where Huston served as a guest preacher a dozen times over the past year was Center City Baptist Church, a small rural congregation 10 miles east of Goldthwaite that went 16 months without a pastor.

Huston flatly rejected initial inquiries by Center City’s three deacons and assorted members who approached him about becoming their pastor.

“Absolutely not,” Huston told them. “Other churches had talked to me about becoming their pastor, and I emphasized to them, like I did the folks in Center City, that I would never, ever pastor a church. Period.”

Huston never attended college or a seminary so, to him, becoming pastor of a church seemed beyond his qualifications. Being responsible for an entire church and the ongoing spiritual care of its members seemed daunting.

Then, Huston said, God came calling a couple of months ago.

“The Lord told me under no uncertain terms that he wanted me to pastor a church,” Huston said. “I said, ‘OK, let me pick out a couple of churches I might like.’

“Then he told me as plain as day, ‘I want you to pastor at Center City.’ I said, ‘Are you sure?’”

At first, Center City appeared to be a small stage for a big local celebrity. The rural church has 48 active members and on any given week, worshippers number between 25 and 40.

Huston has been the voice of Howard Payne University and Brownwood High School football and basketball since the mid-1960s. In March, he called five playoff games for the Howard Payne women’s basketball team on its way to winning the NCAA Division III national championship.

Huston has been named the best sportscaster in the state by Texas Monthly magazine. He also is a member of the Big Country Sports Hall of Fame in Abilene, as well as the Howard Payne Sports Hall of Fame.

His celebrity status, radio-voice delivery and graphic honesty about his battles with alcoholism and living “46 years on the edge of hell,” made Huston a charismatic speaker. His down-to-earth sermons drew emotional responses and large crowds at churches of all sizes.

On the surface, having a regional celebrity like Huston toiling in the obscurity of a small country church didn’t appear to be a good fit. But such an assumption couldn’t be further from reality.

Dallas and Linda Huston serve Center City Baptist Church, a rural congregation 10 miles east of Goldthwaite. (Photo by Mike Lee)

Heeding what he was convinced was God’s calling, Huston asked the Center City deacons if the offer to become pastor of their church was still good. They couldn’t say “yes” fast enough.

“We were real fortunate to get him. It’s really too good to be true,” said 80-year-old James “Potty” Carter, who was baptized at Center City 70 years ago. “He’s a bang-up nice fellow. Everybody likes him.

“We’re mainly a bunch of older folks. What you see is what you get with us. He keeps it low-key instead of being fancy.”

Some Center City Baptist members knew Huston as a radio sportscaster. Some didn’t. It didn’t matter to any of them.

“It doesn’t matter because he can relate to them. That’s all they care about,” deacon Gene Burton said. “He gets his point across, and then, he’s through. He doesn’t go over it again and again and lecture you. He’s so plain. He fits in so well with a country church.

“Some people that have accomplished what he has on the radio would want to brag about it, but not Dallas. He’s very humble. He’s just telling us what the Lord has done for him.”

Huston said while he likes being recognized at times, he prefers a situation where people haven’t heard of him.

“It’s kind of exciting to go some place, and all I am to them is a preacher. I’m not a sportscaster trying to preach,” Huston said. “A few in Center City know I’m a sportscaster, but I can tell you that none of them care. I’m their pastor, and they could care less if I do football or basketball games.”

Pastor Dallas Huston preaches at Center City Baptist Church. (Photo by Mike Lee)

On Sunday mornings, Huston and his wife, Linda, make the 45-mile drive from their home in Brownwood to Center City, which in 2000 had a population of 15 and is listed on the Internet among Texas ghost towns.

But the Brownwood native couldn’t be more at home than at the remote country church.

“Generally, the smaller the church, the friendlier they are,” Huston said. “Two friends of mine from Brownwood went to separate services at Center City, and they both called me later and said, ‘Dallas, that’s the friendliest church I’ve ever been to. Everybody there either shook my hand or patted me on the back.’

“The people in Center City, they love the Lord and they love each other. You can’t ask for much more than that. If I can get them to like me, there’s no telling what’ll happen.”

During the June 22 service at Center City Baptist Church, Huston celebrated his 20th spiritual birthday by sharing his testimony with the congregation. He told of how he smoked for 27 years, began drinking at age 12 and tried “every drug that was placed before me.”

“I’m a recovering alcoholic, and I was as sorry a human being as you can imagine,” Huston said. “I had no spiritual foundation.”

Huston said he mistreated his wife in the early years of their relationship, but she never gave up on him. “She prayed and prayed for me. Now, I’m not talking about for a weekend or even a week. She prayed for me for 10 years,” Huston said.

At age 46, Huston was baptized.

“I was lucky to still be alive,” he said. “The Lord gave me another opportunity and I took it. People that should have thrown rocks at me for what I’d done and what I’d been instead came up and hugged me.

“I’m one of the greatest examples I’ve seen of the Lord being able to use anybody—of taking the weakest of the weak and doing good things with them.”

Huston said God is using his past experiences—in the press box and on the rocks—to allow him to reach spiritually lost people.

“With men’s gatherings, they know my name from sports, and perhaps more will show up to see the person behind the voice. And by sharing the story of my prior life, it can reach out to others—especially men— who have had to deal with some of the same things.”

Huston said he keeps preaching separate from sportscasting, but being a born-again Christian has put sports in perspective.

“Sports was one of my gods,” he said. “I lived and died with sporting events. Now, sports aren’t even in the top five of my priorities in life. Sports are important for the kids and the fans, and those are the two reasons I still do games.

“I can tell you with all honesty that the greatest game I’ve ever called doesn’t compare with the worst sermon I’ve preached. Calling the Lady Jackets winning the national championship was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill. But I can’t put it in the same category as preaching.”

Huston said at 65, he didn’t take the Center City position as a steppingstone to a larger church. “I’ll be there until the Lord tells me to leave or until the people there get rid of me,” he said.

Center City Baptist has grown a bit since Huston became pastor in mid-May, adding a half-dozen new members. The only problem is where to baptize them.

“They tell me they’ve always performed baptisms down at the (North Bennett) creek just before you get into town,” Huston said. “I told them I wasn’t going to do that unless someone came with a gun to shoot the snakes.

“We may have to find a bathtub and use it. We’ll come up with something.”