Sunday, November 30, 1997

Gordon Wood turns to sports writing

By Bill Hart / Abilene Reporter-News

Sports smorgasbord, while wondering whatever happened to former Brownwood football player David Wallace:

-- Gordon Wood, the all-time winningest football coach in Texas, in his second childhood has turned to sports writing. Not only does he send us articles from time to time, but he is writing a weekly story for his Brownwood newspaper about the Lions' teams that he coached.

He recently wrote about the 1966 team that didn't make the playoffs with an 8-2 record. One of the players on that team who was all-area was Roy Spence. According to Wood's story, Spence has become one of the team's most successful businessmen.

He and three of the "hippie" friends, according to Wood, formed a public relations office in Austin, borrowing $8,000 to get it started. It later sold for $49 million and Spence kept a lot of the stock.

Wood says Spence, whose present company just finished a building in downtown Austin, wrote the speech for President Bill Clinton when he accepted the nomination to be a candidate for president. Spence also wrote Clinton's acceptance speech when Clinton was sworn in as president of the United States. Spence and the Clintons are close friends....

-- Rob Bird, who graduated from Stamford in 1984, is on the football coaching staff at Stanton. The one-time all-district receiver and defensive back for Stamford is in charge of the quarterbacks and defensive backs for head coach Mark Cotton.

When the Buffaloes beat Albany last week in the Class 2A playoffs, it was the first time in school history they had gone 12-0 and won the area championship. They made it 13-0 Friday night by beating Post in the regional round.

Bird is also the junior varsity football coach, and his teams were 21-0 the past two years. He also coached the track team to the district championship last spring....

-- Two Class A girls basketball teams to watch this season are Cross Plains and Brookesmith. Coach Mike Cavender has five of his top eight players back at Cross Plains, and all were all-district last year. He also has help from his 17-6 junior varsity team of last year.

Missing is top scorer Amanda McGuire, who was being recruited by some NCAA Division I schools before she injured a knee and is now playing for Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton.

Brookesmith won the Region IV-A championship last year before losing in the state tournament semifinals. Four of the five starters are back, including all-stater Sarah Dodds....

-- Former Cooper athlete Sherry Clark was named volleyball player of the week recently in the Midland Athletic Conference. She is a two-year starter for Kansas-Newman, which was rated No. 6 in its region.

She was an NAIA academic all-America pick last year and second team all-conference and the school's female athlete of the year. She's also captain of this year's basketball team....

-- Jon Alair, the Eastern New Mexico University sophomore from Canyon who dealt the Abilene Christian University Lady Wildcats some problems in basketball last year, has been lost for the season after undergoing ankle surgery last week.

Dana Cunningham, who was the top returning scorer for the West Texas A&M women's basketball team, has been suspended indefinitely from the team after being charged with burglary. She was a key reason the Lady Buffaloes beat ACU twice last year to win the Lone Star Conference title.

The Lady Buffs played two games without Valeree Valdez, who was hurt. But she is now back and the team is 2-2. I understand there are only eight or nine on the West Texas A&M team, so don't be surprised if coach Bob Schneider doesn't look for help from the volleyball team, which he did a few years back when numbers were low because of injuries. And the team did well with them.