Mark was always a very determined young man. He was one of those naturals that came into class and already had it like Craig Way and Dave Barnett. You could tell right away though that he certainly had potential.

It's your everyday, struggling, blue-collar person or working-class family who just can't seem to get ahead and make ends meet.

He really enjoyed his racing. He knew what was going on and was a very good man to work for. He was a good loser and a good winner.

When they had a roast for me a while back, he told this story about how I always jumped on him about getting on the officials while doing a game. I told him he can do that in the pros but not at this [high school] level, so we had a running thing going on between us about that.

He's very outgoing and he has that style on the air. It was just that Mark is Mark, he's the same in person as he is on the air. Mark has his unique own way, but he's a very disciplined broadcaster.

North Texas will always be a special place for me. I was the first sportscaster to show highlights of a UNT football practice when I came up in '57 and I will still teach a class there this fall.