Mike Leach, the Madman Who Revolutionized Football
The author of ‘The Perfect Pass’ and ‘Empire of the Summer Moon’ reflects on Mike Leach’s coaching legacy.
Writer-at-large S. C. “Sam” Gwynne has worked for Texas Monthly in a variety of capacities since 2000. He is the author of six nonfiction books, including Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Tribe in American History, published in 2010. The book was on the New York Times best-seller list for 82 weeks and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His book Rebel Yell was also a New York Times best-seller and was a finalist for both the PEN Award for biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Prior to working for Texas Monthly, he was a correspondent, bureau chief, and senior editor for Time magazine.
The author of ‘The Perfect Pass’ and ‘Empire of the Summer Moon’ reflects on Mike Leach’s coaching legacy.
By S. C. Gwynne
Most of Texas may be privately owned, but that doesn't mean it's tame. From McKittrick Ridge and the Guadalupe River to Maravillas Canyon and Lake Crockett, here are eighteen places where you can revel in the most natural, untouched—and, yes, savage—aspects of our state.
It was just last year—amid spectacular losses and dramatic resignations—that the University of Texas saw its sports program go up in flames. As the new athletics director knows, a return to glory now rides on one person: him.
By S. C. Gwynne
An excerpt from S.C. Gwynne's September cover story on Johnny Manziel, which will officially hit newsstands (and the web) on August 21. (Illustrations by Nathan Fox. Color by Jeromy Cox.)
By Jason Cohen and S. C. Gwynne
Johnny Manziel seemed like a superhero, the Manziel of Steel, able to leap tall linemen in a single bound. Is he something else?
By S. C. Gwynne
Texas A&M’s dean of student life describes the policy that Manziel says almost kept him off the field last season.
By S. C. Gwynne
UPDATED: In an exclusive interview with S.C. Gwynne, Johnny Manziel confirmed that Texas A&M suspended him last summer. His successful appeal changed college football history.
By S. C. Gwynne
Twenty-five years after the company’s first offering, Dell’s public stock will cease to exist. But its astonishing rocket-ride changed Austin forever.
By Texas Monthly Staff and S. C. Gwynne
Somehow, as every other major airline went bankrupt, slashed its workforce, or grounded planes, Southwest Airlines kept flying high. Today, Southwest is the country’s largest domestic carrier. So how does a feisty underdog vanquish its competitors and dominate a thoroughly beleaguered industry? One Kick Tail-a-Gram at a time.
By S. C. Gwynne
By now we've heard plenty about how smart senior presidential adviser Karl Rove is, and how he's the most powerful political consultant of all time, and how he delights Republicans and bedevils Democrats. But how did the man who made George W. Bush famous get to be famousand infamoushimself?
By S. C. Gwynne
It’s not just the stock price. It’s not just the executive exodus. It’s not just the flaming laptops. It’s not just the lousy customer service. It’s not just the sagging employee morale. It’s all of these things—and it’s deadly serious. Inside the sudden decline of the world’s most powerful computer
By S. C. Gwynne
In an ever-changing political world, one thing is constant: The Republican mandarin is a player—and always will be.
By S. C. Gwynne
The House Speaker didn’t get to be the most powerful man in Texas by selling mud.
By S. C. Gwynne
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry was the nation's largest individual political donor and the man criticized for helping to popularize “Swift boat” as a verb.
By S. C. Gwynne
During his three terms in office, Houston’s Bill White has been one of the most popular big-city mayors in America. Now he’s just the latest in a long line of Texas Democrats trying to win a statewide election. What makes Mayor Bill think he can break a fifteen-year losing streak?
By S. C. Gwynne
How did the University of Texas build the most successful college sports program in history? One visionary coach at a time. One world-class athlete at a time. One state-of-the-art stadium at a time. And with an ambitious, aggressive business model that’s the envy of its rivals everywhere.
By S. C. Gwynne
When GM declared bankruptcy last year and moved all production of large SUVs to a single plant in Arlington, it looked like the end was near for the Suburban and its brethren. Instead, they came roaring back to life.
By S. C. Gwynne
If Texas Tech fires Leach, there will be a mushroom cloud over Lubbock for thousands of miles and a likely revolt of Tech fans, alums, and former players.
By S. C. Gwynne
Depending on your point of view, the firing of Mike Leach, Texas Tech’s controversial football coach, was about the state of football (the sport has gone soft), concussions (they are a potentially life-threatening condition), or celebrity meddling (Craig James was a helicopter dad). But is it possible that Leach has
By S. C. Gwynne
Fort Worth clergyman Jack Iker’s battle with the Episcopal Church has become an all-out war. And the stakes couldn’t be higher.
By S. C. Gwynne
The battle for the soul of the Episcopal Church, being waged aggressively in this state, is not only about the ordination of homosexuals. It's also about the future of the denomination.
By S. C. Gwynne
The lovesick antics of diapered astronaut Lisa Nowak are some combination of funny and sad but seemingly not revealing of anything larger, until you realize that her tragic, tabloidy breakdown says everything you need to know about NASA’s many troubles.
By S. C. Gwynne
How has the state’s most storied ranch managed to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century? By operating in a way that its founder, Captain Richard King, would scarcely recognize.
By S. C. Gwynne
South from Amarillo to Tulia, east to Turkey, west to Silverton, and north, through Palo Duro Canyon, to Amarillo.
By S. C. Gwynne
Cattle ranching in Texas has been endangered almost since its inception. Has the harsh economic reality finally caught up with our most iconic business?
By S. C. Gwynne
In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, Empire of the Summer Moon, special correspondent S. C. Gwynne re-creates in thrilling detail the bloody 1871 battle that marked the beginning of the end for the most fearsome tribe to ever ride the plains and its mysterious, magnificent chief, Quanah Parker.
By S. C. Gwynne
And you would be too if you were an itinerant Rollerblader with a passion for pirates who’d reinvented the game of college football, brought joy to Lubbock, beaten UT, and narrowly missed a shot at a national championship. And what you’d be thinking is, “Gangway!”
By S. C. Gwynne
Sam Gwynne and the Texas land commissioner in Big Bend.
By S. C. Gwynne
Sweet Leaf Tea’s founder on starting a business.
By S. C. Gwynne
Jerry Patterson’s enemies make him out to be the Grinch who sold Christmas (Mountains, that is). Of course, he couldn’t give a &$%#.
By S. C. Gwynne
Texas has the country’s most precise state water plan. So how is it that every one of our major cities is still on track to run dry in the next fifty years?
By S. C. Gwynne
In summer months, Houstonians are drinking ice cold . . . toilet water. Courtesy of Dallas.
By S. C. Gwynne
There’s no stopping the skyrocketing growth of San Antonio—until recently the Land That Time Forgot—and there’s no going back.
By S. C. Gwynne
Bill Geddie, co-executive producer of The View.
By S. C. Gwynne
Fifty years after the mythical trip on the Brazos that was the basis for John Graves’s classic book, I followed in his wake. Literally.
By S. C. Gwynne
Why an iconic sporting-goods company survived a devastating fire.
By S. C. Gwynne
Facing an energy crisis, Texas is on the verge of a solution that will belch about five billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the next forty years. Breathe deeply—while you still can.
By S. C. Gwynne
An amazing recovery on track.
By S. C. Gwynne
Matthew Dowd on how to win an election.
By S. C. Gwynne
Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell pushes a rock up a hill.
By S. C. Gwynne
As a record number of demonstrators hit the streets this spring, one Texas border town was rolling the dice on a draconian method of dealing with illegal immigrants. And it’s working.
By S. C. Gwynne
Why did the feds spend seventeen years pursuing a baseless billion-dollar lawsuit against Houston financier Charles Hurwitz? To help environmentalists take away his old-growth California redwoods. Your tax dollars at work.
By S. C. Gwynne
Along a seventeen-mile stretch of Interstate 35 sits a theoretical dividing line between red-state and blue-state America. In Austin, the flagship Whole Foods attracts your typical wine-sipping, tree-hugging, Volvo-driving liberals. In Buda, the massive Cabela’s is a magnet for beer-guzzling, gun-toting, flag-waving conservatives. From these consumer preferences, voting habits are
By S. C. Gwynne
By almost any measure of performance, including the sheer number of patients who are crippled and maimed, the medical profession has rarely seen anyone like Houston orthopedic surgeon Eric Scheffey. So why did he get to keep his license for so long?
By S. C. Gwynne
Fourteen of them, actually. From kayaking the Colorado and rock climbing along the Pecos to tubing the Pedernales and birding on the Rio Grande, here are the most enjoyable and exciting things to do on some of our favorite Texas waterways.
There was a major don’t-try-this-at-home aspect to my two-day ride on this primitive and unpredictable river. But as scary as it was, it was every bit as beautiful.
By S. C. Gwynne
Yes, I am one of those parents, the sort who takes his perfectly contented ten-year-old out of a relaxed neighborhood softball league and propels her into the hypercompetitive world of youth tournament sports. But you know what? It’s what Maisie wanted.
By S. C. Gwynne
Why isn’t this man smiling? If you were the chairman of Belo, the suddenly stumbling media conglomerate, you wouldn’t be smiling either. Then again, Robert Decherd is sure there’s only good news ahead.
By S. C. Gwynne
The Houston Ship Channel is considered one of the top strategic targets in the U.S.—an enormous bomb waiting to be detonated by terrorists. But what happens if the bomb actually goes off? Brace yourself for a worst-case scenario of the sort the Homeland Security folks are modeling and simulating and
By S. C. Gwynne
Her mom dissed his dad. He defeated her mom. Now Cecile Richards is helping lead the charge to send himthat would be the president of the United Statesback to Texas. Nothing personal, mind you.
By S. C. Gwynne