Sports
June 2, 2023
The Dallas Stars Will Win the Stanley Cup. Just Not This Year.
Yes, their Western Conference Finals loss still stings. But the future is big and bright for Texas’s lone NHL franchise.
Sports
Vital analysis and news unpacking the world of Texas sports
Sports
June 1, 2023
How Dallas Baptist Became the Giant-Slayer of Texas College Baseball
No other school in the state—not UT, not A&M, not Texas Tech—has made the last nine NCAA tournaments in a row.
Sports
June 1, 2023
The Haunting Cross-country Journey of Austin FC Fans’ Uvalde Memorial Banners
Supporters have unfurled the anti–gun violence flags at soccer matches after mass shootings in Texas, Nashville, and Louisville.
Sports
May 25, 2023
Could It Be? A Playoff Race Brewing Between Texas MLB Teams?
After six dreadful years, the Texas Rangers are on top of the American League West—with the Houston Astros just two games behind.
Sports
May 17, 2023
Let the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama Era Begin
David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and now Victor Wembanyama—when the Spurs draft number one overall, they get Hall of Fame big men.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
May 17, 2023
How Jimmy Butler Became ‘Himmy’
No other NBA star raises his game for the postseason quite like Miami Heat guard and Tomball, Texas, native Jimmy Butler.
Sports
May 16, 2023
The XFL Just Completed the Best Spring Football Season Ever—Thanks to Texas
By basing all of its operations and its teams in Arlington, the XFL may have hit on a formula for spring ball success.
Sports
May 16, 2023
So Much Went Wrong for the Mavericks to End Up in the NBA Draft Lottery
Luka Dončić’s war on referees, the failure to re-sign Jalen Brunson, the trade for Kyrie Irving—it was all bad for the Mavs this season.
Politics & Policy
May 12, 2023
The Texas House Voted to Advance Sports Gambling. It’s Still Unlikely to Become Law.
Legal sports gambling in the state still faces a long and complicated path that would require a constitutional amendment.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
May 12, 2023
A Postseason “Bless Your Heart” Award for Luka Dončić
The Dallas Mavericks’ superstar guard is recognized for being a Texan who gave so much only to receive very little.
Sports
May 11, 2023
Meet the Baylor Pitchers Who Dealt Oklahoma Softball Its Only Loss This Season
The 49–1 Sooners have been nearly unbeatable. But one day, Dariana Orme, Aliyah Binford, and the Baylor Bears got the best of them.
Sports
May 5, 2023
Meet the North Texas Maestro of Tommy John Surgery
Keith Meister, a team physician for the Texas Rangers, has reconstructed the elbows of many of the best players in baseball.
Best Thing In Texas
May 2, 2023
A Dallas Cowboys Scout Got to Draft His Own Son
Chris Vaughn, the team’s assistant director of college scouting, shared the good news with sixth-round pick Deuce Vaughn.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
April 28, 2023
A Blockbuster Draft-Day Trade Gives the Houston Texans a Rare Feeling: Hope
The beleaguered Houston Texans landed college stars C. J. Stroud and Will Anderson Jr. in the first round of the NFL draft.
Sports
April 26, 2023
Can the Houston Astros Stretch Their Dynasty for One More Year?
No matter how many star free agents the Houston Astros lose in the offseason, the reigning World Series champs keep winning.
Sports
April 18, 2023
What the Heck Is a Peagle?
The Texas Rangers’ new uniform design takes great pains—including the creation of a new, mythical mascot—to make fans throughout the Metroplex feel seen.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
April 14, 2023
The Undertold Story of Jackie Robinson’s College Hoops Coaching Days
Before he began his pro baseball career, Jackie Robinson spent a season on the hardwood for Austin HBCU Samuel Huston College.
Best Thing In Texas
April 12, 2023
The First HBCU to Win the D1 Cheerleading Nationals Is From Houston
Texas Southern University's cheer team went to the competition confident they'd come home champions. Mission accomplished.
Sports
April 12, 2023
Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett Was the Talk of the Masters
The Aggie senior and reigning U.S. amateur champion flirted with setting an amateur course record before finishing sixteenth overall.
Sports
April 10, 2023
Boban Marjanović Completes the NBA’s Texas Triangle
Only a handful of NBA players have suited up for all three Texas teams. One of them happens to be seven-foot-four Houston Rockets center Boban Marjanović.
Sports
April 7, 2023
Another, Quieter Comeback for Billy Gillispie
Now 63, the college basketball coaching wunderkind turned cautionary tale is leading Tarleton State's transition to Division I.
Sports
April 4, 2023
Is the Rangers’ $800 Million Rebuild Starting to Pay Off?
A 3–1 start to the MLB season could mean nothing, but it's still the best the Texas Rangers have managed since 2013.
Sports
March 31, 2023
The Caitlin Clark Show Comes to Dallas for the Women’s Final Four
Eight storylines for Texan fans to follow, from Iowa's superstar guard to South Carolina's dominance to Kim Mulkey's return to Texas.
Best Thing In Texas
March 29, 2023
Let’s Just Move This Year’s Basketball Hall of Fame Induction to Texas
Mavs great Dirk Nowitzki, along with four San Antonio Spurs—Gregg Popovich, Becky Hammon, Tony Parker, and Pau Gasol—headline the 2023 class.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
March 24, 2023
The Team Might Deny It, but Houston Wants Texas in the Elite Eight
A potential all-Texas grudge match between the Cougars and Longhorns could determine who goes to the NCAA Tournament's Final Four.
Sports
March 15, 2023
The Texas Versus Everybody Guide to March Madness
How a renowned football state became a college basketball hotbed, with five top-25 teams looking to make noise in the NCAA tournament.
Sports
March 10, 2023
This Panhandle School Is the Tiniest Girls Basketball Powerhouse in Texas
The Nazareth Swiftettes have won 25 state championships in less than fifty years—and they just hung another banner for 2023.
Sports
March 9, 2023
How Rodney Terry and Texas Basketball Saved Their Season
After Chris Beard’s firing, fans assumed the season was over. Then the remaining coaches and the roster took control of their destiny.
Sports
March 6, 2023
Mark Adams’s Unforgivable Comments Wrap Up Tech’s Nightmare Season
Texas Tech suspended the men’s basketball coach after Adams used “unacceptable and racially insensitive” language with a player.
Sports
March 1, 2023
Can College Sports Get More Absurd Than SMU Joining the Pac-12?
They can and they will. NCAA conference realignment is making bizarre matchups like SMU versus Oregon the norm.
Sports
February 24, 2023
A College Basketball Dynasty Grows in Houston
Kelvin Sampson and projected top-ten NBA draft pick Jarace Walker have the Cougars back at No. 1 and eyeing another Final Four run.
Sports
February 17, 2023
The Best High School Basketball Team in Texas Doesn’t Need a State Title
Sanctions against last year's team banned Duncanville from the 2023 state tournament. What'd the Panthers do? Aim for a national championship.
Sports
February 16, 2023
The Big 12 Doomsday Clock Is Ticking
The announcement of an official date for Texas and Oklahoma’s move to the SEC signaled the end of Texas college football as we know it.
Sports
February 11, 2023
A Dallas Ad Firm Is Rebranding Jesus at the Super Bowl. But Is It Actually Offering More of the Same?
David Morring of Dallas’s Lerma is one of the creative minds behind the “He Gets Us” campaign, which targets “spiritually open skeptics.”
Sports
February 10, 2023
Is a Texas Granny’s Curse Behind the Cowboys’ Super Bowl Drought?
An Arlington native says the Dallas Cowboys won’t win another championship until the team restores her grandmother’s bluebonnet patch.
Sports
February 9, 2023
Texas Football Coaches Recall Jalen Hurts’s High School Dominance
The former Channelview High quarterback, who will lead the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, ran “like frickin’ Larry Csonka.”
Sports
February 6, 2023
Four Items for Kyrie Irving’s Texas Bucket List
The NBA guard can search for the Earth’s edge in Big Bend and bone up on JFK conspiracy theories when he’s not getting buckets in Dallas.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
February 2, 2023
Filipino American Jason Robertson Is the Breakout Star of the NHL Season
The Dallas Stars left winger is on pace to set new franchise scoring records—and he’s inspiring a generation of new hockey fans along the way.
Sports
February 1, 2023
Rodeo Fans Should Grow Up Learning About This Legendary Black Rider
A writer looks back on his 2018 cover story on Myrtis Dightman Sr., “the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo,” who broke the sport’s color line.
Sports
January 26, 2023
The Rise and Fall and Resurgence of Pro Wrestling’s “Texas Death Match”
With WWE in San Antonio for the Royal Rumble, we look at the history of a particularly Texan contribution to the world of scripted combat.
Sports
January 23, 2023
Another Year, Another Dallas Cowboys Playoff Disaster
After Sunday’s loss, “America’s Team” is now 0–7 in NFL Division Round games since 1996, and 0–3 with Dak Prescott as quarterback.
Sports
January 19, 2023
A Regulatory Feud Threatens to End Thoroughbred Racing in Texas
While the state racing commission jousts with a new federal oversight body, business is cratering at Texas racetracks.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Myrtis Dightman Is the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo
The Hall of Fame bull rider is the subject of an upcoming documentary and a Hollywood biopic—but if you ask him he’s “just a cowboy.”
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
How the San Antonio Spurs Made Texas Safe for Basketball
The Spurs electrified a once sleepy city, paved the way for the Mavs’ and Rockets’ success, and won a few games along the way.
By Michael Hall![Michael Hall's Profile Photo]()
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Texas Football’s Greatest Rivalry Will Return—But at What Cost?
With the Texas Longhorns set to join the Southeastern Conference no later than in 2025, UT will play Texas A&M for the first time in more than a decade.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Nolan Ryan Threw as Hard as He Could for as Long as He Could
The most strikeouts ever. The most no-hitters ever. With those records, Nolan Ryan could afford to take it easy in retirement. But he never left the game behind.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
One of the Greatest Programs in Texas High School Football History Faces Its Final Season
With the city consolidating its school district, Wichita Falls High—and the six-time state champion Coyotes—will be no more.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
The Astrodome’s Decline From Eighth Wonder to Eighth Blunder of the World
Once a symbol of Houston’s wealth and ambition, the now-empty stadium no longer represents much of anything.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
The Dallas Cowboys Used to Sell NFL Dynasties. Now They Sell Drama.
It’s been almost thirty years since America’s Team last played in the Super Bowl, yet fans remain hooked on Jerry Jones’s soap opera.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Sixteen of the Most Influential Texas Sports Icons of the Past 50 Years
From Staubach to Mahomes, Darrell Royal to Coach Pop, Lee Trevino to Simone Biles, here are sixteen figures who have defined Texas sports.