With 2007 approaching, it's time to look back at the year that was in Texas sports. And to make things more interesting, let's set the scene by going all the way back to Dec. 31, 2005.
Terrell Owens was a pariah, perhaps working off his frustration with some sit-ups in his Philadelphia-area driveway. Tony Romo was carrying a clipboard, about the only thing he'd ever done for the Dallas Cowboys.
Vince Young was sure he was coming back for his senior season at Texas.
Only NFL draftniks knew who Mario Williams was.
Todd Dodge's phone rang a lot, but it was never Bill Parcells or a Division I-A athletic director calling with job offers.
Avery Johnson and the Dallas Mavericks were off to a strong start, but already headed for a second-round showdown with his mentor Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs.
That meant Tim Duncan had a good chance of finally defending an NBA title.
Roger Clemens was retired, Jeff Bagwell wasn't. Buck Showalter was managing the Texas Rangers.
OK, OK. You've pretty much got the theme by now: 2006 was a year of change, with plenty of surprises along the way.
Before we flip the calendar to '07 and see all the unexpected delights the next 12 months bring, here's a look back at the top story lines of this year involving Texas teams and athletes with Texas ties:
Flopping around at 3-3, the Cowboys were ready to collapse when Parcells benched Drew Bledsoe and turned the offense over to Romo, an undrafted, unproven backup the last 3 1/2 years.
Then the legend began. The Cowboys had their highest-scoring fourth quarter ever, starting a 6-2 roll that's carried them to the top of the NFC East and earned Romo a trip to the Pro Bowl.
Terrell Owens gets a bullet point all to himself because, well, he always gets treated differently.
This recap of his year needs no explanation for those who've been following his Cowboys career and isn't worth explaining for those who've been able to tune him out: Hamstring, Tour De T.O., "I overslept," broken hand, accidental overdose, "25 million reasons to live," drops, sleeping disorder, a nap in the end zone, drops, a Salvation Army donation, happy birthday to me, drops, beware the snitch and beware the spit.
Texans fans know how folks in Portland felt after the Trail Blazers drafted Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan.
Houston could've had Reggie Bush or Young, the hometown hero fresh off leading the Longhorns to the national championship. But questions about Bush's character and a decision to keep throwing money at David Carr turned the Texans to Williams, a defensive end they hoped would give Peyton Manning cold sweats the night before Houston-Indianapolis games.
The Longhorns won a thrilling Rose Bowl for their first national championship since 1969, then Young left, handing the offense to redshirt freshman Colt McCoy. He proved he was no Vince Young in a No. 1 vs.
No. 2 showdown with Ohio State, then spent the next two months showing he might be Major Applewhite.
The small-town kid with the great name and tough resolve won eight straight games and set a school record with 27 touchdown passes.
An injury to McCoy in a loss to Kansas State and another defeat at the hands of Texas A M, which ended with McCoy being carted off the field, kept the Longhorns from even defending their Big 12 South title.
Six points. That's all that stood between Texas A M and an unbeaten season.
Bashers of coach Dennis Franchione probably prefer to look at how close some of the wins were (a last-minute stand against Army?!) and they certainly can fret about why Mack truck, er, running back Jorvorskie Lane didn't get the ball near the goal line late in some games.
But the bottom line is Coach Fran has the Aggies on the upswing, with a top 15 finish possible if A M beats Cal in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday.
Houston's Art Briles can commiserate with Franchione; his Cougars were eight points from an unbeaten season. The Coogs won their first four games and their last six, winning the Conference USA title, with Kevin Kolb becoming the conference's career passing leader.
Perhaps the most underrated coaching performance in the country was done by Todd Graham at Rice.
Taking over a 1-10 team built to run the wishbone, Graham brought in his high-flying passing attack and predictably started 0-4. The Owls ended up winning their final six, landing in a bowl for the first time since 1961.
Two years ago, North Texas was a Sun Belt dynamo. But coach Darrell Dickey couldn't keep it up, losing his job before this season was over. Then things really got interesting.
An angry alum demanded his name be taken off the team's practice facility and the deposed coach's name put on it. The school relented, then handed the keys to the Darrell Dickey Practice Field to a high school coach. Dodge is no ordinary high school coach, though, having built Southlake Carroll High into one of the top programs in the country and catching Parcells' attention.
Could Big 12 defenses be catching up to Mike Leach's offense? The Red Raiders went 7-4, with polished, pedigreed Graham Harrell unable to put up the eye-popping numbers of his less-gifted predecessors. Still, Leach was linked to various high-profile coaching jobs, although he seems likely to stay in Lubbock.
The Baylor Bears won only one of their final six games and that was by a single point. Still, at 4-8 and ahead of Oklahoma State in the Big 12 South, there remains hope for coach Guy Morriss.
New rules let four teams per district into the 5A playoffs, opening the door to 52 percent of all schools in the largest classification - even 3-7 Dallas Adams.
Let 'em all in and they still might not be able to slow Carroll, which sent out Dodge with his 79th win in 80 games. Dodge won his fourth state title and the school's seventh Saturday night with a 43-29 win over Austin Westlake.
That tied the state record, which Celina failed to stretch to eight after losing 22-19 to Liberty Hill on Saturday in the Class 3A Division II state championship.
Perhaps the wackiest high school story of the year comes from Willis, where coach Mack Malone kicked six players off the team for being late to practice. Their excuse? They were donating blood.
Malone let them back on the club the next day, but still made them sit out a game. "It's still showing that we're being punished," player Jeff Cheatham said.
Perhaps the most important sports story of the year was the UIL mandating that all 1,300 public schools have automated external defibrillators by Aug.
1. The decision, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, came a month after an Austin Westlake player's life was saved by using the device during a football game.
After a regular season that earned Avery Johnson coach of the year and Dirk Nowitzki was third in MVP voting, Dallas outlasted San Antonio in a seven-game series that still needed overtime to be decided.
The Mavs beat the Miami Heat in the first two games of the finals and seemed headed to a sweep with a 13-point lead with 6:34 left in Game 3, but didn't win again. (Blame the refs or blame Mark Cuban for blaming the refs.)
Sent into summer early by Manu Ginobili's silly foul on Nowitzki that let the Mavs force OT in Game 7, the Spurs only made some minor tweaks to the roster.
After an injury-ruined season, the Rockets are going strong thanks to the dominant play of Yao Ming. But it comes with a warning: Tracy McGrady's back problems are already acting up and Bonzi Wells is merely acting up.
The Astros made things interesting in September for a third straight season, but this time it was just a tease.
After being 8 1/2 games out of first place in the NL Central on Sept. 20, Houston rallied to within a half-game before fizzling. Maybe the Astros can take some solace in having kicked the St.
Louis Cardinals into a gear they rode all the way to the World Series title.
The Rangers flopped again under Buck Showalter, so GM Jon Daniels dumped him and hired Ron Washington, who has no managing experience but oozes charm and personality.
Texas Tech's Bob Knight has been called a lot of things.
Pretty soon, he's going to have to be called the winningest coach in men's college basketball history. Knight already has passed Adolph Rupp for No. 2 and on Saturday tied Dean Smith's mark of 879 wins when Tech beat Bucknell.
The Lady Raiders, meanwhile, have a new coach: Kristy Curry, who left Purdue to replace Marsha Sharp after she retired following a 24-year career that included a national championship.
Billy Gillispie and Gary Blair are doing their best to turn Texas A M into a basketball powerhouse.
"Whoever would have thunk it," Blair said in a recent online message to fans, remembering his first Aggies women's team going 2-14 while the men were 0-16.
Gillispie's men won 21 games and made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1987. The Aggies upset Syracuse in the first round, then lost by one point to eventual Final Four participant LSU. They recently were ranked sixth, the best in school history.
Blair's club also hit a high point, reaching the top 10 for the first time, after making the NCAA tournament last season.
The Longhorns won a school-record 30 games, but needed 31 to get to the Final Four, losing to LSU in the regional final. Then P.
J. Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge and Daniel Gibson left for the NBA, with Aldridge being taken second.
Although Hollywood fiddled with the facts, the movie Glory Road told the story of the 1966 Texas Western team that beat Kentucky with the first all-black starting lineup in a championship game.
The Dallas Stars returned to the playoffs, but a first-round flameout hurt much of the enthusiasm regained after the lockout.
The Houston Dynamo of the MLS finished second in their division behind FC Dallas. The San Jose transplants beat New England on penalty kicks in the finals.
Chad Hedrick, a former in-lane skating king from Spring, brought a huge smile and a Texas-sized ego to the Winter Olympics in Turin, taking aim at Heiden's record of five gold medals. Then he won his first event and the attention soared.
The spotlight melted him.
Hedrick pitched a fit when teammate Shani Davis bailed out of a team event that Hedrick was counting on winning, then turned the 1,500-meter race into a Hedrick-Davis showdown that neither ended up winning.
Byron Nelson and Lamar Hunt were true gentlemen from another era. In death, it was their humility that stood out above their accomplishments, and both accomplished a heck of a lot.
Nelson won a record 11 straight golf tournament during a record-filled career, then retired once he'd made enough money to own the ranch of his dreams. He stayed there until his dying day on Sept. 26, at age 94, but always remained close to his sport as a teacher, fan and icon.
Hunt made his mark in sports by founding the AFL, negotiating the merger with the NFL and coining the term "Super Bowl."
Others eulogized in 2006: Former Astros pitcher Joe Niekro, former Texas A M football star John Kimbrough, former Cowboys coaches Ernie Stautner and Joe Brodsky, former Texas football star Bud McFadin, former Texas State coach and AD Bill Miller and Bevo XIII, the longest tenured Longhorns mascot.
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