009: Ronnie Flowers: From Pet Tumbleweeds to Horseshoe Bay

Ronnie Flowers is a living legend in the Texas high school football world. He is a one of a kind genuine guy that has served coaches and school districts for more than 50 years. He built Athletic Supply into one of the most respected businesses in the state. He built it the right way with service, great people, and a generous heart. One of the best story tellers you will ever meet, this episode will give you a glimpse into the man behind Ronnie.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The sun is down, the lights are bright, getting my fix on a Friday.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Football Fix. Coaches kicking it to the max. Ronnie Flowers in the house. The one, the only, Ronnie. Everyone in Texas, especially Texas high school football coaches, you know you've made it. And when they say Ronnie, they don't have to say that. But that's pretty common. I told some friends I'm gonna talk to Ronnie, get him on the show, and they're like, oh man, that's awesome. So I really appreciate your time. This was my second attempt to get Ronnie, and I had technical difficulties the first time. So he is nice enough to give me a second chance. And I can't think of a better person to be in a T Mac, Ronnie. I call it the Tiny Mobile Crib, the T Mac. I'm talking to a guy that has more isms than anybody I know. I don't know if you call him Ronnie Isms or just sayings, but he is uh I'm just gonna brag on you for a second, Ronnie. He's one of the most given people that you'll ever meet in your life. I've been blessed and knowing for many, many years. He's always taking care of coaches, and I think that's the main reason for his level of success, which is at the top, is because he was a very given person and just took care of people great heart. And on top of that, even more importantly, he wasn't the funniest guy I think I've ever met. And one more, two more things I gotta brag on you about. Is it okay if I mention your age? That's all right.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Right at 80.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Right at 80, okay. He's the best golfer over, 80. And he's dang sure the best two-step and dancer. He can cut a rug. I can't say it like he does, but anyway, thanks for being here, Ronnie. I want to start off talking about where you grew up, because a lot of people in West Texas, you know where Guthrie is, but just give us some good stories about growing up in Guthrie. He put Guthrie on the map for the four sixes, I think.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Well, Guthrie is King County, county seat of King County. It's the second least populated county in the state. So there's only 270 people in the whole county, and there were just two in my graduating class. I finished in the top 50%. Uh I was valedictorian and saluted Torian because he wasn't passing. But anyway, so we had a small community there, and we we got to do every sport because we didn't have enough. We played eight-man football and uh yeah, and we was we played eight-man football. Eight-man started in about nineteen sixty-two or three, and they quit in 75.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

So went back to this straight six ban after that. W eight-man's a whole lot like eleven. Quarterback can run with it, and uh only the ends and backs are eligible for a pass. So it was a great game, and we were fortunate enough to win all twelve of our games in my senior year and win the regional championship as far as you could go. And so had a great career in high school and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yes, sir. You talked about your mascot being a tumbleweed or a stick or something.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

No, I was so poor that I had to have a tumbleweed for a pet, but the wind would blow them off and I'd have to get me a new one. But uh we we live so far out in the country that the sun came up between us and town, and so we was a we was a bit rural. Yes, sir. And so when I got up there to Lubbock and got in for my first chemistry class up there had 300 people in it, and that was quite a change for me.

unknown 3:56

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I can relate to that because my first chemistry class at AM had about 500. And I think I made a 40 on the first test. I cried home, honey. Because I was like you, I wasn't valedictory, but I think salutatory. That chemistry jumped on me, Ronnie.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I got you. Yeah, that ink on that paper made my belly hurt. I made me a lot of one-legged A's there in college.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

One-legged A. Shoot. Okay, so what did you ever have an interest in coaching, or did you always want to be a businessman?

SPEAKER_02 4:33

No, I coached a year. In 1967, 68, I was a only male coach they had there at a little school called Patton Springs. It's in Afton, Texas. Yes, sir. And that was a great year for me. I taught four classes arithmetic, and I coached all of athletics from seventh grade up and boys, and I got to take home. My check I took home every month was $239.40 take home.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

So it it wasn't very lucrative uh at the time, but I was getting penalized because I didn't have my degree, and so I went back to college and lived in the back end of a sporting goods store and went to tech, and that's where I got my start in the sporting goods business, is I was a shipping and receiving clerk. Okay. And I worked worked my way up to road job and then wound up owning the company Athletic Supply, and I went to work down there in 1972, and uh wound up owning the company by 78. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

So it was called Athletic Supply from the beginning?

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Was there a first office in Lubbock?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

No, I worked for a different company whenever I was living in the back of that store. It was called T D Sporting Goods and B. And uh then Alex Fly hired me in 1972 to be a road salesman, and uh the owners were elderly and in bad health, and so me and Coach Winder, that was a coach at Odessa High, and uh we we bought into it and wound up I wound up owning it because he went back to coaching.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yes, sir. So tell me how did Bobby Davis get into Manson?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Okay, Bobby was when we opened T and D Sporting Goods, Bobby was the head coach at Wilson High School.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Wilson.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah, and they hired him to be a road salesman, and I took his place. I was a shipping receiving clerk and shipping his orders and taking care of his stuff, and when he went back to coaching at post in about 1970, I I got the post antelopes. I got a chance to be a road salesman, and so that's how I got to knowing all the coaches and everything, and they sure were good to me for 50 years.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

50 years. Well, you were good to them too. I've got to tell some stories. I probably met you through Mel, my cousin Mel. He talked about because I didn't know anything when I became my first job was in Oldton, Texas. I was 28 years old, Ronnie. I didn't know I didn't know anything, but they said make sure you get hooked up with Athletic Supply and Ronnie Flowers, and the rest was history. He's taken care of me ever since then. And the thing about Ronnie, this is the kind of guy he is. I hope you don't mind me telling this story, but if you went to a clinic for how many years, Ronnie, and you had your staff with you, he would stand over at his booth, slide some Benjamins over and say, take your staff out to eat. And you were the only one in the business that was doing that. And I know it It was out of the kindness of your heart, and it kept people loyal, but more than that, just a great friendship because you knew how hard it was for coaching staff to be able to do stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

I understand. They I know you think it was I was being good to y'all, but y'all really being good to me, because it's like the Bible says it come back tenfold. Yes, sir. Uh and so I felt like that, you know, everybody deserved it, and so it it really helped me get going, and I did it out out of abundance.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yes, sir. And we appreciated it so much. And of course, being a business owner and you getting to the ownership part of the business so fast, I think one thing as a head coach and AD that you are at the top of the food chain with is hiring good people. You have a knack for knowing what somebody's strengths and weaknesses are, and you can just look at them for five minutes right in, bam, get them in the right spot.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yes, sir. That was the reason for my success, is I surrounded myself with people that were a lot better than me and smarter than me. And I had several employees that worked for me for 46 years, 45 years, 43 years. So you can't uh you can't buy that. It just uh it was wonderful and made it easy for me.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

What year did you start the helmet part of the business?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

1999. Uh that was Coach Dykes' last year, and Clovis Hell was assistant on that staff, and I hired Clovis and I told him, I said, now we got to go out there and get after old Riddell. And so he loved that competition. And we went out there and the first year we did it, it's a lot of work. We picked those helmets up at the school and put them in a trailer and took them to the plant and fixed them up and then carried them right back to where we'd picked them up. And the coaches like that. And so it turned out to be a really good part of our business, but it was hard work.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yes, sir. We were talking about it. Ronnie fed me breakfast this morning before we came out to the T Mac, but that's what I told him as a AD head coach, male taught me, get in there and work, do the work, do the work. It doesn't matter what your title is or your position. And that's how Ronnie ran his business. He would get in there and throw helmets in those trailers in the back of his pickup and drive well all over the state. Or more than the state.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

You told the story about driving down to the border. The the red.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

The progresso red anx. I I've been in nearly every field house in the state of Texas begging for that helmet business, and that was the worst field house I'd ever been in. I got in there and it was filthy, dirty, those helmets were filthy. And anyway, I got to digging to them to because I was dating them for them and going to tell them whole they were and what kind they had and all that. And I look over there on the plyboard wall and there's a faded out drawing there of it says home of the fighting red ants. So I knew I'd made it when I got there.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

There's not many places further south of Texas that the wrestler, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Not a one. Not a one. You can see across the river right there.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yes, sir. Wouldn't you say I've always wanted to wa ask you this. Being in the athletic, you know, athletic equip, you could sell anything under the sun to any sport, right? Yes, sir. Uniforms, uh, everyday stuff, cloth, footballs, kick and tees, just name it all. For every sport. But do you think the helmet reconditioning business kind of took it to the next level?

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Well, it just was an addition to my business because Brand X was starting to sell other equipment besides reconditioning. They started selling knee pads and thigh pads and jerseys and stuff, and so I could see where they were cutting into my business. So to get them out of the uh field house, I started doing the same thing, and they and it kind of run them out of there because uh Brand X paid them a bigger commission on the reconditioning and didn't pay them much on new stuff. So I if they didn't get the reconditioning, they quit going. And I I started the first year we did 3,000 helmets, and then when I quit, we were doing 50,000 a year. Wow. That's a lot of helmets. It's a lot of picking up and toting. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

There's no AI system for that.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

None. None.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Well, some of your guys that called on me, I'm still good friends with. Uh of course, Chris Wildy is one national salesman, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

And we talked about the transition a little bit, but I've got Wildy. I've got Scott Lipsy. He actually calls on me. I've just had some great guys over the years that are good friends of mine. Because Ronnie hired good people. So you transitioned from athletic supply. How many years ago was it when y'all started game one?

SPEAKER_02 12:47

2017 is whenever I sold the company, and so I retired then, and then they became game one because they were seven, eight companies, and they put them together and got had to get one common name. And so I still have stock in the company.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yes, sir. Would you say you kind of orchestrated all that? Is that fair?

SPEAKER_02 13:07

I think that's right. I got them to buy four companies in Texas, and then three or four more of my friends that I knew through buying groups, got them by it, and so it wound up being seven or eight companies.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I know Game One does a great job, but as you probably hear every day, at least every other day, it's not the same without you running the company. And I know all the employees that are still with Game One, would they wouldn't say it out loud because they got their bosses now, right? But it's not the same. It's just a changing world, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Yeah, I appreciate that. I I think we had a great time and uh coaches were wonderful to me and and my family.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yes, sir. Ronnie had we can talk about his schedule nowadays, but he had uh Pigskin Palace in Redosa. And shoot, I stayed there two or three times. He would just open it up to coaches. You'd have to get on a waiting list. But he would do that stuff. Some of my best memories, Ronnie, were the AFCA conventions because Mel got me going to that with him. Most of the time we'd take our wives, and Ronnie would put on. We'd go to the Texas get together and all that. But the biggest the most fun was the national championship parties you put on. Yes, sir. I mean that was you went all out on that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

It was very good. And we had a lot of fun doing it. I made a lot of great friendships.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

And he knows Ronnie, I and I mean this as a compliment, the good old boy from Guthrie, you know more what's the word celebrities in the coaching world than anybody else I know. So I interviewed Coach Slocum, who I played for at AM a couple of weeks ago. The episode hadn't dropped yet, but you talked to him on the phone last week.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

That's correct.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

About a golf trip they have every year to Pebble Beach, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

So, so tell the audience, Ronnie, who's all gonna be in your group.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Well, I'm gonna play with Mickey Matthews, who won the national championship at James Madison University in 2007. And I go out there and play with him, be four of us on the team. Every head coach brings three other guys, and uh Mac Brown will be there, Rick Newheisel, uh R. C. Slocum, Lincoln Riley, uh Eric Morris, uh the boy that's at Louisiana Tech, Sonny Cumbe. Sonny. Yeah, he's a good guy from Snyder, Texas. Yes, sir. MVP of the Holiday Bowl out there when uh Tech Beat California out there like a stepchild. But anyway, yeah, it's a great thing. It it helped me get to know a lot of great people, and they're just Gary Patterson will be there. We could go on and on the Spike Dyke, Spike Dykes was the one first one to take me there in 1990, and so I went for about 25 years when he was alive, and one of my best buds.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yes, sir. Y'all actually invited me. Bells tried to start up that football clinic out there in Redosa, which was a great idea, and you were kind enough to put in to try to get it going and just couldn't ever get it to make. But you invited me out to y'all's other house in Redosa with Spike and his wife. I felt like somebody I walk in. Ronnie always made you feel that way, but with the people that greatness attracts greatness, y'all all are friends for a reason, and it's just you're living proof of that.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Let's jump into if 20 years from now, if I could sit in that chair and be in the same spot that you are with your dual residences, I want that.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

You had a good plan, and tell people a little bit of what you do now.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Well, I've been blessed. Uh I have a place on Lake LBJ, and I'm a member of the Escondito Country Club, and I ride my boat over there to play golf six days a week. And in case they didn't hear that, you ride your boat. I ride my boat over there six days a week, and then my me and my wife go dancing three nights a week, and uh we've been married 57 years, so we're getting to know each other now. And then in in the summer, when it gets too hot for me down here, I have a place in Rio Dosa I've had for 48 years.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

It's in Alto.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

It's in Alto, and so we have three golf courses up there. So I get to play a lot of golf and do a lot of dancing. So I think that keeps me going.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yes, sir. I think we can mention Wind Place a show on here, right? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yeah, that wind placing show. My wife and I went there twenty two nights in a row one time, about three or four years ago. So it's a good it's a good friend of mine went in there one afternoon and said, I hear old Ronnie Flowers comes in here sometime, and she said, He sure does. Said that that's his table right over there, and he pays my light bill. That's a true story. That's a true story.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

There's two people in my life that oh, you talked about getting it back tenfold that are just generous with cash and tips. Mel was always that way, and you're you're right there. I I try to to emulate that. My pockets aren't that deep, but you know this, still being a football coach, but it just makes you feel good. I know this goes without saying, but it's to see those people's eyes light up because it they don't get it very much, and nobody tips like Mr. Ronnie Flowers. I'm telling you. Because every time I'm with you, you leave them a tip, they'll double take or triple take. Like, oh, that's all you just keep it.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Well, it it comes back to you. There's a Bible verse about that. It's Proverbs 1125. It says, A generous person will prosper. He who refreshes himself be refreshed. So that's kind of my Bible verse I try to live by.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Man, I'm gonna take that back to Brentwood Chris.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

There you go. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

My my granny, Yvonne Maxfield, Ronnie, I've got to introduce you one of these days. She's 95 years old, still drives the first federal bank in Littlefield every day, goes to work, and she has that same mentality. I think I've heard her say that verse multiple times. She doesn't miss a church service at the Methodist church there in Amherst. Just the most godly Christian woman, still driving to work every day, 95. Count that money.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

So she's she's just she's out of the same mode as you and my mom are.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Let's talk about your because I like these names. I like the name dropping. I know you it's just every day for you, but to me it's people that I look up to and idlise. You got this Eastern Greyhounds cap on. Is it okay to tell you?

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Oh, yeah. One of my best friends is Art Bra. Yes, sir. We go out to eat uh a couple of nights a week to a masking food place we like over in Kingsland, but we play golf several times until he got that job up there where we played three or four times a week. Now we're not playing as much, but he's back here right now. We played the last two days together and got our tail beat, and so he's not happy right now with me, but he'll get over it. Yeah. And so we've won some together.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Is it big teams or is it just for's or do y'all have a we have twenty to thirty players and so we we'll be playing against a lot of other players, you know. Coach and I, we get a lot of side bets that we shouldn't take because we're not very good.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Getting that wheel, they still call it.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah, wheeling them. Yeah, we we wheel a lot of them, and so usually it costs us every day.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

It's worth it though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Oh, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Skin's game on the side?

SPEAKER_02 21:04

No. No, it's just we play $10 one downs on every ball, and so it gets to it gets a little uh sticky every now and then.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Greenies or anything like that coming?

SPEAKER_02 21:15

No, no, we just play bets.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Play bets, all right.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Well, you people out there, because I really didn't know anything about escondido until I moved to the area, but it's one of the top courses in the nation. And you gotta be somebody to play out there, but it's a really great place, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 21:35

It's a great course, yeah. We were rated in the top five private courses there for a while at uh from the Dallas Morning News. Uh and so we got a great membership, and the the amenities are second to none.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yes, sir. And I know when Ronnie walks in, they say, Hey, Miss Fly.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

That's not right.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Tell us a little bit. You've got Tim, your son. He's down there on Lake Hamstead?

SPEAKER_02 22:04

He is. I got Tim and Ted. Ted still works for the company that we sold to. He's a senior buyer. They have three in the nation, and he's one of them. And his wife works for him as well. She's a head of the collection department. Okay. And so they're still with them. And so I can s keep up with them. And of course, Chris Wilde I hired, and several of the guys that I hired are still with them. The number one salesman in the company, I hired all of them. The top six in the country are people I hired. And so the whole country. I'm proud. Yeah, whole United States. That's a big area. Yes, sir. But anyway, I'm proud of that. Those guys have done a great job, and uh so I'm happy with them.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Grandkids, I know you're involved with them.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Yeah, well, I got seven grandkids, and most of them are doing really good, all of them really. And one of them just got married. I've got a great grandson, it's the 13 or 14 months old. So anyway, we're doing good. Living the dream.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yes, sir. I've got the one granddaughter, she's 10 and a half months old. I think I'm heading to Brownwood to see her this weekend. Perfect. She's my oldest daughter was really easy, kid, just easy. This one is a live wire boy. So she's getting all of it.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

You get all kinds, you sure do.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

I tell you, I wish I could talk to you two eyes and just because once Mel would say you get Ronnie at coaching school around all the coaches, he starts holding court, then you've never laughed so hard in all your life. He can just spit them out left and right. And original stuff. It's it's Ronnie original.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Well, I had a guy that I've had an advantage. The guy I worked for at Athletic Supply in Odessa, he was the head football coach at Monahan's when they won the state championship in 48. And he had more original sayings than anybody ever seen, like, you know, uh, that old boy's got more cash than a show dog can jump over and stuff like that. And he just and he called me Gin Smoke. He said, Gen Smoke, you're around them planes up there and sniffed all that smoke. It's messed up your mind. And so he's where I got a lot of my stuff from. And and then Coach Coach Dykes, you know, he was uh he he had a lot of one-liners. Yeah, some original. There's not a day goes by at the golf course that somebody don't use one of his uh lines. Yes, sir. And so we miss him a lot.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yes, sir. The same with Mel. He he would come up with some I'd have to ask him, what exactly does that mean? Because it's all over my head. I know you had some stories with Mel when he coaching him Burton. He had the little shack in the backyard.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Oh yeah, he let me stay out there, and I'd always stop and buy a gallon of ice cream and I'd go in there and I'd ask those girls, I said, uh kids, I said, Do y'all want a milkshake? And they say, Oh yeah. And so I'd get a get that ice cream scooped up in a glass and pour some milk in it and steer it up with a spoon, and they thought I was something else. They probably did a holdown for you. That's right. They sure did. Yeah. They knew I liked that country music, too.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

I was telling Ronnie earlier, I got beat to death last night running off middle school track discus. And I think we ran, it was about 2,000 kids, it seemed like come through there. But Bags, Mel Summers helping me, and he kept it, kept it light, kept some jokes flowing to keep me from throwing my clipboard down.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

There you go. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

So you got a golf game today?

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Yes, sir, I do. Every day except Monday, they're closed on Monday.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Closed on Monday.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

I go to early church on Sunday, and I can get out there after I take my wife to breakfast, I can get out there by twelve o'clock and tee them up.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Do they have some good breakfast spots out that way too?

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Well, yeah, the club's real good. Oh, yeah. But I usually w my wife and I after church go somewhere in town.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

I gotcha. You were talking about that Mexican food place in Kingsland. I think that's where my aunt and uncle right there by Wake Point, just right down the road. They take me there all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

So it's a good spot. Alfredo's is the one we go to on the north side of town. Okay. That's where me and Coach and I go every week.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Give me a good story, Ronnie. We can wrap this thing up, because I know you got things that you gotta do. There's so many stories out there from AFC H. What's another great story of you going by a field house and just thinking, Where where am I right now? Does one come to mind?

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Well, I don't know. Probably the greatest satisfaction I had was when I called on old Joey McGuire down there at Cedar Hill and never had seen him before in my life, and went in there and I told him what I did, that I would go through his helmets and date them for him and tell him what kind he had, and that I, you know, if I took in 60 helmets, I'd throw out six of the oldest and give him six brand new ones. And uh he kind of liked the idea of that. But anyway, he just got through winning the state championship at Cedar Hill. Yeah, and anyway, when I got that business, I thought, man, live, I got me a state champion school here, and that'll be good on my resume and everything. And it turns out that Joey and I became real good friends and everything, and I helped some of those guys get their rings that couldn't afford them, and so from then on, me and him have been big buddies, and I really have appreciated the success he's had because he deserves it, and he's genuine. Oh, yeah. And having the friendship with the Dykes with Sonny and Rick and Bebe and Spike and Sharon, that that was really special to me in my career.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yes, sir. I was fortunate enough. I met Joy probably through mail or through Coach Gillespie, but I was on the board of directors for THSCA when Joy was on the board. And we sat right across from each other. So I got first hand experience about how genuine this dude was. And it was every day. He wasn't putting on a show. What you see on the TV at tech is how he lives every day. And it's so much fun. They did really well in the draft. They got some dudes now. He's done a great job orchestrating all that together because that's a full-time job.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

If he tells you something, you can take it to the bike.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yes, sir. And I'd love to get him and art on the show eventually. I gotta perfect my craft a little bit, but you're good.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

You're doing good.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

It's easy with guests like you.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Well, I sure appreciate you taking the time to have me on here, and I hope it don't ruin you.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

This this will get more downloads than any other episode just because of how many people love you, Ronnie. Love your family and what you've done for them. I I can say it again. Not a more giving person in this business and this profession than Ronnie Flowers. So thank you for one other thing I forgot to mention. You helped me in my career get interviews and that was your saying. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I I was willing to turn shallow water into something else. I was just ready for something new. You do have me an interview with the Snyder job. And I say, What about this job, Ronnie? You helped so many coaches do that. Call somebody that could hire them at the school or whatever, but you say, I can get you in the door. Now you're gonna have to close it, but I get you in the door. I think that's what you used to tell me.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

That's correct.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

You did that for probably thousands of coaches across the state. And uh I appreciate you doing that for me over the years.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Yes, sir. My pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

I'm just an average Joe. It's nice enough to give me a second chance of putting this on, and I really appreciate and I appreciate your friendship. And every time you pick up the phone when I call, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Yes, sir. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

By the way, he shot a 29 on the front line a couple of weeks ago. How about to go get you another one today, Ronnie?

SPEAKER_02 30:32

I need to. I need the money. Thank you, Kyle. Appreciate you having me on here.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Yes, sir. Thank you. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

The sun is down, the lights are bright, getting my fix on a Friday night.