It was one of those broadcasting events I'll never forget. It was a much hoopla'd broadcast that ... well ... never got on the air. It seems some war got in the way. I'll tell you about it ... oh, pass the parmesan, please...

In the early 1990's, I had a little something to do with the University of Texas sports broadcasts over the Longhorn Radio Network. Naturally, the network broadcast live sporting events ... football, basketball, etc ... but we also were responsible for the traditional weekly coaches "call-in" shows. Say, could you hand me a napkin? Thanks.

So turn back the clock to 1991: The Texas basketball coach was Tom Penders, and the "voice" of the Longhorns was Bill Schoening. I was in the picture somewhere, and someone had the bright idea to take the weekly Coach Penders Call-In Show "on the road" - a weekly "remote" broadcast. Mr. Gatti's Pizza stepped up to sponsor the show. Bill and Tom would show up ... the coach would take phone calls and "live" questions from the audience, and everyone would pig on pizza and brew. What a country, eh? ...More brew over here, please. Thanks.

We set the inaugural broadcast for 7:00 p.m., January 16th, 1991. And we chose the very popular Gatti's location in the campus area. A 'no-brainer', right? Wrong! What we hadn't planned on - or should I say, hadn't been consulted - was the fact that one hour before airtime, Bush the First would switch something called "Desert Shield" into something called "Desert Storm. We had the "big room" at the restaurant ... a smaller "television" room was adjacent to us.

One hour before our airtime, Bernie and the Boys in Baghdad were broadcasting under a table in their hotel room on CNN, and we started losing our pre-arranged audience and "walk-ups" into the adjoining TV room. As we went on the air, I recall we had Coach Penders, Schoening, myself, another network person, and one lone groupie who knew nothing about basketball, or a war, either, for cryin' out loud - just a guy who liked to hang around 'radio guys'. Oh well, no sweat...we'll just take phone calls. Pass the salt, while I see what's wrong with this phone...it's not ringing....

Bottom line: no radio station carried the show that night, opting for network war coverage. The groupie fell asleep, Schoening and Penders filled the hour, and to be honest, Penders could have gone and made his weekly check of his players' grades and no one would have known the difference. In retrospect, I think it's good that no station broadcast it. Because you know, as do I, that some listener out there would have confused which broadcast he was listening to, calling his friends complaining about Saddam Hussein getting a technical foul for setting up a zone defense against Norman Schwarzkopf, and Tom Penders explaining his new weapon of mass destruction, Peter Arnett.

The postscript, 12 years later ... Penders 'bombed' in Austin, Schwarzkopf is still a hero, Schoening's calling NBA 'threes', the groupie is probably still a groupie, and me? Well, pass one more slice of pepperoni, and I'll tell you all about it....