Wikipedia

Dave Campbell's Texas Football

Dave Campbell's Texas Football is a biannual magazine previewing American football teams in the state of Texas.

Dave Campbell's Texas Football
The 2008 summer edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football. On the cover are (from left) Michael Crabtree, Mike Leach, and Graham Harrell from Texas Tech.
EditorGreg Tepper
PresidentAdam Hochfelder
CategoriesSports
FrequencyBiannual and premium online subscription content available at www.texasfootball.com
Circulation100,000
FounderDave Campbell
Founded1960
First issue 1960 (1960-month)
CompanySports In Action, LLC (formerly Highfield Marketing, LLC)
CountryUnited States
Based inLewisville, Texas
LanguageEnglish
Websitetexasfootball.com
ISSN0147-1287

It previews football teams in Texas at all levels, from the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, college football, to the roughly 1,400 high schools (public and private) in the state.

The summer magazine is issued in June, about 1–2 months before the start of preseason football. It sells for $11.95 and is available in most Texas stores which sell magazines. A winter edition, which began in 2008, is published each January. In 2015, the winter magazine became known as Texas Football Rising which focuses solely on recruiting and recruiting rankings.

History

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The magazine was started in 1960 by Dave Campbell, a longtime writer and sports editor for the Waco Tribune-Herald, along with fellow Waco sportswriters Hollis Biddle, Jim Montgomery, and Al Ward, plus Campbell's wife, Reba. He published the magazine out of his kitchen. On the cover of the inaugural edition was Texas Longhorns running back Jack Collins. The cover price for the first 96-page magazine was fifty cents.

It was bought in 1985 by Host Communications,[1] which was bought by IMG in 2007. In 2014, Sports in Action, a company operated by the family of Texas businessman Drayton McLane and run by President Adam Hochfelder bought the rights to operate the magazine from IMG.[2]

 
Campbell at the 2019 Texas Book Festival

It is one of the best-selling football magazines in the state and has been dubbed "The Bible of Texas Football".[3] Each year, the identity of its cover subject(s) is a tightly-guarded secret. Campbell held the position of editor-in-chief until his death in 2021 at age 96.[4]

Currently, Dave Campbell's Texas Football is a twice-yearly statewide magazine with more than 400,000 readers. In 2015, Sports In Action created a yearly sister magazine, Dave Campbell's Texas Basketball, with an accompanying web site.

The website, TexasFootball.com, was created in 1999. It added premium content covering recruiting and other topics, bundled with the annual subscription cost, in 2018.

In the summer of 2009, Texas Football launched a statewide weekly radio program — the Dave Campbell's Texas Football Radio Hour — which aired across Texas State Network affiliates. The radio show ended in 2016. In 2010, the magazine started its own television program, Texas Football Game Day, a half-hour show. Game Day was filmed weekly at the stadium of a key game and broadcast (sometimes live, sometime tape delayed) on Fox Sports Southwest. Due to its popularity, in 2011 DCTF partnered with Fox Sports Southwest to present Fox Football Friday Powered by Dave Campbell's Texas Football, a three-hour live show on Friday nights featuring whip-around coverage of the biggest games in Texas high school football.[5] In October 2015, DCTF launched Texas Football Today, a daily live show covering football in Texas streamed on TexasFootball.com and its social media platforms.

Texas Football also ran its own high school football event, the Texas Football Classic, which was held at the beginning of each season at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The event ran from 1999-2010.

The Texas Football brand is run by President Adam Hochfelder, and editorial content — including the magazine, website, TV show and Texas Football Today — are run by managing editor Greg Tepper,[6] assistant managing editor Ishmael Johnson, executive producer Ashley Pickle, web/social manager William Wilkerson, college insider Mike Craven and associate editor Mallory Hartley. Hochfelder has been in charge of the brand since 2005 and Tepper has been editor since 2011.

Dave Campbell died on December 10, 2021, after a short illness at the age of 96.[7]

Summer magazine covers

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1960s

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1970s

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1980s

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1990s

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2000s

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2010s

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2020s

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Winter magazine covers

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When the University of Texas won the BCS national title in the 2006 Rose Bowl, Texas Football put out a special championship edition of the magazine. Two years later, the magazine brought back the winter edition as a permanent feature. Beginning in 2016, the winter edition was replaced with Dave Campbell Presents Texas Football Rising, a magazine spotlighting top recruits in Texas.

Texas Football Rising

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Mr. Texas Football

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When Texas Football revived the winter book after the 2007 season, it began giving a "Mr. Texas Football Award" honoring the top high school player in the state. It is currently sponsored by Wells Fargo

Dave Campbell's Texas Basketball

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References

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  1. ^ "Dave Campbell still has hand in popular state football preview".
  2. ^ "Campbell's Texas Football magazine in new hands". 2 March 2014.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-01-29. Retrieved 2006-10-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Sports journalist Dave Campbell, founder of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, dies at 96
  5. ^ Sports, Fox (23 July 2014). "FOX Football Friday Powered by DCTF back for fourth season". FOX Sports. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  6. ^ Ufberg, Max The Bible of Texas Football New Yorker. September 14, 2015
  7. ^ Werner, John (10 Dec 2021). "Distinguished Texas sports journalist Dave Campbell dies at 96". Waco Tribune Herald. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  8. ^ "Longhorns' Benson chasing RB legacies". Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  9. ^ "Texas Football magazine hits newsstands next week".
  10. ^ "Texas Football Coming Soon".[permanent dead link‍]
  11. ^ "2007 Dave Campbell's Texas Football hits the shelves starting today" (Press release).
  12. ^ "Campbell picks Cove to win District 12-5A". Killeen Daily Herald. 17 June 2008. Archived from the original on 10 January 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  13. ^ Williams, Don (26 January 2009). "Tech, Tigers get share of magazine spotlight". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Archived from the original on 28 December 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2009.
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