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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- You know, I've always followed Texas State, Southwest Texas sports, because that's my school. That's where I went. I didn't go to UT, I didn't go to A&M. I was, tell you the truth, also, both my kids went to A&M for different reasons, so I spent five years going to their sporting events. But, you know, when it was over, I said, "I'm not doing no hullabaloo, caneck, caneck no more. I'm not a Aggie, I'm a Bobcat." So, you know, when Dennis Franchione-
- You're all in.
- came over, got hired and we went D1, that's when I started coming back to Texas State. The kids were outta college, you know? I'm not a Aggie, I'm a Bobcat.
- I'm so honored to have my friend, Tommy Madden, here. Tommy is a great Bobcat, great alumnus, great friend of the university. I think he's one of 18 people that has a season ticket to every athletic event we have. And you can't even make them all, you just do that to support the athletics program. But I was, but you're just, you're just, like, the best, Tommy, so thank you for joining us.
- Yeah. Well, you know, truthfully, I try to make 'em all-
- You make a lot of 'em.
- but I can't, living in a Georgetown. The commutes gets kinda harder every year-
- It does.
- just because of the population growth.
- You come down on 130 to get down here a lot?
- 130. If there wasn't a 130, I don't think I'd be the person to have 18 season tickets. No, I'll take that back. I'd still support em.
- Still do it.
- Yeah.
- And not only that, but you always, whenever we play softball or baseball in Texas, you're there as well, and so it's not just the home games too. So you go to the neutral site games as well.
- Well, I try to, especially living in Georgetown. Austin's close and Bryan-College Station and Baylor, so. You know, I like to show my Texas pride, my Texas State pride to everybody I run into and everybody I know, and especially my friends that are alumni at those three universities.
- Absolutely. We need people like that to be spreading the news about what's happening at Texas State. There's a saying, "Till the whole world knows our name." So you're one of those guys doing that.
- Till the whole world knows our name.
- That's funny. Well, let's start, like we always do, hearing about your Texas State story. Like, how did you end up here?
- I don't know if it's a long story or short story, but growing up, I was one of eight children. So us seven brothers and sisters, when we went on vacation, it was a community tent with my two parents and our two boxer dogs. And, you know, wherever we went to travel to go camp out, Canyon Lake was one of our favorites. And the only way we could get from Dallas to Canyon Lake was come through San Marcos and go down Ranch Road 12 and hit Canyon Lake. And just, every time, as a kid growing up, just going through this campus, you kind of go, "Wow, what is this place?" And then when it came time to start applying for colleges, I never considered UT, never considered A&M. You know, it was Southwest Texas, so.
- Did you all stop at Aquarena Springs at all?
- No. No. You know, being one of eight, you know, that wasn't in our budget. That wasn't in our budget, so. A big old canvas tent was pretty much, and a hotdog on a campfire. That was our, that was our budget.
- That's funny. So you grew up in Dallas. So talk about high school. What was it like for you? Were you involved in athletics or-
- Yeah, I-
- extracurricular stuff?
- played football, and, you know, in middle school. It's funny, when you're in middle school athletics, the coaches insist that you participate in other sports. And it's funny. I'm reliving a little bit of that through my grandson, Herman, who's running track. And you look at all those kids out there running track and all the events they were running. And then the other sport that they made us go out for was soccer, you know, which is kinda sad and funny in one way because the football coaches made all the football players play soccer, and all the soccer kids who really knew how to play soccer, you know. were-
- Couldn't get on the field,
- almost getting pushed aside. But I think the soccer coach figured out if he was gonna win games, he was gonna play the soccer kids and just make the football guys run back and forth, stay in shape.
- So you come to Texas State, what was your major?
- You know, as a freshman, like all freshmen, you don't really understand what you wanna do, so tried a little bit of everything, you know? You know, Introductory to Business, and, I'm sorry, that kinda put me to sleep, so, but-
- Me too, me too, by the way.
- You too, by the way. So I finally, you know, tried a pre-vet course, you know, Animal Nutrition, but then biology and the sciences always fascinated me. So actually, I was a pre-med student, so I have a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry.
- Now, you're currently working in farming and ranching, but was your family involved with that-
- No.
- growing up?
- Growing up, we always tried to live out in the country when we could, and we always had horses and, you know, ponies and even a goat at one time. And, you know, the chickens were just to look at, you know? So nothing in my family background had me in any kind of an agricultural endeavor, so. But when I got out of school, I worked my way through school for five years at Grins restaurant.
- Yeah, you worked at Grins. So we had the owners of Grins on here earlier-
- Yes.
- and I love your connection to Grins 'cause a lot of, a lot of students did work their way through college at Grins.
- Well, there were other opportunities for them to work. I just fell into the right group of guys. And I think you knew the owners. You know, Paul and Johnny, and just great guys. And, you know, what those guys had to put up with, when you think back then-
- You wouldn't hire you right now?
- No, I wouldn't hire me. No, I probably would hire me because I needed the job and I showed up.
- And you worked hard.
- Yeah, I worked hard and I showed up 'cause I needed the job and I had to work, so. I think they liked me in that respect, you know? They kept me around for five years, so that-
- What were you doing there?
- I was a cook.
- Oh, really?
- So you had two choices. You either cook or a waitress. So the guys were the cooks and the ladies were the waitresses. Now, there were a few ladies that decided to be cooks instead of waitresses, but it was a little bit different concept back then. It was you'd pull up to the counter, you'd order, they put the order up, and then once the order was ready, then the ladies would deliver it to the table.
- What was your favorite thing to cook?
- You know, it's bean and cheese nachos.
- Eventually you meet one of my favorite Bobcats, Sherri. So how does that happen?
- Yeah. Well, Sherri is not a true Bobcat.
- But she's an adopted Bobcat though.
- But she's an adopted Bobcat. So Sherri and I, when I got out of school, and I, we can go back to when I was in a pre-med student, so I didn't really score really high on the MCAT.
- There's a lot of pre-meds, not as many post-meds.
- Yeah.
- So it's okay.
- Not a lot of post-meds.
- You're in good company.
- Well, the other thing that was occurring back then in 1980 was the first true oil boom.
- Yeah.
- I mean, the oil field was growing crazy. And, you know, here I am, working minimum wage for the last five years, and, you know, I started doing the interviewing process and what my options were, and the oil field industry came into San Marcos, recruiting for oil field engineers. And, you know, if you had a science degree or you're good in math, if you could walk and talk, they were trying to get you to come out and work with them. So going to Houston, working in the oil field, it was a tremendous job for a younger person. I mean, first, I mean, I can't tell you how much money I was making back then compared to what I was as a student, you know, poor student working through school, and now you're an oil field engineer offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, the great thing about it was it was seven days on and seven days off. So my seven days off, as a 24-year-old or 22-year-old, I could go out and go visit my friends back in Austin, wherever else. So, you know, out dancing, you know, at the, I guess, not quite "The Square", but there were different bars in Austin that you could go country and western dancing. I happened to see a, you know, a really pretty brunette across the room. And, you know, asked her to dance and had a good time dancing, got a phone number, and when I dialed it back the next weekend-
- It was her.
- It was her.
- It was a real number.
- Yeah, it was a real number. I don't know if anybody's experienced that before, but-
- I have.
- I had a real number. So the rest is history.
- Yeah. That's great. So how long have you guys been married?
- We've been married 42 years.
- Wow. That's great. The oil boom of the early '80s turns into a bust-
- It would turn into a bust.
- in the middle, right-
- Oh, yeah.
- of '85 or so, '84, '85.
- Yeah, '84, '85, '86 turned into a bust. And I'm still working, but now the people, they're getting laid off, the guys that are staying there that they like, me, you know? Or starting to work instead of the week on, week off, it went on to be two weeks on, one week off, three weeks on, one week off. And then, you know, I'm starting to have children, and Sherri's staying at home, and I'm offshore on an oil rig, you know? So I think by that time, her parents figured that, you know, "Hey, this guy's a pretty good guy," so they asked me to come join the family business, and that was back in '88. And that happened to be the cattle business.
- And that was up in Georgetown?
- Well, no, it was actually in Austin, but commute from Georgetown to Austin wasn't very bad, so.
- Okay.
- So we moved to Georgetown, and I worked outta Austin. And then we moved into the family place in '89.
- You get back into the, like, traditional, well, I guess oil business is pretty traditional for Texas, but back into farming and ranching. And you're running this place now, right, the family business, Sherry's family business?
- Oh, sure. I do everything on the outside, but my brother-in-law, Jim Schwertner, he's the boss, so.
- Okay.
- You know? You know, he runs, you know, I'm doing everything on the outside, all the cowboys, all the farming, all the ranching, and he's in the sales department, and, you know, makes all the financial decisions.
- So it's interesting because we have a vice president for Round Rock up there, and she's from Great Britain, and she loves learning about Texas culture and style and food and so on. But you've taken her under your wing a little bit to teach her a little bit about the farming, ranching life. And I think you've actually got her a horse, and then some other things with her as well. Talk about Julie Lessiter and your experience with her.
- Well, she is tremendous.
- Oh, yeah.
- I mean, what she's done for that campus and even the Williamson County community, she's really made inroads, especially Round Rock, all the chamber of commerce. You know, I don't, you know, she probably knows more people in William County than I do after being there for 40 years. But anyway. I belong to a little club that's been around for about 50 years called the Steak Fry Club. And what it was, was a group of men back in Georgetown started this little business club, but every month somebody would host some steaks and throw some steaks on the grill and bake a potato. But what it's turned into over 50 years is, like, 125 business people, and once a month, somebody hosts. So I said, "Well, I wanna host this month 'cause I wanna take you guys down to Round Rock, and I wanna bring all these Texas A&M, UT, Baylor guys that are my friends, and I want you to come see what we're doing down here in Round Rock just so you can understand what a tremendous job Julie's doing, what a tremendous thing's happening here in Williamson County." So being in the cattle business, you know, I happen to know a few cowboys that work for us, right? And not that they had a choice, but, okay, boys for this Steak Fry Club down in Round Rock, I want you to bring two horses, so. Anyway, so Julie just got the biggest kick out of it in the world and she actually got to ride a horse. And I couldn't believe it, for the first time ever-
- First time ever.
- ever that she got on top of a horse, you know? And it was a real cowboy horse.
- Yeah. And she's a great athlete, but this was, like, one of her favorite memories, I think, was on your horse. And so, yeah.
- Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.
- You know, there is so much growth going on the Round Rock Campus. I just got some data this morning that we've had three times as many freshmen apply to Round Rock than we did last year. And the year before was the first year we had any freshmen at Round Rock. This past year, we have, like, 60 freshmen. We might have, I think, 3 or 400 freshmen there this coming year. That campus is just gonna blow up up there.
- Well, it is, and, you know, talking back on my history through Southwest Texas in those days, I had to work my way through school.
- Yeah.
- And back then, and it's shocking, and you could look it up, but 15 semester hours, in 1975, was $135. Room and board at Arnold Hall was $500. So you, literally, could work your way through school, come out debt-free, you know? Not owing any money to anybody. You know, it took me five years, but when I graduated from college by working the 30, 40 hours a week at Grins and then taking my coursework, I was debt-free.
- Yeah.
- But move that forward into the Round Rock Campus, so not everybody can afford to leave home and come live in San Marcos and live away from home. A lot of people gotta stay at home or have already established families, and they want to go back and either get a degree or finish a degree. And Round Rock is the perfect place for it.
- I wanna come back and talk about athletics in a second, but the segue, I think, is about your memorabilia collection. I'd love to hear how that started, and then, like, what do you have now? I know you've got some really cool pieces.
- Well, you know, you were talking about my wife, Sherri, earlier, she's got as much or more storied history at Southwest Texas than I do because her grandmother was a 1905 graduate of Southwest Texas Normal School. I think she was part of the second graduating class. And people don't, people go, "What's a normal school?" Well, a normal school was a teachers college. So that was, I guess, the place to go if you were gonna try to be into the, get into education in the state of Texas.
- Yeah, back then, and you didn't get a teaching degree, you got a certificate because we weren't a four-year school back then.
- Exactly. So if you did one year, I think you were one through six, if you did two years, you could teach-
- Second grade.
- the eighth grade.
- Yeah.
- If you did three years, you could do a full high-school curriculum.
- Yeah.
- But anyway, so my first memorabilia that you're asking me about, well, Sherri had her grandmother's Pedagogue, 1905. And when you open up that Pedagogue, and you see those young people back then, they're no different than the kids down at Sewell Park right now.
- Yeah.
- Some of the biggest part of that 1905 Pedagogue in the back pages are the students or kids back then swimming in the, swimming in the river. And, you know, and there's two other things too, talk about sports memorabilia, one is a, well, they had three teams. They had a basketball team.
- Women's basketball was the very first sport we had.
- And they had a tennis team. And it's, you know, if you've ever looked at anything of ladies in the 1905, they had dresses down to their ankle-
- Long dresses. Yeah, that's right.
- and they're expected to play tennis, you know, in the Texas San Marcos heat, which is unbelievable, right? And then the other thing which is really, really cool, is they had a club baseball team. And it always, it just, I don't know, I'm real proud of the fact that this picture has all these guys, there's, I guess, 10 on the, 10 on the baseball team, maybe 1 or 2 pitchers, and you look at, you know, we got 10 pitchers now. They only had one back then. But the funny thing is, when you look at the 1905, it's all ragtag.
- It's, like, homemade uniforms.
- Yes. Everyone's different. They got a T on them.
- Yeah.
- Some got a T. I mean, it's a fascinating picture because if you look at a, if you look at the Baylor or the UT or the A&M, oh, they got the sprucey uniforms on-
- Yeah.
- You know? And I always feel like we're still that, we're still that little brother fighting our way up the ladder just to try and prove that we're just as good or tough as you are.
- Yeah.
- In a lot of respects, we are, so.
- So you start off with the yearbook.
- Right, the Pedagogue-
- And then?
- and then, you know, knowing, you know, my pride, I've always had the pride of graduating from Southwest Texas 'cause even, you know, back in 1980, we still were the start of the university that graduated the king, you know, George Strait-
- The president and king.
- and the president, you know? And nobody ever had that of all my other, you know, Aggie, Longhorn friends, whatever. And my wife's grandmother was her mother's mother. And she went to UT and her dad went to A&M, but she always knew what that degree meant to her mother. And the story goes, my second big, it really got me started was LBJ's hat. I think you know I had LBJ's hat. She was from a little town called Bartlett. I don't know if you know where Bartlett is.
- Yeah.
- It's not, you know, just, it's still a small farming, ranching community. But anyway, but they wrote all these celebrities, they were gonna, they were gonna renovate the elementary school. So they wrote all these celebrities to say, "Hey, can you donate an item for our cause?" Well, Lady Bird donated LBJ's hat, you know, one of his, one of his Stetsons. And, you know, Sherri's mother, 'cause I guess she just loved me so much, she made sure that she won that auction item, and she gave that to me for Christmas, so.
- Wow.
- Ever since then, just, you know, I picked things up here and there off the internet or, you know, just have some of the stuff that I've collected over 40 years of being a graduate at Texas State.
- Do you ever wear the hat or just have it on display?
- No, no. You know-
- Does it fit?
- No. I have a large brim, so. His brim is smaller. It's shocking how small-
- Yeah.
- you know, his hat size is, so.
- Yeah. That's fascinating. You know, we just installed a great thing in our LBJ Student Center, a story of LBJ at Texas State. I ran into someone at an event one time, and he said, "Hey, I'm writing a book on presidential graveyards," and he'd been out to Johnson City to President Johnson and Lady Bird's tombstone. And he said, "I went to Texas State's campus, but somehow I missed, like, the exhibit on LBJ." And I didn't have the heart to tell him we didn't really have one. So we added one this year. And I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, but it's a beautiful piece that explains his story here at Texas State.
- Well, that was another thing that I actually got to pick, well, I picked up two, I think, significant LBJ memorabilia. One of 'em was his Pedagogue.
- Oh, really?
- His senior year. I have his senior year. And you flip through there, and there's LBJ.
- He's in everything, right? He's in the debate, and he's in student newspaper.
- He's the student president of the newspaper. I think it was his senior year-
- Yeah.
- Pedagogue. And then the other thing I have, and it's tragic and sad, but, you know, everybody knows the history of LBJ's elevation to the presidency was through the assassination of President Kennedy. Well, one of the most famous photographers was him, photographs of LBJ was him being inaugurated on Air Force One-
- Yes.
- with Lady Bird and Jacqueline next to him. Well, I picked up, the photographer had taken 16 of those snapshots, and he was his personal photographer. Well, I actually picked up number 13. So it's not the exact picture that you see, but I have that picture of-
- Wow.
- the original picture of him being sworn in on Air Force One.
- I did not know about that piece.
- Yeah.
- That's incredible.
- Yeah, that is a, that is a very moving piece.
- Great piece of history.
- And then I've got all his books and stuff, so.
- Well, let's switch now, finally, to your fandom of Texas State, Southwest Texas State athletics. What is it, why should people care about athletics and higher education? Or why do you care about it?
- Well, well, number one, I love sports. I think most people do love sports, and collegiate sports, to me, is the most exciting because it's so unpredictable, and it's so full of ups and downs, and, you know, it could go either way. It could go either way. And you just don't know. And young, and Sherry doesn't like me calling 'em boys and girls, they're men and women. She always tells me, "These are men and women." They are, they're, you know, 17, 18-year-old men and women.
- But when you get to be old like us, they are like, they seem like boys and girls, right?
- Yeah, but she, oh, boy. If I call a woman athlete a girl, girls' sport and men's sport-
- Good for her.
- oh, she'll, oh, I never hear the end of it. Which, you know, which is correct.
- That's why you and I married so well.
- That's exactly right. They keep us on the right track. So getting back into sports, you know, I've always followed Texas State, Southwest Texas sports because that's my school. That's where I went. I didn't go to UT, I didn't go to A&M. I was, you know, I was actually raised Irish Catholic, so when we, when we grew up, it, you know, the first song I learned was the Notre Dame fight song, you know? So we always followed sports and athletics, and, you know, we were all Notre Dame fans growing up. But when I came to Southwest Texas, and, you know, hey, this is my school, just like your high school, this is who you follow and this is who you cheer for, right? Finally, when we become D1 and Dennis Franchione comes over, and, you know, that's when I start, well, tell you the truth, also, both my kids went to A&M for different reasons. One's because they have architecture, and that's where my daughter went. And then my son idolized his grandfather who went to A&M. He wanted to be in the Corps of Cadets, so, you know? So they did the A&M Corps of Cadets and got involved at A&M for five years, so I spent five years going to their sporting events, but, you know, when it was over, I said, "I'm not doing no hullabaloo, caneck, caneck no more. I'm not a Aggie, I'm a Bobcat." So, you know, when Dennis Franchione-
- You're all in.
- came over, got hired and we went D1, that's when I started coming back to Texas State. The kids were outta college. You know, I'm not a Aggie, I'm a Bobcat. So that's where it all started.
- Yeah. What do you, what do you think about this move to the Pac-12?
- Oh, I think it's outstanding. It really is. So Sun Belt is a tremendous, tremendous sports organization-
- Yeah.
- all through the Southeast. We've, you know, everybody from the East Coast now, and I think Louisiana's always known who we were just because of the softball rivalries. But anyway, but, you know, going to the Pac-12, now everybody on the West Coast is gonna know who we are. And there is still prestige with the name Pac-12.
- Yeah.
- So I think we're at the right place at the right moment to build this thing back up and, you know, get us back into the P status, whatever, how you want to describe that. But just so excited to get back into an organization like the Pac-12, so. I'm just really excited to see new country, new territory and see new rivalries develop.
- Do you have a particular road trip planned out for a football game yet? Like, what's the place-
- I'm just gonna see.
- you really wanna go to?
- You know, San Diego is beautiful. If you've ever been to San Diego, it's absolutely gorgeous. And I've never been up the West Coast to Oregon and Washington, and I wanna go up there too, and even Boise State, so. I mean, there's so many new adventures up there.
- Yeah.
- So Colorado's a beautiful state.
- There's no bad trips.
- Yeah, there's no bad trips.
- Yeah.
- No bad trips whatsoever.
- That's awesome. All right, Tom, we got one little, last thing we do, we always ask listeners and viewers of the program to send me a question. So you get to be the podcast host here and ask me a question. And I don't know what's in there, so it'd be a complete surprise to me, but go ahead and open that up, and...
- Okay, the survey says-
- The survey says.
- Okay, here's your question, if your leadership style had a theme song, what would it be?
- A theme song?
- What would it be?
- Kool and The Gang, "Celebrate Good Times".
- Celebrate.
- Sometimes I feel like my job is to be the head cheerleader.
- Right.
- And there is, you know, this line in our alma mater, or our fight song about till the whole world knows our name. And I think we have always punched above our weight. And I think that people still don't know much about us, and they're getting to know more about us now. And I think athletics plays a huge role in that. But I feel like it's always been my job to make sure we celebrate some of the great things that are happening here. And it's not just athletics, it's academics, it's student success, it's the success of our alumni. And so I feel like maybe my theme song, I might come up with a different one later on, but "Celebrate Good Times", it would be a good one for me. Tommy, thank you for joining us today. I know it's a trip down here. You had to come down and fight the traffic, and now you've gotta fight the traffic going back home, but it's always a pleasure to talk with you, and it's an honor for us to have you part of this program today.
- Well, it was an honor to be invited, and it's an honor just to be an alumni of this university.
- Well, it's an honor for us for sure, so.
- Yeah.
- Thank you so much. And thank you all for joining us here at "The Current", where we learn more about Texas State by talking to the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the university to find out what's going on at Texas State. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, States Up everyone.