Stories Inside the Man Cave
Stories Inside the Man Cave
Ep 426: Lets Talk About It: Rudy Alvarez's painting of Ben Herbstreit; From Dugouts to Canvases: Rudy Alvarez's Journey of Art, Family, and Sports
Join us for a fascinating conversation with Rudy Alvarez, an iconic figure in Austin's baseball scene, as he shares his remarkable transition from a legendary coach to a celebrated painter. Rudy opens up about his impactful journey, reflecting on years of mentoring young athletes and the rewarding shift to a new passion that has captured national attention. We explore how Rudy's retirement is anything but idle, painting a vivid picture of a life enriched by art and community involvement.
Rudy's story is not just about career transformation but also about balancing family and personal passions. Discover heartwarming tales from Rudy's life, from cheering on his grandsons at their sporting events to the joy of adopting Cassie, a dog who has brought unexpected happiness to his family. Through the vibrant lens of his newfound art, Rudy captures cherished memories and pays tribute to sports icons, all while maintaining deep family connections and a love for baseball.
Celebrate the themes of change and gratitude as we dive into the storied rivalry between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Texas Longhorns. Rudy shares insightful reflections on the evolving landscape of college sports, while also highlighting the power of art to unite communities through meaningful gestures. With stories of nostalgia and hope, this episode paints a vivid picture of embracing the present and finding beauty in every chapter of life.
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Speaker 3:Hey, a big shout out to our sponsor for let's Talk About it Honest Plumbing and Air, located in Hutto, Texas. We just came out of a hot summer but it's starting to feel a little fall-esque. If you will Get those HVAC units, your heater service, everything, Just stay ahead, Because when you stay ahead and coach stuff like that and you let that become a habit, you avoid some major, major expenses. And, of course, a shout-out to all of our sponsors, as you see to the left of the screen. Now let's talk about this episode. It's a very special episode.
Speaker 3:It involves someone who I've respected since way back in my high school days, growing up in Austin, Texas. The gentleman you're about to meet, a highly successful baseball coach, deep ties to the Austin area and coached a lot of young men who he left quite a bit of impression on, and still to this date he does, and he's part of the baseball fabric of the great city of Austin and this area. But he has been retired for, shockingly, we're approaching maybe a decade, but he's still active. He paints in his free time to relax, but some of his paintings really mean a lot to a lot of people.
Speaker 3:Let's meet Rudy Alvarez and his story about painting and baseball, and a specific dog which has caught the attention across the country. Let's talk about it. Well, here we are. Rudy Alvarez grew up in the great city of Austin when it was great and Austin's still a great place a little bit different and he is our guest here for episode 426,. Coach Alvarez, I know we've talked quite a bit. Call you a friend and I always will, but thanks for making time in your busy retired life for an episode here.
Speaker 4:Good afternoon.
Speaker 3:Sean, glad to be with you. No, you're more than welcome, and the audience who will be watching right now is one of the cat. This cat named Chloe she's trying to become the star here of this episode, but before we get going, please like, follow and subscribe for free to our YouTube page and TikTok I need some help on because I'm not a Gen Z or a Gen Xer, but we're going to get that taken care of. Coach, I know you have faith in me that I'll learn how to do all of it, because you and I are starting to have to learn on the fly about all this technology.
Speaker 4:I'm sure you know how to do it. I'm waiting for you to hit it out of the ballpark. That's what I'm waiting for.
Speaker 3:Well, coach, before we get going, I do have to show you a picture. You probably remember this. This is right after you retired from coaching at Travis High School and you were the head coach at Bowie High School here in Austin. A lot of success. Then you, in your retirement, you became the assistant coach. This kind of gives you an idea of what was a major part, and still is, for coach Alvarez's life. How do you sum up that baseball playing and coaching career that you had for what would you say 60 years of your life plus?
Speaker 4:or at least that much, at least that much without giving out my age, but you know at least that much, but giving out my age, but you know at least that much. But, uh, I remember that picture, like it was yesterday, that that interview we had. You gave me the interview, you sent it to me and that was, uh, you came to interview me at Bowie high school that's right outside the dugout, and we talked and, uh, you talked to two of my players, uh, and you talked to coach the junior that day and they uh, and it was just about what I was doing now as an assistant coach and what was I going to do in my retirement so tell us a little bit about because you really you honestly other than removing stress of that, that is part of the game of coaching any sport and really mentoring young people You've kind of you haven't slowed down, you're just enjoying more things in retired life, you and your wife, right?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I go every day full speed. I this retirement, I actually think sometimes I'm working more than retirement. Since retirement, I actually think sometimes I'm working more than retirement. Again, I still work with kids. I give a lot of lessons. I still work with a couple of baseball teams special baseball teams. My two grandsons play each on a select team and they play leagues. I'm out there. They ask me to help on the field and, uh, I don't coach the team. As far as when the game day, I don't want to be out there. When they're playing I watch it, but during the practices they call me to do a lot of things and uh, so yeah, I'm busy with them, uh, uh, my wife and I go to every game. We don't miss any game. They play baseball, football, soccer, they play it all, and so I'm doing that and just staying. I'm like.
Speaker 4:This week I was at Bowie High School for four straight nights working Monday, tuesday, wednesday and Thursday working with my grandson's teams, and also, of course, I picked up a little job. I call it a job, it's really not, it's a hobby, my artwork. I started that about oh 2000, when I retired around 2016. So I've been doing it for eight years and when I was in the 10th grade I did some artwork for an art teacher. She said that I should go ahead and continue with that kind of profession but I was too busy playing baseball going to college and I never did so. 50 years later I sat down and asked my wife. I said I think you ought to draw some things and I did, and all of a sudden I'm painting. I mean, here are some examples. Later I said down into this. My wife said I think you ought to draw some things and I did, and all of a sudden I'm painting I mean here are some examples we're going to go through, uh, quite a few examples, and especially the.
Speaker 3:We'll get to the one that you did here recently. But on the left I mean, just fyi, my late mom. She was a great painter of uh hill country and just like you have a picture, or maybe a picture she took out in the hill country and it would look the exact same when she was finished with it or even better, but on the left, where is that? I know the middle, that's your grandson.
Speaker 4:Anton, that is those kind of connected. Those two pictures are connected. The picture on the left is Cape Cod. Oh, they went there. They like to go to Boston and watch the Red Sox. Believe it or not, they go there and enjoy some vacation out of Cape Cod. Somehow that picture came back to me and so I painted that picture of just a place out there in Cape Cod yeah and those are my grandsons in the middle that I did.
Speaker 4:Oh, about three years ago I started doing a few portraits, but I really don't do many portraits, and so I did a little top one. On the top that's my youngest one, that's Kellen and Anson's down at the bottom and then they're the guys that are playing baseball and all the sports. And the one that you put on the right was actually one of my first real portraits that I tried. I'm not a portrait type of artist. I've got a brother who is probably not probably he is the artist of the family. I'm second place, but he's been doing art for a long time and he is outstanding, so he does portraits all the time. But I tried a little bit of it and see what it's like, and so I said, well, I think I'll try. Why don't I start with my favorite team, the Yankees? So I did Jeter a little bit and hopefully I caught him the way he looks a little bit, and so that's that picture of Derek Jeter.
Speaker 3:No, it's amazing. Either you've got it or you don't. But with like anything, you got to practice. And you know, I think the pictures, the paintings that I see, that you do often are animals and people's pets, and you do it just for the love of it. The first one is one that's near and dear to you.
Speaker 4:uh, that was your sidekick for so long, cassie that's her, that's, that's our girl, that's uh, that's uh, a dog. That's got a long story and I you don't have time for this that I went one day to look around at PetSmart. That's all my wife knew is I was going to PetSmart just to look around for some reason, and they had dogs out in crates, like they do sometimes for people to buy and look at. And I saw this dog in a crate and it was a red golden retriever, beautiful. And she came right up to me in the crate, she was licking my fingers and all this stuff. The guy said, uh, that was taken for already. Somebody's coming to pick that dog already. And so I said, okay, he told me, go ahead and you want to take him out and walk with him. So I did real quick. I'm not gonna tell you the whole story, gotta hurry up. So I took him out and sat down and people were coming by and they're telling me you got a beautiful dog. Well, it wasn't my dog, but I accepted the compliment.
Speaker 4:And finally, the guys. I said, well, I brought the dog back and said I was leaving. He said wait a minute, do you have good luck? I said, yeah, I've got pretty good luck. That's one thing about me. I've got good luck, so let me get a phone call. And he calls it Guess love. I said well, let me get a phone call. He called and said guess what.
Speaker 4:Those people are not going to take that dog. Whoa, do you want this dog? It's all yours. Before he finished the word yours. He was in the truck with me and we were gone. We were gone home.
Speaker 4:I went and bought a leash at PetSmart, called my wife, I've got a dog. She said you've got a what. I said I call my wife, I've got a dog. She's you got a what. And she I got a little dog. She, oh, my goodness, do you know what you're doing? So I brought cassie home, opened the door and the guy told me it was a puppy. But it was. She was big then. So my wife thought it was a little dog. She went she. I just surprised her. So there was cassie. And 11 years later, after she passed away, she was with me all the time Escaped one time at Bowie on the field while the game was going on Timeout, umpires, call timeout.
Speaker 4:She was chasing the ball around the horn. That's what she was doing. And finally some smart Bowie players couldn't get her off the field. And I couldn't get her off the field and I couldn't get her off the field. He said coach, we're gonna throw the ball to you at the dugout. You can catch it and chas will chase it that way. So they did. They threw me the baseball, and here comes cassie and I had the leash put it on her, and that was the story of cassie on the baseball field.
Speaker 3:That's a great story, yeah, and this beautiful looks like black and white horse that's with light on the left side of his or her face.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's one of my favorites I did. I got a horse book that I go in every now and then and paint a horse. I'll pick a special horse and this one here is in the barn. Not that I know a lot about horses, but I imagine that's when you walk at night and you go check the horses in the barn. And this one when you open the door there it is looking at you in the barn.
Speaker 3:Man, that's well done, Coach. It really is. And this the last one. On the right, it looks like a family two dogs and a cat.
Speaker 4:A lady called me on that one and said I have a special request, can you paint? At first she said individuals and she said wait a minute, can you paint all three of them, one painted? I said yeah, I think I can do that. She said well, we have one of them that passed away and the cat had passed away and the other one was getting older. But she wanted to see if I could put them all three together because they meant so much to the family and I didn't know the lady at all, I didn't know her at all. So I said send me pictures of them, separate pictures, and she sent me three pictures of each and I just kind of picked the best ones that I thought that would look good for them. So I painted their two dogs and their cat and went and took it to her, and she lived somewhere in North Austin and they were as happy as they could be.
Speaker 3:No, they should be. It's so lifelike and you know, you know, I mean, we all are of us who are pet owners. We know the time's limited, but those precious moments like that. I've just been blown away every time that I see one of your works of art and I know all of those paintings mean something, the same as what we're about to find out, coach Alvarez, just because he has a big heart. And when Kirk Herbstreet, the former Ohio state quarterback, espn college football and NFL announcer, has golden retrievers, well, his dog Ben had lost his fight to cancer and, just like so many, it touched all of us. And for those of you who haven't seen the tribute, this is an abbreviated version of Kirk Herbstreet's tribute to his dog Ben, who he took him around all of the college game day locations, was with them all on the road, and this is pretty much what inspired Coach for his latest painting.
Speaker 5:He made everyone happy, and he did it without even trying. He just wagged that tail or nestled up against strangers like they were family, and that's what they became on planes, in hotel lobbies, on the beach, in the mountains. It didn't matter if you're a college student, a movie star, a national championship quarterback or even a state governor. Ben didn't care who you were. Everyone deserved his love. I think we can all learn from that. At a time when everything seems to be aimed at dividing us, our love of football unites us every weekend. What I experienced with Ben was that and so much more. Dogs only flaw as a species is they don't live long enough, but the warmth they give us, that never goes away. So neither will Ben, this man's best friend who became America's best friend became America's best friend.
Speaker 3:It's tough watching that for probably the fourth time for me when you were watching Kirk like so many people do because you and I are fans of sports period. When you watched that, I honestly thought of you. When I found out what the story was about with Ben, I just wondered. I thought, since you were a dog lover yourself with Cassie. I don't know why it made me think of you, but when you were watching those final days and him taking Ben everywhere, what were you thinking leading up to that final day when you found out that Ben didn't make it after that last chemo treatment?
Speaker 4:Well, I had seen him many times watching college football Big fan of college football and I had seen him many times on game day and other times I'd seen Ben was always with him and I found out a picture that Herb put in there. He put it in there and Kirk had put a definition of what had happened. There was a caption to it and he said that his dog was sick, very sick. He was going to have him put in surgery and didn't know what's going to happen to him, because he was real worried about Ben. And when I saw that, what he put on there, I knew that boy, that Kurt was hurting, and I felt sorry for Ben and I just said to myself I said, well, I hope Ben makes it, Even if he doesn't. I and I just said to myself I said, well, I hope Ben makes it, Even if he doesn't, I think I'm going to paint a painting so he can have it, you know whether he just makes it or doesn't make it.
Speaker 4:And then when I found out that he passed away, I actually had finished half of it already. Wow, and I said, well, I'm going to continue now for sure, it's when Ben passed away. And then I saw him on game day the day he tried. Well, I saw him actually on Thursday night football the day Ben passed away and you could tell, you could tell he was not into the game, you could tell he hadn't been asleep and you could just tell that he wasn't the same guy. So, yeah, I went ahead and finished it and I wanted to really give it to him, really find him, and I knew there was going to be a task to find him because he's pretty famous and he goes all over the place.
Speaker 4:And I had already done one way back for Scott Van Pelt from ESPN, the same situation. His dog died and I was watching him also and he was talking that night with SportsCenter and he kind of almost started crying about his dog. And that got to me and so I painted his dog and I got it to him and I had to work for that one too, so I knew on this one it was going to be tough to get it to him.
Speaker 3:Well, when I saw that and then you reached out and, by the way, right there in the middle off-center, to the right of your screen, is Coach's painting. I mean, look at that, the details, the white face, the personality. It's incredible. You and I kind of teamed up to try to find how we could get it and I kept thinking, God, I don't have any direct ties to Kirk Herbstreit. So I said you know what? We need to get this done quickly.
Speaker 3:So I went to Twitter on my personal Twitter handle, and coach, I still of all the negativity we see on social media and all the disgusting division. This proved to me that there are more good things than bad and that there's still hope for us. And that led us and thank you to everyone who responded, gave tips, gave leads, but it led us to. I have no idea why I didn't think about this. I remember when I was still at KVU working the media, there were some Herb Street boys at Cedar Park, but I didn't put two and two, two together and it led us to the father of those boys, who happens to be the cousin of kirk herb street and they all grew up in ohio uh, brian herb street, and we got together on thursday late afternoon and this is it. I'm still blown away of how quickly we got it done and then we all met. If you look at Brian, there's some strong resemblance to Kirk there is.
Speaker 4:I heard a talking. Even the voice a little bit sounded like Kirk. That was great on your part. I thank you so much for that.
Speaker 3:It means nothing.
Speaker 4:It's really nice and you said the way that you got it on Twitter and you got some trust in people that you could get it and the division of society, but that's what a dog does, but that's what a dog does. That's what a dog does. A dog can bring people together and dogs are positive and if you really love dogs, there's going to be a positive among whoever's around the dog, because they are always positive. There's no's around the dog, because they are always positive. There's no division in a dog. There's no division in dogs. They bring people together.
Speaker 4:And certainly this story with Kirk and Ben Wow, you can tell there's no division ever in that story. So that was great meeting Brian and I'm glad his father is gonna be able to take Ben to Kirk and he's doing it pretty soon here and and then he's going later on to meet Kirk for Thanksgiving and they're all going to be together and so you can see, not just because of Ben, but there's no division there. That family looks real close together and I like that story. So I thank you again and I thank Brian for coming out and meeting us yesterday at where we met and so it was special. It was very special and I just feel good that Ben is finally going to get to meet Kirk again in a painting, but hopefully it's going to mean something to him and that was a great connection, great work. It was a good double play. We combined for a good double play to win the ballgame.
Speaker 3:We did and you were the closer. You got it done. And, if anything, as we move forward in life, this is a good example, man. It proves that set aside all the politics and do what's right and just do good things for humanity. I love this and I think you are now forever connected to the Herb Street family. I know you don't do it for praise, it's just who you are but I can't wait to see Kirk receive it. I know you can't either, but Rudy Alvarez is somebody who everyone should know, or someone like him. Coach, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to finish it off with a little. There's kind of a big ball game that Kirk will probably talk about. It involves your Longhorns, a renewal of a Southwest Conference rivalry. We got to get Coach Alvarez's take on this. You have about five minutes. Sure, I do. We're going to take a quick break after we hear about our partners at Jim Saxton's State Farm.
Speaker 1:The Saxton name resonates in Austin. Jim's late father, james Saxton, is a Longhorn legend, a Heisman finalist while playing for Daryl K Royal, and Jimmy is a UT football legacy from Westlake.
Speaker 6:He has been insuring Austin for decades, he and his staff will give you old school hospitality when servicing your insurance needs and I know those guys are in that locker room right now talking about that game and talking about that environment, um and and, in owning that environment and why it's important to own it and having the right poise and composure, staying enamored with what we need to do. But I know all 11 of those guys probably got a pretty bad taste in their mouth and got a chip on their shoulder from the last time we were there.
Speaker 2:I think Sarton knew exactly what he needed and he's built it that way. Coming from Alabama and he's been in the league, I think he knew exactly what he needed and I think he went out and got it and it was size and it was certainly uh, speed. And he went out and everybody knows you've got to have a quarterback and he's got two of them, that are maybe three. I've seen two that are extremely good players coach.
Speaker 3:uh, people are watching this. On Saturday morning at the 9 am hour. The game kicks off at 11 in Fayetteville, arkansas. I actually was there three years ago and that was awful I mean awful for Texas Arkansas. Just put it on them and it just shows the difference in how much this game means to Arkansas, the state, the program, the players, a lot of people from Texas on Arkansas and historically has. But you and I are very familiar with the old Southwest Conference days and they played every year. Arkansas has won five of the last seven meetings as non-conference members. What's your take on this rivalry? Did it mean as much to Texas fans back in the SWC days? What's your take on what it is now?
Speaker 4:I think it meant a lot. Remember the Razorbacks we were the.
Speaker 4:Razorbacks. You know, yeah, razorbacks, we were playing the Razorbacks and they always had a tough team. They always had a tough football team and at that time back in the day is when the Longhorns were strong also. So it was just one of the best rivalries. I used to love to watch Arkansas and Texas, one of the best rivalries. I used to love to watch Arkansas and Texas, and I'm sure that come up this Saturday it's going to be a good one, it's going to be. You know, we're thinking right now, like you and me God, we're playing Arkansas. So we know, even though we're ranked way up, I know we're ranked, but you and I are thinking, oh, it's still Arkansas. I'm kind of scared, I'm worried.
Speaker 4:When you showed that picture up there on your commercial, that number 10, james Saxon when you saw that, I started thinking back in the day when I used to watch him, I used to call him the rabbit Really. Yeah, call him the rabbit Really. Yeah, he was the rabbit. He was James Saxon, the rabbit Saxon, and he was number 10. I remember he was a halfback and he could just, he looked like catching, he was almost catching a rabbit. Yeah, oh yeah. Those legs would go left and right, they had long legs, kind of tall, if I remember. But I used to just think that guy can run the football and when I saw him on that picture with number 10, it brought back memories of the Longhorns back then. So, yeah, it's going to be a good one. It's going to be a good one and, like I said, I know we're ranked way up high, but it doesn't matter. It's Arkansas.
Speaker 3:It means so much to them. I do. There is, with the portal nowadays and NIL mainly the portal, this is becoming more and more common. But there's Jaquinden Jackson, who was a great, great quarterback for Duncanville when they got rolling here, recently Started out of Texas, I believe he transferred to Utah and is now a running back for Arkansas. Do you remember Jaquinden? I remember the name.
Speaker 4:I remember him a little bit and actually saw him play a little bit.
Speaker 4:I watch all the college football games yeah, you and I both well, actually I've seen him already, but yeah and, and this portal thing that you mentioned and all these teams, uh, you'll see a starting lineup of a team, of a college football team, and they'll mention a player and they'll mention about three colleges you've already been to. That's kind of to me, that's kind of you know you're talking about back to the old days. You know old school if you would. I still can't get used to it. I can't get used to players that are playing for their third or fourth college and they're just juniors or they skipped a year or they've gone to two colleges. It's just I don't know. I'm okay with change. I don't think everything has to be old school, even though that's the way I coach is old school, but I just can't get used to that one. I can't get used to somebody playing for somebody one year, next year, the next year, somebody the next year and jumping to the next team. So it's kind of hard to find a loyal team.
Speaker 3:It is. It's like free agency. Do you think you can give a prediction, or do you want me to go first? Okay, let me tell you some of my predictions.
Speaker 4:okay, I tell my friends all the time they ask me about predictions what do you think about tomorrow? How is he going to win? I said I don't ever make predictions. I don't ever make a who's going to beat who, because you don't know, have no clue. And sometimes you predict you might come close and every now and then you might even get the score. But I doubt you'll ever get the score. But I don't make predictions. I never have. And people would always ask me when I got in the playoffs well, what do you think you're going to be? What do you think the score's going to be tomorrow? I said I'll never know. I have to play the game to think the score is going to be tomorrow. I never know. I have to play the game to know the score. I have to play the game to know the score. How about you? What do you think?
Speaker 3:I can't give a numerical score, but you and I are in the same boat. We've seen this series. Although Texas has dominated it, it's just like, oh you, you don't know what's going to happen. That's going to be a hostile, hostile environment in Fayetteville.
Speaker 4:Oh, my goodness, Tell me about it. I have PTSD. They're going to have those hats on, those ugly, ugly old hats that they wear on those ugly, ugly old hats that they wear. That's one thing. The guy, Lee Corso, when he puts that on. I hope he don't put that ugly hat on. I wish I could call him and tell him and say, look, I know you got to make a choice, but if you do put that, it's going to be the ugliest hat you've ever put on.
Speaker 3:A big red hog hat.
Speaker 4:And it's sticking out too. It's sticking out like this, oh yeah, that's right, the big snap. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:My cousins With the teeth oh, yeah, the teeth, that's right. Oh, my cousin Tammy and I. She was born and raised in and she and her family are right outside of Fayetteville. She's a U of A graduate Our whole entire lives. We rib each other when Texas-Arkansas plays. I went up there in 2021 for the game, sat with them in their seats. I still have PTSD from it because I was verbally abused for four hours. I'll say this Texas could win by six. They could lose by six. Texas could win by six. They could lose by six. They could lose by 20. And Texas could win by 20. Anything, as Coach said, can happen in this game. That's why it's so hard to predict it.
Speaker 4:And I'm really not a coach that is against any teams. Really I don't hate teams. You know my Yankees and Boston. I don't hate Boston. Boston's got some good ballplayers and I like some other players. That's the way I am. About other teams, I don't hate anybody. But I do not like one saying, because I don't know what it is and I haven't looked it up and I don't really care about it, but I don't like when somebody says suey pig Woo, what is?
Speaker 3:that about Call them the hogs, baby. There's two things.
Speaker 4:I don't like that and I don't like to see teams that their main cheer is horns down. Everybody does. Their main cheer is horns down. Don't you have a cheer for your team? Don't you have something to do when you're playing the game to show on camera that you're for your team instead of you're more against the other team than you're for your team? So when they show the horns down to me it's like wait a minute, show me something that you're for your team. You know the whole ball game. They sit there the horns down against texas, but show me some sign that you're for your team coach I?
Speaker 3:I see it all the time from fans, and they're not even playing Texas. They do it.
Speaker 4:That's the one I don't understand. I saw one the other night. I was watching the football game. They had their horns down and I said wait a minute, Wait a minute, I don't get it.
Speaker 3:It's weird. Hey, let's end this thing with some good, solid positivity.
Speaker 4:Hey, man, tell me something good.
Speaker 3:As we've noticed in this episode, there are more acts of kindness and really just generous people like Coach Alvarez. But for you, coach, tell me something good. It could be inspiring, motivational or just something that you've noticed that maybe others should see more of.
Speaker 4:Well, I like to see when people are happy that other things happen to other people good things. I like to see when people praise other people because good things happen to them and not be jealous or not have criticism or not have something bad to say. I like to see when the athlete does something or not just an athlete, anybody for people to say that is great, that's good, I'm happy for them, Instead of making a negative remark.
Speaker 3:Making a negative remark oh, he did this or she did this or they did this just be happy for people that have something good in their lives I love that everybody should follow that advice instead of quickly finding some way to tear down a person and kick a person when they're down or just because they're unhappy to project on others. I'll tell you something good. I think rivalries like Texas-Arkansas are great and good because we have not, texas and Arkansas have not been conference rivals since 1991 was the last time, or I can't remember 91. I think it's great. We're about to emerge where the past meets the future and the young people are starting to learn this.
Speaker 3:Being a member of the SEC playing A&M again Arkansas, I think it's a bridge to really understand how people like you and, I think, how we were raised, what we were raised on, and I may be going deep here, but I also think that, in the grand scheme of things, when you merge older generations with younger, only good can come out of that. That's. I know I'm going deep, but I think there's a possibility. No, that's great.
Speaker 4:The older generation and new generation getting closer together really helps the younger people and the older people. I always think that you know somebody always says I don't like Austin, it's not like it used to be.
Speaker 2:Well, guess what buddy.
Speaker 4:Guess what, buddy? It's not going to be the same. I don't care what your age is. Accept what it is and quit trying to change everything back to 1842. It's not going to be that. You're not going to have a covered wagon coming by your house, Right?
Speaker 3:It's not like we're back in Waterloo.
Speaker 4:No, no, you're not going to have those things anymore, and so people just complain too much about I want Austin the way it was. I don't think you survive if it was the way it was. No.
Speaker 3:One thing's inevitable. I know it's cliche change, we're always changing.
Speaker 4:Just go with it. Just go with it and be happy about what's in front of you. Quit looking back.
Speaker 3:That's right. And one thing, coach, I'll admit I just learned four years ago, maybe two years ago quit worrying about things we have zero control over and just make sure we put positivity in front of us kind of what you said.
Speaker 4:It just causes stress, and stress is the number one killer of people.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's horrible. Heart conditions, everything. Yeah, coach, I appreciate it and I'm so grateful that I was able to help you just to connect with the Herbstreet family to get that beautiful painting of Ben to Kirk and his family for Thanksgiving. I'm just overly grateful that I could help you with that. It's great because not only that, you helped me for Thanksgiving, I'm just overly grateful that I could help you with that.
Speaker 4:It's great, because not only that you helped me and that we got something done that we might have not.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 4:Maybe we never got it, I don't know. We've done something right, but it's great that it happened right at a good word Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3:Time to be grateful, coach. It should have happened earlier, but this was just ideal timing to do it on this topic. But I will tell you this Whenever you have an opportunity to talk about Texas and Arkansas playing any sport, and especially when an individual like Rudy Alvarez does something out of passion, from his heart the painting of Ben Herbstreit it's always good to talk about it. You.