Verne Lundquist Was A Pure Player Back In the Day

Sports Illustrated‘s Richard Deitsch has a Q&A with longtime broadcaster Verne Lundquist. Around here, you may remember him from his days at WFAA. If you watch college football, you likely think of him as your kindly Uncle Verne. Here is how he met Nancy, his wife of 30 years:

We met in a bar — and I hasten to add it was an upscale bar in Dallas. It was a place called Arthur’s. I walked in after I did the 10 o’clock news (at WFAA-TV in Dallas) and I just didn’t want to go home. Nancy and her date were at the bar and her date recognized me from local television and invited me over to have a drink. He introduced me to his date and her name was Nancy Miller. It was their first date, a blind date. So we sat and chatted and her date, Raymond Willie, said to me, “Listen, I know you are single. I’m going to fix you up with a friend of mind and we can all go to dinner.” He looked at Nancy and asked her, “What are you doing Thursday night?” She said, “Nothing.” He said, “Good, you’ll be my date and we’ll fix Verne up with this schoolteacher friend of mine and we’ll go to dinner.” Meanwhile, I’m looking at Nancy thinking she is the prettiest thing I have ever seen in my life. So, Raymond finally left to take care of his business and I asked Nancy, “So, how involved are you with Raymond? She said, “Oh, this is our first date and it’s a blind date.” So I said, “Well forget what he is talking about on Thursday night. What are you doing on Saturday night?” She said, “I think I am doing whatever you are doing.”

Unrelated: I just accepted an internship with Lundquist and will be leaving D immediately. You guys have been great.