Dan Pastorini goes one on one with Dave Ward
This month, former Houston Oilers quarterback great Dan Pastorini will be inducted into the Houston Sports Hall Fame.
The other 2019 inductees also include H-Town sports legends like heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, Masters champion Jackie Burke Jr. and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt.
Pastorini sat down with Dave, ahead of his big honor, to open up about the famous Luv Ya Blue era of the 1970s in the now shuttered Astrodome.
It turns out Dave saw every game Pastorini and Oilers running back Earl Campbell played, plus every game Bum Phillips coached.
Not only was Dave a fan of the team, but the longtime television news anchor also worked for the Houston Oilers radio crew from 1972 to 1980.
“Ron Stone (KPRC 2) and Ron Franklin (KHOU 11 and eventually ESPN) were with us and we had some great times,” Dave recalled in a 2016 interview about his time covering and travelling with the team. “We went to home and away [games], we flew with the team on the Oilers charter. And I got to know all of those guys real well.”
With their shared game experiences, Dave reminisces with Pastorini about the former Houston NFL team, its iconic coach Phillips and Pastorini’s path to greatness. The NFL great also talks about how he has recently turned his life around.
Pastorini and this year’s inductees will join Earl Campbell, former Houston Rockets Center/NBA champion Hakeem Olajuwon and former Houston Astros pitcher Nolan Ryan who were the 2018 inaugural honorees.
The second annual Houston Sports Awards presentation takes place
February 6, 2019 at the Hilton Americas-Houston.
To learn more about the awards and how to get tickets to the event, log onto houstonsportsawards.com.
