The Write Team Podcast

It wasn't luxurious. It wasn't built for bankers or America's social elite. It was simple, practical, rugged—and designed for people who had never imagined they could own an automobile. On October 1, 1908, Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T. Henry Ford's vision of a car for the “great multitude” would eventually transform transportation, manufacturing, American communities, and the very ide...

🏈🔥 WE'VE REACHED THE HALFWAY POINT OF THE EAST TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON! Week 5 is in the books, and David Weaver and Matt Paul are back From The Press Box to break down the biggest stories and look ahead to Week 6. Tatum makes a statement with its fourth straight win, Carthage passes a major road test, and unbeaten Lindale keeps finding ways to win. Plus, Pine Tree cracks the state Top...

September 30, 1946. Inside Courtroom 600 of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany, men who had once occupied the highest levels of Nazi power waited for judgment. For more than ten months, prosecutors had presented documents, testimony, photographs, and film detailing aggressive war, persecution, mass murder, and the horrors of the Holocaust. Now the International Military Tribunal began del...

September 29, 1982. Television audiences walked into a little neighborhood bar in Boston for the first time—a place where everybody would eventually know your name. Cheers premiered on NBC, introducing viewers to Sam Malone, Diane Chambers, Norm Peterson, Cliff Clavin, Carla Tortelli, Coach, and a collection of characters who would become television favorites. But success was anything but guarante...

🏈🔥 WHO'S REALLY THE BEST TEAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL? David Weaver and Matt Paul are back From The Press Box after another wild weekend that raised plenty of questions across the college football landscape. Is Georgia making its case as the nation's best team — or does Texas still deserve the top spot after surviving a tough trip to Tennessee? The guys also dig into the growing concerns at Texas A&...

September 28, 1887. Days of relentless rain pushed China's Yellow River beyond its limits. Then the levees failed. Water swept across northern China, swallowing villages, destroying farmland, and leaving survivors without food, shelter, or clean drinking water. But the flood itself was only the beginning. Famine and disease followed, helping make the 1887 Yellow River Flood one of the deadliest na...

September 27, 1864. Centralia, Missouri. It began as another day of robbery. It ended as one of the bloodiest episodes of guerrilla warfare during the American Civil War. Approximately 80 pro-Confederate guerrillas led by William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson rode into Centralia, Missouri. Among the riders were young men whose names would later become synonymous with the Old West—Jesse James, Frank Ja...

September 26, 2024. Imagine waking up every morning not knowing whether it might be your last. For decades, that was the reality for former professional boxer Iwao Hakamata. Arrested in Japan in 1966 for the murders of four members of a family, Hakamata signed a confession after lengthy interrogations that he later said involved intimidation and abuse. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and spe...

September 25, 1875. Before he became Billy the Kid, he was a poor, orphaned teenager named Henry McCarty living in Silver City, New Mexico. After stolen property was discovered in his room, the teenager found himself locked inside the local jail. Then he spotted an unlikely escape route. The chimney. On September 25, McCarty somehow squeezed through the narrow opening, climbed onto the roof, and d...

Elysian Fields ISD has plenty to celebrate. The district climbed from a C to a B in the latest Texas accountability ratings—progress Superintendent Amy Dickson says makes her incredibly proud. But she also wants Elysian Fields to be known for something bigger. On this episode of School House Rocks, Dickson joins host David Weaver for a wide-ranging conversation about what it really means to provid...

Before the Hallsville ISD Board of Trustees gets down to the business of running a school district, there's an important item at the beginning of each regular meeting: Celebrate the people who make Hallsville ISD special. On this episode of School House Rocks, Superintendent John Martin joins host David Weaver to share some of the latest success stories from across Bobcat Nation—including several...

September 24, 1952. South Salt Lake City, Utah. Colonel Harland Sanders was already in his sixties. He had bounced from job to job, endured setbacks, watched a new highway bypass his restaurant, and found himself nearly broke at an age when most people were thinking about retirement. But Sanders wasn't finished. Armed with a fried-chicken recipe, a pressure cooker, and his famous blend of eleven h...

🏈🔥 DISTRICT FOOTBALL HAS ARRIVED — AND THINGS ARE ALREADY GETTING INTERESTING. Terrell made a huge statement against Texas High. Jefferson continues to look like a serious contender. Hallsville's defense is turning heads. Waskom's Slot-T is rolling. And Whitehouse may have announced itself as a team to watch in District 6-5A Division II. David Weaver and Matt Paul break down the biggest East Tex...

Three years ago, Smackover-Norphlet Superintendent Bo Smith and his leadership team went to work building a new culture across the district. Now, the results are showing. On this episode of School House Rocks, Smith joins host David Weaver to discuss Smackover-Norphlet's newly released Arkansas school ratings—and why the numbers represent much more than a letter grade. Smackover-Norphlet earned an...

September 23, 1955. Sumner, Mississippi. Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till had been brutally murdered after traveling from Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the courageous decision to let the world see what had been done to her son. Then came the trial. On September 23, an all-white, all-male jury acquitted Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam of Till's murder. Months...

🐝🏈 EVERYBODY IS 0-0 NOW. Elysian Fields closed non-district play with a tough 18-14 loss at Mount Enterprise, but Coach Bo Maines says the first four games helped the Yellowjackets discover who they are — and make some significant changes along the way. Now the Jackets get a fresh start as District 11-2A play begins Friday night at rival Harleton. Coach Maines joins David Weaver to discuss the J...

September 22, 1861. A horse race at Fort Fauntleroy in the New Mexico Territory erupted into violence when U.S. troops opened fire on a gathering of Navajo families—an incident remembered as the Ration Day Massacre. Also today: the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, the premieres of Friends and Lost, boxing's infamous “Long Count,” Joan Jett, George C. Scott, and Jeremiah 6:7. 🎧 The Write Tea...

🐾🏈 THE BOBCATS ARE 1-0 IN DISTRICT! Hallsville opened district play with a hard-fought 14-10 road victory over Greenville, powered by one of the Bobcats' best defensive performances in recent memory. On this week's Coach Strickland Show, head coach Josh Strickland joins David Weaver to break down the win, including a defense that produced 11 stops, Remington Franklin's tough running and Connor L...

🏈🔥 CAN WE FINALLY MOVE ON FROM THE LANE KIFFIN DRAMA? David Weaver and Matt Paul welcome special guest Jerry Gibson to From The Press Box for another lively trip around the college football landscape. Ole Miss and LSU finally settled things on the field in Oxford — but could their paths cross again? The guys also debate whether Texas Tech is vulnerable in the Big 12, revisit Vanderbilt's unbelie...

September 21, 1780. Benedict Arnold secretly met British intelligence officer Major John André and finalized a plot to surrender West Point to the British. Once one of America's celebrated military heroes, Arnold would instead become the nation's enduring symbol of betrayal. Also today: The Hobbit, the birth of Monday Night Football, Rocky Marciano's final fight, Jerry Bruckheimer, Flo-Jo, and Isa...

September 20, 1962. Oxford, Mississippi. Air Force veteran James Meredith arrived at the University of Mississippi seeking to exercise his court-ordered right to enroll. Gov. Ross Barnett personally blocked him, escalating a confrontation over segregation into a national civil rights crisis. Also today: the Battle of the Sexes, Sophia Loren, Jim Croce, “Sugar, Sugar,” National Queso Day, and Song...

September 19, 1937. Folsom, California. Behind the towering granite walls of Folsom State Prison, seven desperate convicts launched a violent escape attempt that would become one of the deadliest episodes in the prison's history. Armed with homemade weapons, the inmates seized Warden Clarence A. Larkin and Correctional Officer Roy G. Best as hostages and attempted to force their way toward freedom...

A school district is more than a letter grade—and student success is about more than a test score. On this episode of School House Rocks, host David Weaver welcomes Karnack ISD Superintendent Angela Fitzpatrick back to the show for an update on the new school year and an inside look at how the small East Texas district is measuring progress from the classroom all the way to the school board. At th...

September 18, 1975. San Francisco. After more than a year of kidnapping, radical politics, bank robberies, violence, and a nationwide manhunt, federal agents finally captured Patty Hearst, granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Nineteen-year-old Hearst had been kidnapped in 1974 by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army. Weeks later, she shocked the country by announcing that...

🏐🐾 THE LADYCATS ARE OFF AND RUNNING IN DISTRICT PLAY! Hallsville head volleyball coach Andrew Harbison returns to From The Press Box to talk with David Weaver about his first season leading the Ladycats and a strong start to district competition. Hallsville challenged itself with a demanding non-district schedule against high-level 5A and 6A competition. Now, Coach Harbison believes those experi...