Like every fifth episode, it’s Kevin + Steph sharing their stories with you. This week, they are joined by a former teacher of Kevin’s from Bloom Carroll High School, Coach Larry Blackstone. (This is part 1 of that conversation.)
Coach Blackstone is old school and isn’t afraid to make fun of Kevin for a variety of things. This conversation includes:
– Some HILARIOUS stories about being a twin with his brother, Barry.
– Coach being Kevin’s driver’s education instructor in high school.
– College football stories from his career and then getting drafted by the Oakland Raiders.
– How the legendary John Madden picked up him at the airport for the Raiders training camp.
After listening, you will understand why Coach Blackstone is so highly regarded by his former students and athletes. Also, make sure to check out part 2 of this great conversation as well!
Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. Head to our website HERE for video clips, more episodes, and information about Kevin + Steph. And don’t forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts!
To connect with Kevin + Steph:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
📘 Their book titled ‘You Met Her WHERE?!’ can be ordered here: 👉 kevinandsteph.com/shop/
Access the Show Transcript Here
[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. Today, like every fifth episode, it’s Steph and I sharing our own stories with you. However, this conversation is going to be a little bit different as we are honored to share stories with a former teacher of mine from Bloom Carroll High School, Coach Larry Blackstone. Oh my gosh, you guys. Kevin has been so excited to get to talk to Coach Blackstone, and we were honored to have this conversation with him. As you will hear, Coach is hilarious, and as old school as it gets, he was also not afraid to make fun of my husband, which I loved. That’s true. The very first thing he said to me when he walked in our house was, hey, when are you going to shave? And what was the last thing he said to you? He said, hey, you got a great family here. Don’t screw it up. Well, coach, I’m doing my best. You guys, this was so fun. And I can tell why coach is so adored by his former players and students. And we had so much fun talking to coach that we were able to split this into two episodes. So you guys, here’s part one of our conversation with coach Larry Blackstone. I’m Kevin and I’m Stephanie and during our marriage we have dealt with an electrocution a brain tumor brain surgery then doctors telling us that children were not in our future followed by miscarriage and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis however today you live a life completely healed and restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible and we’re here to tell stories that inspire give hope and brighten your day welcome to tell us a good story.
[1:29] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple podcast or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our posts across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to chip and joanna please share us with your friends but regardless thank you for listening to tell us a good story all right steph oh my gosh don’t say all right steph i know you are so flipping excited about this guest you have been putting him on for years it’s finally happening don’t come in with like all right stuff like you’re all calm because you are not calm right now i am so excited this is years in the making well ladies and gentlemen please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, my former school teacher at Bloom Carroll High School, Coach Larry Blackstone. Coach Larry Blackstone! Thank you. I may get loud. Debbie says I’m loud. Kevin says I’m loud, so it’s fine. You are. I agree with Kevin.
[2:42] Coach, I cannot believe you’re actually here, quite honestly. I’m looking forward to it. Have you been? Oh, yeah. Heck yes. Why wouldn’t I? Well, I’m thrilled because I’ve asked you, I don’t know, probably for the past three years, if you would record a conversation. And I say yes every time, but you never called.
[2:59] I thought it was crickets. I thought you didn’t get back with me. No, no, no, no. Okay. So apparently Coach listens to every episode. Which I am blown away by. I’m so excited about that. I am too. And when did you start listening, Coach? As soon as I knew you were doing it. Really? Yeah, I might have missed one or two until I found out exactly what was going on. But I’ve listened to nearly every one. And I send these all to my daughter and my brother and some friends. And they like the same thing. In fact, they wait on me to send them. Do they really? Really? Yeah, when you all take a break or something, they say, hey, how come you haven’t sent me any of those? Oh, that’s awfully nice. I love that. So, Coach here, let me give context here for people. And again, I’m so amazed you’re here right now. I’m so happy. You were a teacher at Bloom-Carroll High School during my freshman and sophomore years at the school, which, Steph, is almost 30 years ago. It’s crazy. you are old. I’m so old.
[3:57] I’m amazed we’ve kept in touch this long. So coach here, he taught my health class when I was in 10th grade. He was my driver’s ed instructor. He was the head varsity football coach. And he was constantly trying to recruit me to play football there. Okay. I have a question right off the bat. What is harder coaching high school football, a driver’s ed teacher or being a freshman sophomore health instructor well they were all they were all the part of the deal you know teaching and coaching and all that as all came together i did the driver’s training as a side job okay because teachers weren’t making a whole lot of money 30 years ago so i’ve sold insurance i’ve sold real estate i’ve taught driver’s ed on the side trying to make a living, But Kevin was, I’ll tell you this, Kevin was an athlete, a basketball player. He wasn’t real tall. I mean, he was, you know, I’m thinking football might be his sport.
[4:57] And he was really a corner or running back or anything in football. I could have found him a spot easy. And I kept talking to him. So, you know, we’ve been friends ever since. Yes. And that’s amazing, really, because I never actually coached him. But he’s one of them guys that I never actually got a chance to coach and always wanted to, but he would never play. So the year I left Bloom Carroll High School, the next year he played football.
[5:27] I don’t know. I never did understand that. But anyway, I always thought he could have been really a good football player. I was always very small until I had a growth for about my sophomore year. And so then I think my parents were finally comfortable with allowing me to play. So that was why. And I wasn’t going to, but I thought, okay, would I regret this later on, not playing? And so I did my junior year and kind of wish I wouldn’t have now. Really? Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. I want to know. Any drivers that stories? I don’t recall any of that. Most kids in those days, they mowed the yards and did all these other. Isn’t that the truth? Yay. Nowadays, if you teach, I mean, like my daughter, she’s never mowed the yard. She’s never driven on any kind of a tractor or truck or a car. And I actually took her to bloom Carol one day over in the parking lot. I was trying to teach her to drive and was getting a little irritated with her. Of course it was a stick, you know, stick shift. Yeah. And she had no knowledge of that, but I didn’t realize the cheerleaders were practicing over on the side. And they were hearing me yell at my daughter. So she was embarrassed and she never got in the car again.
[6:42] That’s all right. So I remember stuff doing driver’s ed with coach here. And back then I would have say a two hour driving session here with coach. He would have me drive basically the long way to get to Taco Bell or Long John Silver’s. And so I would have basically an hour of driving and then an hour with coach, eating at Taco Bell or… Wait, just the two of you? Oh, yeah. What? Oh, yeah, just the two of us. Oh, that’s amazing. You had the average two hours, so you can’t drive. You could drive 100 miles, and I was paying for the gas and the car, too, so we’d run errands, and then we’d stop and eat, and I’d get paid for it.
[7:24] Debbie, your wife’s calling, like, hey, honey, can you go stop and get this at the grocery for me? So you have a book that you wrote a few years ago here coach and so there’s some awesome stories in here the first thing i want you to talk about is being a twin ed your brother is barry right you’re of course larry right and most people can’t tell you guys apart right even today i think most people can’t tell you apart right and in the book you talked about how your family even struggled telling you apart well actually uh my mother couldn’t even tell us apart when we were babies They put us in a crib and they had bands on our wrists so they could tell us the part. I don’t know whether our names were on them or they were a different color or whatever. But one day my mother came in and the bands, we had taken the bands off.
[8:13] So I might be Barry. And Barry might be Larry. I don’t know. So she never was completely sure that she got him back on the right way. So anyway, yeah, twins. Let me tell you a story about twins. Please. Barry was a football coach as well. We both coached 54 years. Oh, man. I had 33 years in high school coaching and 21 in college. Okay. Jeez. And Barry had about the same. But anyway, he was at Hilliard, and they were playing somebody. And the official was at his game, officiating. Well, the next morning, I was at Lancaster High School, and we were playing Grove City.
[8:57] So I go down to Grove City JV game. During the game, it already started. I got there late, and I got on the sideline. And the official comes over to me and says, hey, what are you doing here?
[9:08] I thought, what are you talking about? Well, here Barry had had this same official the night before at a varsity game. And he was kind of short, and Barry called him a midget or something. Anyway, he made fun of him. And the next day, here I am at a completely different site, and he’s trying to throw me off the field. I said, hey. He said, like he knew me. I said, I don’t even know who you are. He said, you know who I am. And went on and on and tried to get me off the field. And finally, someone came up and told him, said, no. He’s a twin. Yeah, he’s a twin. You had his brother last night.
[9:49] We do look alike. We still look alike. We talk a lot alike and all that. Yes. And there’s a story in the book about you going to your brother’s high school game and even the fans getting you confused. Right. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. Like going to concession stands? He was at Troy High School and I’d go to a game. he’d come to our games I’d go to his, And then I went to concession stand and was getting something to eat there. And the woman come up and said, what are you doing here? I said, what do you mean? She said, you should be in the locker room. I said, hey, that’s my brother.
[10:23] He’s the head coach here. I’m his brother. She didn’t believe it. So you had fans coming over like, hey, coach, shouldn’t you be coaching out there on the field? You’re like, no, no, no. That’s my brother. That’s my brother. And he had the same thing. He’d come to our game. One time, forget not exactly what happened. But the freshman coach at the school I was at said to my brother, hey, what do you want us to do here with the freshmen? And well, Barry just said, just take them on out on the field there. Well, then the head coach where I was at, I was an assistant, came out on the field and said, what are our freshmen out on the field for? I don’t know. Harry Barry had told him just go on out on the field. So those kind of things happen quite often, really. Go ahead. I was going to say, any time, did you and your brother switch places in high school or elementary or anything? Well, you know how you go to the shoe store, and they’d size your shoe. Yes. So we went. Mom took Barry and I both in to get new shoes every April, Easter. The guy measured my right foot and went, got the shoes, came out, and we’d switch places. And Barry had his left shoe off. Okay. And the guy measured it. he said hey uh told my mom said his left foot is bigger than his right foot and my mom says what she couldn’t believe it and she figured out i said they’ve they’ve changed places.
[11:47] His fit he’s a half-sized beggar than him so yeah did you guys ever get in fights as a kid yeah oh yeah yeah you know we got in fights all the time uh brothers well right now if you tried to fight him, and you’d have both of us on you, but, anytime we’d fight, Mom would say, you know how this was in the older days, Mom would say, wait until your dad gets home. Yes.
[12:11] So when he’d get home, he’d take us out, we were on a farm, he’d take us out of the barn, he’d get a bale of hay, sit on the bale of hay, and said, Really? Yeah, he’d make us fight. So I’d shove him, and he’d shove him in, and we’d end up in a fight. Get out of your system, boys. But it wasn’t something we’d look forward to because we’re both about the same. Right. So it wasn’t like he was going to beat me. I mean, it was. It’s like you’re fighting yourself. Yeah, it was fairly even. So you’re going to take some hits along the way. One other story here about twins. We had the barn. you know we’re on this farm so they had the basket was in the barn okay basketball hoop basketball hoop so we’re shooting basket about every day and one day i was beating him pretty good there and uh bent over to get the ball and he hit me with a two before yeah we were fairly competitive so he hit me with a two before and i mean knocked me out so i was coming to he said don’t tell dad as I’m telling them. So yeah, those things happen all the time. Yeah.
[13:23] Steph, did you know that Tell Us A Good Story has a YouTube channel? Wait, seriously? So apparently you don’t watch it. Absolutely not. That’s what I thought. But it’s because you know I don’t like to watch myself. That’s true. That is true. But friends, we have a YouTube channel we would love for you to check out. So if you would like to see video clips of us with prior guests. Or some entire episodes. Or videos of my wife here scaring guests with her excitement. Oh, that too. You can see all of that by going to YouTube and searching Tell Us a Good Story. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. Yes. But as always, you guys, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. Oh, my gosh. Did you guys play high school football? We played high school football. And actually, Barry was probably better in football than I was in high school. And he was all state and I was all league, but he was all state. And then we went to college, the same college, Fairmont State College in West Virginia. And because of my position, I was a fullback. And he was kind of a blocking back so i’d be i got more awards than he did right but he was still probably better but he may listen this too i better not say that.
[14:31] I was all american and i got all the honors because of the position i played but we had a really good team we won a national championship and all that so okay he’s he’s actually being humble here all right i’ve got a few fun facts here are you ready for this stuff Yes. So let me back up just a few years. Fun fact number one about coach. He graduated from Liberty Union High School in 1964, was named all league in football, basketball, and track. He also played baseball. Okay. It was listed as that. And he played baseball. So that led me to believe he wasn’t very good at baseball. All right. Then come to find out later on in his book that his high school team his junior and senior year won the state of ohio championship right so he was obviously good at baseball as well his high school football team when barry and larry were there they were 27 and 3 during their three seasons on varsity wow and then he qualified for the state meet in the 440 yard dash and track as well right would you say the 440 the 440 it was 440 then now it’s the 400 yeah yeah.
[15:37] So he did all this in high school. That’s true. Then he goes to Fairmont State College in West Virginia. Like he said, was named All-American at both fullback and defensive end. You played both ways. Yes. 1967. His team won the NAIA National Championship. He was named West Virginia’s Amateur Athlete of the Year. What? Yeah. Coach. He’s got that fairly accurate.
[16:04] Left out a few things. Any good playing stories from college, Coach, in West Virginia? Oh, yeah, a whole bunch of them. But championship game, we played Eastern Roisington. Okay. We played Northern Michigan in the semifinals, which, you know, nowadays they’re both Division I schools. Right. Eastern Roisington, we played them the championship. So I’d been in a car wreck the night before. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But, you know, the coach gave me a salt pill, and they wanted to take me to the hospital, but my coach said, I’ll take care of it. Salt pill yeah well he figured that corrected every injury okay okay in the old days that’s how they that’s what you took okay major issues but anyway so the next day where i played i didn’t play real well that game and champion but we won okay and barry was the uh player of the game he got the award for player of the game so we had a banquet after the game now i didn’t know he was go be player of the game but because i’d gotten all the awards up to that point but uh at the banquet they were naming the player of the game the guy was introducing you know he was saying he played both ways and barry played a little bit both ways and he’s a twin i’m thinking well that’s me i started sliding my chair back well i slid it back so i wouldn’t tip the table ever you know and then they said barry blackstone about i was always standing up you had your speech out I was standing up, hey, leading the applause.
[17:33] And he got the player of the game.
[17:37] Fairmont State. So then, after graduating from Fairmont. Let me tell you one more about Fairmont and Twins. We were out mowing, and I’m the guy that’s running the ball most of the time. Barry’s blocking. We can probably find somebody else to block. Anyway, we’re mowing the grass, and Fairmont’s in West Virginia, hillsides, and we’re mowing the yards. all of that. And the coach drove by, Coach Duvall drove by in the car and said he didn’t want me mowing that hillside. So he went and got a pair of football cleats. Okay. And when he came back, Barry said, where’s my cleats? Well, you’re okay. You don’t need cleats. And then what he didn’t notice, we had driven there on a motorcycle. Okay. And he said, Larry, you get in the car with me. And Barry said, how do you want me to get back? He said, you bring the motorcycle back.
[18:34] So you were precious cargo here taking care of you. Yeah, you got it. I totally get that. Yeah. So then Coach here, Steph, in 1968, was drafted by the Oakland Raiders. No. Okay. Did you lose your daggone mind? Like, did you just lose it? It had to be different than what it is today. It is. There was no ESPN. I was in the dorm at the college. Okay. And they only had one phone, pay phone. Okay. And they said they would call me. And I thought I was going to get drafted. And they said, we’ll call you. So I’m sitting by the pay phone in a chair about like I’m sitting here right now and guarding the phone. Yeah. Oh, I bet. So kids would come down, want to use the phone. I said, forget it.
[19:23] At that time, I was this star player. I said no out get out, So I sat there all day, and they never did call. They didn’t. I went back to the room, though, and heard a knock on the door. Okay. And they said a telegram for Larry Blackstone. Okay. So that’s how they notified you in 1968. Really? Like a Western Union telegram? Western Union telegram. And they said, congratulations, you’ve just been drafted by the Oakland Raiders, and we’ll be in touch. Do you still have the telegram? Yes. Do you? Was it Al Davis? was he the coach was the gm he was the gm okay yeah um i’ll tell you what the first time i flew to oakland okay you land in san francisco okay and this guy picks me up the airport big guy i thought well i didn’t know who it was well his name was john madden are you serious no i swear it was john madden so i’m driving across the golden gate bridge with john madden and a dodge Charger. I mean, I remember all this stuff. Oh my gosh. But it wasn’t John Madden that you all know. Oh. It was John Madden, the first year coach of the Oakland Raiders, assistant coach. Uh-huh. He became famous. He became famous, right? So, 50 years later, you know, John Madden, my grandsons, played in Madden football and all that stuff. It was the young John Madden who nobody knew yet. Nobody knew him. I didn’t know him.
[20:51] Big guy, though. Right. Over the years, I got to see him on tv and all that right oh my gosh yeah so he took me to the or to the practice place in oakland okay so what was training camp like did you have like a welcome to the oakland raiders moment it was no it was way different than it is today there’s no uh there was no red carpet but any moment when you’re practicing like oh my gosh this this isn’t at fairmont state i noticed this one time when you’re on the 50 yard line it looked like fairmont state is guys running plays and doing all this, but we got down the gold line one time.
[21:28] And i was supposed to run out on a pass pattern okay and things got quick i mean everybody was faster stronger bigger and you don’t know this name some of your listeners won’t either ben davison okay was the defensive end there and he’s six eight and about 280 which is really big in in our day so i’m running out there and he straight arms me which is illegal nowadays My helmet flew off, and I remember going after my helmet. It seemed like it was 30 yards away. I was totally embarrassed. Yeah. I’m running after my helmet to put it back on. He had knocked my helmet. Oh, my gosh.
[22:07] Ben Davison, though, he was a great player for them for a long time. Who else would have been on that team? Like Art Schell? No, he was actually drafted the same year I was. He was? Okay. He was the guy that lockered right beside me. Art Schell. Really? Yeah. You do know that name. Who became the first black coach in the NFL. He became a coach at Oakland and all that. I followed his career and all that. But, yeah, he locked it right beside my heart’s shell. Yep. Do you still talk to any of your teammates? Oakland? Yeah. No. No. Actually, Barry and Mike Furry, his son-in-law, went to the whatever convention in Hawaii a couple years back. And they introduced Barry to the leader, and he was a former Raider player. And he said, is your brother Larry Blackstone? And they were, yes. They remembered. Yeah, they did. Oh, that’s special. How long were you with the Raiders? Three months. Okay. Oh. My dad called one day and said, you need to come home. You need to take your Army physical. This was during the Vietnam War. Really? Yeah. That was the end of my… So you had to do that. Right. Even if you were a professional athlete, you had to do it. Yep. Yeah, they had numbers. We had numbers. They drew my number. Oh. And dad called and said, hey, you need to come home. So, again, I went down to Al Davis, and he sent John Madden with me to the airport. So I actually rode back to the airport with John Madden in his Dodge Charger.
[23:33] Wow. So when you got the phone call, were you like, okay, I’m okay with this, or were you heartbroken? Well, I didn’t really understand what was happening. Yeah. Really? So I had never thought about it or anything. Yeah. I knew the war was going on. I knew they had my number. Yeah. it was like a you know they just drew numbers yeah the draft at that time yeah and Barry they never drew his number really no you should have had Barry sign up yeah and then you could have stayed I don’t I don’t think he would have done that no no.
[24:07] I did not know that so how long were you in the military then well on my way home or when i got home i don’t know how my coach figured this out my college football coach called our house i don’t know how he knew that we had no cell phones right but he some way found out that i was home and i had gone to columbus to fort hayes to take my army physical okay and he knew that within days i’d be gone he called hillsborough high school he knew the athletic director there was a former player at fairmont okay he said you need to hire this guy immediately and get me a teaching department yeah so i got a teaching deferment at hillsborough okay without an interview didn’t know where hillsborough was at any point but wow my coach was a special guy he lived to be 98 years old too but Deacon Duvall. Okay. And he always looked out for all his players, and hopefully that’s what my brother and I have done over at least some of the ways he dealt with things. So, hey, like you. Take care of you. I mean, hey, you call? Yes. I appreciate that. No question. Because when I talk to you and I ask you over the phone, you’re like, listen, I would do anything for you, Kevin. Right. And that just – And you didn’t even play football for me. That’s true. That’s true. Coach, that’s amazing, right? I know. Like this is 30 years later. I did not play for you. I’m not a former athlete.
[25:31] Well, I wasn’t coached by you. And yet here we are sitting at this table. You met our kids earlier. And just again, it’s like full circle for me. It’s amazing. It’s special. It’s great. So in the book that’s called the Blackstone brothers, and you can get this folks on Amazon. It is very, very funny. I just, I love these stories coach. So there’s a lot of stories about former players. Okay. Do you have any on your list here that you could share about former players, any coaching stories that you have. Yeah, I could mention a couple here. Let me tell you one about Jackson High School. Okay, that’s in Southern Ohio, right? Southern Ohio, interviewed for the job, principal in AD. I was the head coach at St. Paul’s College at the time, which is a predominantly black college. I was the only white head football coach at a predominantly black college at the time. Yeah. It was in Virginia. But anyway, the AD and the principal come down to see me. No, it was the superintendent in the AD. Okay. In St. Paul’s in Lawrenceville, Virginia. So anyway, they ended up, I had the job. Okay. At the interview, though, they said Todd Bactle. This is his name. Okay. Don’t scratch this out either.
[26:41] He’s actually passed away, but he was a great player at Jackson High School. And they said if you get him to play, you’ll win maybe two games. With him? With him. Without him, you’re not going to win any. Oh, man. They lost, I think, 19 or 20 in a row. So I’m thinking, well, Todd Bactle’s playing. Okay. So we hadn’t moved there. I was leaving town. I gassed the car up. Now, this is a true story. I gassed the car up. And the guy on the other pump right beside me had a Jackson jacket on. I said, hey, you play football? Thinking about it. He was trying to decide. He was going to transfer to another school because they were losing. I said, what’s your name anyway? He said, Todd Bactel. I said, hey, let me tell you something, Todd. You’re playing at Jackson High School next year, I can tell you right now. They just hired me as a head football coach here, and you’re playing. You’re my guy. Yeah. And I paid for his gas. Did you really? Yeah, paid the gas. That was legal. I don’t know. We went inside and I got him an ice cream cone. And I said, I’ll see you in two weeks. And he played. And he was as good as they said he was. How many games did he win? Two. We won two games.
[28:01] If you like what you hear, please tell someone about us. As soon as this episode is over, go tell your spouse, your closest friend, a parent, a co-worker, or share one of our posts on social media. However, if you don’t like what you’re hearing, please do not. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anybody. Just disregard this message. Don’t worry about it. Forget about us. Yep. Go on with your merry day. And to get more information about us or our entire catalog of episodes, be sure to check us out at KevinAndSteph.com. Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.
[28:30] Go ahead. One other story from Jackson. Okay. We had two guys there my first year there. His name was Butch Cooper and Dusty Sexton. Okay. Two good football players. But, again, you know, we weren’t winning. Yeah. But these were two guys that were, you know, they were tough kids. They just had been on a losing program, and it wasn’t very good. And I don’t know. They were just good guys. And every time they’d call a penalty on one of them, they penalized a lot. They’d say holding or hitting in the back, and I knew they were right. I mean, I never argued with the officials at Jackson because I knew our kids were doing something wrong. But anyway, here just a couple months ago, Butch Cooper had a reunion for our school. For your team. Okay. You knew a little bit about that. So I go to this, and now Butch is a minister. Oh, really? Yeah. He wasn’t a minister when I had him. Him and Dusty were anything but ministers. But anyway, Butch is a minister. So after the reunion, I told him Sunday, it was only Saturday, so I said, Sunday, I’m coming to your church. Okay. So he said, fine. So I drive, it wasn’t a small church, it was out in the country, though, and packed house. Everyone kept telling me, you wait until you hear him. He’s the best. And you know what? He was really, he was really good. But anyway, during the service, I’m sitting there with Debbie, my wife, and I hit her and I say, call my phone. She said, what? I said, call my phone.
[30:00] Well, she tried to call. There’s no reception. Okay. And we’re out in the sticks now. Yeah. So I said, okay. So I don’t know how I thought of this, but anyway, I just picked my phone up and acted like I was getting the call. And he’s still preaching. I said, hello? And they all kind of stopped. I said to Butch there, he was up front there. I said, this is God.
[30:25] And he never said a word. I said, yes. I act like God was saying, hey, is Butch preaching? I said, yes. He’s preaching. And I’m telling you what, he’s very good. And he said, way better preacher than he was a football player. I can tell you that. This is exactly what I said. They said, is Dusty there? I said, Dusty, you’re standing right behind me. And they’re both here, and they’re both doing a great job. And just, I said, goodbye. You said it’s in the middle of the service. Right in the middle of the service. Everything got quiet. Everybody heard every word that I was saying. They didn’t hear what God was saying. So anyway, after the service was over, the guy right in front of me turned around and said, hey, was that really God? I swear he did. I said, yeah. I said, you know we have no phone service out here. You somehow got through. That’s the only way you can get through here. I forgot. So, yeah, that was God. He said, boy, that’s something. Friends, we want to encourage you to please follow us wherever you listen to this, whether it’s on the Apple Podcast app, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or one of the other platforms. You guys, it’s completely free. And while you’re there, feel free to give us a rating or a nice review. Thank you for listening, too. Tell us a good story.