Dave Campbell's Texas Football


Dave Campbell's Texas Football is a biannual magazine previewing American football teams in the state of Texas.
It previews football teams in Texas at all levels, from the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, college football, to the roughly 1,400 high schools in the state.
The summer magazine is issued in June, about 1–2 months before the start of preseason football. It sells for $10.95 and is available in most Texas stores which sell magazines. A winter edition, which began in 2008, is published each January. In 2015, the winter magazine became known as Texas Football Rising which focuses solely on recruiting and recruiting rankings.

History

The magazine was started in 1960 by Dave Campbell, a longtime writer and sports editor for the Waco Tribune-Herald, along with fellow Waco sportswriters Hollis Biddle, Jim Montgomery, and Al Ward, plus Campbell's wife, Reba. He published the magazine out of his kitchen. On the cover of the inaugural edition was Texas Longhorns running back Jackie Collins. The cover price for the first 96-page magazine was fifty cents.
It was bought in 1985 by Host Communications, which was bought by IMG in 2007. In 2014, Sports in Action, a company operated by the family of Texas businessman Drayton McLane and run by President Adam Hochfelder bought the rights to operate the magazine from IMG. In 2017, Sports In Action completed the outright purchase of the media brand from IMG. Sports in Action, LLC also has done business as Highfield Marketing, LLC and is based in Lewisville, Texas. More information on Sports In Action can be found at www.sportsinaction.com.
It is one of the best-selling football magazines in the state and has been dubbed "The Bible of Texas Football". Each year, the identity of its cover subject is a tightly-guarded secret. Now in his 90s, Campbell still holds the position of editor-in-chief.
Currently, Dave Campbell's Texas Football is a twice-yearly statewide magazine with more than 400,000 readers. In 2015, Sports In Action created a yearly sister magazine, Dave Campbell's Texas Basketball, with an accompanying web site.
The website, TexasFootball.com, was created in 1999. It added premium content covering recruiting and other topics, bundled with the annual subscription cost, in 2018.
In the summer of 2009, Texas Football launched a statewide weekly radio program — the Dave Campbell's Texas Football Radio Hour — which airs across Texas State Network affiliates. The radio show ended in 2016. In 2010, the magazine started its own television program, Texas Football Game Day, a half-hour show. Game Day was filmed weekly at the stadium of a key game and broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest. Due to its popularity, in 2011 DCTF partnered with Fox Sports Southwest to present Fox Football Friday Powered by Dave Campbell's Texas Football, a three-hour live show on Friday nights featuring whip-around coverage of the biggest games in Texas high school football. In October 2015, DCTF launched Texas Football Today, a daily live show covering football in Texas streamed on TexasFootball.com and its social media platforms.
Texas Football also ran its own high school football event, the Texas Football Classic, which was held at the beginning of each season at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The event ran from 1999-2010.
The Texas Football brand is run by President Adam Hochfelder, and editorial content — including the magazine, website, TV show and Texas Football Today — are run by managing editor Greg Tepper and digital director Max Thompson. Hochfelder has been in charge of the brand since 2005 and Tepper has been editor since 2011.

Summer magazine covers

1960s

When the University of Texas won the BCS national title in the 2006 Rose Bowl, Texas Football put out a special championship edition of the magazine. Two years later, the magazine brought back the winter edition as a permanent feature. Beginning in 2016, the winter edition was replaced with Dave Campbell Presents Texas Football Rising, a magazine spotlighting top recruits in Texas.
When Texas Football revived the winter book after the 2007 season, it began giving a "Mr. Texas Football Award" honoring the top high school player in the state. It is currently sponsored by Wells Fargo