David Claybourn: Sports Views: Colt Cooper excels in discus again

May 10—During the 2020-21 school year Quinlan Ford senior Colton Cooper enjoyed what anyone would call a golden season in athletics.

He earned all-state honors in football after leading the 6-3 Panthers in receptions, pancake blocks (50) and tackles (76).

Then he won a Division II state powerlifting title in the 275-pound class, squatting 725 pounds, benching 430 and deadlifting 645 pounds for a 1,800-pound total.

Next he won Class 4A state titles at Austin in the shot put (61-3 1/2) and the discus (183-10). He won the shot put by more than three feet and the discus by 13 feet. He's the only Hunt County high school athlete to top 60 feet in the shot put and 180 in the discus.

To top it all off, Cooper showed a grand champion goat at the Hunt County Fair.

After winning his two gold medals in Austin, Cooper said, "Oh man it feels great. I am so blessed. Extremely blessed."

Now Cooper's a football player and track and field athlete at Abilene Christian. He redshirted during the fall season but has competed in a couple of track and field meets unattached.

Last week he placed fourth in the discus at the Oliver Jackson Twilight meet in Abilene, throwing 175-10. That's an outstanding throw for a first-year college student who also shared practice time in the spring with the Wildcats' football team.

Of the three throwers that finished ahead of Cooper, one was competing unattached for Abilene Christian, one was from Texas Tech and one was from Angelo State. Cooper beat discus throwers from Texas Tech, Abilene Christian, North Texas, Stephen F. Austin and Angelo State.

To put things in perspective Cooper would have won the discus throw at the recent East Texas Invitational at Texas A&M-Commerce by more than 22 feet and A&M-Commerce has an outstanding NCAA Division II program and is in the process of moving up to Division I.

Cooper also placed sixth in the shot put in Abilene with a throw of 50-5 1/2 as he adjusts to throwing a 16-pound shot as opposed to a 12-pounder in high school. — There's some very familiar names on the list of eight sports media honorees that will be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on May 21 in Waco.

Here's the list: Denne Freeman, Randy Galloway, the late Frank Glieber, John McClain, Bill Mercer, Brad Sham, Eric Nadel and Charean Williams.

Freeman was the Texas sports editor for the Associated Press. As a writer he was fast and efficient. I'd see him leave the press box at Texas Stadium after sending his stories while other sportswriters were still going at it. Nice guy, too. He tipped me off about a great steakhouse in Elm Mott, Texas.

Galloway wrote for the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I loved his talk radio show on WBAP-AM. He used to call former Cowboys' head coach Barry Switzer "Gunsmoke."

Glieber was the voice of the Dallas Cowboys for many of their TV broadcasts on CBS and on radio. His son Mitchell Glieber played football at Richardson High School and at SMU and is currently the president of the State Fair of Texas.

Mercer taught broadcast journalism at North Texas and was the radio voice for the Cowboys, Dallas Texans and Texas Rangers back in the day but may be best known for announcing pro wrestling matches on TV.

Sham has been calling Cowboys' games on the radio for many years and Nadel's been the radio voice of the Rangers. I enjoy listening to both of them call games.

Williams wrote for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Bryan Eagle and now works for NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk.

McClain wrote for the Houston Chronicle and has been on radio sports talk shows in the Houston area.

David Claybourn is sports editor of the Herald-Banner.