Hall of Fame: Mike Kinsey was fast, and quickly made a name on gridiron
EDITOR'S NOTE: Today continues a series of stories on the 2023 inductees into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame. Coming Tuesday is David Salas, the Abilene High athlete who went on to star in soccer at Hardin-Simmons University.
One of football player Mike Kinsey's favorite stories is about track.
Although he was a standout defensive lineman for the Brownwood Lions, Kinsey also starred in track. He twice qualified for the state track and field meet in the high hurdles.
A race for the agile and swift.
Kinsey, however, was 6-foot-3 and weighed at least 215 pounds as a senior.
When he went to Texas Tech to play football, he met a defensive back, Merv Scurlark, against whom he had competed.
In track.
"I beat him every year," he said proudly.
Thanks to Kinsey producing the evidence - photos that he posted at his locker - the Red Raiders DB was chided for letting a lineman beat him.
"Those defensive backs would ride him that this big ol' lineman beat him in the hurdles," Kinsey said, laughing.
"I was pretty fast."
Time flies by quickly, too. It has been 42 years since Kinsey and the Lions won the 1981 Class 4A football championship under Gordon Wood. They beat Fort Bend Willowridge 14-9 to finish 13-1.
The Lions' only loss was the first game of the season, to 5A Abilene Cooper. And that was 14-13.
On May 1, Kinsey will join the legendary late coach in the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame.
"It's a big honor," said Kinsey, who lives today with his wife in Springtown. "It has brought back a few memories, looking back. Of course, it has been a while."
Yes, it has been awhile ...
Forty-two years.
Kinsey just laughed.
What compresses the four decades in between is that many of the players on that championship have stayed in contact. In fact, about 20 got together before the 2022 season.
"We keep up," he said. "Most of the guys I started with I finished with."
Kinsey treasures those relationships but also the opportunity to play under Wood and the other great Lions coaches of that era - Morris Southall and Ken West - and then Jerry Moore and Spike Dykes at Tech. Dykes arrived in Lubbock his sophomore year.
And as a collegiate all-star, he was coached by Oklahoma's Barry Switzer.
"So I got coached by some pretty famous people," he said.
Kinsey arrived in Brownwood just in time to be indoctrinated into Brownwood football. He was born in Monahans, and his family moved from Abilene to Brownwood for his seventh-grade year.
He remembers going to a Lions game and sitting with 20,000 other fans, he said.
"That was something for a seventh-grader. You're like, 'Oh, wow,'" he recalled.
Soon enough, he was on the field, playing on the defensive line. It wasn't until his junior year, he said, that he grew into the position.
"And, boy, I shot up," he said.
The Lions were good when he was a junior. Real good.
But they lost to Estacado because the Matadors excelled in the kicking game.
"My senior year, everybody I played with, we were all together," he said. "We had a lot of guys with a lot of heart. Not a lot of talent but a lot of heart."
He said Wood was known for teaching the fundamentals, and one was not beating yourself.
"We were like a Penn State. We weren't the biggest but we didn't have many mistakes," he said. "And we had played together. When you go out and do a job, you didn't have to worry about the guy next to you not doing his job.
"I think we all gelled together. Everyone had confidence in each other. It wasn't all about me-me-me. It was about we-we-we."
Quickly in Red Raiders lineup
At Tech, Kinsey immediately was separated from the other freshmen.
"The older guys went to work out and they made me go with them," he said. "I got to start my freshman year. It was a pretty eye-opening experience, me being a defensive lineman and only 220 pounds.
"But I was really, really fast and guys couldn't block me very good."
On the road, he roomed with Gabe Rivera, Tech's all-American defensive lineman who joined the Pittsburgh Steelers, then was paralyzed in a car crash his rookie year. He died in 2018.
Kinsey was shuffled from the interior to defensive end, then went back to the inside when a starter broke an arm.
Dykes the next year moved him to linebacker, a position Kinsey played his final two years with the Red Raiders.
He played in the Hula Bowl and Blue-Gray games, signing as a linebacker with the Houston Oilers in 1985.
A missed opportunity in the pros
A back injury while lifting weights right after training camp, however, was the beginning of the end of an NFL career. Kinsey broke a bone in his lower back while racking his weights. He had a back issue already, so that made the situation more dicey.
Even after the injury was addressed, Houston released him.
Kinsey got a look from Kansas City, though he gave the guy who came more than that.
"This guy was dressed in a suit and he wanted me to do a pass rush on him. I said, 'Are you sure?' He said, 'Yeah, don't hold back,'" Kinsey said.
Kinsey didn't.
"When he hit the ground I had his shirt in my hand and I'd skinned all the hide off his nose. He jumped up and said, 'You're coming to Kansas City.'"
Kinsey laughed heartily.
"I went up there to work but I realize now that once you hurt your back, they put a red tag on you. They wanted me to sign a waiver that if I was hurt, back-related ... I was like, I can't do that," he said.
Kansas City suggested he play Canadian football but Kinsey had lost the desire.
"It had been a few years so I thought I'd just give it up," he said.
Moving on
A locomotive of sorts on the football field, it was only natural that he took a job with Union Pacific.
"I've been with them for 25 years," he said.
Mike and Kerri Kinsey live in Springtown. He said he enjoys fishing and their four grandchildren. They had a daughter, so no future Lion - or Porcupine, since they're in Springtown - to raise.
"They love to keep us busy," he said.
He is looking forward to seeing ex-Lions players at the event.
"It has brought back memories," Kinsey said.
One person that he hopes is there is Ray Berry, a Hall of Fame inductee.
One of those is his first concert experience. He went to heard rocker Ted Nugent in Abilene with Berry, the Cooper defensive standout who went to Baylor and the Minnesota Vikings.
"I've known Ray a long time. He's a good dude," Kinsey said.
"
Kinsey said Brownwood had its sights set on winning a seventh title under Wood after losing the year before Estacado, thanks to two kick returns by Jerry Gray.
1981 season
Abilene Cooper 14, Brownwood 13
Brownwood 42, Breckenridge 8
Brownwood 44, Azle 12
Brownwood 19, Weatherford 17
Brownwood 15, San Angelo Central 10
Brownwood 37, Everman 0
Brownwood 22, Cleburne 6
Brownwood 38, Crowley 0
Brownwood 44, Granbury 12
Brownwood 36, Stephenville 0
Brownwood 17, Wichita Falls Hirschi 0
Brownwood 21, Borger 0
Brownwood 19, Rockwall 13
Brownwood 14, Fort Bend Willowridge 9
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Hall of Fame: Mike Kinsey was fast, and quickly made a name on gridiron
