Editor’s Note: Ransom wrote for The Daily Texan from 2003-2007, was the sports editor in fall of 2006 and was editor of the original Double Coverage.

Double Coverage evolved out of special sections we previously published for The Daily Texan during home football games. We never branded these sections, but after lots of brainstorming over the summer of 2006, we landed on the name Double Coverage. It was a great way to give extra coverage of home football games. The sections also gave younger writers a chance to contribute to football coverage — something normally given to our older and
saltier writers.

We published seven issues in our first year, and we had a lot of fun coming up with covers. 

From what I recall, they included:

— Having staffers try to draw a Bearkat for Sam Houston State, since no one know what the heck a Bearkat was

— Making a Longhorn out of ground beef and hot dogs for our tailgating issue

— For our Texas-OU game issue, creating a boxing title card that featured “Yo” Adrian Peterson vs. “Iron”
Michael Griffin

Perhaps the craziest issue we produced was our second-ever Double Coverage in 2006, when No. 2 Texas played No. 1 Ohio State in Austin. 

For starters, two Longhorns were arrested the week of the game and were suspended for part of the season. We needed someone to cover the press conference for the arrest, and I distinctly remember giving Ricky Treon my shirt so he could attend the press conference. For some reason, he chose to wear a burnt orange shirt that day. 

On top of that, Dave Garlock, one of our beloved journalism professors, was hit by a car crossing Guadalupe on the day we closed the issue. I think I left the basement around 1 a.m. on the night we published, but we still published the issue.

Since then, it has made us alums of The Daily Texan sports department immensely proud to see the special sections continue on to this day.