ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marjorie Herrera Lewis knew early on she wanted a career related to sports. After several years at small newspapers, at age twenty-seven she began working at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Soon after, she was named a beat writer for the Dallas Cowboys and eventually joined the Dallas Morning News sports-writing staff. While writing When the Men Were Gone, she became inspired to try her hand at coaching football and was added to the Texas Wesleyan University football coaching staff. She presently teaches media ethics at the University of North Texas.

10.28.2018  Texas sportswriter Marjorie Herrera Lewis mixes feminism and football in a debut novel set in 1940s Brownwood

Marjorie Herrera Lewis came of age as a sports journalist in her twenties, when Tom Landry was still coaching the Dallas Cowboys. Since those days she’s been an academic and an aspiring author, driven to publish the story of a female high school football coach during World War II, based on a true story. In a curious twist while she was writing When the Men Were Gone, she had the opportunity herself to become a football coach at Texas Wesleyan University. Now on book tour, she spoke with Lone Star Lit via email about her love of sports, her life in writing and her debut novel

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Congratulations on the publication of your novel, When the Men Were Gone, for our readers not familiar with your book, can you describe it for them?

MARJORIE HERRERRA LEWIS: Thank you! When the Men Were Gone is a novel based on the true story of Tylene Wilson, a teacher and administrator in Brownwood, Texas, who coached football during World War II. The novel focuses on her journey with flashbacks that help us understand how she came to know and love football. Throughout, Tylene, typical in many ways as a woman of the 1940s, demonstrates resiliency and perseverance as a woman also ahead of her time. It also is a father-daughter tale as well as a story of love.

What made you decide to write this book?

I was wearing a football T-shirt while getting allergy tests taken, and the nurse turned out to be Tylene’s grandniece. She began telling me Tylene’s story, and in that instant, I knew I was going to write the book. As a career sports journalist, I planned to write a biography, but while working on the research, I discovered the story had been lost to time. I wanted to memorialize what Tylene, and at least three other women across the country, I discovered, had done, so I wrote to story as a novel.

What first attracted you to sports and the sports journalism?

My parents love sports. I grew up going to sporting events, watching sports on TV, and playing every sport available to me. My father played football, basketball, and baseball in high school, and he played baseball in college. He taught me how to catch his curve ball when I was about ten years old. My mother taught me how to throw a football. I loved listening to games on the radio with my mom while we’d eat burgers and fries in the car at the local A&W. I also loved to write, so once I realized I was never going to be an NFL quarterback, I focused on sports writing.

At the wee age of 27 you were a sports reporter for metro newspapers in Texas. Was it hard breaking into a male-dominated profession?

I was about 24 years old when I was given the opportunity to cover the Catholic high school sports in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a small weekly newspaper. That led to becoming the sports editor of a small daily, and that led to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and then the Dallas Morning News. I was hired by a man at each stop, so I’ll always be grateful to them for the opportunities. And, of course, a man named me the first female Dallas Cowboys beat writer in February 1986. So breaking in to a male-dominated profession wasn’t as difficult as it was in competing in a male-dominated profession. Once on the inside, I had to regularly demonstrate that I knew what the men knew and that I could cover sports just as well. And, most important, that I could beat the competition when it came to breaking news. The best part of it all was — but for a person here and there — I was treated as a professional and with utmost respect.

An even more interesting twist to this story is that you — yourself — became at football coach at Texas Wesleyan in 2017. Can you tell us about that came about?

Like Tylene, I never set out to become a football coach. But, also like Tylene, I have always been a student of the game. I became a football coach because I was inspired by Tylene. I had already done most of the research, and I had already written most of the book when I heard that Texas Wesleyan University was adding about seven volunteers to its coaching staff. I reached out to the head coach and was added to the staff in December 2016.

Is there a growing number of women coaching football?

The NFL has had a couple women assistant coaches over the last few years, so that’s encouraging. But I do not see any kind of growth in numbers of women coaching football. I hope to see that in the future. I know many women are students of the game, have high football IQs, and would make outstanding coaches.

I understand it took seven years to write this novel. What was your creative process like?

I spent three years doing research — off and on — before I wrote a word. As a journalist, I was looking to write a biography, so it was disappointing hitting one dead end after another; for example, a fire in 1960 had destroyed the records I was hoping to review. Once I came to terms with what I had and what I would never have, I had to learn how to become a novelist. Because I wanted to give Tylene’s legacy my best effort, I decided to go back to college so I could learn how to write fiction from successful published authors. I completed a two-year, low-residency Mountainview MFA in New Hampshire, which was exactly what I needed.

The creative process was always taking place against homework deadlines. Because I wanted to write without distraction, I would write throughout the night. Around midnight, I would sit at my kitchen table, slip on a Brownwood letter jacket, put a photo of Tylene by my computer, and I’d write until the sun came up. I loved those nights.

You picked Brownwood, Texas, as the setting for the novel? Why?

I went ahead and placed the story in Brownwood because that is where the original events took place. Tylene not only coached in Brownwood, but she spent 38 years with the Brownwood school district as a teacher and administrator. Recently, the Brownwood football stadium shared by Tylene’s college alma mater, Howard Payne University, renovated a press box room at Gordon Wood Stadium and named it the Tylene Wilson Room. I’m so happy about that.

Are you working on your next book, and if so, what can you tell us about it?

I’ve been doing research for another historical biography. It’s about a U.S. First Lady and sports and is based on a true story. I’m drawn to sports stories.

What’s in your nightstand to-be-read pile?

My nightstand has so many books, I can barely see over them. To name a few: House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp, Sugar Run by Mesha Maren, and They Come in All Colors by Malcolm Hansen.

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