Campbell’s iconic magazine in new hands
A company owned in part by former Astros owner Drayton McLane has acquired the rights to operate Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, one of the nation’s oldest regional sports magazines.
Sports in Action, a sports marketing agency formed by the magazine’s current management and funded by the McLane family’s McLane Group, will be in charge of the Texas Football brand and other assets under an agreement with IMG Worldwide, the sports marketing conglomerate that has owned the magazine since 2007.
Dave Campbell, who founded Texas Football in 1960 and remains as its editor-in-chief, will retain that role with the new company. Adam Hochfelder, who has managed the magazine since 2005, will become president of Sports in Action, and McLane’s son, Drayton McLane III, will be chairman of the board.
Drayton McLane said the magazine’s annual publication “signals that the hot days of summer are almost done and high school and college football is around the corner.”
“The only thing that Dave Campbell has asked to do is not to change the name of the magazine, and we won’t,” he added. “That would be like taking the name Tide off soap powder.”
Campbell, the longtime sports editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald, founded Texas Football in 1960 and sold the magazine in 1985 to Host Commu- nications of Lexington, Ky. Host was acquired in 2007 by IMG, which is in the process of being sold by its parent company, Forstmann Little, to the entertainment talent agency William Morris Endeavor and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners.
Host and IMG expanded the company’s publishing and sponsorship portfolio during three decades as owner of Texas Football, but Hochfelder said the pending sale of IMG prompted him to seek new arrangements for the magazine and other assets. He contacted Campbell, who helped him contact the McLane family as potential investors.
“IMG has carried the banner of Texas Football, but it’s unlike anything else in their portfolio,” Hochfelder said. “I think we can take it and grow it into something that meets the high standards that Dave Campbell has always set.”
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football publishes two print magazines and four digital magazines annually and operates the TexasFootball.com website. It also has a statewide radio program and is associated with the “Texas Football Game Day” program on Fox Sports Southwest.
Sports in Action also will obtain the rights from IMG to sell sponsorships for the University Interscholastic League and will oversee aspects of the annual Texas-Oklahoma football game in Dallas.