By Cheryl Hall
6:05 AM on October 31, 2021 EDT
HENRYETTA, Okla — Troy Aikman has to become a music festival producer.
Football Hall of Famer and fox sports announcer returned to the position he calls home to announce “Troy Aikman’s Highway to Henryetta,” a one-day country music marathon run by superstar Blake Shelton on June 11.
Aikman can simply take out his checkbook and write a six-figure checkbook for his hometown school district, buy uniforms, equipment, and bolster educational programs. That would be the greatest blessing the school district has ever seen.
But the 54-year-old former Henryetta High quarterback to do more than pump cash into the city of around 5,400.
He put Henryetta on the musical map of the world.
Sturgis has motorcycles. Why make Henryetta the destination of choice for an annual Red Dirt festival?
You just want the former to take root.
Aikman has raised tens of millions of dollars for his favorite causes, more than $60 million when he led the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ 2017-2018 annual campaign.
“It’s not public on a much deeper level,” Aikman said Oct. 22 as he traveled in a chauffeured SUV from Okmulgee Regional Airport to announce the big news at Friday afternoon’s soccer cheer rally at the school gymnasium. I think it’s conceivable that they perceive what is about to hit this city. “
Aikguy to pay Henryetta to make him the guy he is today.
“I was able to delight and delight in the Small Town America storybook. Most of who I am, what I am and any character I have here since my time here,” he said.
This is something he says he will never fully pay for.
“I need it to be a network occasion where the city comes together,” said Aikman, who after betting on Henryetta from 1981 to 1983, the star quarterback of the UCLA Bruins. “We need business leaders, the city council and everyone who is here to feel as involved in what we do as any of us.
“It’s both my chance and Henryetta’s. “
Henryetta is less than an hour south of Tulsa and 3 1/2 hours north of Dallas.
Some might say it’s in the middle of nowhere: an exit sign on U. S. Highway 75. USA By which most people rush to get somewhere else.
That’s what 12-year-old Aikman came up with when he left Southern California for a farm miles from Henryetta.
He had led the charming West Coast life as an athlete of all sports with a true ability to throw and play as a torpedo boat.
“I can watch the parachute flight to Knott’s Berry Farm from my garden. I can play any game I want. For an athlete like me, it’s magical.
Aikman stayed in California with his most productive friend as he completed his Little League baseball season. He joined his circle of family after his team was excluded from the tournament as it sought to qualify for the Little League World Series.
On his first day in Henryetta, Troy on the roof with his father and two local carpenters who dressed his family’s home.
“We lived in a small caravan in the assets while we were building our house,” he recalls. “How is it possible that we have five other people in this caravan, I don’t know. “
Troy spent this sweltering summer picking hay, leaving pigs, and doing chores he didn’t know existed. He didn’t see how all this would lead him to the dream of his formative years of having a professional athlete.
“It’s a time when I think, ‘Wow, life has changed and I don’t know if it’s for the better,'” he said.
But that replaced when it started.
“Moving to Henryetta in no way ruined my life. He made my life,” Aikman said. I learned the price of hard paints and everything a small town encompasses: a man’s word is his word. You don’t need to have written contracts for everything.
“I wish my daughters [their college daughters who grew up in Dallas] would delight in Small Town America. “
He met Daren Lesley on the first day of school and they are still friends 42 years later.
“Troy is my friend. He is my hero. It’s been a component of many chapters of my life,” said Lesley, who lives in Keller and flew with Aikman for the Cheering Rally. “His ethical conviction and determination to be a better user and a smart parent are the most talented things he possesses. He would work his smart sports fortune for that.
Henryetta Police Officer Dillin Munholland takes Aikman to the gym in a black Yukon Denali, owned by his wife, Jennifer, Mayor of Henryetta. Designates a QuikTrip structure at the intersection leading to the city. Aikman is pleased to know that it will be open to festival time.
Aikman then designates a Days Inn. ” At the time it was a Holiday Inn,” he said. “My sisters were waitresses there. “
After Shoney’s on Main Street is Sonic Drive-In. “That was the change,” Aikman said. When you dragged Main, you were sailing the Sonic, I’m sure the kids do.
He asks Dillin Munholland to swerving to show where he played baseball and football in high school, avoiding in front of a rusty sign on the back of the football box board in honor of Aikman.
Recently, Aikman sent Mayor Munholland a check for $10,000 to beautify things and get new educational equipment, and she said he told her to mention it to anyone.
Back in Main, the street is dotted with shutters with curls, some have been renovated.
“It’s the Western Auto where I worked as a summer job,” Aikman said. “It’s now a music center. “
The school district is Henryetta’s largest employer with 190 workers. The city employs another 70 people, the mayor said. The two largest personal employers are Anchor Glass Container, which has particularly reduced its workforce to just over 100, and Fountain View Manor. The Munhollands retirement home employs 80 people. Honeyy Medical Center, Walmart and Henryetta Hillcrest have between 50 and 60 employees.
“Henryetta had more difficult times, it’s not that easy,” Aikman said when we were pulled out of the car. “It’s more complicated for those kids. That’s what I heard. “
When we arrived, the back door of the high school gymnasium is surrounded by dozens of journalists and television crews.
The inside crowd goes crazy when Aikman heads to center court.
After the Cheering Rally, Aikman is engulfed by locals of all ages hoping to take a photo with the hero of her hometown. One of them, Jill Hill, works in the cafeteria and has six young men attending Henryetta schools. Aikman on the school’s old basketball court when he was in eighth grade. “It still looks the same as it did back then,” he said.
The music festival began as a gathering concept for Aikman’s classmates.
He no longer comes to the city now that no circle of family members lives here.
Two years ago, Aikman and Lesley hosted an assembly of classmates at the Aikman restaurant and concert corridor in Arlington called Troy’s. Aikman paid the bill for the organization and the party.
It was a success, so after a pandemic break in 2020, they celebrated a moment one in April, opening it up to everyone who graduated from Henryetta Fighting Hen; that is, before 1989, when chickens became knights.
But attendance is not what it can be, as Aikman finds it ridiculous to hold meetings 3 hours from Henryetta.
So he came up with the concept of holding a fighting chicken assembly in Henryetta and raising some to buy sports equipment in the process. One thing led to another, germinated the concept of a Henryetta music festival.
“But I told Daren, I only do it if this guy I know, Tony Fay, is on board,” Aikman said. “If Tony Fay is involved, then I know he will be well done, well played, first class. “
The 54-year-old CEO of Dallas-based Tony Fay Public Relations, who mounts a shotgun at the front, acted as if he had heard none of this.
Fay’s 16-person corporation specializes in sports, entertainment, audience and mega-event production, adding the College Football Playoff.
Over the years, Aikman and Fay have worked in combination on dozens of projects, adding Super Bowl XLV in Arlington and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ 90th anniversary party at AT Stadium.
Their first prevention was to Henryetta, where Aikman and Fay presented the concept to Mayor Munholland.
“I’m completely impressed,” said Munholland, 49. We are Small Town America. People don’t do things like that.
He has known Aikman since he was in high school and Aikman played soccer with his older brother in his backyard. She had to sit in secrecy for five months and was “overwhelmed” when the cheering meeting took place regardless.
The big reveal planned for the week of the meeting, but when Aikman learned that Munholland was about to undergo surgery for cervical cancer and may not be able to attend, postponed it until the following week.
“When I came out with the surgery, he texted me to say in his prayers,” Munholland said. “Although Troy can have all the fame and buy whatever he wants, it helps keep it real. “
The concert stage, which will be a third the length of a football field, will be something city dwellers have never seen.
“This city will be able to drive down the road to Nichols Park, a park they’ve been through all their lives, and pay attention to Blake Shelton live,” Aikman said. “Most of those other people have probably never had a chance to see it live. “
One of its rules is that the costs of general admission tickets (which are still being developed) are affordable. There will also be expensive VIP referral packages for businesses that need to entertain their consumers and host personal events.
Aikman tries to take a hike when it comes to how much he hopes to harvest.
Initially, he just didn’t need the festival to lose money. “I told Tony, as long as we don’t get expenses, everything will be fine. I will donate to myself wherever it is of value to the school.
Within 24 hours of the announcement, more than 1,000 more people signed up to apply for tickets that are not yet available. Aikman hopes he can be scoring his goal.
But that’s not the point, he says.
“Most of that for me is to inject some life into this city,” Aikman said. “He goes to a lot of those businesses, hotels, fast food establishments, convenience stores.
“It goes beyond the cash raised. “
So how did Troy get Blake? He texted her.
In August, Aikman was about to leave his hotel room in Canton, Ohio, to hand Jimmy Johnson his Hall of Fame jacket.
Aikman has a tendency to be a guy who does it now. “When something hits me, I react immediately,” he said.
“I said, ‘Hey, Blake, I’m going to host a music festival in my hometown of Henryetta on June 11,'” Aikman said as he read the text. “It will be first elegance in each and every one of the senses . . . I looked to see if we could communicate with your parents about you as a headliner. We need a presence in Oklahoma, and you’re my first choice. I know those requests can be painful and I don’t need it to be. for you, so if you need to get me in touch with your manager, it’s great too.
“He responded almost immediately. ” Hello, boss, I’m glad to hear it. That’s a smart idea. I’ve been looking to make one myself somewhere in Texhoma for the past 3 years, but I’ve been too lazy to set it up. . . I’m glad to do anything here in Oklahoma.
“Blake gave me his manager’s number, so we left. “
In August, Fay hired C3 Presents, the Austin-based concert promoter that hosts the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Lollapalooza Chicago, Nashville’s outdoor Bonnaroo and other large-scale events.
The first thing Emmett Beliveau, C3’s lead operating director, did when Fay called from Google Henryetta. “I grew up in a small town in Maine that remembers Henryetta,” said Beliveau, 45. that. “
Before joining C3 six years ago, Beliveau spearheaded President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and held positions in the White House for seven years.
Launching a new festival is a challenge, Béliveau said, but the Highway from Troy Aikman to Henryetta has the possibility of a destination like Austin City Limits.
“Fans are looking for original experiences,” he said. It will be an opportunity to come in combination for a beautiful day of music and a small town. We couldn’t start from a bigger position than with Troy’s double headliners. “Aikman and Blake Shelton.
Cheryl Hall, business columnist. Cheryl, a journalism graduate from SMU, has been covering business for over forty-five years and receiving feedback from her phone calls. He has won awards, adding several Katies from the Press Club of Dallas and a Lifetime Excellence Award from the Society of American Business. Editors and writers.