Talk to Craig Way for even a minute and at least two things become obviously clear – the man loves what he does, and his memory should be studied by science.

He recalls games from his days as a student working at North Texas’ on-campus radio station KNTU as if they happened last week. He can tell you what is located at every mile-marker on I-35 from his home in north Austin to the Bally studios in Irving where he does High School Scoreboard Live late each Friday night during the football season.

“The ones that always get me with Craig is how he knows the highways to get to almost every high school town,” his cohost Greg Tepper said. “He’ll just randomly let a listener know how to navigate to a certain town in the middle-of-nowhere Texas and he just knows it off the top of his head because he’s driven all these backroads.” 

Driving the backroads is a life-long interest of Way’s. He fondly remembers annoying his parents with his ability to recall and play trivia. He also remembers nagging his father to take different routes when they were driving just in case it saved five minutes. Or, better yet, in case it led to a new discovery. Even today, Way says you can find a spiral large-print road map of the United States and a Texas Atlas and Gazetteer in his truck. Though, he doesn’t need them much anymore. 

“I like the road less traveled,” Way said inside of L2 Productions after calling the Carthage playoff win over Gilmer hours after doing play-by-play on the radio for Texas’ Black Friday win over Baylor. “Even if we didn’t save any time, maybe we’d see something different that we didn’t know was there. I still do that. I’ll take a new route to a game or a city just to take the road less traveled.” 

His career path was the same. Way says his dream was to be the play-by-play voice for a major college football and basketball program. He achieved that goal 22 seasons ago when he was moved from analyst to play-by-play for Longhorns football. He's been in the booth for Texas football as an anaylst or play-by-play announcer for 32 years. He's into his 26th year calling women's basketball. He's at 23 seasons for men's basketball, which led to a funny story about Jody Conradt telling Way that she figured he'd dump the women's team when he was placed onto the call for the men. That's not Way's style. He's also done baseball for 23 seasons at Texas. 

But he never relinquished his role in the prep circles. Dreams are funny that way. 

“That dream was realized, but I realized that I was living one of my dreams already doing the high school side,” Way said. “I never wanted to give high school up because I liked it too much.” 

Way doesn’t let go of much, especially information. Talking to him is akin to speaking to a real-life computer. Everyone who works with Way shares similar stories of being awed by his recall and knack for knowledge. He’d be an excellent contestant on Jeopardy. Ask Way a question at your own peril. When asked about the moment he knew he wanted to be a broadcaster, Way takes you on a five-minute verbal stroll through his life – from that basketball game in North Carolina to his time at North Texas under the tutelage of Bill Mercer. 

“We were talking about baseball one day and I asked him for the definitive book on Ted Williams,” said Jeff Howe, his co-host on 104.9 The Horn from 10 a.m. to noon each weekday. “He went into the last week of the ’49 AL MVP race with DiMaggio and Ted Williams – game by game down the stretch. And that happened before he was alive! I don’t know where he pulls some of that stuff from.” 

Roger Wallace, who is the analyst next to Way for Longhorn football games on the radio, knows the drill. The two are on the road a lot together, and Wallace describes it as “being along for the ride” when Way is driving. 

“Any time we’re driving he’s telling me about every restaurant he’s ever eaten at in any city we’re passing or going to,” he joked. “My wife jokes that we should write a book. He can do restaurants and I can do convenience stores in the state of Texas.” 

Way’s first play-by-play assignment was a homeroom basketball tournament championship game back in North Carolina in the spring of 1975. 

Way, 14 years old and in ninth grade at the time, remembers the game vividly, including the final score. He had given up dreams of a baseball career a year earlier because he lacked power in the batter’s box. Way’s new dream was realized when he auditioned for, and earned, the sports anchor role at his middle school’s closed-caption television studio that aired live morning broadcasts to the homeroom classes in black and white. 

“Mr. Busick’s homeroom beat Mrs. Unger’s homeroom, 21-14,” Way remembered as if it was yesterday rather than 47 years ago. “I was definitely bitten by the bug at that point.” 

That bug followed him to Texas where he enrolled at North Lake Junior College to add a few credits before transferring to North Texas where he’d earn a degree in Broadcast Journalism by 1985. It was at North Lake when he was stringing for the Carrolton Times Chronicle that Way was first introduced to Texas high school football at a game between W.T. White and Lake Highlands. 

It was September of 1980. The two programs were big Class 5A teams at that point. The stands were filled with 10,000 people. The stadium had just installed a new artificial surface. A young Way soaked in the atmosphere – the band, the drill team, the sights, and the sounds. He wasn’t in North Carolina anymore.  

“I’m thinking, ‘what great magic is this?’” Way recalled. “I was hooked by the end of the game.” 

Now 61, Way is at the height of his powers. He’s the “Voice of the Longhorns’ as the play-by-play announcer for the Texas football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball teams. Way is also the voice of high school football, calling over 100 UIL state championship games in his illustrious career. He hosts a weekday radio show on 104.9 The Horn in Austin. He’s a father of four. A widower. A husband. 

Way is everything except well rested. Earlier this football season, Way finished his Friday night duties and left the studio in Irving at around 1:30 a.m. to drive straight to Lubbock. He arrived at the hotel around 6 a.m., slept for a few hours, and was at Jones AT&T Stadium to call an overtime thriller between the Red Raiders and the Longhorns by noon for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff. 

“I’ve learned to go without a lot of sleep,” Way said. “I’m a big Sunday afternoon couch guy for naps. My family has always been great about letting dad have the nap.” 

Naps won’t be easy to find this week. Way did radio for two hours, did four conference calls with high school coaches, and called Texas men’s basketball game in Austin against Rice at 7 p.m. He’ll do more conference calls, another radio show, and then drive to Arlington today. Way calls both six-man state championship games on Wednesday. He’ll be back on radio Thursday before calling the Class 3A Division II state title game on Thursday. Friday involves calls for the Class 4A Division I title tilt that starts at 3 p.m. and the ensuing Class 5A Division II game on top of radio from 10 a.m. to noon that morning. 

The weekend doesn’t allow respite. He’ll call both Class 6A championship games and then be on Scoreboard Live until 1 a.m. He’ll stay in DFW on Sunday to call Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge games involving the Texas men at noon and the Texas women at 2:30 p.m. Way finishes the weekend by driving back down I-35 past the mile markers he knows so well. 

“That’s not even that bad,” Way says in all seriousness. “Last year, the Sunday basketball games were in Las Vegas, so I flew out there and called both games. Back in 2011, my daughter got married the Sunday after the state championships. I had to book it back to Austin and I hadn’t even tried on my tux yet. This week should be relatively normal.” 

And that is what makes him special. He's still the 14-year-old upstart in North Carolina who can remember the final score of the first play-by-play game he ever did. The guy who can remember every name of every coach he's ever interviewed. The same person who prefers the backroads – the journey – and the people he takes those journeys with. 

"I can’t tell you how strange it is to be friends with your hero," Tepper said inside the same studio after Carthage knocked off Gilmer. "The high school side of it is enough. If he literally knew nothing else, it would be wildly impressive. It is an impossible to retain as much information and know as much about a wide-ranging array of sports as he does." 

But don't expect Way to bask in that glory. After all, he's made a career out of having the right things to say for other people's big moments. The Texas High School Football Hall of Famer doesn't have the time to put a tagline on his legacy. He's still writing those legacies for the athletes he covers multiple times a week. 

"If there was a contribution to how we watch it or consume it or notice that it can be presented like a high school football broadcast that doesn’t sound like a high school football broadcast, I’m proud of that," Way said. "High school football deserves it in this state because there is so much interest in it."