The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'm fine with it.

It's a nice gesture.

Hopefully, the family would take it the right way.

I imagine they would, Hooky was a good man.

On my end, there’s so much I shared in common with Jon: age, outlook on life, raising teenage boys, crazy youth that somehow morphed into settled middle age, etc, that over the years we developed a running correspondence apart from the board.  We gave each other support when our fathers died, and then more recently with these health nightmares that hit both our families.

But here, it was the RRR and the constant good natured (and very deep) bullshit we gave each for now 20 years that has been such a hoot.  Don’t get me wrong - I like so many Texas fans here Erin, utee, 320 and more - but it was JCG whom I loved most to tangle with.  He was so incredibly witty and so devastatingly insulting.  He kept me in stitches, and also digging deep to sling my own “froth” back, pretty much constantly chuckling at it all, in both directions.

You see, each of us had lived on the other side.  His (as he described her) crazy Okie mom and his years lived in Oklahoma matched up well with my idiosyncratic in-laws (via my brother) and I even met my ics&a Argentine esposita (as Hooky referred to her) in Texas.  So he referred to me as “primo” (and then I him) because of all our cross-border connections.  I don’t think any other Okie on this board had the Texas connections I did, and I don’t think any other Texan here had all the Okie heritage and experience he had. We were like the yin and yang of the RRR hereabouts and that’s probably why i liked to mix it up with Hooky most of all.

I’m gonna miss him like the dickens.  I can’t stand it really.  We were supposed to be arguing OU-Texas all the way into our 80s long enough for the Sooners to catch Texas in the all time series record.

So it’s completely silly but considering all, the biggest tribute I can give Jon is to cross the Red _for him_ and cheer for Texas (just) this year in the RRR.  MrN said I shouldn’t go that far, but I disagree.  I gave Hooky crap about Texas for 20 years, and he always took it with such great humor, and so now it’s time to just say that it’s his year and he means more to me than any football team.  

Hook’em Jon, my primo, my friend. You will always be close to my heart.

Not to placate anyone's regret/grief but as Fearless somewhere pointed out he lived a full life.Still does not make sense but living his life was not a bad assignment.A little debauchery mixed in with Bible College - a little something for the body and soul

Yes not a techie but would have had a blast rehashing all the jousts in cache from the BIG 12 Board,2004-2011.It really was riveting and it wasn't only Slick,some lost in the transfer,but it was the 1st thing I ever read when home.They were funny,insightful,engaging and sometimes furious.We need to carry on in tribute and style.Was not privy to the husker prick squad (that still cracks me up) as 94 reffered to them that was CNN/SI or very early CFN

This hit me way wrong today...got Fearless' email and it didn't seem real. I only met Hooky once, but he was as gracious as the day is long and I know that those of you who knew him better than I are heartbroken.

Still recognize a lot of the same ol' mugs from 1998 (and beyond) around here...hard to believe that internet message boards are now generational in nature.

Glad to see that the Big XII Back Porch has carried on in spirit.

It's been a while since I've been here, and also since I've communicated with him, so when Erin texted me this morning what had happened and that she was on her way to the memorial service, I had no idea.  Ton of bricks.  

This hurts.  As I'm sure it does to all of you who have known him here for a long time.  

I guess I first met him at the board meeting in Austin in 2007, but as we both lived there and hit it off, we began meeting up for lunch somewhat regularly whenever I was working in town.  He must've called his own shots, at least as far as lunch was concerned, because no matter how spur of the moment it was, whenever I alerted him that I was working near home that day and wanted to know if he wanted to grab lunch, it was almost always a "yes."  Not sure how many times we met up over the next few years, until I left.  

He was everything you'd expect from his Hooky persona in person, really.  All the same humor, great storyteller, never at a loss for words, charming and charismatic, and always gracious.  He never minded filling me in on all his thoughts about UT, and amazingly never minded me filling him in about the coonasses from across the border.  But actually, football talk probably made up less than 50% of our conversations.

In the years since I left Austin, I don't think I met with him again in person on any of my visits.  Mainly I just communicated with him via text or facebook for the last few years, and that not as frequently as I now wish.  

Damn.  

I'd like to write something more poignant, and if this stuff is getting shared with his family or whatever, I wish I could elaborate with more eloquence in my usual TLDR style.  I'm just a little numb right now.  It's tough to process a world where I can't reach out to that wit and wisdom and find it readily waiting.  

I sure wish I'd kept up with him more in the last year or two.  Along with Utee94 and Erin, he's one of the Longhorns I've met multiple times in person, and despite how it may seem odd, I consider them friends well beyond mere internet acquaintances.  I wonder if that would've surprised him to know, and I wish now instead of the infrequent and abrupt "Hey, what's up?" and "Hey did you hear about...?" that I would've told him I considered him a good buddy.  No telling how many times I've mentioned him and utee/erin to my Longhorn wife.  Not to go off topic (sometimes JCG liked to imagine he hated people doing that), but am compelled to tell the rest of you that despite prolonged absences, y'all are more than just names on a screen to me....and that goes triple for you, Erin and MM.  This place means something to me.  Y'all mean something.  Hooky meant something.  

Damn.  

I've shared my experience from the final service in the Memorial thread, as well as a few photos: 

https://www.cfb51.com/cfb51-memorial-board/hookyhornstein-charley-horse/new/#new



Please keep sharing your thoughts, favorite conversations or stories, or anything you want, as we are all grappling to understand the loss of this legacy.    Life is just too short and we all should take care of ourselves & eachother when needed, and it's nice that we can still reach out to eachother during this tough time no matter how infrequent or often we still interact on these boards.