DALLAS — In September 1999, WFAA launched a new high school sports show to follow "Dale Hansen’s Sports Special" on Sunday nights. "High School Sports Special" put WFAA in a league of its own with high school sports coverage. Over the years, it covered countless student-athletes, their parents and so many communities across North Texas.
After 25 years, though, "High School Sports Special" is being retired.
WFAA's lauded high school sports coverage will continue, but it will be absorbed into the station's larger efforts toward covering North Texas' ever-evolving athletics landscape. It will live on and continue to be highlighted through efforts like Joe Trahan's "High School Game Night" during the 10 p.m. news on fall Fright nights, Mike Leslie's live "Friday Night Football" and "Tuesday Night Hoops" digital broadcasts, and, of course, regular feature stories and WFAA Originals about high school heroes from across Dallas-Fort Worth.
Replacing "High School Sports Special" in WFAA's Sunday night programming is a new sports panel show featuring the WFAA sports team and a rotating cast of contributors from across the local sports landscape. "Ultimate Dallas Sports Show" will air at 11 p.m. on Sundays immediately following "Sports Special with Joe Trahan."
Hosted by a rotation of WFAA Sports anchors Joe Trahan, Mike Leslie and Jonah Javad, and produced by WFAA's Andrew Cely, "Ultimate Dallas Sports Show" will feature discussions centered around all the hottest topics in the North Texas sports world in a given moment. The show launches this Sunday, April 7.
The premiere episode of "Ultimate Dallas Sports Show" will be hosted by Joe Trahan, and will boast a panel featuring columnist Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, radio host Ben Rogers of "The Ben & Skin Show" on 97.1 KEGL-FM The Freak and WFAA's own in-house Texas Rangers superfan Teresa Woodard.
Topics in this opening entry into the new series will include the Dallas Mavericks' push for NBA Playoff positioning, the start to the Texas Rangers' World Series defense and a look ahead at what to expect in the 2024 edition of The Masters.
Welcome to new era of Dallas sports talk. It starts Sunday night.