Copperas Cove residents begin push to permanently honor Joe Lombardi

Killeen Daily Herald
By Thaddeus Imerman | Killeen Daily Herald
October 8, 2023

Several members of the Copperas Cove community are beginning a push to have the field at Bulldawg Stadium named after the longtime “voice” of the Bulldawgs.

Though not considered seriously after the death of “Big” Joe Lombardi in March, the idea to name the field at Copperas Cove ISD’s Bulldawg Stadium after him has begun to pick up steam of late.

“Forty-five years of being there, he was probably the best fan of CCISD — not just the football players but all of the teams,” said Angea Carroll, one of the people behind the movement. “He was at all of the volleyball and basketball (games); he would cover them all. He truly loved doing what he did.”

For those who knew and loved Lombardi, the desired name would be Lombardi Field at Bulldawg Stadium.

Carroll told the Herald Thursday that she used to suggest the idea to Lombardi himself when he was alive.

“I just kept kidding him about it,” she said. “(I said) ‘You know, you’re there all the time; you’re at the stadium all the time, Joe. They just need to name it after you. I think Lombardi Field would be just great.

“And he would just laugh and say, ‘That’ll never happen.’”

Carroll said she sees many schools and other buildings within the city named after people. She also remarked that he was well-loved by countless numbers of people in the community.

Lombardi’s widow, Sherry Hoffpauir, is on board with the effort to honor her late husband.

“We’ve all had time to settle down (since his death), and even though we’re still on this grief journey about Joe, it’s just we want to find a way to permanently honor him,” Hoffpauir said in a phone interview with the Herald on Thursday.

Being his wife, Hoffpauir knew first-hand how calling Bulldawg athletics games was Lombardi’s life’s work.

“Joe committed so much to that program and to all the other athletics at CCISD with 45 years,” Hoffpauir said.

For most, Lombardi epitomized Bulldawg athletics.

“Anybody that’s 50, 60 years old growing up in the Central Texas area knows the name ‘Big Joe,’” Billy Ray Fant, a former co-worker, said after Lombardi’s death on March 9. “The kids knew him growing up playing football. You got Charles Tillman. You got Robert Griffin III ... You name anybody that’s been through Cove and gone onto the NFL, Joe Lombardi knew them first.”

But it wasn’t just football. It was all sports.

“Thousands of athletes have grown up hearing Big Joe say, ‘Point Cove’ and ‘Go Dawgs.’ He has been a loyal friend and supporter of the Bulldawgs for as long as most of us can remember,” Cari Lowery, the athletic director and former volleyball coach, said in March. “He’s been here for our successes and our failures and never wavered in his belief in our kids and our coaches.”

Carroll, a longtime season ticket holder for Copperas Cove athletics, said she particularly likes going to Lady Dawg volleyball and basketball games, and his impact at those games still sticks with her.

“He did such a good job of making us all feel welcome and knew people in the stands and knew everything about all the players and made it so interesting,” she said. “And he never said a bad word about anybody that did a foul or missed a ball or something; it was always so positive and he kept everybody pumped up.”

Lombardi History

In the realm of Copperas Cove athletics, Lombardi was a stalwart, having only missed three broadcasts in his 45 years behind the microphone, according to a proclamation by Mayor Dan Yancey last year on the announcer’s 75th birthday.

Lombardi began as a disc jockey for KOOV-Copperas Cove in 1978. In 1992, he was recognized nationally as the Country Music Association’s “Small Market Radio Personality of the Year.”

Later, Lombardi broadcasted the welcome home of 124 flights of Fort Hood troops returning from Operation Desert Storm at “Victory Corner” near West Fort Hood.

Along with Copperas Cove athletics, Lombardi has lent his voice to several organizations, including the National Mounted Warfare Foundation, the Greater Fort Hood Area United Way, the Copperas Cove Quarterback Club, C.H.A.M.P.S. and more.

Friends and colleagues spoke fondly of him and his career upon learning of his death in March.

District Comment

Copperas Cove ISD Superintendent Joe Burns did not rule out the possibility of naming the field after Lombardi, but he did not affirm it either.

“Copperas Cove has a number of facilities that are named after individuals; this includes the radio announcer’s booth in the Bulldawg Stadium press box — which is named in honor of Joe Lombardi and is where Joe Lombardi did all of the work he performed for the football program,” Burns said in a statement to the Herald on Thursday.

Commenting on one of Hoffpauir’s Facebook posts, longtime resident Harold Simmons said, “We shouldn’t have to even ask for this. This is like a first ballot hall of famer in Dawgland. Thus, it should be Lombardi Stadium because he was felt everywhere, not just on the field.”

According to Burns, it has been a while since the district has honored an individual with a name on a facility.

“CCISD has not named facilities after individuals in almost two decades, as the number of individuals who have positively shaped our students’ experiences in Copperas Cove ISD is lengthy,” Burns said. “We greatly appreciate the work Mr. Lombardi did to promote our community and our students.”

One of the last facilities named after an individual in Copperas Cove ISD is S.C. Lee Junior High School, which opened in 1996. Lee Junior High is named after Sameul Cidney “Buck” Lee, who graduated from Copperas Cove High School in the Class of 1947, according to the school’s website. He served on the school board for 25 years and received Texas Parent Teacher Association and the Central Texas Youth Services Bureau awards.

Copperas Cove ISD also named the athletic complex behind S.C. Lee Junior High School after Lester E. Hanke, a coach who retired after 31 years at Copperas Cove and 35 years in education. He was the assistant athletic director when he retired.