*Tony and Chuck during a basketball playoff game held in Longview, Texas.*

*Tony and Chuck calling Pleasant Grove’s 2012 State Baseball Championship game at Disch-Falk Field in Austin.*

*In 2018, Tony and Chuck head into Cowboys Stadium in Arlington where they gear up for Pleasant Grove’s State Championship football game.*

Running into former students is one of Tony’s favorite things about teaching. Here, he attending a Pleasant Grove football game to watch his daughter cheer and ran into Kim Davis McKenzie and Ben Idom.

Chuck Zach and Tony Kirk are two longtime friends who know how to have a good conversation. “Leaving the Yard with Zach & The Professor’’ is the title of their weekday radio broadcast. At 5 p.m. you can tune in to 1079 The FAN, CBS Sports 740 AM radio, to listen.

Chuck was born in Wisconsin where his grandfather owned a die casting company. His father and uncles worked at their family business, and Chuck was supposed to do the same. He explains, “The expectation was that was going to be my thing.” Instead, in 1981, he went to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. For three years, Chuck majored in business until he decided to try something new. “Then I bopped around for a while. I did radio for a while; I did politics for a while; I sold insurance for a while,” he says.

Chuck’s interest in radio sparked when he took a 16-week tech course, out of a small studio, and helped run a radio broadcast. He comments, “I did radio from 1984 to today almost uninterrupted.” He went back to college and earned his Bachelor of Education degree from East Texas State University in Texarkana before it became Texas A&M. He later received his master’s degree.

Tony, also known as The Professor, was born and raised in Greenville, Texas. He graduated with his Bachelor of General Studies degree from East Texas State University in Commerce, now known as Texas A&M University. Tony had been working at a sawmill and “didn’t like logs flying by my head at night. I thought, well, this teaching thing can’t be that bad.” For about a year, Tony was a substitute teacher and realized that he really enjoyed it. He later received his teaching certificate from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Then he moved to Dallas to complete his master’s degree at Southern Methodist University.

After college, Tony taught college classes for three years at the University of Arkansas Community College in Batesville, Arkansas, before moving back to the Texarkana area. During 2001, he started working at Pleasant Grove. Chuck taught Social Studies in the room next to Tony, who was teaching Political Science and Government. Currently, they both work at Texas High School, where they continue their careers in education.

During the fall of 2002, Chuck was broadcasting Pleasant Grove football games and was in need of a color commentator. He had been doing sports talk and news talk radio for a while with different partners. He realized that he and Tony would stand in the hallway between classes and discuss sports on a regular basis. That’s when he reached out to Tony about being his next partner on the air. “One day I came in and said, ‘What do you think about doing this?” Chuck explains. “I had listened to the radio for years so it’s not like I had no experience with radio,” Tony jokes. That’s how their show, “Leaving the Yard with Zach & The Professor,” was born. “It was really just an extension of our conversations in the hallway. In-between class we would talk about sports. We would argue, and I would try to correct him,” says Tony.

When the two started their broadcast, they were only discussing games but later on Chuck invited Tony on the air to do sports talk. Tony mentioned that he became intrigued by sports talk radio when he was working toward his master’s degree in Dallas. “It turns out that I like calling games,” he explains.

These two coworkers and friends know each other better than the back of their hand. Tony says that Chuck has great poise and a great Midwestern accent. “He’s skilled in production ... very knowledgeable about sports. No one ever does play-by-play as well as he does,” Tony says. Chuck commends Tony on his knowledge of Texas sports. “Whether it’s girls basketball (which is the thing he loves) or The University of Texas, you name it, he is all about Texas sports. He has a wicked sense of humor, and if we walk up against the line of what we should or shouldn’t say, it usually comes from him. But that’s what makes it entertaining.”

“Leaving the Yard with Zach & The Professor’’ has been in action for 18 years now, and they always come up with something to talk about for the hour. Chuck expresses, “We’ve been doing this for as long as we have and except for maybe at the very beginning, I don’t know that we’ve ever talked about what we’re going to talk about.” They simply turn on the mic and start speaking.

The first segment is usually “us talking about us,” Chuck remarks. He specified that they may start off talking about something that’s going on that day like “waiting in line at the DMV to get a sticker, having to wear a mask, or my dog going to the vet, the kids, you name it.” Then they naturally transition into what they’re interested in, or whatever is going on that day.

As educators, Tony has never felt that education means you’re smarter than your students. To him, it simply means the teacher has been exposed to said information for a longer period of time. It’s purely a transfer of information which is the approach these two take while on air. Tony says, “We read a lot about sports. We follow sports. We come on in the afternoons. We try to share information with our spin on it, and that’s what teachers do. That way, it’s kind of like our day job blends into our side hustle.”

After 35 years of being on the radio, the only plan Chuck has for the future is rolling with the punches. For Tony, going on 18 years of radio, he would love to contribute to the growth of A&M-Texarkana Athletics. Tony goes on to say, “If we help their sports program grow, that will help the University grow. That’s really the goal. This has been such a gift to get to do this as a side hustle. To get to do this was a dream for me. I think it would be a real contribution to Texarkana to help the Athletic program grow and to help the college grow.”

In regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, “Leaving the Yard with Zach & The Professor” has had to make some adjustments. “Typically, when sports are going on in Texarkana, that’s number one,” comments Tony. On a normal day, Chuck and Tony’s main priority is to talk about local sports in the Four States area. They’ve done their best to book guests so that there’s a third voice, either in the studio or on call. Chuck comments, “Normally, we wouldn’t do that as much, but without many sports going on you have to fill the gaps somehow.” This has been a great way to bring different perspectives into the conversation.

*Chuck with a group of students during the 2016 senior awards ceremony.*

Recently, Zach and The Professor have started recording their in-between conversations, with two cameras in the studio, which has been an adjustment. This year, the pandemic resulted in them making a Facebook page where they post all of the video footage. Check out “Leaving the Yard with Zach and The Professor” on Facebook to stay up-to-date with Chuck and Tony!

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