The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Executive Producer of “LUV YA, BUM!” Vance Howard Joins The Show

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Executive Producer of “LUV YA, BUM!” Vance Howard Joins The Show

Love, loved and blue You know that we do We'll always be true Because we Love and blue My only football team that I ever loved Now they're gutter trash in Tennessee That's a different issue of a different time

Let's say hello to a first time guest on the radio program He is executive producer of a brand new documentary that's going to be coming out in November, late November. The name of the documentary is Love You Bum, and the executive producer of that is Vance Howard here in the Matt Thomas show. Vance, thank you for joining us. Good morning to you. How are things?

That things are going wonderful. Thank you for having me on the show. What an exciting day. It is. November 25th. It'll be available on digital and on-demand platforms, Apple, Amazon, iTunes, and Google. I have started to watch it. And today, a matter of fact, I woke up, starting to watch it.

and I wanted to finish it today. Unfortunately, I had to make an hour drive into the offices here. First and foremost, tell me your background, and Vance, what made you think about O.A. Bum Phillips? Well, you know, my background is pretty buried. We own a large money management firm, but we got in a production of making films that inspired, educated, and uplift people, and that's what Love You Bum did for us,

and that's what the Love You Blue did. When you look at Bum Phillips and all the things that he did as a coach and as a human being, wonderful story. And I think it's going to make people really feel something about, you know, the 70s, Houston Oilers and that, that great team that they had and a great coach. Where'd you grow up? I grew up in Huntsville, Texas, about 70 miles north of Houston. All right. Would a young Vince Howard go to a lot of games with OA-Bum Phillips running the things? I was a great fan back then. And I still am a great fan. But I mean, the Houston Oilers used to come up

and actually practice their practice season before they started the season was here in Huntsville, Texas. the Sam Houston State University. So we got to see the Oilers team when I was 13 or 14 all walking around Huntsville and they were practicing. He had Dan Pastorini, Billy White Shoes Johnson, you know, Robert Brazil, he had all these wonderful players and wonderful human beings. And it was very, I just loved it. It was just great fun.

Yeah, you got to your opening a couple of minutes of the show went back to 1975 when the older's had all of their coaching changes and they got bum, who was the defensive coordinator of the time to replace Bill Peterson. So you have a lot of stock video, a lot of interviews, current guys, that we're were covering the team or ex-players of his, but you had a lot of old stuff, too. Where did you, we were able to acquire that from? Well, we did a lot of historical research. We had a lot of Houston Chronicle.

There was a lot of film footage that were available. NFL films clearly had a lot. Amy Adams, the Houston Oilers, were very helpful. They loved the film. So we were able to acquire a number of these different film footages and stills that are in there. And if you finish watching the film today, you're going to see Amy Adams in there. She was very supportive of the film. But how can you not?

How can you not support Bum Phillips? I mean, the guy was just a Texas character. He was just an interesting, interesting human being. And his football team, his players loved him. Loved it as an understatement, Vance. There were some early stuff. And I knew this even as a young man, as a family older, back when I was, you know, 9, 10, 11 years old.

He had such a family camaraderie with his guys that almost makes me feel like Vance, if we could show today's NFL players that, I know it's big business, and the dollars are two million fold than they were back when Earl and Dan were running things in Robert Brazil and company, but they were still adults, they were still fathers, they were still young men, they needed fatherly influence, and it was a real sense of family that Bum had, especially early as he was building the Love You Blue teams. It was, and when you listen to the interview with Robert Brazil, who's a Hall of Fame, and he's just such a wonderful individual, he talks about how Bum brought him in under his wing and took care

of him as a young man who had come out of college. He was in his early 20s, and he was with a pro football team and a big city. And he made sure that some of these guys stayed in line, but he did it in a fatherly in a loving way where it was more done on watching how he lived his life, and they would emulate Bum because Bum lived his life with such a strong character and such a strong moral fiber. But he also made it fun. Football should be fun. Sports should be fun. And if you're playing the game, it should be fun. And I think he brought that out with that Houston teen back in the 70s and early 80s. The name of the documentary is Love You Blum.

It'll be available on November the 25th. Apple, Amazon, iTunes, and Google will be among the variety of places you can check it out. We're visiting with the executive producer, Vance Howard. So you mentioned Amy Adams, and I did see her in a couple of early clips. Obviously, the most controversial thing her father ever did, besides moving the team to Nashville, was firing Bum. And again, maybe I don't want to give away too much towards the end, but how forthcoming was

she about the last days of Bum running the oil? You know, I don't know if she was really in the mix with that. I mean, it might have been before her time because Bud Adams clearly on the team. He clearly made a decision that he was going to let Bum go. And I'll be honest with you. I don't think anybody but Bum and Bud Adams know the reason why. I just don't know. But they did, and that's the way it ended up and as sad as it is.

But I wish it hadn't to happen. I wish the Oilers were still in Houston and I wish Bum was still alive. Oh, for sure. Mike Renfro is in there. One of my favorite players. Obviously, Dan Pastorini, he's still a part of the Houston committee. Was there somebody you were able to chase down that you had not heard or seen from in a long period of time? Well, you know, the good part about when you look at Repro in there and you look at that fantastic catch that he had against the Pittsburgh Steelers,

what a lot of people don't realize you learn this in the documentary, that was setting up for instant replay, as we see today, because he was clearly in when they had the replay in the booth up top and then, you know, after a commercial at that game, you could tell that Repro made that catch. So I think it's interesting that historically speaking, that was the start of instant replay. oh for sure that goes really without saying because anytime everybody brings up instant replay in the early 80s when it first got going they bring up the renfro what was deemed a non-catch uh i thought your portrayal of houston with how the sports teams were growing as the city of houston growing was very interesting because back in 1980 and again 81 i'm nine and ten years old the time so i'm not really reflecting on the city but you know the old business was great the downtown metropolis was building the city was becoming one of the biggest in the country and all by the way you had this dome stadium that it was relatively new it was in 1960s but it was an area that uh national attention finally came on the houston sports scene a lot of it is because of what you know love you blue did especially when earl was doing his things on monday

football it was great you know the the astrodome was what the seventh wonder of the world back in the 70s but when you look at what he you look at the talent that he had on that team he didn't have a lot of a players he had a lot of b players but he took those b players he made them into a's and he almost took them to the Super Bowl. And I think that some of the games and some of the spirit and some of the heart that the Houston Oilers had at that time, it's just unimaginable. I mean, they lost a game, and they filled up the Astrodome, and they filled up Houston, Texas to come out and support Bum Phillips and come out and support Dan Pastorine and Billy White Shoes and all their efforts and their courageous, heroics on the field. They were just wonderful men and they just fought so hard to win. And I think that was the spirit of Houston at the time.

Bance, do you like the documentary business? And if you do, what's next? I love the documentary business. We just finished one on a gentleman with stage poor cancer, and he cured it holistically. But the one you're going to like the most is we're starting a documentary. We started about a month ago on the great cattle drives with Good Night and Loving and all the different cattle drovers that worked back in the 1800s and how that affected the entrepreneurial ship in the development of this great country that we have. I can't wait for you to find the video footage of that.

That's going to be something to find. We'll have a lot of still photos. There you go. I have my footage is out there. But we're going to make it into a wonderful educational, inspiring documentary. All right, Vance, again, am I missing anywhere? Apple, Amazon, iTunes, Google, anywhere else that I would find this documentary. Love You Bum coming up on November the 25th.

Those are the main places to find it. But I think that the individuals that want to watch this film, I think it's going to uplift and inspire. But at the end, I think it's going to bring you to tears. Well, it brought back amazing memories. A little bit of what it could or should have, a little bit of how it's, of things used to be, and I know that money and power and technology has changed the world, but to see Bum Phillips coaching a game without a headset on was probably most interesting things to me because he didn't, there were headsets back then, but he had no interest in wearing him.

He wanted to wear his cowboy hat. And he did, too. Thank you, Vance, for the time. We appreciate it. Hey, thank you. And have a good weekend. Thank you, Vance Howard, executive producer of the Love Yubum documentary with us here. And it's coming up on November the 25th.

Any of you that are old school older fans like me, I'm sure you will want to watch it.