Bubba McDowell and Cris Dishman first met in 1989. McDowell was entering his rookie season as a safety with the Houston Oilers after being drafted in the third round of the 1989 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami. Dishman, a cornerback, was entering his second season of professional football with the Oilers after being drafted in the fifth round of the 1988 NFL Draft after attending Purdue.

What developed was a lifelong friendship that will add another intriguing chapter on Saturday when Prairie View A&M hosts Texas Southern in the 39th edition of the Labor Day Classic.

McDowell credits Dishman as one of the teammates who helped him succeed in the NFL.

“He, along with Richard Johnson, Steve Brown, and Patrick Allen, helped me get acclimated to the life of a pro football player,” McDowell said. “Those guys took me under their wings.”

McDowell said Dishman, Johnson, defensive lineman Sean Jones, and fullback Alonzo Highsmith were among eight members of the Oilers team who vacationed together during the offseason. Occasionally, a game of spades would break out, with Dishman and McDowell usually teaming up for victory. However, the competition heated up when the wives wanted to join.

“If there was going to be any kind of competition, it was going to be a game of spades. (Dishman) and I usually won when we played against the guys,” McDowell said. “When the ladies came in and started playing, that's when the competition started getting heavy.”

Their friendship took another step forward when Dishman invited McDowell to train with him for eight weeks to prepare for the 1992 season. Legendary track coach Rahn Sheffield, who was coaching at San Diego State at the time, led the training.

“We did this thing they called ‘21 repeats’ where we’d run up Montezuma’s Hills, and this one just went straight up and was a mile long. I almost didn’t go back after that,” McDowell said. 

McDowell recalls another conditioning drill in which they ran a 220-meter dash and immediately walked across the field to return to the starting line for another repetition.

“(Dishman) was a track guy, so he was used to running the 220, but I was like, ‘Bro, we got six of these?’ After the third one, I was done,” McDowell said.

Dishman and McDowell's hard work paid off, as the former was named to the Pro Bowl in 1992.

“He and I were always talking. That year he made the Pro Bowl, he’d tell me, ‘Bubba, I’m gonna sit. Make sure you’re over the top.’ Next thing you know, he’s got eight interceptions and brought me along with him,” McDowell said. “I use that story all the time with my guys to try and teach them the value of communicating and always talking with each other.”

On Saturday, the two friends will meet as opposing head coaches in one of the biggest rivalries in Texas.

“This game is very important because it’s a conference game,” McDowell said. “When you lose a conference game to start the season, it’s like putting you two games back because you have to rely on help from others to put you back in a position to play for the championship.”

Prairie View enters the contest having won the last nine Labor Day Classic contests, which is something Dishman hopes to change. Regardless of the outcome, McDowell and Dishman know their friendship will continue.

“It feels surreal. But we both are competitors and want to win this game,” Dishman said during the Labor Day Classic press conference. “We’re still going to be friends no matter who wins or loses.”

“It’s all business. At the end of the day, we’re friends first and we understand what this business expects from us. We’re head coaches, and we both have a team to coach. We want to come out victorious in this game,” McDowell added. “Our friendship will be there at the end of the game, but when that clock starts ticking, we know it’s about business and making sure that we represent our universities in a favorable manner.”

At the end of our conversation, McDowell became reflective and perfectly summarized the path he and Dishman had taken.

“Over time, we went from athletes who didn’t know each other to friends to family,” McDowell said. “We’ll still be family after Saturday.”