The most famous person from Hale County is unquestionably Jimmy Ray Dean, born in Olton, Texas on Aug. 10, 1928. He was a famed country singer and actor before he founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company in 1969 with his brother, Don. 

The second most famous person, at least currently, is quarterback Bryson Daily. Like Dean, the former prep star joined a military branch after high school in West Texas. Dean dropped out at Olney and joined the Air Force Academy. Daily was a multi-sport star who helped the Antelopes reach the 2018 state semifinals before committing to Army. 

Now located on IH-27 and U.S. HWY 87, 18 miles north of Lubbock in Hale County, Abernathy was founded in 1909 when the Sante Fe Railroad searched for a straight path from Plainview to Lubbock. M.G. Abernathy was one of three men in the South Plains Investment Company to establish and promote the town. 

The only problem was that Abernathy didn’t have any buildings. Those were 13 miles northwest in a community called Bartonsite, where J.J. Barton expected the Sante Fe Railroad to lay tracks near his ranch. With no need for a yellow two-story hotel, a lumberyard, or a blacksmith shop, the founding fathers of Abernathy bought 10 buildings from Barton, including three or four residences, and moved them by steam-driven tractors at 3 or 4 mph.

In a few decades, Bartonsite transformed from a hopeful West Texas depot with 250 people in 1909 to a ghost town with a closed post office by 1921. Abernathy flourished in the 1920s and early 1930s as a grain and cotton center until the flour mill was destroyed in a 1935 fire. The city was incorporated in 1924, acquired electricity by 1930 and a sewer system in 1934. The discovery of oil in 1946 and 1947 caused a boom, doubling the existing population to nearly 2,000 by the early 1950s. 

Daily was born in Post, Texas, roughly 40 miles southwest of Lubbock, to a family of coaches. His dad, Darrell, became the athletic director and head football coach at Abernathy in 2009 when Bryson was in the second grade. Darrell named Bryson the starting quarterback as a freshman and that sparked a run of four consecutive trips to the regional quarterfinals or beyond with the Dailys at the helm. 

“He’s been on the sidelines of football games since he was in kindergarten,” Darrell said. “Football was the thing he loved, and he just liked to compete. I knew that was his route at an early age. He had a great career and won a lot of games.” 

Long before he was “Captain America” for the Black Knights, he was a Mr. Texas Football candidate who did it all at Abernathy. He was a star basketball player, an All-State baseball player, and a bronze medalist in the discuss at the Class 3A level. He was a two-way star on the gridiron who some coaches, even a few at Army, wanted as a linebacker in college. 

Daily accounted for 3,530 yards and 57 total touchdowns as a run-first quarterback while leading his dad’s program to a 12-2 record as a senior in 2019. He also logged a receiving touchdown, a kickoff return for a touchdown, 78 tackles, including 10 for-loss, and an interception. He was the District 2-3A Division II MVP as a junior. 

“He was the type of kid that on Saturday morning, you’d hear him outside bouncing the basketball before breakfast,” Darrell said. “We’d find him outside whipping on the fourth and fifth graders while he was just in second grade.” 

Being a coach’s kid can be hard. Luckily for Daily, his dad was also a coach’s kid. Darrell took lessons from his father and poured them into Daily as he navigated becoming a varsity starter at the game’s most important position at 14. This is Friday Night Lights in West Texas, after all. This meant something. 

Growing up in a small town can be a double-edged sword. It is easy to make a reputation – good or bad. Daily’s was the former. Those fourth and fifth graders he used to beat up on as a second grader were now juniors and seniors. Upperclassmen ready to win at the highest levels. They knew Daily was special. 

His legend grew that freshman year in 2016 when the Antelopes ran into Post, where Daily was born and his father coached, in the third round of the state playoffs. Post beat Abernathy, 21-0, in Daily’s varsity debut. The rematch, which took place at the halfway point in Lubbock, was one of the bigger events for the city of Abernathy since the railway chose their land over Bartonsite. 

The game was tied at 21-all with 10 seconds left when Darrell did something he rarely asked the Antelopes to do – kick a field goal. And who else would attempt the 27-yard field goal? Daily, of course. 

“Bryson was just a toe-puncher,” Darrell said of his kicking style. “He was always good under pressure, though. By the time he was a senior, he could make it from 47 yards. He was unreal for us in the second half and then he kicked the game-winning field goal to beat a rival we had no business beating in the playoffs. Not bad for a 15-year-old.” 

Daily is in his second act leading an upstart program tucked away in the corners of the sport. He became the starting quarterback at Army in 2023 and a household name in 2024. The Black Knights were 7-0 and ranked in the AP Top 25 entering Week 9 as Daily led a high-powered rushing attack with 909 yards and 19 touchdowns. He’s topped 100 yards on the ground in six of the seven wins. Seven of his 27 completions have resulted in touchdowns. He missed the Week 10 win over Air Force with an undisclosed injury or illness, but the family is hopeful he'll be back for the Week 11 trip to North Texas. 

Darrell retired after 33 years of coaching - 11 at Abernathy - following Daily’s senior year. He’s now living the dream of every red-blooded Texan – working at a barbecue joint called Kelly’s Hill Country Barbecue in Wimberley outside of Austin with two fellow retired coaches and traveling the country watching his son play football. 

“I’m poor because all those trips are killing us,” Darrell joked. “But I couldn’t be prouder.”