Lake Highlands High School grad Kristi Scales with Dallas Cowboy legend Emmitt Smith

Lake Highlands High School 1985 graduate Kristi Scales has been named a recipient of the prestigious Blackie Sherrod Award by The Dallas Sports Commission. Charean Williams, an NFL columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, will also receive the award, to be presented this Thursday, March 30th, at the NCAA’s Beyond the Baseline luncheon before the Women’s Final Four tip-off at the American Airlines Center.

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Scales, who serves as sideline reporter for the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network, has often shared stories of growing up near the former Cowboys’ training facility at Forest and Abrams and clambering onto cars or trash dumpsters to peek over the fence and watch her beloved team practice after school. Some days, she admits, she even cut class to scout “America’s team.”

At the LHHS “Evening of Champions” this month honoring outstanding Wildcats, Scales was the featured speaker, praising accomplished students and sharing tales of her 20 years on the Cowboys sidelines.

The Blackie Sherrod Award was created when North Texas played host to Super Bowl XLV in 2010.

“It was named after our greatest newspaper journalist, former Fort Worth Press, Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News columnist Blackie Sherrod,” said Monica Paul, Executive Director of the Dallas Sports Commission. “The award was created to honor those members of the local media who have fostered our deep love of athletic competition and established North Texas as one of the premiere sporting destinations in the world. It’s fitting that as we host the largest annual female sports championship in the country, we honor two women who broke down barriers and proved there is no glass ceiling for talent and excellence.”

You can catch Scales’ self-described best ever Dallas Cowboy encounter, as shared last year with SportsDay, here. Hint: it goes all the way back to her days as a student at Forest Meadow Junior High and involves LH resident and Cowboys heartthrob Charlie Waters.

Kristi Scales (LHHS ’85) on the Cowboys sidelines with fellow Wildcat, Chris Harrison of the Bachelor (LHHS ’89)