Est. August 17, 1995 — Memphis, TN on Texas Soil
Sports analytics for the games big media ignores. The college baseball coverage ESPN won't give you. Real data, real stories, zero corporate slop.
Family Tradition
127+ Years
Before there was a brand, there was a promise. A covenant between a father from Texas and his son about to be born in Tennessee.
John Dean Humphrey was born and raised in Texas—El Campo, to be exact. Son of Bill Humphrey, who grew up dirt poor in west Texas, served in WWII, met my grandmother Helen at Hardin-Simmons, then founded and owned banks in El Campo. But life had taken my father to Memphis, Tennessee, where my mother Margaret was about to give birth to their first child.
There was just one problem: no Humphrey had been born outside of Texas in 127 years. And my father wasn't about to break that streak—at least not technically.
So before heading to Baptist Memorial Hospital East, Dad did what any reasonable Texan would do: he drove to West Columbia—the birthplace of the Republic of Texas—scooped up a bag of that sacred soil, and placed it beneath the hospital delivery bed.
"You know you ain't the first to do this—but they've ALL been from Texas."
— The attending physician, Baptist Memorial Hospital EastOn August 17, 1995—the same birthday as Davy Crockett, the Tennessee Senator who died defending the Alamo—John Austin Humphrey entered the world. Born in Memphis. Standing on Texas soil.
The El Campo Leader-News ran the story. The headline? "Tennessee birth will be on Texas soil."
Yes, I still have that soil and that newspaper clipping to this day.
The original Texas soil from West Columbia and the El Campo Leader-News clipping—still in my possession 30 years later.
State of Tennessee. Office of Vital Records. Certificate of Live Birth #141-95-048276. John Austin Humphrey. Male. August 17, 1995. 10:29 AM. Baptist Memorial Hospital East. Memphis, Shelby County.
Father: John Dean Humphrey. Birthplace: Texas.
"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion... Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans." — John Steinbeck
For me, Texas isn't just a place—it's how you choose to treat the best and worst of us. A covenant with oneself and the company you keep to never allow each other to stop dreaming beyond the horizon, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or even birth soil. A home. A family. A philosophy.
From the Bartlett Blaze to Blaze Sports Intel. Memphis roots, Texas soul, sports in the blood.
Blaze the dachshund—named after the Bartlett Blaze baseball team, and the namesake of this company.
Ready for the Bartlett Blaze with Dad, circa 1999.
Burnt orange in the blood before I could spell it.
Eddie George (#27) for Halloween—Memphis born, football obsessed.
Still blazing the path, just with better lighting.
The sports that deserve better. The stories big media ignores. The data they refuse to provide.
Full box scores, comprehensive stats, and the coverage ESPN won't give one of college sports' three revenue-generating programs.
Primary FocusFCS and Group of Five coverage that goes beyond the Power Four obsession. Every team matters.
Advanced analytics, predictive intelligence, and the context mainstream coverage lacks.
Beyond fantasy points—real analysis of scheme, personnel, and the decisions that decide games.
I'm Austin Humphrey—UT Austin grad (International Relations, Economics minor), Full Sail MS in Entertainment Business, former data-driven advertising specialist at Spectrum Reach, and a guy who landed in the top 10% nationally at Northwestern Mutual.
But those are just resume bullets. What matters is this: I grew up driving from Memphis to Austin every year for Thanksgiving and Longhorn football—same four season tickets my family's held for 40+ years. I was there when Ricky Williams broke the rushing record against A&M. My grandfather Bill built banks in El Campo after growing up with nothing in west Texas. This isn't a startup pivot—it's a calling.
Blaze Sports Intel exists because ESPN has systematically neglected college baseball—one of only three revenue-generating college sports—and I got tired of waiting for someone else to fix it.