ABILENE, TX — Mark Rogers, a former KTXS sports director, passed away Saturday after he was involved in a car crash. He was 39 years old.
Rogers was most recently the president of the West Central Texas chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, a position he started in late 2017.
“Mark was the very definition of a servant leader, and I know his death will be hard to understand,” Abilene Mayor Anthony Williams said in a statement to KTXS. “Please join me in praying for his family and the community as we collectively process this profound loss.”
Abilene police say Rogers’ wife and three children were also in the car, and were taken to a hospital.
Their condition was not known at the time this story was published on Saturday afternoon.
Police say the wreck happened around 1 p.m. on Saturday on Highway 36 and Blackburn Road, near Abilene Regional Airport.
According to police, the Dodge Challenger was traveling north at a high rate of speed, and passing cars on two two-lane road. The Challenger attempted to pass Rogers’ pick-up truck, but another vehicle approached in the southbound lane of traffic causing the Challenger to turn back into the northbound lane.
Police say the Challenger clipped Rogers’ truck, which caused the truck to veer off the road and hit a tree before stopping in a field. Police are investigating the crash.
Rogers was sports director at KTXS from 2003-2006, but even after leaving the station he came back to co-anchor the station’s Football Friday Night shows as well as put together high school football stories.
Rogers was raised in Plano, and moved to Abilene in 1999 to attend ACU, where he worked from 2011-2017 as a development officer in the university’s Athletics Department.
During the past three football seasons, Rogers worked as a color commentator for Abilene High radio broadcasts.
Rogers was known for his fundraising efforts, including an event for Big Brothers Big Sisters called Over the Edge where participants got to repel down the 20-story Enterprise Tower in Abilene.
A recent video on his Facebook page showed Rogers with his BBBS ‘little brother’ of 4 years, Jacob.
Rogers was also involved in the Abilene community by serving on the board of the United Way of Abilene and the Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene.
He also worked with the campus ministry at Southern Hills Church of Christ.
“Mark was one of the first community members to welcome me to the Department and to the City,” new Abilene Police Chief Marcus Dudley said in a statement.
“This devastating loss will be felt through the community.”
Former and current KTXS employees also talked about Rogers, including Mike Skow who worked at KTXS from 2008-2014, and was sports director from 2012-2014.
“Mark will be remembered for many reasons to many people but I will always remember, and try to reflect, his kindness and selfless nature. He was not only an exemplary talent on Abilene’s airwaves but that was simply a glimpse into the way he treated everyone he encountered,” said Skow.
“He was such a calming and kind person when I was around him, I’ll always remember the chaotic Friday nights during high school football season when he found ways to keep all of us in the newsroom calm and inject humor and peace into the newsroom with a simple joke or wise word.
“I deeply hope Mark is known and remembered as the man who loved his family, friends and community ferociously and always wore a warm and welcoming smile on his face. I will always see a man who cared for everyone else so deeply and worked tirelessly to support his wife, kids and the Big Country when I think of Mark.”
