How it happened is quite understandable.
Before the propagation of the internet, social media, smart phones, your dating prospects were largely hyper-localized.
You didn't have to be that much better than your competition. That's because you simply had less, much less competition.
So it was much easier across the board. That guy's dad didn't have hundreds of other men trying to text the woman he was dating.
I remember in college a few of my friends who were girls showed me their social media accounts (snap, insta). They were completely swarmed with DMs, from very good looking guys, but of course some not so much as well. It is hard for us men to imagine this scenario but if you are at all an in shape girl and a 7+/10, this is how life goes today.