We have reality stars that have done little besides behave badly and we have stars who behave worse than reality icons. Sure Rock bands still trash hotel rooms and there are strange and curious pharmaceuticals being passed around by men in dark glasses.
Our most secret agencies have secrets which become public at a moment’s notice, brought down because someone didn’t get as much attention from her illicit lover as some other illicit affair was getting.
We celebrate the ordinary and make the common place the zenith and then we wonder why there are so few people who understand art.
In a busy lifetime you seldom have the opportunity to see a monument grow from the idea to the finished product. I was lucky enough to do just that.
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I grew up in the shadow of Dallas, where there were only three things that were certain; death, Weekly Predictions Ungaurenteed and Darrell Royal.
I started watching Texas football just a few seasons before Darrell arrived. In those days the coach was Blair Cherry and he was a good’un. In four seasons he lost just ten games.
The wrong ten. He retired and later said one of the reasons was the harsh criticism of the Longhorn fans. It’s tough to be Orange.
Cherry was followed by Ed Price and the less said the better. There was a terrible 1 – 9 season which led to his resignation and a complete collapse of Longhorn Football.
And then there was Royal. At 32 he was the youngest head coach and had only a few entries on his resume, but he took the job and the rest as they say…
He changed the school colors from just orange to burnt orange and added the longhorn logo to the player’s helmets, he created the flip-flop for the Wing T formation allowing the blocking assignments to remain simplified and of course he developed and introduced the wonderful Wishbone-T.
Now that would be enough for most coaches, three national championships, eleven conference championships, never having a losing season, never having a losing record against any major football opponent, but he also hired the first brain coach for his players, someone to mentor the players and find tutors so that they could get their degrees as well as play football.
Coach Royal inspired seven decades of Orange-bloods with his simple, straightforward manner and his direct approach to life and sports.
I know, I was there and got to see all of it as the legend grew. I was there for the Baseball Game, the 1960 TCU vs Texas game which ended 3 – 2. I was there for the Texas vs Navy game with Roger “The Dodger” Starbuck and the press all saying what a joke Texas was. Royal said, with typical Royal finality, “We’re ready” and they were. I was there when Texas lost to Arkansas, (We didn’t win all of the Royal games) and because of that loss got to play Joe Namath in the Orange Bowl. I was there when Texas played SMU and ran up six hundred yard rushing, with every back in the Wishbone gaining more than a hundred yards. I was there for the thirty game streak and for the defeat of Notre Dame and for the loss to Notre Dame the following year.
I heard all of the St. Darrellisms as they were spoken, “We’ll dance with what brung us,” “Breaks balance out. The sun don’t shine on the same ol’ dog’s rear every day”, “I had hoped God would be neutral”, and of course, “There are only three things that can happen when you pass, and two of them are bad.” (He actually said “There are only four things that can happen when you pass and they’re all bad”, but I suppose the writers of the time just couldn’t be so positive.)
I was there for all of the last minute, past time for a miracle, it’s all over but the crying finishes, Texas vs Arkansas, the Game of the Century, Texas vs UCLA, and Texas vs Alabama in the Orange Bowl with the greatest goal-line stand ever seen on this or any other football filed.
So you’ll have to overlook my foibles if I just don’t understand Oregon’s air mail system. I am strictly Royal and if you make three yards on every play and have four downs the math is simple, they can’t stop you!
I saw the University of Texas grow from a football team playing in the south to an international brand along side of the great professional franchises like Manchester United, Ferrari and the New York Yankees.
And all of that was because of Darrell Royal.
Coach Royal made playing football into an art. Watching a Wishbone running at full throttle is one of the most terrifying and beautiful things you’ll ever see.
Last week all of that came to an end, Darrell K Royal died at eighty-eight. He was and is the most successful and beloved coach the University of Texas ever had and will always be the man on the sidelines.
Now that Coach is gone on to better things we’ll just have to stumble along without him. By the time I’m ready for that last promotion he’ll probably have all of the hymnals redone to include The Eyes of Texas or knowing his passion for country music, the Wabash Cannonball will be a major celestial anthem, but in the meantime I’m hoping to take his advice to heart.
It was said to a player but it works for anyone in any field of effort.
A player scored a touchdown and immediately started celebrating wildly. Royal called him over when he came back to the sideline and said, “When you reach the end zone act like you been there before.”
Damn right Coach and I hope like hell I can remember to always do that. Hook’em St. Darrell
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