AUSTIN, TX – This metropolitan city is also the state capital of Texas, a music center, like Athens, Ga., and the home of the Longhorns’ football team which now competes in the Southeastern Conference.
Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, what would Darrell Royal, Dana X. Bible, Tom Landry, and Tommy Nobis think of that?
In addition to the music scene—Austin promotes itself as the “Live Music Capital of the World”—there is industry and technology. Most of the Texans I have met over the years would tell you that the two most salient facts about Austin are that it is the home of the Texas Longhorns and also a hotbed for country music.
Unfortunately, with the Georgia football team staying in Round Rock, 22 miles north of Austin, I was unable to find my way to Ciso’s Bakery on East Sixth Street. This is where the late Texas coach, Darrell Royal, often hung out. It was always an interesting scene. When the coaching icon sat down, a variety of people often joined him without an invitation.
There were a lot of street folk including a couple of Mexican Americans who were seasoned fans with knowledge of his fine record and statistics that confirmed they were really into Longhorn football lore.
He never shooed them away; he was never impatient with their intrusion into his conversation and never made them feel like he wanted to seek solace via the exit sign. I always felt that those qualities made him an excellent communicator which likely enhanced his recruiting acumen and heightened his leadership skills.
It would be difficult to think any football program in the country has it better than Texas. It is a big state geographically which means the population base is large which means there is a great number of high school prospects to choose from each year. Nowhere is the passion for the game greater at the grassroots level.
There is big money in the state and lots of it, which means there are more big donors in Texas than most anywhere. The weather is as conducive for playing football as it is anywhere.
However, most Texas alumni remember two things about their football history. One, the Royal era: he coached 19 years, won 167 games, 11 Southwest Conference titles and three national championships. The other was Georgia’s defeat of the Longhorns, 10-9, in the 1984 Cotton Bowl.
Texas partisans have been longing for a return of a Royal-like era since he retired. The closest they came was when Mack Brown coached Texas to the national championship in 2005 and lost to Alabama in 2009 in the old BSC championship game. That was a highly successful era, but for most Texas fans it was not the same as Royal winning three national titles and dominating the conference in his era.
We remember Royal for many things in his career, mostly his affection for country music. Off the field, he cavorted with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jenning, and the Gatlin brothers. He and his wife, Edith, vacationed with Charley Pride and his wife, Rozene. Royal played golf with Masters champion, Ben Crenshaw, and while he was never the life of the party, he was the center of attention in most any group.
That was because of his story telling and downhome humor. He was the quintessential raconteur. Never verbose, but forever compelling and entertaining.
I never had a conversation with him that he did not invoke humor with every topic. He came from a small-town environment in Hollis, Okla. and knew about austerity and hard times. He surely was the beneficiary of a brush of humility at birth. That trait never left him. For example, he addressed all his coaches and superiors with, “Mr.” He always referred to Dana X. Bible who hired him at Texas as, “Mr. Bible.”
A story I will always appreciate has to do with his relationship with Bud Wilkinson, the ultra-successful coach for whom Royal played at Oklahoma.
When Royal became the Texas coach and had to play in the “Red River Shootout” in Dallas every year, it was tough on him competing against his old coach.
When his team beat Oklahoma the first time, he told a friend, “It just didn’t seem right to beat Mr. Wilkinson.”