My first graphic memory of the Texas Longhorns came in 1957 as I had just enrolled at the University of Georgia. UGA hosted the burnt orange boys from Austin at Grant Field in Atlanta, and I went over for the game.
The intersectional matchup was part of a double header with Tech playing in the afternoon and Georgia at night. Texas’ fight song had something in common with that of UGAs.
We sang “Glory, Glory to Old Georgia” to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” while UT partisans sang “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You” to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”
Wallace Butts was in his 19th year as the Bulldogs’ head coach and Darrell Royal was in his first at Texas. At the time, I had seen Coach Butts coming and going from his office in old Stegeman Hall which was built for military purposes during the days of World War II.
The Bulldogs head coach was a friendly sort, but I did not know him. We would become friends as I watched him suffer during his down times of the 50s but his teams would rise to the occasion at the end of his career. I had read about Royal and remembered a story where he told aspiring young coaches that if they wanted to pursue opportunity anywhere that, “The University of” should precede the school’s name. In most cases that meant state universities.
You could have bowled me over with a feather if you had told me Royal and I would become friends years later. He was a master of the one liner and played fundamental football to the ultimate. Run off tackle, underscore the kicking game and play defense.
Royal was noted for his homespun humor with phrases about his team’s offense for a holiday bowl game: “We’re gonna dance with what brung us.”
One of my favorites was a scouting report he had on a halfback who had exceptional speed: “He runs faster than small town gossip.”
There were a great number of personalities who hung around Southwest Conference football over the years, Royal chief among them. Except for Fayetteville, Arkansas, 333 miles northeast of Dallas, you could pretty much throw a blanket over the rest of the conference.
One of the most interesting developments in SWC of his era was that Royal and Frank Broyles of Arkansas became the best of friends. Although Royal had the advantage in their long-time rivalry, 15-4, they remained the closest of friends. Their families vacationed together during the off-season.
One of Royal’s great friends was Dan Jenkins, the celebrated Sports Illustrated writer and author who appreciated Royal’s insightful humor as much as anybody. Jenkins was exceptionally clever himself.
Georgia first played Texas in the 1948 Orange Bowl. That game followed the Bulldogs defeat of Georgia Tech in Athens for Coach Butts’ third SEC title. Interestingly, the Orange Bowl officials had trouble finding a team to come to Miami.
Players in those days did not want to spend an additional month scrimmaging for a holiday bowl. It suited them to stay home. Finally, Blair Cherry, the Texas coach, agreed to play in the game and Texas was castigated to much that it turned out to work against the Bulldogs. The Longhorns upset Georgia 41-28.
Following that game, there were the two games in the 50s: Atlanta in 1957 when Walt Fondren was the Texas quarterback who grew up a millionaire, owing to his family’s ownership of extensive oil reserves.
`The next year, Georgia returned the game to Austin and Texas won again, but an interesting sidebar took place. It was the coming out party for Fran Tarkenton, the Bulldogs precocious sophomore quarterback.
It was the first year of the two-point conversion and nobody sat down with a slide rule and figured out all the options, in that pre-computer era. One platoon football was still very much in effect which basically meant that when you sat out for even a single play, you could not reenter the game until the next quarter.
Texas was leading 7-0 in the fourth quarter when the Longhorns punted with the ball rolling dead at the UGA five-yard-line. Tarkenton remembers that he just ran on the field and took over the offense. Soon he embarked on a magical drive that ended up in the home team end zone.
He threw a three-yard pass to Jimmy Vickers for the touchdown and then calmly threw a two-point conversion pass to the other end, Aaron Box, and for a few minutes he had his team in the lead 8-7. The game ended up with Texas winning 13-8, but Tarkenton was the talk of the town the next week in Athens.
From that point on, with a few vicissitudes along the way, Tarkenton grew into a championship quarterback. His legend grew from that coming out party in Austin.
Of course, the game that became one of the most fabled in UGA bowl history was the one in the Cotton Bowl 25 years later when John Lastinger ran 17 yards on 3rd down to upset Texas 10-9.
Georgia had recovered a fumbled punt and it appeared there was no hope. On the head phones on the sideline, Vince told the offensive coordinator, George Haffner, “to put it up.” Haffner however went with his gut and called for the option which resulted in a touchdown, the only one on the defensive day, and a memorable 10-9 game.