Doing it The Right Way: Remembering Coach Darrell K Royal

We don't keep up with the Joneses. We are the Joneses.

 

--DeLoss Dodds, University of Texas Athletic Director

The University of Texas athletics program consistently ranks among the top in the country. It possesses state of the art facilities, nearly limitless resources, one of the largest fan bases, and the highest revenues of any other program. It routinely competes for and wins championships, not just in football but all sports.

We can thank one man for the modern UT program. For the fact that we don’t recruit players, we select them. That we have our own television network. Why we don’t play on Thursday night. Or wear ridiculous, gimmicky alternate uniforms. Or have stadium "white outs." And for the fact that we see playing in the stupid ridiculous Holiday Bowl as a disappointment, not an achievement. For making us the Joneses.

That one man is Darrell K Royal.

Today he passed away at age 88. Today, the University of Texas family came together in sadness over the passing of one of its greatest legends. Gabriel has blown his horn for the Coach.

By any possible measure, Coach Royal is one of the greatest coaches of all time. A native Oklahoman, he played at and graduated from OU, where he also coached under Bud Wilkinson. Coach Royal still holds the OU record for most interceptions in a season, and longest interception return. He recruited Mickey Mantle to play football there, unsuccessfully, and remained friends with Mantle until his death. After stops at Washington, North Carolina State and the Canadian Football League, he took over the Texas program in 1957, after a 1956 1-9 record. He was 32 years old. Then he won the next nine against OU.

Coach Royal’s teams won three national championships, 11 Southwest Conference championships. Texas at one time in 1970 held the longest NCAA win streak (30-0). Under Coach Royal, Texas beat a Roger Staubach led Navy team in the 1964 Cotton Bowl. One of the most famous goal line stands in Texas history helped defeat Joe Namath’s Alabama team in the 1965 Orange Bowl. He holds the record for most wins by any Texas football coach.

Coach Royal and his staff pioneered various formations, most notably, the Wishbone, and made other innovations that transformed college football. He introduced quarterback reads and short passes, just like the ones modern spread offenses use. No one could stop Texas’ power running game, and it annually fielded crushing defenses. Though he regarded the forward pass as anathema, he called for a pass at the most critical time of the greatest college football game of 20^th Century, the famous 4^th and 3 streak pass from James Street to Randy Peschel. He was unique in stressing the importance of special teams, and Texas was always among the most balanced teams in college football.

But while Texas would honor Coach Royal just for achievement, plenty of football coaches have met with success. The Texas family loved Coach Royal because he did it the right way. With integrity, fairness, and honesty.

Coach Royal wouldn’t cheat. As he ended his coaching career, an era of rampant cheating was enveloping college football, particularly the Southwest Conference. Alumni were passing out Trans Ams like Tic Tacs and players got envelopes. Royal refused to do it, and why former Governor and then-current UT Regent Allen Shivers ran him off. More than that, college football was becoming downright sleazy. Barry Switzer and OU were spying on Texas’ practices. Switzer and others tolerated rampant criminality and academic fraud among their players, as "cost of doing business." It would have been inconceivable for Coach Royal to have tolerated such conduct.

Coach Royal ran a clean, respectable program. Texas players had no suspensions, no fines, no criminals running around the campus. Players didn’t dance and style after scoring, because they had already been there. They didn’t wear fatigues when arriving for a bowl game. They didn’t taunt other teams players or get in fights before games. Under Coach Royal, Texas set a sterling example of excellence at a time when Barry Switzer ran all over Norman around drunk, having affairs with his defensive coordinator’s wife, among others. Coach Royal set the example, as true leaders do. Unlike other programs at the time, Texas was never on probation under Coach Royal, and his legacy of honesty and compliance has lasted to this day at Texas, thanks in no small measure to Coach Brown and DeLoss Dodds. He created a program that inspired every Texas boy to idolize not only Coach Royal, but the Texas Longhorns. My best friend, Darrell Keith Ryne, was named after Coach Royal.

Royal was not only the football coach, but the athletic director. He was among the first to employ academic counselors to work with the athletes, and he strongly emphasized academic achievement. This included instituting the prestigious "T" ring for those who graduated.

On the troubling matter of integration, or the lack thereof, Coach Royal admittedly was slow to accept integrating his teams. He had coached integrated teams in Washington and in Canada, but was late in pushing for changes at Texas. While no one should overlook this, I believe he should be judged according to those times, not those of today. Simply put, integrating the Texas Longhorns would not have been possible in 1960s. And he wasn’t only coach that took time to integrate. To his credit, he took former President Lyndon Johnson’s counsel to heart, and recognized that he should press for change. When he finally brought in black players, he was very loyal to them and helped them succeed. You can’t in all fairness press people to change their attitudes, then reward that change by trashing them. Why would anyone ever change if they would remain forever ostracized and a target for contempt? Former segregationist George Wallace, for example, earned great respect and affection among black Alabamans, years after dropping his segregation policies. We should view Coach Royal as other Southern men of that generation who realized that change was needed and responded to the changing times.

Coach Royal retired at 52, which these days seems amazingly premature. He lived another 35 years. During that time, he focused on charitable work, mentoring, and enjoying friendships and living life. He befriended a diverse group of people, such as Ben Crenshaw, Willie Nelson, and Ray Benson. He was friends with a number of sports writers, a vestige of a bygone time when coaches were actually honest with the media, and the media didn’t relentlessly pursue "gotcha" stories. He became friends with his former nemesis, Arkansas coach Frank Broyles. He remained loyal to Texas though, staying a few more years as athletic director after being pushed aside and having his recommendation for his replacement, Mike Campbell, passed over in favor of Fred Akers. He remained on campus even as John Mackovic basically excluded him from the program. He made sure to be available to Mack Brown and David Campbell whenever they wanted.

Former players and others had glowing tributes today. One by one on Austin sports radio, Texas legends such as Tommy Nobis, James Street, Randy Peschel, Jerry Sizemore, Doug English, Bill Bradley, Roosevelt Leaks, Jerry Gray, and even players who played after Coach Royal retired (Brian Jones and Dusty Renfro) spoke with reverence about Coach Royal. They uniformly talked about how his first goal with any team was to build men with integrity and commitment. He felt playing the game came second, and if his players had the right character they would play the game well. OU's athletic director, remarkably, issued a very respectful statement.

Coach Mack Brown issued a deeply emotional and heartfelt statement, talking about how Coach Royal filled the void left by his father’s passing, and how he would not even be at Texas were it not for Coach Royal. Today on the radio, I heard that if asked to autograph a football or something else that Coach Royal had previously autographed, Coach Brown would never sign his name above Coach Royal’s. One of the first things Coach Brown did when he came to Texas was to befriend Coach Royal and bring him back to the program (after years in which John Mackovic kept him away). When Dusty Renfro wanted to wear number 60 (Tommy Nobis’ and Britt Hager's old number) in the Cotton Bowl to honor the Texas linebackers in the 1960s and 70s, Coach Brown made him call Coach Royal and ask his permission. Coach Royal said yes but he’d better play well. Coach Brown made sure the stadium was named after Coach Royal, not after some fat cat alumni donor. That is entirely appropriate; the stadium should be named after the most important figure in Texas football history.

Coach Royal was famous for his sayings. Here are some of the best:

• "They (TCU, who had just upset Texas) are like a cockroach. It isn't what he eats or totes off but what he falls into and messes up."
• "We were as average as everyday laundry. "
• Dance with who brung ya.
• (At halftime) There’s a hell of a fight going on out there, we ought to get in it.
• "He’s (Walter Fondren) as quick as a hiccup."
• "He could run like small town gossip."
• "I've always felt that three things can happen to you whenever you throw the football, and two of them are bad."
• "Football doesn’t build character it eliminates the weak ones."

My favorite quote isn’t even a quote. Texas was losing at halftime to A&M on Thanksgiving Day 1965, 17-0. Coach Royal gathered the team around a blackboard and wrote "17-0" on the board. Without saying a word, he erased the "0" and wrote "21" so that it read "17-21." He then sent his players back out on the field. Texas won the game, 21-17.

I never met Coach Royal, but I saw him once in my doctor’s waiting room several years ago. I didn’t want to bother him and his wife by saying anything, but smiled at him. He smiled back with a smile of a truly happy man. I should have talked to him. Today on the radio, several people told stories of how he answers every question, talked to anyone that spoke to him, and was incredibly gracious.

Let me leave with this thought. As many wins as other modern mercenary-coaches like Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Butch Davis, Bobby Petrino, Lou Holtz, or even Bob Stoops may have, I would never send my son to play for any of them. They treat players as cogs in the machine. Men like Darrell Royal took boys and made them into men. He inspired lifetime loyalty, because he was loyal. He garnered respect because he had respect. Players played hard for him because he was honest with them. No one will ever remember Nick Saban for anything but victories. We remember Darrell Royal with love for being a great man who also happened to be an excellent coach.

The photos above are of the statute of Coach Royal outside Royal Memorial Stadium. The other is of the Texas Tower, lit fully orange tonight in Coach Royal's honor.