I came to the conclusion a long time ago that it really isn’t something you’re born with; no, somebody has to give those fanatical emotions to you and in my case I would have to blame it on my daddy – and he would probably blame it on his daddy – my kids would probably blame it on their daddy. Some day, their
kids will be blaming it on them. In
our family, five generations of them, it’s Longhorn football and
the year 2005 was indeed a great time to be a ‘Horn. National
championships in football and baseball, now that’s sweet! But
believe me folks it hasn’t always been that way. When I was just
a 13-year-old kid, back in 1956, the football program at the
University of Texas was in sad shape; fact is it was disgraceful. From
1951 to 1956, a fellow by the name of Ed Price was the head
football coach at Texas. And Price did okay for a couple of years;
his best year was 1952 when he won nine games and lost two. That
year Texas won the Southwest Conference title and beat
number-eight ranked Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl. Everything after
the ’52 season started to go downhill, however, and then came
that awful 1956 season when the team only won a single game and
that was against lowly Tulane who the ‘Horns barely beat 7-6. During
Price’s tenure, the Longhorns wore orange helmets – the first
and only time they’ve done that. Some folks said those helmets
put a hex on the team and were the cause of the disastrous ’56
season. Texas players have had their heads protected by white
helmets ever since. Considering
that these crazy emotions are hereditary how could my brothers and
I complain when our 8-year-old kids cried after seeing Texas lose
a game on television? After all, I remember crying at 13 while
listening to Kern Tips, “the voice of Southwest Conference
football,” describe another of those nine losses in 1956. Only
difference was, I had to cry alongside the radio; we didn’t have
a television back then. But believe me Kern Tips could describe
those slaughters so well that you could see them in your mind’s
eye. Things
got better for the “tea sips” in 1957 when Texas hired a young
man from Oklahoma, of all places, to take over the
reins as head
coach. Darrell Royal made us happy for many years which included
three national championships, the last coming in 1970. So when
Vince Young glided across that goal line for the game-winning and
national-championship-winning touchdown at the Rose Bowl; 35 years
of waiting were put to rest. In
my opinion college football is the best sport in America. The
traditions of your favorite school are something to respect and
take pride in. I would gladly trade a ticket to the Super Bowl for
the opportunity to attend a big-time college game in a stadium at
Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, LSU,
Florida State and Nebraska; just to name a few. And yes, I would
even include USC on that list even though they didn’t give the
‘Horns much respect. So now, when my grandkids cry while watching Texas play football, and they will, I’ll just say, “Don’t worry Papa did the same thing many years ago.” At their age, they probably wouldn’t understand that an old guy would cry over a football game; so I won’t tell them that I might have shed a tear or two, while jumping up and down, late that Jan. 4, 2006, night when Vince Young and his teammates brought the emotion and the national championship trophy “… all the way back to Austin, Texas, baby.” Editor’s
note: The small Texas town of Hallettsville, with a
population of less than 3,000, held a parade on January, 1,
2006, to show their support for the Longhorns. The parade
circles two city blocks, twice, in a residential
neighborhood. This was the second year for the parade and
after some newspaper coverage, the number of people
attending probably tripled from last year.
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