Darrell Royal dies, Darrell Royal, one of college football’s most acclaimed coaches, who led the University of Texas Longhorns to three national championships, has died in Austin, Tex. He was 88.His death was announced on Wednesday by the University of Texas, which did not say when he died. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
When Royal was named the Texas football coach in 1957, he took over a team that had won only one game the previous season. When he retired after 20 seasons, he had coached the Longhorns to 11 Southwest Conference championships and 16 bowl appearances, and he never had a losing team. He was named national coach of the year five times and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
His squads pioneered a wishbone offense running game that influenced college football far beyond the Austin campus.
Texas had fine teams in the 1940s under Coach Dana X. Bible, but never finished atop the national rankings. Royal not only reached that pinnacle three times, but he also endeared himself to Longhorns fans with his homespun style.
After Texas had been beaten by Arkansas and Rice on successive Saturdays in 1965, Royal was asked if he planned major changes. He replied: “There’s an old saying, ‘You dance with the one that brung ya.’ ”
He favored the ground game. As for passing: “Three things can happen, and two of them are bad.”
As for attitude: “You’ve got to think lucky. If you fall into a mud hole, check your back pocket. You might have caught a fish.”
Royal, who was an all-American player at Oklahoma, coached stars like Earl Campbell and Roosevelt Leaks at running back, Scott Appleton at tackle and Tommy Nobis at linebacker, compiling a record of 167-45-5 at Texas. But his image came under fire when one of his reserve linemen of the mid-1960s, Gary Shaw, told of brutality and intimidation in his 1972 book, “Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football.”
Shaw wrote that Royal put seldom-used players through drills in which they pummeled one another, hoping that many would quit so he could find more recruiting spots for highly talented high school players.
“I don’t deny at all that we ran a tough program, especially back then,” Royal told Texas Monthly in 1982. “I don’t think we ran it without feelings.”
But he added: “I didn’t recognize some of those drills he described. We never had them ever — at any time.”
James Street, the outstanding Texas quarterback of the late 1960s, told Texas Monthly that Royal could be aloof, even toward his top players. “We sure never went to him for fatherly advice,” Street recalled.
Royal delighted in players who relished hard hits, among them Nobis, his all-American linebacker of the mid-1960s. “Aside from his super ability, he’s just one of those trained pigs you love,” he told Sports Illustrated. “He’ll laugh and jump right in the slop for you.”
Darrell K Royal (the middle initial was in honor of his mother, Katy, who died of cancer when he was a few months old) was born in Hollis, Okla., on July 6, 1924.
When he was 15, his father, Burly, who worked odd jobs, took Darrell and a brother to California in the Depression-era migration of the “Okies.” But a few months later Darrell returned to Hollis to play high school football and live with a grandmother.
Royal, at 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, was an outstanding quarterback and defensive halfback and a brilliant punter at Oklahoma for Coach Bud Wilkinson. He was an all-American in 1949, playing on an undefeated Sugar Bowl-winning team.
He was the head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League (1953), Mississippi State (1954-55) and the University of Washington (1956) before getting the Texas post.
Royal’s Longhorns achieved their first No. 1 ranking in 1963 when they were 11-0 and defeated a Navy team led by the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Roger Staubach in the Cotton Bowl. Royal’s Texas teams beat Oklahoma in the Red River rivalry every year from 1958 to 1965.
In September 1968, Royal introduced the wishbone, devised largely by his assistant Emory Ballard. It featured three runners lined up in the shape of a Y, or a wishbone, the fullback directly behind the quarterback and two tailbacks split behind them, offering several options on a given play and emphasizing quickness. Alabama, under Bear Bryant, and Oklahoma, coached by Barry Switzer, along with many other schools copied the attack and thrived with it.
Royal’s best-remembered game, known as the Big Shootout, came in December 1969, when top-ranked Texas rallied to defeat second-ranked Arkansas, 15-14, at Fayetteville, Ark., with President Richard M. Nixon in attendance.
The Longhorns shared a third national championship with Nebraska in 1970. They won 30 straight games from 1968 to 1970.
Royal retired as coach after the 1976 season but stayed on until 1980 as athletic director, a post he had held since 1962. He was later a special assistant to the university president on athletic matters. The Longhorns’ football field has been known since 1996 as Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Survivors include his wife, Edith, and a son, Mack. A daughter, Marian, died in a car accident in 1973 and another son, David, died in a motorcycle accident in 1982.
In February 1964, the University of Texas rewarded Royal for his first national championship by making him a full professor with tenure. But his folksy presence seemed unaffected.
Mickey Herskowitz, the Houston Chronicle sportswriter who gave the wishbone attack its name, recalled how the Texas sports information director, Jones Ramsey, walked into Royal’s office when he was a newly minted professor and saw him scowling while he scribbled on a pad.
As Herskowitz told it: “Jones asked what was wrong. Royal looked up and said, ‘I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes, trying to figure out if professor has one or two f’s in it.’ ”
When Royal was named the Texas football coach in 1957, he took over a team that had won only one game the previous season. When he retired after 20 seasons, he had coached the Longhorns to 11 Southwest Conference championships and 16 bowl appearances, and he never had a losing team. He was named national coach of the year five times and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
His squads pioneered a wishbone offense running game that influenced college football far beyond the Austin campus.
Texas had fine teams in the 1940s under Coach Dana X. Bible, but never finished atop the national rankings. Royal not only reached that pinnacle three times, but he also endeared himself to Longhorns fans with his homespun style.
After Texas had been beaten by Arkansas and Rice on successive Saturdays in 1965, Royal was asked if he planned major changes. He replied: “There’s an old saying, ‘You dance with the one that brung ya.’ ”
He favored the ground game. As for passing: “Three things can happen, and two of them are bad.”
As for attitude: “You’ve got to think lucky. If you fall into a mud hole, check your back pocket. You might have caught a fish.”
Royal, who was an all-American player at Oklahoma, coached stars like Earl Campbell and Roosevelt Leaks at running back, Scott Appleton at tackle and Tommy Nobis at linebacker, compiling a record of 167-45-5 at Texas. But his image came under fire when one of his reserve linemen of the mid-1960s, Gary Shaw, told of brutality and intimidation in his 1972 book, “Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football.”
Shaw wrote that Royal put seldom-used players through drills in which they pummeled one another, hoping that many would quit so he could find more recruiting spots for highly talented high school players.
“I don’t deny at all that we ran a tough program, especially back then,” Royal told Texas Monthly in 1982. “I don’t think we ran it without feelings.”
But he added: “I didn’t recognize some of those drills he described. We never had them ever — at any time.”
James Street, the outstanding Texas quarterback of the late 1960s, told Texas Monthly that Royal could be aloof, even toward his top players. “We sure never went to him for fatherly advice,” Street recalled.
Royal delighted in players who relished hard hits, among them Nobis, his all-American linebacker of the mid-1960s. “Aside from his super ability, he’s just one of those trained pigs you love,” he told Sports Illustrated. “He’ll laugh and jump right in the slop for you.”
Darrell K Royal (the middle initial was in honor of his mother, Katy, who died of cancer when he was a few months old) was born in Hollis, Okla., on July 6, 1924.
When he was 15, his father, Burly, who worked odd jobs, took Darrell and a brother to California in the Depression-era migration of the “Okies.” But a few months later Darrell returned to Hollis to play high school football and live with a grandmother.
Royal, at 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, was an outstanding quarterback and defensive halfback and a brilliant punter at Oklahoma for Coach Bud Wilkinson. He was an all-American in 1949, playing on an undefeated Sugar Bowl-winning team.
He was the head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League (1953), Mississippi State (1954-55) and the University of Washington (1956) before getting the Texas post.
Royal’s Longhorns achieved their first No. 1 ranking in 1963 when they were 11-0 and defeated a Navy team led by the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Roger Staubach in the Cotton Bowl. Royal’s Texas teams beat Oklahoma in the Red River rivalry every year from 1958 to 1965.
In September 1968, Royal introduced the wishbone, devised largely by his assistant Emory Ballard. It featured three runners lined up in the shape of a Y, or a wishbone, the fullback directly behind the quarterback and two tailbacks split behind them, offering several options on a given play and emphasizing quickness. Alabama, under Bear Bryant, and Oklahoma, coached by Barry Switzer, along with many other schools copied the attack and thrived with it.
Royal’s best-remembered game, known as the Big Shootout, came in December 1969, when top-ranked Texas rallied to defeat second-ranked Arkansas, 15-14, at Fayetteville, Ark., with President Richard M. Nixon in attendance.
The Longhorns shared a third national championship with Nebraska in 1970. They won 30 straight games from 1968 to 1970.
Royal retired as coach after the 1976 season but stayed on until 1980 as athletic director, a post he had held since 1962. He was later a special assistant to the university president on athletic matters. The Longhorns’ football field has been known since 1996 as Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Survivors include his wife, Edith, and a son, Mack. A daughter, Marian, died in a car accident in 1973 and another son, David, died in a motorcycle accident in 1982.
In February 1964, the University of Texas rewarded Royal for his first national championship by making him a full professor with tenure. But his folksy presence seemed unaffected.
Mickey Herskowitz, the Houston Chronicle sportswriter who gave the wishbone attack its name, recalled how the Texas sports information director, Jones Ramsey, walked into Royal’s office when he was a newly minted professor and saw him scowling while he scribbled on a pad.
As Herskowitz told it: “Jones asked what was wrong. Royal looked up and said, ‘I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes, trying to figure out if professor has one or two f’s in it.’ ”
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