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Page 12/The Battalion/Friday, December 11, 1987
QB competitive even as young baseballer
Nickname 'Buck/ given to Richardson as a Little Leaguer
By Tim Stanfield
Sports Writer
Paul Tubbs was in the early stages
of coaching his initial little league
baseball team in Baton Rouge, La. in
the summer of 1980 when a friend
of his, Paul Richardson, showed up
at the field on day with a potential
player for him.
Richardson, who had just moved
his family from Birmingham, Ala.,
had his 10-year old son John in tow,
even though the other players in the
league were 11-12 years of age.
“He wasn’t very big back then,”
Tubbs noted last Friday afternoon at
a resturant in Huntsville. “I already
had a full team, but added Paul’s son
to my squad as a favor to him.”
Tubbs had something of a reun
ion last week with John, who is better
known on the A&M campus as
“Bucky.” The two hadn’t seen each
other in nearly six years due to the
fact that the former had moved away
from Baton Rouge in 1981.
Tubbs initially had a little prob
lem with Bucky, since the youngster
didn’t want to catch, which is where
he was needed the most.
“When I joined the team I wanted
to pitch, but the coach told me that I
was going to either catch or sit on the
bench,” Richardson said. “As things
turned out, I not only caught but
also played a little shortstop and
pitched a little, too.”
By the time the season ended,
Richardson had fallen in love with
catching, going to far as to tell Tubbs
that it was okay with him if he never
played anywhere else on the field.
“That’s Bucky all right; he was
then — and still is now — such a
competitor that he always mastered
any position or sport that he
played,” Tubbs added. “Two players
from each team in the league made
the all-star team, and I didn’t hesi
tate at all to nominate Bucky.”
Not only that, but Tubbs can lay
claim as the person who gave Rich
ardson his nickname.
“I found out quickly that he was
the kind of kid that played better if
he was agitated a little bit,” Tubbs
continued. “Most of the other kids
on the team already had nicknames
that I had given them. Our pitcher
answered to ‘Tongue’ because he al
ways stuck out his tongue as he
threw the ball to the plate.
“Another guy was very short, so
terback for Louisiana State because
they had returning starter Tom
Hodson and didn’t use quarterbacks
except to throw the ball.
“There was going to be competi
tion wherever I went to school, so
when A&M recruited me, I decided
to take up the challenge there,”
Richardson said. “At the time Kevin
naturally we called him ‘Stump’. In
John’s case, he had buck teeth, so I
chose to call him ‘Bucky’.”
Regardless of the origin of the
nickname, it stuck, and surely
caused no harm in the two men’s
relationship.
Bucky played quarterback, line
backer and safety on Tubb’s football
squad that fall, and again made the
all-star team.
“I liked being the quarterback
right from the start,” Richardson
noted. “It’s a position where you can
make things happen. We ran the ball
a lot and had a lot of success.”
Shortly thereafter Tubbs moved
away to Houston and the two lost di
rect contact for six years except for
one chance meeting one summer in
Baton Rouge.
But the pair kept in touch indi
rectly through Tubbs’ nephew,
Chris Picou, who became good
friends with Bucky while playing to
gether on Tubbs’ baseball team.
“Chris is two years older than I
am, but we are very close friends,”
Richardson said. “For some reason
we just hit it off well and have a lot in
common.”
Tubbs knew that Bucky had be
gun to get taller and stronger in the
ninth and tenth grades.
“I wasn’t surprised at his athletic
success because I knew that Bucky
would be that way in any sport that
he tried,” Tubbs said.“When I was a
senior in high school in Baton Rouge
I played football with Billy Cannon
Jr., who was a sophomore.
“People like Billy also kept me up
with Bucky’s progress at Broadmoor
High School. I was happy that he did
so well as quarterback and wondered
where he would go to college.”
Richardson noted that he never
would have gotten to play quar-
Murray was expected to return for
his senior year, which would have
given the Aggies two fifth-year se
nior quarterbacks (Craig Stump be
ing the ther one).
“I expected to be redshirted, then
battle Lance Pavlas for the starting
job next season, but Murray sur
prised everyone by declaring himself
eligible for the NFL draft.”
Richardson still expected to be
redshirted, but was told by offensive
coordinator Lynn Amedee that he
might be used when the Aggies
played Southern Mississippi.
Neither Stump nor Pavlas had
E erformed well in A&M’s loss to
SU or win over Washington, nor
did either do well in Jackson, Miss.
The result was the surprising
sight of seeing No. 7 take the field
for A&M in the fourth period.
“I was a little nervous, though the
coaches had told me to get ready to
go in,” Richardson noted. “All I
wanted to do was move the ball and
get some points on the board.”
One could say Richardson ful
filled his own wish, because shordy
thereafter he raced 82 yards up the
middle of the field for the game-
clinching touchdown.
It was the longest run ever for an
A&M quarterback, erasing the old
mark of 80 yards set by David Beal
in the fourth quarter in 1978 at Law
rence, Kan., against Kansas.
“It was a straight drop-back pass
play, but nobody was open," Rich
ardson recalled. “I saw an opening
up the middle and took off. I
couldn’t believe it when I looked
around downfield and saw that no
body was anywhere close to me.”
Nevertheless, Richardson found
himself back on the sidelines the
next week, when A&M lost to Texas
Tech, 27-21.
In Houston, a puzzled Tubbs
couldn’t believe his eyes as A&M lost
with his proteg£ on the sidelines.
“I didn’t think Bucky would start,
but once the others had trouble, I
surely thought that he would get to
play,” he said. “But he did get in
there against Houston, and started
against Baylor.
“When A&M rolled up that big
win over the Bears with Bucky in
there, I was sure that he would be
the starting Quarterback the rest of
the year. But he wasn’t.”
Richardson’s star sank as the
A&M offense seemed to lose its fo
cus and he was replaced in the Ar
kansas game.
Stump led the Aggies to a touch
down in that game and played al
most all of the Texas Christian
game.
With the Soutwest Conference ti
de on the line against Texas, Stump
played most of the contest, tossing
an interception and losing a fumble
that each resulted in three Texas
points.
Richardson came in the game in
the third period, but had to leave
twice when UT players intentionally
took off his shoe.
“I saw him come off the field the
second time screaming mad, and I
knew that if he went back out there
he would get some points on the
board,” Tubbs said.“And he did.”
With the score tied 13-13 with a
little over nine minutes left to play,
Stump went down with a leg injury,
and Richardson entered the game.
“I knew that Bucky was going to
get them a touchdown and that the
Aggies were going to the Cotton
Bowl,” Tubbs noted. “He has always
been able to rise to the occasion.”
And he did, too, leading A&M to
a touchdown that he himself scored
on a seven-yard run.
“That is my top thrill in athletics
so far,” Richardson said. “Just to be
able to contribute to the team is
great enough, but for me to score
the winning touchdown is beyond
words.
“And, yes, when I held my hands
up in a ‘double hook ’em horns’, it
was on purpose.”
Tubbs expects Richardson to start
at quarterback in the Cotton Bowl,
but Richardson wasn’t so sure.
“The coaches always tell us to be
prepared for every game as if we
were going to start, and that’s the
way I am getting ready for Notre
Dame,” he noted. “I would like to
start, but I have full confidence in
Coach Amedee and Coach (Jackie)
Sherrill and know that we will do
well regardless of who is the quar
terback.”
Safety/receiver remembers # 68 Cotton Bowl
By Tim Stanfield
Reporter
When Texas A&M junior safety
wide receiver Tommy Maxwell took
the field at the Cotton Bowl on Tan-
:nr
uary 1, 1968, he had mixed feelings
of awe and confidence.
“We were a _________________
close group of
guys and had FlQSllbCICk
already gone
through so
much that playing Alabama didn’t
scare us at all — once we took the
field,” Maxwell said Thursday from
Georgetown. “That season we
started off losing our first four
g ames, and outside of our team, no-
ody thought we could win half our
games, much less the SWC title.”
As he had all year, Maxwell con
tributed to the Aggies’ 20-16 win on
both sides of the ball, recovering a
fumble and intercepting a pass at
safety, then catching a seven-yard
touchdown pass in the second pe
riod that put A&M ahead to stay.
Maxwell said, “There was no fear
of (Alabama) them after the game
started. Having to win all those
games in a row — and most of them
went down to the wire — had given
us the collective feeling that we sim
ply weren’t going to be beaten.”
Maxwell had come to A&M in the
fall of 1965 as a member of Stallings’
initial recruiting class.
“My father went to A&M and I
grew up an Aggie fan, but right up
until the last minute I was all set to
go to SMU,” Maxwell continued.
“But I liked the A&M coaches, espe
cially Lloyd Hale, who recruited
me.”
He spent his sophomore season
strictly as a wide receiver, catching
27 passes for 445 yards and four
touchdowns.
After starting the 1967 season at
wide receiver, Maxwell went to Stal
lings, requesting that he be allowed
to play defensive back. His first start
came against Texas Tech.
Maxwell played safety, current
A&M defensive back coach Curley
Hallman moved to a defensive half
back, and after Tom Sooy was in
jured early in the Tech game, sopho
more Ross Brupbacher filled the
other defensive halfback spot.
A&M defeated Tech 28-24 on the
last play of the game, then drilled
Texas Christian 20-0 and Baylor 21-
3.
Arkansas Coach Frank Broyles
had never lost to A&M (winning
nine games in a row), but that year
he saw his Hogs trampled 33-21.
Maxwell recovered a Hog fumble
at the Arkansas 30 in the fourth pe
riod, and a few plays later he caught
a 15-yard touchdown pass from Edd
Hargett to put A&M ahead to stay
26-21.
Following a week off, A&M beat
Rice in Houston 18-3 while Texas
was losing to TCU for the last time
as of 1987.
Again Maxwell provided excite
ment on both sides of the ball, inter
cepting a pass at the A&M 40 mid
way through the fourth period, then
catching a seven-yard pass for a
touchdown on the ensuing drive.
The Aggies broke a 10-game los
ing streak to Texas with a 10-7 win
during which Maxwell stopped a
Longhorn drive with a pass intercep
tion at the A&M nine yard line.
“When Texas had the ball there at
the end of the game, we all were say
ing, ‘We just can’t let them beat us,’
and they didn’t,” Maxwell contin
ued. “It was such a relief when the
game ended because the season had
been so tense for us.”
Once the Cotton Bowl game be
gan, the Aggies found out that Ala
bama quarterback Ken Stabler wasas
good as they had heard.
Stabler gave the Tide an earl)
lead with a short touchdown run,
but from then on, he was a marked
man.
After earlier intercepting a pass,
Maxwell set up an A&M score witha
fumble recovery in the second quar
ter.
“Coach Stallings had asked me
what kind of pattern I might run in
order to beat their All-American
safety Bobby Johns, and I told him
that the middle looked open,” Max
well said. “I ran a down and in to the
center of the end zone and caught
the ball with Johns draped all over
me.”
By catching that pass, Maxwel
earned the distinction of being the
last player in an NCAA Division 1
bowl game to both intercept a pa
and later catch one for a touchdown
‘That game got tense at the end,
~ xle
too, when Stabler was tossing those
long passes,” Maxwell said. “Wide
receiver Dennis Homan got behind
us on one play, but dropped the ball
On another play, he got loose over
the middle, but I was able to grab a
leg and bring him down.”
It would be left to Hallman, who
played high school ball in Alabama
and would later become Homan’s
brother-in-law, to cinch the win,
which he did with consecutive
interceptions of Stabler passes.
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