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Late-arriving UH made up for lost time
By Tom Day
The Battalion
It was the day running back Alois Black-
well had envisioned when the University of
Houston football program had recruited
him nearly four years earlier.
After years of waiting, the moment
Houston Head Coach Bill Yeoman,
Cougar fans and alumni and the entire
University had anticipated for so long
had finally arrived.
In just its first year as a member of the
Southwest Conference, the Houston foot
ball program had fulfilled its fantasies and
crushed all doubts by winning the league
title and a trip to the 1977 Cotton Bowl.
“It was like a dream where everything
goes according to plan and the ending was
exactly how you dreamt it to be,” Black-
well said. “I can remember walking out
onto the field from the dressing room at
the Cotton Bowl against Maryland. They
were 11-0 and I could just remember
thinking the dream had been perfect so
far. Could we just finish it up? The game
went perfectly.”
Picture perfect.
Behind Blackwell’s 149 rushing yards,
the Cougars shocked the fifth-ranked
Maryland Terrapins that day, 30-21. Carv
ing up a Maryland defense ranked second
Battalion File Photo
University of Houston quarterback David
Klingler yells an audible during a game
against Texas A&M in 1991.
in the nation in rushing defense, Blackwell
was named the game’s Most Valuable Of
fensive Player.
“I was recruited in 1973, and my class
was told we would be a part of SWC history
and would be able to compete for the SWC
championship for the first time in the Uni
versity of Houston’s history,” Blackwell said.
“I loved that aspect of being able to come
into the conference and have the chance to
start a tradition that I thought would contin
ue for the rest of the duration.”
Little did Blackwell and the faithful fol
lowers of the Southwest Conference know
then that the prestigious league only had
20 years of life left in it.
Yeoman, who coached Houston for 25
years, 11 of those as a member of the
SWC, said the league’s disbanding will not
be felt for several years.
“You’ll never know if it’s a change for
the better or the worse until it’s been done
for four or five years,” Yeoman said. “The
tone of the state has been geared very
closely to the Southwest Conference, and
it’s kind of an unfortunate situation.”
Yeoman built a 160-108-8 record from
1962 to 1986 and won four SWC titles in 11
years.
Now working in the Athletic Marketing
Development Department at UH, Yeoman
is clearly against the conference disband
ing — with the Cougars joining the newly-
formed Conference USA.
“As far as SWC teams going to the Big
12, the WAC and Conference USA, I think
they are going to find out it wasn’t that
bad to hop on a bus and go play a real'
good team,” Yeoman said. “After you make
the trip to Ames, Iowa and Stillwater,
(Okla.), you realize there’s just not much
going on there.”
For the University of Houston, the end of
the SWC is hard to fathom. After all, it was
only two decades ago that UH was scram
bling just to be a part of the conference.
“(Getting into the conference) was ex
tremely important to our situation,” Yeo
man said.
“We had gotten to the point as a football
program where we could play pretty well,
and many of the schools that we had been
playing over the years up until then would
n’t answer the phone anymore. We had got
ten a little too good.”
Although UH has been an SWC member
for only 20 years, the Cougars have left a
huge mark on the history of the league.
Houston’s conference title and No. 4 nation
al ranking in its first SWC season in 1976 won
much respect from its conference brethren.
But Yeoman said it was the Cougars’
success in the following years that con
vinced the league and its followers that UH
was for real.
“The initial year had a serious impact
and was an enjoyable experience to go
through,” Yeoman said. “In essence, we
had been in competition with the schools
here in the state, but we were never al
lowed to get on the field with them.
The Cougars’ 1978 SWC championship
season was marred in the Cotton Bowl
when Notre Dame, led by quarterback Joe
Montana, beat Houston 35-34. Montana
broke the hearts of the Cougar faithful by
guiding the Irish to 23 points in the game’s
final 7:37.
The next year, Houston did what it could
to wipe out that painful memory by defeat
ing seventh-ranked Nebraska 17-14 in a re
turn trip to the Cotton Bowl.
Yeoman said that Houston’s success in
1984 was one of his most rewarding sea
sons. The Cougars used a 6-2 conference
mark to qualify for the Cotton Bowl.
University of
Houston
Entered league: 1976
All-Time SWC record: 78-70-5
Bowl Record: 3-4
Championships: 1976, 78, 79, 84
All-Time Coach: Bill Yeoman: 1962-86,
Overall 160-108-2, SWC:51-35-2
Top 5 Players:
1. Andre Ware,
Quarterback
2. David Klingler,
Quarterback
3. Manny Hazard,
Wide Receiver
4. Wilson Whitley,
Wide Receiver
5. Chuck Weatherspoon, Running Back
Top 5 Games:
1. Nov. 20, 1976: UH 27, Tech 19: UH
wins first SWC title
2. Nov. 1, 1978: UH 10, UT 7: Unseating
the SWC Champs
3. Nov. 7, 1987: UH 60, UT 40: The
beginning of the run’n’shoot
4. Oct. 21, 1989: UH 95, SMU 21: Oh yeah
5. Nov. 17, 1990: UH 84, E.Washington 21:
D. Klingler, NCAA record 11 ID passes
“I think our staff did its best job in
1984,” Yeoman said. “We certainly had
some players, but we had nothing to com
pare to SMU and Texas at the time.”
Of all the Houston teams he coached, Yeo
man said probably the most talented group
was the one he left behind when he retired
from coaching following the 1986 season.
Under new coach Jack Pardee and his
then-innovative Run-n-Shoot offense, such
name players as Andre Ware, Chuck
Weatherspoon and David Klingler emerged
to lead Houston to three Top 20 finishes
from 1988 to 1990.
“Maybe the best players we had were
the ones we left Pardee and his group,”
Yeoman said. “We left them nine NFL
football players, and I was disappointed
they couldn’t win the conference with that
bunch.”
Yeoman, who recruited Ware in 1986, said
the quarterback’s Heisman Trophy winning
season of 1989 was a key moment in the
school’s evolution as a national power.
“Any time you have who people consider
the best football player in the United
States, the conference, the school, the pro
gram, the town and everything else bene
fits,” Yeoman said. “To have a kid as classy
as he is, the whole sport benefits.”
Both Yeoman and Blackwell believe
Texas will miss the rivalries and traditions
that take place between SWC schools.
“I enjoyed the conference rivalry and the
conference relationship between schools
very much,” Yeoman said.
For Blackwell, the SWC was something
he aspired to a part of from his childhood.
“I always wanted to play in the SWC,”
Blackwell said.
“It’s like having a home and a family
your whole life and coming back to find no
home and your family has scattered. That's
symbolic of what’s happening to the SWC.”
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