iber 20,
hursday • November 20, 1997
S The Battalion
PORTS
Texas Footrai.i, Royalty
ormer Texas football coach Darrell Royal still a legend in the game
By Jeff Webb
Staff writer
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Royal coached the University of
Texas Longhorns from 1956 until
1976. In that period, Royal
achieved a benchmark of success
that will never be matched but will
always be coveted.
Everyone who knows of the
wishbone offense knows of Royal,
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PHOTO COURTESY ASSOCIATED PRESS
20 years at Texas, Darrell Royal amassed a 167-47-5 record while win-
ngll SWC and three national titles.
who “invented” his own version of
the winged-T by moving the full
back toward the line of scrim
mage. The wishbone would be re
sponsible for three national
championships and a 30-game
win streak that culminated in a
record six straight Southwest Con
ference Championships.
“Air Force, Army, Navy and Rice
all run it,” Royal said. “They do
fairly well. It’s a good offense. It’s
the only offense I know of where
you leave two guys free on the line
of scrimmage to the side you’re
running and still move the ball.
You don’t even try to block two of
them. It’s not necessarily the best
offense in the world, but it’s basi
cally a sound offense.”
When considering the future,
there have been many changes to
the landscape of football that Roy
al knew.
He achieved his success in the
now-defunct Southwest Confer
ence. Royal was upset to see the
conference go, but understood
the reasons behind it.
“I was sorry to see the confer
ence break up, but it was in
evitable,” Royal said. “It might
have even stayed together a little
longer than it should. It takes a lot
of money to run athletic programs,
especially with the advent of Title
IX. Scholarships go to all these
programs, so it’s expensive to op
erate a major college program.
“You’ve got to make enough
money to support the major pro
grams, which means you need to
get good television packages and
play good games. Most of that was
falling off.”
The teams that dominated the
face of college football in the ’60s
and ’70s were primarily teams
that relied on the run. Modern
football has since been taken over
by high-powered passing teams
and systems like the West Coast
A
Darrell
Royal’s
Career if., vj
Highlights
•Three National
Championships
(1963,1969,1970)
•Eleven Southwest
Conference Titles
•167-47-5 record in 20
seasons as Texas Coach
•Inventor of the Wishbone
•In 1996, UTs Memorial
Stadium was renamed
RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion
Former Texas Coach Darrell Royal was in College Station last week to auto
graph copies of his new book.
offense. Royal says football comes
down to basics, and if you cannot
get a yard when it counts, you may
as well get off the field.
“There’s a lot more throwing,”
Royal said. “They are a lot more
efficient throwing the ball. I’ve
noticed that the great teams, re
gardless if they’re passing teams
or running teams, make short
yardage. They’re able to punch it
in when they get it down in the
scoring zone.
“I see a lot of differences in the
way that linemen, backs and run
ning backs are. In most cases,
they are a lot heavier. Linemen
are the real difference. They are
just huge.”
The monetary corruption of
professional athletics also is not
lost on the legendary coach. Roy
al said the money made by profes
sional football players in today’s
market hinders the ability of
coaches to coach.
“I’m not coaching, but I would
imagine it would be very hard to
get strong discipline-wise with a
guy who is making four times
what you are.”
However, one thing that has
not changed in Royal’s opinion is
the attitude of the fans. When
asked about the fans’ disappoint
ment of Royal’s initial 6-3-1 sea
son after the program had gone a
dismal 1-9 the year before, Royal
was blunt with his response.
“I was disappointed. But they
have been like that ever since I can
remember,” he said.
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