One Hundred Years of Texas Football and srr50

Outstanding! Thanks.

oh man!
i remember those tower patches.
and those tshirts!

TEAM
  me

Is there a school other than Texas that has come so close to so many National Championships and not gotten them? The only one I can think of is Penn State.

Thx Trips

Sure brings back memories….Edwin Simmons’ long run and Marcus Dupre’s poor showing in the OU game, McIvor exploding on the Ags, the overall pimp-slapping of Auburn…..great stuff.

Edwin Simmons injury was terrible—he would have been one of the all-time greats and a likely Heisman winner. He was about 6’4", 235# with 10.4 speed coming out of high school, but he was never the same after that injury.

My opinion of Akers has softened since he left UT. He was a good, if overly obsessed with defense, coach and he represented UT very well.

MNCs in 1977 and/or 1983 would have changed the world for Akers and Texas.

Ouch, thanks for the reminder.

That ’83 team was abso-freaking-lutely loaded. Three AA on defense, one on offense, 17 players drafted. There were second team guys on defense who made all-SWC as I recall. If only Robert Brewer had had one more year of eligibility.

The offense made you wonder where the next TD was going to come from, but we didn’t worry. We knew the other team wasn’t going to score.

explain that punt return against Georgia for me

I was in Texas Stadium for that SMU game. One of their grads stills owes me the $100 he lost on our bet, that day. Lightweight. I’m talking to you, Craig!

I think the voice is that of the famous NFL Films guy John Facenda which makes it doubly entertaining.

Good catch Trips, it is indeed John Facenda AKA The Voice of God.

Dude smoked like a chimney, and he recorded the script in just a couple of hours. Spent a few days in Philly in the dead of winter while the film was being put together, not a fun place to be that time of year.

Tel Ra productions at that time still shot film for long-term projects. The game footage used was theirs as it was a season-long commitment to work with them.

That 1983 team was the most talented Texas team I had ever seen, up until the 2005 unit.

spring branch horn said:
July 31st, 2010 at 10:39 am

explain that punt return against Georgia for me

Get your barf bag ready:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhtZDLlSBOM

explain that punt return against Georgia for me.

It was late enough in the game where there was some thought that Georgia might run a fake. There was some confusion on the Texas sideline as to what punt defense unit should be in, and IIRC Craig Curry was not on the regular punt unit. The kick was a little short and well you know the rest.

The sad thing is that Michael “Fair Catch” Feldt should have been back there as the short man on that punt return – he was a DB and the best short man in the nation that year. He made a lot of fair catches that year. The story that I heard was that they were not supposed to touch the ball. If that was the case why put them back there at all. That play was the beginning of the end for Fred. That and a really crappy offensive game plan each and every game (including most of 1983).

Happy 100th Birthday, srr50!

The story that I heard was that they were not supposed to touch the ball. If that was the case why put them back there at all

If it was a fake you had two DB’s who could tackle in space.

No new tote bag for you General.

Maninblack, thanks for the link, sort of. The saddest part about that ending is the fact that Curry, a tremendous player for us, cost us dearly with two brain farts in close succession. Everyone knows about the first one, the muffed attempt to field the punt. But the end of your video post shows the other. Curry allowed the QB to turn the corner unmolested because he shaded to the pitch man too early. I realize that Curry had contain on the HB, but he did a poor job of forcing the play which unfolded directly in front of him.

I have always fought the urge to blame that loss on the actions of one player— and will continue to do so. However, that video brought back memories I had long suppressed.

they could have played the fake from a lot closer to the line of scrimmage than 40 yards downfield.

Feldt was a DB too

I’ve always considered it both a blessing and a curse that my personal Texas football awakening period occurred sometime during the 1984 season. Yeah that was the beginning of our 15 year suckfest, but I also missed out on 10-9.

I remember my dad cussing a blue streak and then telling me not to root for the Longhorns because they’d only cause me misery and pain.

amazing video

More than the Curry play, my real beef is the uncalled holding (tackle) that occured on the ensuing Georgia score.

Check out the Georgia right tackle – #74 against our linebacker on the Georgia scoring play. More highlights after the score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhtZDLlSBOM

Lindsey Nelson, Oh yea. Say what you will (the loud sports jackets and after game drinks), I really missed him after CBS decided to relegate him to CBS radio and replace him with Brett Chesseburger. Now we have Cheesebuger and after game drinks. Take your pick.

Oh yea! here is some insightful game coverage…………

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMaW_g243VA

I can’t believe I’ve never seen that, thanks for posting it.

I may be in a minority of one, but I did like Memorial Stadium better when it was sans Dumbotron Ad Machine and you could see the city to the SW and the fountain at the LBJ School to the NE. Campus was a lot different then. You could walk onto the field and play two-below (or tackle, until everyone was covered in turf burns after about ten plays) football in the summer. Also, I have no doubt that in terms of facilitating performance the new look is better, but I think the high socks and the sleeves make for a better looking uni than the shiny workout gear with numbers they wear now.

It’s third-hand, but I was told a long time ago that after Curry fumbled the punt, Moerschell, the regular PR, turned to Akers and said “(t)hat’s the stupidest f*&^%$# thing I’ve ever seen.” Perhaps in a weird way I can thank Colt McCoy’s injury against Alabama for pushing the ’84 Cotton Bowl further into the recesses of my misery files.

The 1983 team was indeed absolutely loaded. It’s remarkable that three years later Fred Akers gets fired and we wander off into the wilderness (John Mackovic was the head football coach at the University of Texas?!?).

I remember my dad cussing a blue streak and then telling me not to root for the Longhorns because they’d only cause me misery and pain.

My dad said the same thing about marriage.

Also, I think Pat Haden coined the term “athleticism” on the Jerry Gray interception against Auburn.

A lot of things went wrong in the UGA loss.

Moerschell should have been the QB. We fell in the love with some fools gold with McIvor.

I think Sampleton dropped what would have been a sure TD pass.

We had first and goal inside the 5 yard line and got stoned. Ward missed a chippie FG.

And it was cold. Man, that game really sucked.

“Edwin Simmons injury was terrible–he would have been one of the all-time greats and a likely Heisman winner. He was about 6’4″, 235# with 10.4 speed coming out of high school, but he was never the same after that injury.”

Didn’t they later discover that one of his legs was longer that the other, which contributed to his injury and recovery? Could have been urban legend… that was my Soph. year and my memory from those days is a bit blurred. I definitely remember the Edwin in the yard incident though.

No urban legend re: Simmons, both the leg length difference and the West Austin hot tub skinny dipping were true.

Lesson to all whippersnappers at the University – don’t take this time at the mountaintop for granted. My time on campus started just after the 83 cotton bowl, and it’s amazing to look back on how far and fast the program went in to the tank.

As an aside, damn that ’83 defense was good… probably the best the horns ever put on the field.