When I was a boy, I used to love spending Saturday afternoons in the fall watching SWC and Pac-8 football on TV. I liked the tearaway jerseys and the powerful, wide-open running games, which seemed so different than the plodding Big 10, three years and a cloud of dust game that was dominated by Schembechler’s Wolverines and Woody Hayes’s Buckeyes. For reasons I cannot explain, most likely related to my intense dislike of Arkansas and Oklahoma, I was a Texas fan, and one of my favorite shirts was a white mesh jersey with the orange Texas Longhorn on the front.
While I much prefer NFL football to the NCAA these days, mostly due to the better competitive balance in the pro game, there is still something about seeing the fall colors and the leaves fallen from the trees that makes me hear a horn section and the voices of Brent Musburger and Keith Jackson in my mind. So, I found this respectful tribute to the late Texas coach, Darrell Royal, by the team he once coached with such success, to be a beautifully fitting one.
I especially liked how the crowd recognized it and began to cheer as soon as the Longhorns lined up in the old, familiar formation.