The 41st Acre — ‘All The Livelong Day’

By JAMES SCHLEICHER – With reporting by JESSICA BURROLA

For two days in late June, the “41st Acre” came to life on the Longhorn River Ranch just outside of Dripping Springs. During this time the Longhorn Network filmed a series of commercials for its ‘All The Livelong Day’ campaign, featuring a group of Longhorn legends, promoting the network and its programs over the next year.

The seven features present the who’s who of Longhorn greats including head football coach Charlie Strong, head basketball coach Shaka Smart, former women’s basketball coach Jody Conradt, baseball alum Roger Clemens and football alums Jordan Shipley and Colt McCoy. Texas’ mascot, Hook ’Em, also participated, as well as 100 extras, which included members of the Texas spirit groups (Cheer, Pom, Silver Spurs and Cowboys) and a few dozen Texas fans — all of whom responded to a casting call. (continue reading below…)

(…continued from above.) Describing the 41st Acre is challenging because[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]it’s almost surreal. In the setting of a beautiful Hill Country ranch, a scene unfolded that ended up as part tailgate, part commercial shoot, part fantasy camp and part day on the range. Longhorn Network marketing director Jill Husak called it a “field of dreams” for Longhorn fans.

“The fans tie everything together,” Husak said. “It helps bring the energy together for the campaign.”

At times, the extras stood by, waiting for their turn in the spotlight. The waiting finally paid off as they got to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the icons they had cheered for from afar.

To further show its appreciation for the fans, the Longhorn Network launched the Longhorn Nation Hall of Fame on Aug. 10 where the most diehard fans will have a chance to prove their color and earn their spot in the hall.

The Longhorn Network was kind enough to extend an invitation for Horns Illustrated to cover the shoot and we caught a behind-the-scenes glimpse on the 41st Acre to see the hard work and laugh-out-loud moments that went into making the commercials that will surely have the Longhorn faithful chuckling to themselves when they see them later this year.

Here are a few scenes from the shoot and reactions to the day from the fans, cast members and crew.

Longhorn legend Ricky Williams’ mother, Sandy, (above far right) made it out to the 41st Acre to participate as an extra because she had heard about how much fun her son had had on the shoot the year prior, according to Husak.

Despite sitting in the hot sun for close to an hour as they worked with the director to get their lines right, both Strong and Smart kept their cool and held back laughter as much as they could while the cameras rolled.

At one point Smart apologized to the extras sitting next to them for length of time it took to get it right.

In the photo above, Smart is yelling at one of his head of cattle (Hook’em the Mascot) to get him back in line.

“I stood there thinking, ‘Dang, Roger Clemens is right in front of me.’ He was throwing to somebody, but I guess he needed to throw more, so he just turned around and said, ‘Hey. It looks like you can catch. You have glasses on,’” Carlos Mojica (top left photo, right side), an 18-year-old Longhorn fan from Pflugerville, recalled about his time on the 41st Acre. “I was wearing my Oakleys at the time. So he tossed me his glove and threw the ball, and I caught it. I then said, ‘I’m sorry about this throw. I’m left handed.’ He responded, ‘No, you’re not.’ I threw him the ball [an arching throw] and he was like ‘I can tell.’ We kept throwing the ball back and forth. It’s not an everyday thing that you get to throw with a Longhorn legend and one of the best pitchers to pitch in the MLB.”

“I was all in the moment and thinking, ‘Dang, Mom — we should’ve brought my glove. I knew we should have,’” he continued. “I felt lucky to have the opportunity to throw with him.”

In this commercial, Roger Clemens pays a visit to the Dunk Tank on the 41st Acre. In real life it took Clemens about 30 minutes to finally hit the target — the mound setup for the shoot didn’t end up at standard MLB distance. When he finally hit the target he let out a holler of “Yeah” so loud it was as if he had just struck out an ace in the World Series.

“I wasn’t going to leave until I hit the clay pigeon,” Colt McCoy said. “I had seen it done before up close, but never at the distance we were throwing. It had to be at least 40 to 50 yards. It was a experience.”

In this scene, the premise is that McCoy and Shipley are at the skeet range; however, instead of a shotgun, McCoy uses his arm and a football to get the clay pigeon.

In this segment, McCoy and Shipley beat their opponents in a guess-what-I’m-drawing game.

“McCoy and Shipley are a funny duo,” Mojica commented. “On their shoot, they were just having fun. It was cool to see the way they are around the fans and the way they interact. They’re still best friends even though [McCoy] is still in the NFL and it’s a busy time. Jordan is not in the NFL anymore, but they still keep in touch and you can tell they are really good friends.”

Here’s video of the shoot…

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