FARE THEE WELL, COACH ROYAL

BEGINNING NOV. 7, there was the expected and much deserved blitz of tributes to Darrell K Royal, former football coach at the University of Texas, who passed away at age 88 after a six-year battle with Alzheimer’s and, ultimately, complications from a fall in the extended care facility in which he most recently lived.

Coach Royal epitomized the class and quality of the University of Texas, turned Longhorn football into …

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the mega program it is today and had a lasting impact on the city of Austin and Central Texas.

To those of my age group, the coveted 40-55-year old demographic that still reads books and magazines on paper, not always on computer screens, Royal was as important to the lore of the Lone Star State as Lyndon B. Johnson and Davy Crockett. I, in fact, remember like it was yesterday sitting in a darkened classroom at David Crockett High School in Austin, watching a film (yes, a film) chronicling the 1975 Longhorn football season in which quarterback Marty Akins (the second-ever All-American quarterback at Texas) ran the wishbone, handing the ball to fullback Earl Campbell. There was an extended scene with that trio – Royal, Campbell and Akins – standing around laughing and back-slapping, most likely after a win. It was forever burned in my mind.

I had met and spoken with Coach Royal many times through the years, and had several chances to  play golf with him, including, most memorably, in 1993, during the media day run up to the (quickly defunct) Celebrity Golf Association’s inaugural tournament that was held at Barton Creek Resort in Austin. Coach Royal and I played with then Longhorn basketball coach Tom Penders and major league baseball legend Davey Johnson, a pretty darn good golfer.

Coach Royal took us all to the cleaners that day on the course. He always loved to play golf and could still move the ball pretty well back then, even though he was pushing 70 years old. I was on assignment and heading to another golf course – this time the new Max Mandel Municipal Golf Course in Laredo – on the morning of Nov. 7 when I received news of Coach Royal’s passing. We all knew Coach Royal was in dire straits and that his return to the heavens was nigh, but his death was still quite a shock.

All who knew and admired Royal staggered through the rest of the week, and on Nov. 10, his passing hit us all even more when we walked into the stadium on the Forty Acres that bears his name and where he strode the sidelines for so long with such authority. We at Horns Illustrated send our sympathies to his wife, Edith, and to all of the University of Texas family to whom Coach Royal was such a meaningful part of their lives. He was Texas, and will forever be Texas football.

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