an astoundingly great Texas Monthly profile<\/a>\u00a0of Darrell K Royal, published way back in 1982. A friend stumbled onto it and passed it along last week, and reading it 50 years after Royal walked away from his job as head coach at Texas, it\u2019s a reminder of how much that supposedly plagues the college game is new.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
As a character study of a then-58-year-old retiree, \u201cCoach Royal Regrets\u201d remains nothing short of brilliant. Over the course of about 8,000 words, longtime magazine writer Jan Reid weaves interviews with Royal in his pickup and his lake house into a portrait of a proud, accomplished man still coming to terms with where he came up short.<\/p>\n
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FILE – In this Dec. 5, 1970, file phot, Texas coach Darrell Royal is carried from the field on the shoulders of his Longhorns following Texas’ 42-7 triumph over Arkansas in Austin, Texas. Royal, who won two national championships and turned the Longhorns program into a national power, died early Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, at age 88 of complications from cardiovascular disease, school spokesman Bill Little said. Royal also had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. (AP Photo\/File)<\/p>\n
Anonymous\/AP<\/p>\n
Royal acknowledges \u201cMeat on the Hoof,\u201d the 1972 book that called into question the often-brutal culture around a Longhorns powerhouse that won three national titles from 1963-\u201970. He reflects on being slow to integrate a program that holds the ignominious distinction of fielding college football\u2019s last all-white championship team. He doesn\u2019t try to hide how much he was tormented by his bitter rivalry with Oklahoma\u2019s Barry Switzer.<\/p>\n
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But aside from all of that, the piece illustrates how there always has been bellyaching about how college sports is losing its soul. In one scene, which presumably was funny in 1982 but is even more hilarious now, Royal and his wife Edith are discussing that year\u2019s big controversy \u2014 that Texas A&M had made coach Jackie Sherrill the highest-paid university employee in the nation.<\/p>\n
Sherrill\u2019s exorbitant new deal was set to pay him a total of $1.6 million \u2014 over six years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t have to go public with that,\u201d Royal said in the Texas Monthly story. \u201cYou keep the coach\u2019s salary in line with the deans at the university. Then if you want to do a little something extra on the side, that\u2019s fine, that\u2019s private business. But to come right out and publish the figure, that just puts Jackie in a bad spot with the faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n
That idea, of course, became antiquated in a hurry. Eventually, coaches like Jimbo Fisher and Brian Kelly would earn more by getting fired and collecting a buyout than a whole university of deans make in a lifetime, and the school presidents stopped worrying about the optics of it.<\/p>\n
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But there still are plenty of through lines from Royal, who died at 88 in 2012, to today. Back in his time, there was no such thing as the transfer portal or NIL money, but there was no shortage of grumbling about under-the-table payments, or about a system run amok.<\/p>\n
Then, as now, recruiting was a circus, and coaches often found it humiliating. Reid wrote about an anecdote in which Royal visited a high-school recruit and was told he was sitting in the kid\u2019s favorite chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d Royal said, \u201cunfortunately, I was so taken off guard \u2014 I should have more poise than that \u2014 I just moved over like a little poodle dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talk to Saban, or Harbaugh, or Wright, and they probably have similar stories. Talk to May, who just left Michigan to become the coach of the Dallas Mavericks, and he\u2019ll probably admit that assembling a national championship roster made him feel like a poodle dog at times, too.<\/p>\n
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But even now, there are folks who can\u2019t help feeling sentimental about the circus.<\/p>\n
Just like Royal was in 1982.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it sounds like I\u2019m bitter about the game,\u201d Royal told Reid. \u201cI\u2019m not. I think it can be properly administered, that the people in charge of the program can understand that it\u2019s just a part of the university, and not the most important part. It\u2019s still part of education, and there\u2019s a place for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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No matter how much it changes.<\/p>\n
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James Street on the sidelines with coach Darrell Royal during the 1970 Cotton Bowl game against Notre Dame. (Courtesy UT Sports Information) 01012015xCFPspecialsection<\/p>\n
unknown\/Dallas Morning News![\"In]()
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In this photo taken Sept. 1, 2012, former Texas legendary head football coach Darrell K. Royal gives the “Hook’em Horns” hand gesture when was honored before Texas’ season-opening NCAA college football game against Wyoming in Austin, Texas. Royal, who won two national championships and turned the Longhorns program into a national power, died early Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, at age 88 of complications from cardiovascular disease, school spokesman Bill Little said. Royal also had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. (AP Photo\/Statesman.com, Ralph Barrera) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; INTERNET AND TV MUST CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHER AND STATESMAN.COM<\/p>\n
Ralph Barrera\/AP![\"The]()
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The Texas side, including coach Darrell Royal (2nd from left), reacts to the winning touchdown over Arkansas in 1969. The 1969 Texas vs. Arkansas football game, sometimes referred to as the “Game of the Century”, was a college football game played on December 6 in which No. 1 Texas visited No. 2 Arkansas at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Longhorns came back from a 14-0 deficit after three quarters to win 15-14.<\/p>\n
Linda Kaye\/Dallas Morning News![\"FILE]()
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FILE – In this Dec. 27, 1963, file photo, coach Darrell Royal, center, of the University of Texas, chats with two of the team’s captains, David McWilliams, left, and Scott Appleton, tackle, Dec., in Austin, Texas. McWilliams, who has spent more than five decades serving the University of Texas’ athletic department, believes it’s time to go fishing. Austin American-Statesman reports McWilliams, who turns 73 next month, announced Friday, March 27, 2015, he is retiring this August. (AP Photo\/Ted Powers, file)<\/p>\n
Ted Powers\/AP![\"ORG]()
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ORG XMIT: *S0415050914* Jan. 1 1970 Cotton Bowl_Texas head coach Darrell Royal shaking hands with Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian after Texas’ 21-17 victory over the Irish in the 1970 Cotton Bowl. 1970×1970<\/p>\n
Credit: AT&T Cotton Bowl\/Digital File_EMAIL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – This Sept. 18, 2007 file photo shows former Texas head football coach Darrell Royal posed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-392643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}