10-11-2024 TLSN Newsletter #21 Volume VIIII Tyres, Haley, Coblentz, Ollie, Callison, Nobis
In the past four months, Longhorn national volleyball champion and TLSN Chairwoman Beth Coblentz has explored various sponsorship opportunities to assist Tyres Dickson. Tyres, who has been wheelchair-bound for over 25 years following after a car accident, recently requested a custom-made therapeutic bed to help alleviate his bed sores. TLSN’s Beth Coblentz found a source who donated the specialty bed to Tyres. Texas Mattress Makers with TLSN’s Chairwomen Beth Coblentz on top far right with the owners of Texas Mattress Makers. .  Bottom row is Tyres with his mother  Tyres with Ricky Brown  Former volleyball Coach Mick Haley with TLSN Chairwoman Beth Coblentz ————– TLSN seeks two more TLSN Board members selected from the sports below: Track and field, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, baseball, rowing Presently, the board is represented by two football players, one women’s basketball player, one volleyball player, one manager, and one women’s basketball Coach. ————– Ed Olle led a “charmed life”. ED OLLE was a Longhorn player and administrator from 1925-1962. Before rings, the major symbol of Longhorn sports accomplishments was charms. Ed Olle’s granddaughter Katherine was kind enough to share images of many of the charms Ed received as an athlete and UT administrator. In two years, Olle earned six letters, two each in football, basketball, and baseball. He was the first winner of the Norris Trophy, which honored the best athlete at Texas. Familiar with the fundamentals of all sports, and an authority on the rules of football and basketball, Olle coached the Longhorns in basketball (unpaid) for three seasons (1931–34) following the departure of “Mysterious” Fred Walker in 1931. His 1932–33 team finished the season as Southwest Conference champions with a 22–1 overall record. Many decades later, this team received retroactive recognition as that season’s national champion in the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. (the team playing as it did in an era preceding the existence of national basketball tournaments or polling). In 1956 Ed Ollie was hired as UT Athletics Director and remained in that position until 1962.      Ed lived a charmed life .  His 1932–33 team finished the season as Southwest Conference champions with a 22–1 overall record  In two years, Olle earned six letters, two each in football, basketball, and baseball. He was the first winner of the Norris Trophy, which honored the best athlete at Texas.  Photo is Ed as a U.T. Athletic Department administrator ————– Jackie Sherrill: The Castrator and “Educator” by Larry Carlson https://texaslsn.org I’m guessing that some Texas fans still have their Jackie Sherrill dartboards somewhere out in the garage or tool shed. He’s UT’s all-time coaching nemesis. When he became college football’s highest-paid boss at A&M in ’82, the former Pitt coach knew he wanted to beat Texas. His first two squads got crushed by the Longhorns, 51-16 and 42-13. But Jackie warned opponents, especially those at the Forty Acres. “You’d better get your licks in now,” he said. The Aggie donors and top brass got their money’s worth, unlike with Jimbo Fisher. Sherrill’s Ags beat Texas five straight times before he resigned in December 1988. The NCAA had decided to put A&M on probation for two years. Violations included improper employment, extra benefits, lack of institutional control, and unethical conduct. Sherrill wasn’t found personally guilty of any infractions but lit out. After two years away from football, Jackie resurfaced at another ag school in the South, Mississippi State. His Bulldogs posted a 7-5 record that included a non-conference Starkville victory over David McWilliams’ last UT squad. But Sherrill’s marquee moment at State came the next September. The week of the opener at Texas, Jackie turned educator and castrator. He even got coverage from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Unethical conduct was about to resurface. For those who missed the big event 32 autumns ago, Sherrill treated his squad to the castration of a bull, out on the ‘Dogs’ practice field. When the news broke about the stunt prior to a pigskin business trip to Austin, the uproar bounced around the nation. Sherrill said he had asked the bull’s owner to provide the demonstration and told reporters that he considered it “motivational and educational.“ Whatever it did for the Bulldogs could not be argued by Saturday night. State, ranked 21st by the Associated Press, butchered the 25th-ranked Longhorns, 28-10, to start the John Mackovic era at UT. Sherrill was the toast of Oktibbeha County and most of the ag school’s students and backers were smiling about the “motivation” and certainly about the scoreboard. One Magnolia State writer summed it up this way: “Motivation plus education, equals castration.” Then he launched a shot at arch-rival Ole Miss. “Beware, Colonel Reb.” Sherrill did apologize to the university president but had to feel smug about his place in Longhorn lore. His record against UT? Seven straight wins after two losses to start. The next time Texas tussled with Mississippi State’s Bulldogs under Sherrill, the Horns partied like it was 1999. It was. Mack Brown was the first-year UT coach, and his team had all the New Year’s fireworks, blasting MSU 38-11. Major Applewhite tossed three TD passes and Ricky Williams toasted Jackie with 208 yards rushing and two more TDs in his curtain call as a collegian. Coach Sark and his team were challenged by Mississippi State two weeks ago but won. Bevo was watching and remembering that fateful day decades ago when a “brother” suffered humiliation under Coach Sherrill both on and off the field. (TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. He teaches sports media at Texas State University and lives in San Antonio.)    ————– When Tragedy Strikes, Texas Legacy Support Network can help! The Texas Legacy Support Network (TLSN) provides support to T-ring recipients who have slipped through societal safety nets through no fault of their own. Although these occurrences are rare, TLSN remains vigilant and ready to offer assistance to those who qualify when such circumstances occur. A sincere thank you to everyone who has made it possible to replenish the TLSN 501 (C) (3) checking account. This ensures that we have the financial resources ready to assist the next qualifier in need. Diane Callison states, Hello to all of you! Throughout the years Bobby has shared with me his love of his football team members and how much he learned from them and the amazing amount of acceptance you all had. He knew that you always had his back. Even though he is not aware of that today, you again have his back. Your generosity has allowed me to keep things afloat when I was not able to. You cannot imagine to weight that was lifted off of me to be able to meet the deadlines on our most important obligations. I wish that there was a way to be able to express the true depth of gratitude I have for all of you, not only financially but for the emotional support, thoughts and prayers that you have offered us. Bobby always said that you were men that he not only loved but admired and you all have constantly shown that quality. I know if Bobby were able to tell you himself he certainly would, so please allow me to say for him, from the deepest part of our hearts, Thank you and my prayer is that some day, some time I will be able to do for others what has been done for us. Blessings and gratitude, Love, Diane  Bobby Callison with Coach Royal  The TLSN 501 (C) (3) HAS TWO MISSIONS – EDUCATIONAL-SHARING THE HISTORY OF ALL LONGHORN SPORTS, AND COMPASSIONATE- OFFERING A HELPING HAND TO THOSE WHO QUALIFY FOR TEMPORARY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. Access to the TLSN newsletter and website is free. No TLSN Board Member receives compensation from donations received. The donation link ishttps://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/send-donation-to ————–  Nobis, By A Neck by Larry Carlson “Tommy Nobis’s Neck” sounds like it could be the name of a punk band, perhaps one that would have opened for the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. Nobis’s neck, famously 19 ½ inches around and sprayed generously with freckles, was almost as well known as his ability to crunch ballcarriers when he starred at Texas for three seasons. Then he stuffed the NFL’s best for eleven years as an Atlanta Falcon. In an era of talented but svelte footballers who might these days be considered pencil-necked geeks, Nobis stood out. On and off the football field. When few UT linemen topped 200 pounds, Nobis was a tall, 6-2, V-shaped 235-pounder. He lifted weights while others feared becoming muscle bound and inflexible. Tommy put extra focus and effort into strengthening his neck. He was described by Houston writer Mickey Herskowitz as “Huck Finn with muscles.” And the line, “Even his freckles have muscles,” has been attributed to his Longhorn coach, Darrell Royal who was on record as declaring that he never had another who played his position as well as did Nobis. Some observers likened Nobis and his frame to the UT tower after a win, the orange flat-top that crowned his noggin being emblematic of victory, all the time. At Texas, excelling both ways as an offensive guard and a linebacker, Nobis established himself as a peerless player who blew holes open for the UT backfield and busted runners like so many dainty plates of china. Three times an All-Southwest Conference pick and twice an All-American, the San Antonian spearheaded UT defenses from 1963 through 1965. The big man had been so dominant in his first two years that writers in the region voted Nobis as the Southwest Conference’s greatest defender of all time, with his senior year not yet teed up. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that Nobis’s countenance did not adorn the cover of (Dave Campbell’s) Texas Football magazine.    After all, Tommy would be the coverboy of LIFE magazine and Sports Illustrated in the coming months. But Texas Tech’s “golden palomino,” Donny Anderson, gazed out at the Lubbock skies from the always anticipated football summertime bible of the Lone Star State. It’s impossible to say for sure but there’s a chance that even Darrell K Royal perceived the cover omission as a slight to the young man he called “the best two-way player ever.” When the Longhorns throttled the Red Raiders, 33-7 and shut down Anderson for the third straight year (he got 27 yards as a senior, and never crossed the UT goal line in three defeats), DKR allowed himself to crow. “He never drank a drop against us,” cracked Royal. After the season, it was time for Nobis to somehow get fit with tuxedo shirts that could accommodate his neck. He won the Outland Trophy as the country’s best lineman and the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best player. He even finished seventh in the Heisman voting. Huck Finn with muscles finished second to nobody when it came time for the NFL draft in the spring of ’66. The spanking new franchise in Atlanta made Nobis the number one pick. He was also drafted first by the AFL’s Houston Oilers – and astronaut Frank Borman, orbiting the earth in Apollo VII – urged Nobis to sign on with Space City. But Houston had a problem. Tommy went with the Falcons and the NFL. He was Rookie of the Year and racked up a record number of tackles. Nobis was so good that, after four seasons, he was selected to the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1960s. This, for a team that won but six times in Nobis’s first three years. The Texas immortal, whose retired jersey is the most storied in Longhorn history, was long ago named to the College Football Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, the UT Hall of Honor, the Falcons’ Ring of Honor and the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame. He is not, however, enshrined in Canton, Ohio as a member of the NFL Hall of Fame. Many, many writers, former teammates and opponents strongly believe his absence there is a serious mistake. The prevailing theory is this: Nobis started in the inaugural season of a new franchise and played his entire career in the shadows of the league because he toiled for teams that ranged from horrible to mediocre. Consider that Texas legend Bobby Layne, a Hall of Famer, led Detroit to several NFL titles. Admittedly, safety Bobby Dillon played for Green Bay teams that were mostly breakeven caliber in the ’50s. But Earl Campbell rocked deep into the playoffs for Houston and Steve McMichael, inducted in August, gained fame as one of the roughest and rowdiest of the Super Bowl champion ’85 Chicago Bears and other editions of the “Monsters of the Midway.” Will justice one day be served in Nobis’s case? Longtime fans from Austin to Atlanta can hope. In truth, it isn’t likely. It would take action by the Hall of Fame’s Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee to move the needle and get it done. If it’s neck and neck, whose neck is gonna win? Tommy Nobis’s neck. (TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. He teaches sports media at Texas State and lives in San Antonio.     |
