Larry Carlson’s introduction to 1970- The End of the WORSTER Stampede
Celebrating the 1970 National Champs
by Larry Carlson https://texaslsn.org
Winning was a habit for Longhorn football teams of the Darrell Royal era.
A hard-earned habit, certainly. Sweat equity was in plentiful supply. So was talent.
It’s arguable that no edition of UT ball boasts as much star power as the ’70 bunch. The Worster Bunch, as they were known.
Sure, Texas had won its first national crown in ’63, had come so very close in ’59, ’61, ’62 and ’64. Then, along came that famous signing class of 1967, headed by the bullish fullback, Steve Worster of Bridge City, just a few oystershell-paved back roads from the Sabine River and Louisiana border. Photo of Worster below.
And Woo had plenty of teammates with first-rate talent. As sophs in ’68, once the new wishbone formation found its gears, the teens were a key component of the squad that roared to nine straight wins, a Cotton Bowl bashing of Tennessee and a number three ranking to close the season. A perfect 11-0 and UT’s second natty followed in ’69.
Now, it was time for the senior season of almost all of the legendary ’67 signees.
They were cresting a wave of 20 consecutive W’s. Worster, offensive tackle Bobby Wuensch and split end Cotton Speyrer had already chalked up All-America honors. Defensive lineman Bill Atessis and tight end Deryl Comer had joined them on the All-Southwest Conference list.
Matter of fact, the summer of ’70 was a particularly rewarding and optimistic time for Wuensch and Atessis, two of the biggest, meanest ‘Horns, best buddies from their schoolboy days at Houston’s Jesse Jones High. They were named to a renowned publication’s preseason All-America team and rewarded with a trip for a group photo shoot. It was not Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, destination Waco.
Atessis remembers the excitement for himself and his pal, who passed away last year.
“There were two publications I read every summer, Texas Football and Playboy’s Pigskin Preview edition. So when I was informed that Bobby and I were selected (to Playboy’s team), I was somewhat surprised. And excited.
Atessis recalls the flight to Chicago and being met by a representative of the magazine, then informed they would eat dinner at Hugh Hefner’s lavish and legendary Playboy Mansion, and would be guests at the Playboy Club before returning to their hotel. At promptly 7:30 a.m., they would be posing (in uniforms) for the team photo to be unveiled in the August issue.
“What transpired from that moment on was something only 23 young men from all over the country could only imagine,” Atessis, says. “The mansion, with its closed-circuit cameras in every room, the dining room with one long table to accommodate all of us with a steak dinner. The game room in the basement had pool tables, pinball machines, video games and a view of the glass-bottomed pool above. It was an experience out of a movie,” big Bill marvels. “But it was real.”
Let number 77 continue the narrative: “Hard to believe that things could get better, but the next part of our experience was at the Playboy Club in downtown Chicago. The club consisted of five floors…we had the run of the club and visited every level, participating in the available beverages and engaging with club members and patrons.”
Atessis confirms that it was a long night but one that seemed to fly by. Soon, too soon, came the wake-up call to suit up for the photo spread of the offensive and defensive All-America squads.
“We were all feeling the pain except Archie Manning. He didn’t partake in the imbibing the night before and seemed to be the most cheerful of the bunch,” Atessis recalls.
The naked truth was, this was just the beginning of another magical time span for Bill, Bobby and their Longhorn teammates. Summer would sizzle, anticipation for the season grew, and construction of the upper deck at Memorial Stadium continued.
Note: With no light standards on the east side because of the work, UT played only day games at home that autumn. Only twice, in road romps over Texas Tech and Rice, did Texas play in the relative cool of the evening.
The Longhorns, though, played as if they were, indeed, used to day game sweat-fests when they opened at home versus the California Golden Bears on Sept. 19.. When I asked — for this story –, if the Austin heat mattered, Atessis was indifferent about any effects. “I guess I don’t remember that to be an issue for me,” he said. “But it obviously was for them.”
Yep. Texas, 56-15.
While the cranes loomed over the stadium like so many giant pterodactyls, no improvements were being made to the locker room. This writer sought feedback about players’ opinions of their dressing quarters back in the day. I started hosting the Longhorn locker room post-game radio show on KVET-AM some years later, and thought the area to be Spartan and utilitarian. But everyone interviewed believed the facilities passed muster. Cotton Speyrer even wrote in to say that UT’s locker room was better than the dressing areas he used at storied venues during a five-year NFL career.
But Longhorn followers who can remember the graying, dripping underbelly of the east stands outside and over the locker area will get a smirk from Billy Dale’s spot-on remembrance. Yes, Memorial Stadium, not the Congress Avenue Bridge, was the original Austin home of, well, guano. Lots of it.
“I thought our locker room was great but the smell of bat shit was just part of the ambiance,” Dale smiled.
Being a Texas fan and follower was extra fun in 1970. This was as dominant a team as has walked the Forty Acres. Or trampled people on it. Consider this.
The 2025 Longhorn squad that just beat three regular season foes rated in the top ten, ran for 129.7 yards per game. In ’70, the wishbone backfield of Worster, QB Eddie Phillips, halfbacks Jim Bertelsen and Billy Dale plus others, rolled up 375 ground yards per contest. Rocking and rolling for 5.2 yards per carry, the Horns were an unstoppable force, a true machine of effectiveness and efficiency. Texas averaged 41 points and had but two close games in the 10-0 regular season.
The defense? Regular season opponents scraped up 12.5 points per game. But 49 of the 125 points allowed came during the fourth quarter of the multiple blowouts, against second-and-third teamers.
It’s been 55 years since the favorite Longhorn team of this writer’s boyhood finished as number one and took the United Press International (UPI) national title, closing the regular season with its 30th straight win. A loss in the Cotton Bowl on 1-1-71 ended the streak that has never again been approached. But it doesn’t dim the enviable, unequalled accomplishments of the guys in burnt orange, known as The Worster Bunch.
I was recently fortunate enough to get the cooperation of several of the key players from that notable 1970 team, and TLSN and I are extremely grateful for their invaluable help in constructing the following roundtable reflection of that amazing squad.
In alphabetical order, these are the panelists:
Bill Atessis, #77, Sr DL, 6-3, 255, Houston (Jones)
Dean Campbell, #19, Jr, SE/Returner, 5-5, 155, Austin High
Billy Dale, #22, HB, Sr, 5-10, 180, Odessa (Permian)
Scott Palmer, # 65, DL, 6-3, 241, Houston (Westbury)
University of Texas Longhorns
1970 National Champions
Captains: FB Steve Worster, LB Scott Henderson, OT Bobby Wuensch, LB Bill Zapalac
W 56-15 California
W 35-13 at Texas Tech
W 20-17 UCLA
W 41-9 Oklahoma at Dallas
W 45-21 at Rice
W 42-15 SMU
W 21-14 at Baylor
W 58-0 at TCU
W 52-14 Texas A&M
W 42-7 Arkansas
L 24-11 Notre Dame
Chris Taylor
Billy Dale, I remember he told one player who went scoreless in a game that he scored the same number of points as a dead man – brutally hilarious!
