THE WISHBONE & THE TURKEYS

Longhorns vs Aggies, 1968-70

by Larry Carlson ( lc13@txstate.edu )

Ten months before the wishbone offense of Darrell Royal and Emory Bellard got its first of what would ultimately become 30 consecutive victories, UT’s football leaders had tough questions and challenges.

 The “1967: Year of the ‘Horns” bumper stickers had been peeled off fans’ pick-ups and Cadillacs after the Steers sandwiched two losses in September and two more in November around an encouraging six-game winning string.  The most embarrassing blow had been a season-closing 10-7 loss to upstart A&M, the first time Royal had lost to the Ags after carving up the Farmers ten straight times from 1957-66.  Texas quarterback “Super” Bill Bradley had been picked off four times by the maroon crew in College Station.  The Aggies had pulled off a miraculous turnaround for Gene Stallings in ’67.  After an 0-4 start, the team led by QB Edd Hargett had won five in a row before besting the Horns to clinch a Southwest Conference championship. just their second since 1941.  

Football at the Forty Acres, meanwhile, was in turmoil.  The teams of DKR had sputtered their way to three 6-4 seasons after a remarkable 40-3-1 stretch in the early ’60s.  Something had to change, and it did. 

Springtime meant tougher drills than ever before.  More than a dozen players left the team.

In the summer, Bellard and DKR worked on a triple-option offense to take advantage of the hoss-power afforded by a stable of runners, including Bradley, Ted Koy, rugged and skilled soph Steve Worster, and the lizard-like Chris Gilbert, already the author of two seasons of one-thousand yards rushing, new ground in the UT record books.  Link below is the history of the 1968-1970 Longhorn football seasons.

https://www.texaslsn.org/football-dkr-1968-1970-30game-win-streak

We’ll cut to the chase.  James Street replaced Bradley as quarterback after early wishbone sputters, Koy was as fast and tough as expected, Gilbert became the first NCAA runner with three years of one-thousand yards on the ground and the battering, precocious Worster quickly became the country’s best power back.

After the shaky 0-1-1 start in autumn ’68, Texas had rolled up seven wins in a row as Thanksgiving approached.   

Texas, for once, had the motivation of revenge in the ancient series.  Juniors and seniors had lived with anger and embarrassment for 52 weeks since the unheard of “L” on Turkey Day ’67 in College Station.

Defensive tackle Scott Palmer was a soph in ’68 and remembers the tradition of the “Aggie Supper” on the eve of the big rivalry game, when team captains and other upperclassmen fired up their teammates with words of wisdom and brimstone.  “They reminded us how humiliating life would be for all of us if we lose to the Aggies” he told TLSN last week. 

James Michael Cave

I remember those dinners. No coaches were present. When we were sophomores, I recall Bradley speaking. I think it was that which really made me understand how special that game was. As a manager, I was grateful to be included in those dinners. Hook’em!

Another young Longhorn who was paying attention to his elders was guard Syd Keasler who recollected recently that the scuttlebutt before the game had it that some A&M players who had helped beat Texas the previous year had boasted that their class would never lose a game to UT. 

Keasler looked back to the tradition of the captains speaking up after practice the day before a game.  Bradley, he said, always went last.  “Bill was so competitive and had such a burning desire to win, that his emotions would overcome him and he couldn’t finish his speech to the team.” 

Darrell Cline

Grew up on Turkey day and the Aggie game. Our families would gather and eat and then us cousins would head to Irving High school practice field to have our annual game. No body wanted to be in the Aggie side. Lol.

Jenna McEachern added a few comments to Professor Carlson’s post about the Aggie Supper

From Bobby Lackey QB, 1957-59

“My sophomore year at Texas, Sunday night before the game on Thanksgiving, we all went to this Boy Scout house out in the country. It was the most tear-jerking thing I have ever seen in my life, when the senior football players talked about the game with the Aggies. That was such an emotional evening, if you couldn’t get ready to play football then, I don’t believe anything else could get you ready to play.”

We went over to College Station and played A&M on Thanksgiving Day, 1957. It was Darrell Royal’s first year, and Bear Bryant was A&M’s coach. They had been unbeaten util they lost to Rice the week before we played them…we beat them 9-7.

Blake Gideon, 2011

I think down the road I’ll appreciate it in a different sense. But you know, especially after the Aggie supper we had last night with all the former lettermen coming back and really telling us what they thought of this rivalry and what they thought of this place and sacrifice at this place, a few guys telling us what they thought of the Aggies specifically, then I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what this rivalry is about. don’t want to let those guys down. There’s a lot of tradition that goes into this rivalry and this series, and we want to make sure that we end it the right way.

“As far back as any living player can remember, there’s been an Aggie Supper. It wasn’t always called that, and the origins are a little fuzzy, but the premise has been the same for more than 80 years. On one evening during the week leading up to the Texas A&M game, the team sequesters itself to talk about what it means and what it takes to beat the Aggies.

The tradition can be traced back to when Bully Gilstrap played for Texas in the early 1920s. When he came back to Texas as a coach, he was instrumental in keeping the tradition alive, telling one group of players, “It’s a tradition. You seniors need to go away by yourselves and figure out just how you’re gonna beat the Aggies.”

In the early days, players would go out to a Boy Scout hut in the country and the seniors would share with the underclassmen the tradition of whipping A&M. The supper has evolved over the years, and now the team gathers in the swanky Centennial Room and eats a catered meal. A few players are invited each year to share their memories of beating the Aggies.

In spite of the changes, it’s still the Aggie Supper, a players-only affair that connects the players to one another and to the history of the third-longest rivalry in all of college football.”

End of Jenna’s aggie Supper Memories

Professor Larry Carlson’s article continues here:

Super Bill, now a starting DB, and his teammates were beyond ready and eager when gametime approached.  It was the last home game for the seniors who at last were on the cusp of a Cotton Bowl. When Texas won the coin toss, Captain Bradley was asked by a referee which option the Horns wanted.  

“We don’t give a sh&t,” was his response. 

If the Aggies weren’t intimidated then, it wouldn’t take long for things to play out.   By the time the Aggie Band could lose another halftime, Texas was leading, 35-0 in the nationally televised post-lunch snack.  The UT starters were relegated to spectator status in the second half, as the Ags managed two garbage scores in the 35-14 mismatch.

Bradley had picked off four passes to set a UT record that might stand forever.  As a super safety in Philadelphia, the erstwhile Texas QB would become the NFL’s first player to lead the league in INTs  in back-to-back seasons and was an All-Pro choice three times.   

Younger Texas players, the Worster Bunch signing class of ’67, had earned their first win over the Aggies.

Good times had just begun.  Though these Longhorns would have much bigger fish to fry than cadets from College Station — think Arkansas, Notre Dame, UCLA, et al — Thanksgiving dinners would continue to be tasty treats.   In the next two seasons, the Aggies took woodshed whippings of 49-12 and 52-14 on the day of Thanks.  They never scored in the first half of the ’68, ’69 and ’70 games.

Talk to those Longhorn players today and you might not get many vivid memories from the one-sided contests with “ol’ Army.”

The blowouts can all run together.  But Hall of Honor inductee Mike Dean, the undersized 200-pound guard who gained fame for neutralizing Mike McCoy, Notre Dame’s 280-pound All-America DT in the ’70 Cotton Bowl, shared one recollection from the Thanksgiving files with TLSN.

“The only thing I remember,” Dr. Dean, a longtime Marble Falls orthodontist, said, “was the defensive lineman across from me kept calling my mother a wh%re.  Never had that happen, ever.”

Talk about a sore loser.  Stay classy, Aggies.

Links to Professor Carlson’s articles about the Aggies.

1974 AGGIE GAME BY LARRY CARLSON (squarespace.com)

1998 TEXAS VS. A & M GAME BY LARRY CARLSON (squarespace.com)

2012 GOOD BYE TO THE AGGIES (squarespace.com)

  Larry Carlson re-visits the 1968, 1969, and 1970 games.

                         THE  1968  GAME November 28, Austin:  # 6 TEXAS  35    TEXAS A&M  14

TURKEY:  Ag QB Edd Hargett, All-SWC a year earlier, had suffered along with his teammates in a 3-6 season as they ventured into Memorial Stadium.  On the bright side, he had remarkably thrown 171 consecutive passes without an interception.  The Longhorns abruptly ended the streak and would steal five Hargett throws.  

DRESSING:  Worster and Gilbert scored on short runs and Cotton Speyrer raced 23 yards on an 

end-around to give UT a 21-0 lead in the first period.  James Street got a second quarter TD on an option keeper and hit Speyrer with a touchdown pass to close out the Horns’ scoring before halftime.

GRAVY:  Scott Palmer recalls a great story from years later when he was a St. Louis Cardinal teammate of forme Aggie star Rolf Krueger….Palmer told TLSN that Krueger shared a nugget from the ’68 A&M locker room at halftime.  The story goes that Ag Coach Gene Stallings told his troops, down 35-Zip, “We are going to win this game.”

Aggie LB Bill Hobbs — soon to become a friend and Philadelphia Eagles teammate of Bradley — was unconvinced and piped up, “Hell, Coach, they are beating our ASS.”

JUST DESSERTS:  Bill Bradley, intercepted four times by A&M one year earlier, served up cold revenge with four picks of Hargett this time around.  Ronnie Ehrig, the senior DB from Gonzales, swiped one, too.

Burned by an 80-yd Hargett bomb that was the game winner in ’67, Ehrig was vindicated.

“I’ve been thinking about that since last year,” he told reporters.  “I’ve even got a picture of that play 

in my room.”  

ON TOP 40 RADIO: 

Hey, Jude by the Beatles

                                  Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf

                                  Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell

NEXT COURSE FOR TEXAS:  In their first Cotton Bowl Classic in five years, the Longhorns cruised to a 

28-0 halftime lead and stomped Tennessee, the UT sporting prison orange, 36-13.  The eighth-ranked Vols were totally outclassed on the 33-degree Dallas day.  Gilbert, Worster and Koy all scored and Street connected with Speyrer on bombs of 78 and 79 yards for long touchdowns.

The Longhorns had started the year 0-1-1 but now had nine straight victories and finished third in the nation.

THE 1969 GAME Nov. 27, College Station         

# 1   TEXAS  49    TEXAS A&M  12

 TURKEY:  Ohio State, top-ranked all season, had lost to Michigan, 24-12, while Texas had a mid-November open date.  It was “Goodbye, Columbus” for the Buckeyes, as UT vaulted into the number one spot for its rivalry game with the Aggies. 

DRESSING:  On a cool, drizzly day at Kyle Field, the Steers stampeded to six touchdowns on eight first half possessions for a 39-0 halftime lead.  Sophomore stalwart Jim Bertelsen gashed the Ags first on a 63-yard ramble.  Worster banged in for two TDs, Street ran one in and Bertelsen got another to account for the first five touchdowns. 

GRAVY:  Street attempted a season low five passes, connecting on two of them.  But on an end-around, Cotton Speyrer found TE Randy Peschel for a 37-yard trick play touchdown to close out the first half. 

JUST DESSERTS:  The Horns outgained the Ags on the ground 330-88 but the defense was just as showy.  All-America LB Glen Halsell was in on a dozen tackles and Texas hauled off four interceptions, two by 

Rick Nabors.  Now the Horns would have nine days before the regular season finale. 

ON TOP 40 RADIO: 

Na Na, Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam

     And When I Die by Blood, Sweat & Tears

Eli’s Coming by Three Dog Night

NEXT COURSE FOR TEXAS:  The Horns usually finished the regular season by drubbing A&M, then got busy taking exams and preparing for a big bowl game.  Not in ’69, college football’s centennial year.

December 6 was circled for a date with Arkansas, set up by the crystal ball gurus at ABC-TV.

Number one Texas beat number two Arkansas, 15-14, in The Big Shootout, clinching UT’s second national championship.  But a 21-17 defeat of Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl sealed the champs’ perfect season on an even better note, winning one for safety Fred Steinmark, who had a leg amputated just days after the Arkansas game.  Freddie, on crutches, cheered the Horns on from the Cotton Bowl sidelines and was presented the game ball in a celebratory locker room with no dry eyes.

                        THE 1970  GAME November 26, Austin         

        #1 TEXAS 52   TEXAS  A&M  14

 TURKEY:  The Aggies’ senior players had — as freshmen in ’67 — gazed longingly from the bleachers as A&M earned an unlikely SWC championship with a 6-4 mark, going 6-1 in conference play and beating UT for the first time in eleven years.  But this crew managed only two conference wins in each of their first two varsity seasons.  Then in ’70, walking tall in their senior boots, they achieved Aggie perfection: winless in 

Southwest Conference play at 0-7.  The Fightin’ Farmers finished the season with nine consecutive losses.

DRESSING:  Texas steamrolled its way to a 28-0 halftime lead, and backups took over in the second half as the scoreboard blew up to 52-zip early in the fourth.  Second-team QB Donnie Wigginton ran for two touchdowns, and backup RB Paul Robichau also scored.  Steve Fleming, another second-team whiz who would likely have starred at six other SWC schools, led all rushers with 84 yards on eight carries. 

GRAVY:  On a warm but very windy day at Memorial Stadium, Texas rang up 603 yards in total O.

QB Eddie Phillips connected on just five passes, all to DB-turned-receiver Danny Lester, for 148 yards

and a pair of touchdowns.  Linebacker David Richardson charted ten total tackles.

JUST DESSERTS:  For the third straight year, the Longhorns demolished the Aggies in a game that was decided well before halftime.  On the menu for unbeaten Texas was some creamy smooth, burnt orange pumpkin pie.  For the lowly Ags, the pie flavor was humble, served up even colder in the conference cellar.

Pooooor Aggies.

 ON TOP 40 RADIO: 

The Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

                                  I’ll Be There by the Jackson Five

                                  All Right Now by Free

NEXT COURSE FOR TEXAS:  For the second straight year, Texas had nine days to get set for a huge season finale — some dubbed it Big Shootout II — against Arkansas.  On Dec. 5, the Longhorns played what this writer still considers their best, most complete game ever.  For both Texas and Arkansas, most of the key players who had made history in a de facto national championship game in Fayetteville, were back in business for the duel in Austin.  On a balmy, 74-degree day, Texas built a 14-0 lead by early in the second period.  Arkansas answered to cut the gap to 14-7, then drove to the UT one-yardline before the burnt orange defense bowed up with a textbook goalline stand.  The Horns drove 99 yards on the fourth-ranked Razorbacks and never looked back en route to a 42-7 mauling of an excellent team.

Jim Bertelsen piled up 189 yards rushing and scored three times.  Steve Worster, who some teammates believe should not have even played because of rib and hip injuries, put an exclamation mark on his final home game with 126 hard-earned yards and two more TDs.  The victory earned Texas the UPI (Coaches’ poll) national title.