Former Longhorn Chairman of the Board of Regents and football player under DKR Gene Powell

He shares his oral history podcast with Professor Larry Carlson with a few side notes from Billy Dale.

In 2017, TLSN wrote an article about the importance of receiving the T-ring as a sign of accomplishment. Gene Powell responded. ” Billy,  You are correct that achievements obtained early in life mean so much to all of us because those achievements form the foundation of who we are and what we can achieve in the future.  When you go forward and achieve other successes later in life, those early successes are always the foundation of the later achievements.  Many times you have seen the devastation of a tornado, hurricane, or explosion.  The house is gone, but the concrete foundation is always there and intact!  No matter how we might stumble or fall when we look down at our right hand” and see the T-ring, there is an indelible sign that we can get up, dust ourselves off, adjust our chin strap, and succeed because we have done it before! 

The Longhorn Chairman of The Board
by Larry Carlson for https://texaslsn.org
Gene Powell greets me at the door of his office/casita tucked into a forest not far from the home where he and his wife reside in San Antonio. The former Longhorn football player from the ’60s who became a powerful South Texas mover and shaker in business and education, looks like a Southern squire from the cover of either Garden & Gun magazine or the J. Peterman catalog.
I admire the many paintings adorning the wall and ask if any were done by the late Ragan Gennusa, one of the all-time Texas artists and a teammate from days at The Forty Acres. They are not, but Gene tells me of one particular piece he paid ten dollars for when he convinced his college buddy that, yes, he really did want to own what Ragan had been working on.

Powell has about a zillion stories, all interesting. When we sit down and begin recording a podcast for TLSN/The History of Longhorn Sports, I introduce Powell by comparing the thickness of his resume to Tommy Nobis’ (another former teammate) neck, to one of Earl Campbell’s massive thighs or to Steve Sarkisian’s substantial wallet.
Gene chuckles but facts are facts. The guy grew up in Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley, idolizing and watching Bobby Lackey, Darrell Royal’s first star quarterback at Texas, then later followed Lackey to the University of Texas. Playing days curtailed by a painful and lasting shoulder injury and surgery, Powell persevered, played D-line and linebacker and eventually earned two finance degrees from UT. By the early 1980s, Powell moved from success back home in the Valley to even greater laurels in the Alamo City. He’s been one of the titans of real estate and development, launching — along with his business partner, Laddie Denton — The Quarry and Lincoln Heights in addition to stellar neighborhoods such as Rogers Ranch, Inwood, Lookout Canyon and Kinder Ranch.
He found time to pursue a keen interest in improving higher education and was appointed by then-Governor Rick Perry to a position on the University of Texas System Board of Regents in 2009. Powell soon ascended to leading the Regents as Chairman of the Board in 2011.
When I joke that Gene, despite sporting the famed “T” ring emblematic of academic/athletic success under DKR, managed to become a friend and associate of at least one Aggie — the longtime “guv” had been a yell leader back in his College Station days — Powell laughs heartily. Turns out Gene’s own Daddy was an A&M grad. It makes for a great story. When young Gene was initially getting interest from college football recruiters during the JFK presidency, he tested the waters about college choice with his father. College costs would be covered, his Dad told him, if he matriculated at A&M. Should he be able to manage “free” education via an athletic scholarship elsewhere, the choice of schools would be strictly up to the youngster.
When the recruiters came a’calling, young Gene was unimpressed by the fact that in 1964, A&M did not admit female students and required corps duty. Austin and UT provided stark contrast. Pretty girls were everywhere on Powell’s recruiting trip to UT and Tommy Nobis, fresh from an all-star season as a precocious soph, hosted Gene for a sizzling steak out at Hill’s Cafe on South Congress.
The next day, when Powell was set to head home, he thought he blew any chances at a Texas offer. Saying goodbye to Coach Royal, the Weslaco Kid fell victim to the slick soles of a new pair of shoes he was sporting, slipping and sliding down the stairs below Gregory Gym. He assured the coach that he was okay but more than his backside was smarting as he drove away.
After our podcast, Powell leans in and tells me a story, outlining the excitement of receiving a written scholarship offer, signed by Darrell Royal in early ’64, when the youthful DKR had just led the Longhorns to their first national championship in football.
According to Gene’s keen recollection, his father winced a bit at the sight of the UT document. But as Powell goes on to tell me, his Daddy was “a man of his word,” even when it came to maroon versus burnt orange. Gene became a Longhorn. And his parents cheered him on.
Powell was part of Royal’s huge freshman class of 66 signees plus dozens of walk-ons. The attrition rate, less than 18 months later, when Gene’s classmates made up the spanking new soph class to Texas, was astounding. On a hallway wall, mere steps from Powell’s office, he shows that squad’s team photo, pointing out the few classmates who had stayed and would remain. Hardly any would figure prominently in the Longhorns’ lineup as seniors in ’67. Fullback Linus Baer and linebacker Joel Brame were captains but they had little company as returning two-year letter winners that autumn. Powell had injured that shoulder, which severely limited his playing time. The great majority gave up on the demands of football or fell prey to injuries, sometimes grades.
Gene Powell still proudly wears his cherished “T” ring, awarded by Coach Royal to lettermen who graduated. And he relates a story or two about having Edith and Darrell Royal in attendance when he became a member of the UT System Board of Regents. Powell fought hard for lower tuition in higher ed and is justifiably proud of his part in seeing the dream of a UT branch become reality in the Rio Grande Valley.
In fact, UTRGV, headquartered in Weslaco, just celebrated its ten-year anniversary. Powell is excited about the booming 34,000-student enrollment and the UTRGV School of Medicine now serving a historically underserved population in deep South Texas. And, football always in his blood, he will even allow that he, along with several other leaders of the UT system, suggested UTRGV’s “Vaquero” nickname to honor the original cowboys of The Great State. The Vaqueros, by the way, will ride into their first football season come August.
Meanwhile, speaking of football in the blood, Gene has two grandsons playing college ball. In fact, 6-4,225-pound D-lineman Whitefield Powell made a play or two when his Colorado State Rams opened the ’24 season in Austin against the Longhorns and his brother, Hudson, then a preferred walk-on freshman wide receiver for Texas.
But call Hudson the “little” brother at your own risk.
His grandpa will tell you that Hudson is likely one of the very rare college football wideouts around who stands 6-7. And who has clocked the forty in an extremely brisk 4.5 seconds.
When a new season kicks off in late August, it will be sixty years since Gene Powell first buckled up a Longhorn chinstrap in varsity action. Been a while since his first rodeo. The seasoned vaquero will be riding herd wherever and whenever the Longhorns and Rams roam.
(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.)