Top of the Queue- Volume VII Newsletter #18 – September 1, 2023
TLSN is not associated with the UT Athletic Department, or any organization closely aligned with UT.
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Important: Click on the small white letters “VIEW IN BROWSER” listed above to enlarge and enhance the photos and text on your cellphone.
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The celebration of Bill Little’s life has many new additions and comments. Please visit the link at 2023 BILL LITTLE (squarespace.com) for all the updates. Roy Jones and Carlton Stowers share memories of their peer in journalism. Please note that tributes to Bill are denoted in a blue font on Bill’s TLSN celebration page.
Photo is Roy Jones and Bill Little in 2009. Roy and Bill met in their first journalism class in 1960 and worked at the Daily Texan together. Roy was a football manager for DKR during the Longhorns 1963 football national championship run.
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Months ago, the TLSN newsletter shared the story of Three-time NCAA shot put champion shot putter Eileen Vanisi’s life-threatening health condition. TLSN recently reached out to her for a status on her condition. She wrote TLSN saying:
“Right now still fighting to get a heart and kidney transplant. I was taken off the list due to possibly needing a third transplant for my liver as well. The committee cannot agree as a whole on how to move forward, so everything is at a standstill. Referred to Houston Methodist in hopes they can move forward, but I have to drop 40 more pounds before they will start the evaluation again. I’m just getting by every day as I continue dialysis, and the heart gets weaker, and everything becomes harder to do, even breathing. I am hopeful that something soon will change everything.
Eileen Vanisi
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Look who is 60 years old – The 1963 National Championship Team. This team will be honored at halftime of the Rice game.
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Ernie Koy standing in front of the 1963 National Championship team photo. The Longhorn football sports history from 1961-1964 is at :
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1963 National Championship award held by DKR,Tommy Ford, David McWilliams and Scott Appleton.
The book “The Darrell Royal Story” by Jimmy Banks states that at a young age, boxing taught Royal that “over-respect for your opponent can be just as dangerous as under-respect.”
The opposition never bluffed coach Royal’s teams. During the build-up to the 1963 National Championship game against Navy, the East Coast media and Navy head coach tried to bluff Coach Royal and the Longhorns.
East Coast freelance writer Myron Cope stated that Texas is “the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the football public… Texas plays the kind of football that was fashionable when players wore perforated cowhide helmets…Duke Carlisle executes a hand-off like A construction foreman passing a plank to a carpenter.” East Coast sportswriters also thought the Royal players were “slow guys with skinny legs and big butts.” While laughing at Texas and Duke, the East Coast Media portrayed Navy and Heisman winner Roger Staubach as glamorous.
Coach Royal’s response to all of this bluffing was a three-word sentence. “We are ready.”
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Duke Carlisle led the 1963 team. However, the foundation of Duke’s Road to the national championship was all the team players, managers, coaches, and trainers listed on the granite pillar located on DKR’s stadium’s Southwest entrance near gates 1 and 2.
During the Rice game, walk by and share a moment to honor the 1963 national championship team. The busts and pillars of the 1969, 1970, and 2005 teams are also located in this area.
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FIFTY YEARS AGO IN FOCUS: THE LAST OF 6 STRAIGHT SWC TITLES (’73) By Larry Carlson
Five Longhorns — Jay Arnold, Lonnie Bennett, Billy Schott, Bob Tresch, and Gary Yeoman — take questions from TLSN’s Larry Carlson.
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson teaches sports media at Texas State University and is a member of the Football Writers Association of America)
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Larry asked the Horns “Y’all were ranked third in the preseason, and then Sports Illustrated declared Texas number one in its early September issue. Then the team visited Miami for the opener, had fumble-itis, and lost a 20-15 game.
Anybody remember thoughts or reactions on the plane back to Austin or the practice week for Texas Tech?
BENNETT: It was the game I was most disappointed with. If we played ten times, we would have won nine, and the loss would have to be a game with us beating ourselves. It was quiet on the plane. I couldn’t believe or accept that we had lost.
YEOMAN: We had eight turnovers and didn’t punt once the entire game.
ARNOLD: We had handily beaten Miami in Austin the year before and expected to win that game. And we should have.
TRESCH: It was a great disappointment. We knew of the jinx of SI but we lost anyway. It was especially hard to lose a game you should’ve won. Coaches don’t give a team time to dwell on the loss. We had to get ready for Texas Tech, and they always played us tough.
YEOMAN: I don’t remember the plane ride back.
SCHOTT: All in all, it was a trip to and from Hell, and we were glad to get out of there and back home alive. Not a fun plane ride home… (For the rest of Billy’s story on the Miami and OU games, visit the link
For the full interview by Larry Carlson visit
The OU game debacle
For the readers’ background: What unfolded was a shocking 52-13 loss to OU after UT trailed 7-6 in the second quarter. It’s been well chronicled in the History of Longhorn Sports pages (texaslsn.org), that one player stood up the next day in a Sunday team meeting and rejected Royals’ premise
that the team had quit.
Jay Arnold said “That’s not right, Coach. They changed everything we had prepared for. We played as hard as we could…we were going full speed to the wrong places.” Coach Mike Campbell backed him. “He’s right, Darrell. They seemed to know everything we were doing before we did it.”
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1973 Gary Yeoman, Jay Arnold, Bob Tresch
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TLSN is late in celebrating the Life of Jack Collins, but his remembrance is now complete.
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TLSN aims to complement Texassports.com and Kirk Bohls’s Austin American Statesman articles. Except for these two media outlets, TLSN offers more information than any other mass media organizations that follow scripts and only scratches the surface of the burnt orange spirit of our great university.
TLSN was fortunate to interview Jack Collins 18 months ago and visit the Stark Center to view a lot of his memorabilia. All of this information is at https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/2023-jack-collins.
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Jack’s Graduation year sweater
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Longhorn Hall of Honor plaque
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As the Longhorn football season begins, it is time to celebrate the “SPIRIT” organizations at UT and honor their impact in building the Longhorn brand.
Football has Reflected the Spirit of America Since the late 1800s.
American football created a very unique social and cultural experience. College football played an essential role in developing the American educational system, acting as a bond for the students and the local community. The games were like a Folk Festival, providing a sense of community with meaningful rituals and adding sheer pleasure for millions of Americans each weekend.
At the center of the festivities game week during football season were cheerleaders, Bevo, Spurs, Cowboys, Smokey, the marching band, Orange Jackets, pep rallies, homecoming, tailgating, frat and sorority parties, and much more.
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Speaking of the Rice game, Bevo VI is best known for charging the Rice bench during this game—a feat that the Longhorns cheered on. He only lasted two seasons.
Currently, the Silver Spurs are very busy taking care of Bevo, who travels better than most students in a custom trailer and a custom truck.
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The Band –1908 – Texas rooter staged an “interhalf parade” on the field. While the band played, the rooters used brooms to demonstrate “a clean sweep of Texas A&M resulting in a fight and stabbing of Texas student William Trenekmann.
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Since its inception in 1923, the Orange Jackets have been actively serving both UT and the greater Austin community. It is the oldest honorary service organization at the University of Texas. The organization’s core tenets are excellence in scholarship, leadership, service, and community. Here is their link https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/1922-orange-jackets
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TLSN has added Loyd Wainscott to the “Celebration of Life” section on the TLSN website. TLSN has significant information on Loyd’s life since many Horns raised over $25,000 for a pre-TLSN fund drive to help Barbara Wainscott and her family during Loyd’s health crisis. Barbara never asked for the donation, but teammates and many others wanted to help. Corby Robertson and Chris Gilbert delivered the check to her.
A big Horns ???? up and eyes up to All-American Loyd Wainscott, a Longhorn family brand builder.
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When Loyd played, all he could think about was The Cotton Bowl. It was the “be all and the end all”. Regardless of all the implications of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, from which the quote originates, it is generally intended to mean “the best part of something.”
The flip side of the meaning is “an all-consuming project or passion”. I can’t think of another term that would describe the quest for the Cotton Bowl in the late1960s any better.
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One day he came back to his dorm room to find his roommate, Mike Perrin, as well as other players living in the basement of Moore-Hill Hall had been working on a few arts and crafts. They had thumbtacked a picture on the bulletin board. It was either a Rolex watch with Loyd’s face cut out and glued on the face of the watch or Loyd’s picture with the face of a Rolex superimposed on top of his face…I forget these many years later. But the implication at the time was as crystal clear as the crystal of a watch could be.
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Although the Night of Champions Gala is Sold Out, there is still time to get tickets to the UT vs. Stanford Volleyball match scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Sunday at Gregory Gym (tickets are selling fast).
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There will be at least two more oral history podcasts from now to the end of December 2023. Journalist and 1963 football team manager Roy Jones and National Champion women’s volleyball coach Mick Haley will share their journeys as Longhorn brand builders.
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TLSN is a 501 (c)(3) Longhorn Sports history educational website with a compassionate component.
The TLSN website and newsletter are free to access, delivering educational, historical, and insightful Longhorn sports history as told through the eyes of those who created it.
Help is needed for some, who through no fault of their own have fallen through society’s safety net, and TLSN donors have opened hearts and wallets to extend a helping hand. TLSN’s donors have assisted those who qualify with grants varying from $2000 to $25,000.
Please be one of those open hearts and donate to TLSN.
All of us associated with the TLSN Board and the advisor committee do so without compensation. It is our gift back to the Longhorn brand builders of our great university.
Join us by giving back.
Https://texaslsn.org
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