THE MOST SPIRITED, PASSIONATE LONGHORN EVER

by Larry Carlson  ( lc13@txstate.edu )

It had been my good fortune to enjoy one of the trademark mint juleps with the prettiest girl in the world out on the patio of The Columns Hotel on stately, oak-lined St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.  It was just a few days before Christmas and the venerable site was adorned in garland.  She pointed out a gentleman who was obviously an ardent Longhorn backer, sporting a UT cap and burnt orange jacket.  It was almost Sugar Bowl week but this wasn’t 2018, when hordes of Horn fans swarmed NOLA for a whipping of Georgia.

It was 2022 and Texas was preparing for the Alamo Bowl back home in San Antonio.

As we headed off the patio, I took a lateral step and patted the guy on the back and said “Hook ’em!”

“Hook ’em is right,” he beamed and added “I played for the Longhorns.”

It was time for me to stop in my tracks and turn around.  I asked him his name and was ultra-surprised that it was Pat Culpepper, one of the most storied players of the entire twenty year Darrell Royal era.

I looked him in the eye and recognized one of the players I had idolized in third and fourth grade.

Holy cow!

Introductions followed.  Mr. Culpepper, 82, was accompanied by his lovely Southern belle wife, Martha, and one of his sons, Johnny, a longtime New Orleanian.  Pat said Martha had stood by him for 53 years and deserved a medal.  He mentioned that he was excited about the Horns’ having captured the commitment of a particular local schoolboy.  I told him that I was, too, and had actually watched young Arch Manning play his season opener that fall a scant two miles away at Isidore Newman High.

The five of us then shared a table and lively stories for a most pleasant thirty minutes, even hearing about the Culpeppers’ renowned house on historic North Anglin in Cleburne.  And because the prettiest girl in the world had grown up in nearby Whitney, she was familiar with the lovely home.  Small world, even if nobody wants to paint it.

Pat Culpepper tells his story of the 1963 Sooner game.

Having mentioned my role as a chronicler of Longhorn football for TLSN, I expressed the desire for a future interview with Pat.  Johnny assured me that he would make it happen.  We all parted with smiles, hook ’ems and Yuletide wishes.  I got a pic of Pat with me.  I gave the “Hook ’em” and Pat turned his horns around, telling me he wanted to show off his “T” ring.  I shook hands with Johnny and told him my Dad must be smiling from up above, pleased that I had at last met the peerless Pat Culpepper.  And I told Johnny that he looked just like what I recalled his Dad had looked at a younger age.  He beamed and thanked me.

Johnny and I contacted each other in a few days but incredibly, just a few days later the tragic news came that Martha and Pat’s home, built in 1899 by Confederate veteran CB Stratton, had burned.  They escaped but most of the house and virtually all of ol’ number 31’s football memorabilia from playing and coaching days was in ashes.

The news quickly spread through a saddened Longhorn Nation.

Though we all knew the entire Culpepper clan’s character was forged in steel, I was beyond pleasantly surprised when Johnny, likely the coolest Texas A&M grad you’ll ever know, contacted me last week. He was headed from Louisiana to Cleburne to again help his folks and was determined to get our planned interview done.  Yep, when the going gets tough…..you know.

So now, before you read the interview, here’s a refresher course on the singular career of Pat Culpepper.

It’s been told so many times, by writers and broadcasters of his era and certainly on the TLSN site, that most serious UT football fans are well-versed in the many highlights.

Culpepper was one of five Cleburne Yellow Jackets to excel for DKR at Texas.  He was the first, followed by David McWilliams, Timmy Doerr, Howard Goad and Fred Sarchet.  All were excellent players but Culpepper made the biggest mark.  

Undersized even in his time (’60-’62), Culpepper was known for his competitive nature that roamed far beyond fierce.  As a linebacker and fullback, he packed and delivered a wallop every play.  His stop of an Arkansas fullback in ’62, along with the great Johnny Treadwell, is one of the most famous plays at Texas.  This writer looked back at the hit and that unforgettable game with a personal remembrance for TLSN sixty years later, just last fall.

Coach Royal, it should be duly noted, always delighted in Culpepper’s work ethic and skill:  “Talent, size and speed are God-given, but a player can control how hard he tries  Pat Culpepper gave 100 percent,” Royal once declared, before continuing,  “That doesn’t mean Pat possessed ordinary talent.  He was an excellent football player, small for a linebacker, even in the early 1960s, but with a fire inside his burnt orange jersey.  He gave such effort that even though he was one of our captains we used him on kicking teams.  If it wore another color, Pat would hit a locomotive.”

So exceptional a player was the animated Culpepper, that those who selected the All-Southwest Conference team created a tailored twelfth position, “Wildcard,” to honor him as All-SWC.

Nope, you don’t see that every day.

He won the Earl “Red” Blaik Scholarship award for All-America classroom laurels.  Pat also took home the 1962 Swede Nelson Award for All-American Sportsmanship.  He earned the very first SWC Lettermen’s Association Award as the man of 1962 who best embodied scholar-athlete status along with commitment to church, student affairs and conduct.

The ’61 team that featured Culpepper went 10-1 and the ’62 bunch in his senior year produced UT’s first unbeaten (9-0-1) regular season.  He coached freshmen and linebackers when Texas grabbed its first national title one year later.  Pat moved on and was a head coach at Northern Illinois University and then returned to his home state to coach high school ball at Midland and Lufkin.  He authored a terrific book “Goal Line” and is a member of the UT Hall of Honor and the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame.

I read Pat’s book when it was first published almost four decades ago.  I have re-read it several times, most recently last autumn.  And I passed it along to my good friend Jay Arnold, a former All-SWC player himself.

Jay loved the book and we discussed Culpepper and his deeds over lunch.

The book’s foreword was penned by Darrell Royal.  In part, he said he coached faster players, even faster linebackers, “but Pat had what I call ‘winning speed.’  Pat played in a time when dedication perhaps commanded more respect.  Certainly it paid dividends for him and his teammates.”

DKR closed the foreword with an endorsement of Culpepper’s toughness and dependability.

“If I had to defend myself in a dark alley, Pat Culpepper is the kind of guy I’d want to have beside me.”

Foes, friends, teammates and those coached by Pat learned that early on.  

Pound for pound, even six decades later, no Longhorn player has delivered more.

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