Top of the Queue – Volume VIII Newsletter #10 -May 10, 2024
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TLSN is a 501 (c)(3) Longhorn Sports history educational website with a compassionate component.
Https://texaslsn.org
TLSN is not associated with the UT Athletics Department or any organization closely aligned with UT.
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TEXAS LEGACY SUPPORT shares a panoramic view of Longhorn sports history as seen through the eyes of those who created it.
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For many, Longhorn sports history is perceived as “dated” and irrelevant because the past is interpreted through the eyes of the current reader’s biases. To understand sports history properly, you must leave the present and hop into a time machine to understand former Longhorn brand builders thoughts from the inside out.
TLSN is that time machine. A Longhorn website that shares history as told through the eyes of those who created the Longhorn brand.
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LONGHORNS HONORED: Former UT stars Cory Redding and the late Cedric Benson will be inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in Waco on May 18.
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Benson helped lead the Longhorns to a 43-8 record, including a 3-1 mark in bowl games and three 11-win campaigns, in his four seasons on the Forty Acres. Texas finished the year ranked in the top six three times, ranking fourth in the final Coaches Poll in 2004 and fifth in the final AP Poll in 2001.
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Cedric Benson was awarded the Doak Walker Award, which is presented annually to the top running back in the country. Benson is the only player in school history to rush for 1,000 yards in each of four consecutive seasons.
Benson was killed in a motorcycle accident in Austin in 2019.
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Redding was a two-time All-American defensive end at Texas from 1999-2002,
Photo is cover to the 2001-2002 Holiday Bowl program.
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Cory Redding’s commanding performance in the 2003 Cotton Bowl was pivotal in leading the ninth-ranked Texas team to a 35-20 triumph over LSU. For his exceptional performance in that match, he was named the defensive player of the game. He is also an inductee into the U.T. Hall of Honor.
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For many years, Royal and the coaching staff had too many players, and it was obvious that some were just along for the ride and did not contribute to making the team better. To test many who were not on the first or second teams or who did not play on game day competitive spirit, the coaching staff devised a Darwinian process that athletes had to endure. Royal reasoned that If these players wanted to remain, they would have to continue to improve and contribute to team play.
Players understood that once tagged as “questionable talent,” they would enter a DKR gravitational black hole from which neither light nor most players could escape.
Enter the infamous TURD BOWL. On Mondays, upper-class men who did not play in the Saturday game scrimmaged the freshman in what was appropriately named the Turd Bowl. Most everyone who participated dreaded this game. Many felt that Royal’s turd bowl was just another attempt to run them off and an implicit punishment for their low status on the team. Tom Campbell says, “There were all-staters who thought they were above that, so they just lost their hearts.” Many became disillusioned and quit.
Tom Campbell was one of the “turd bowlers” who survived. Tom viewed these scrimmages as an opportunity to improve his skills. He viewed the event as “instructional,” a time to improve fundamentals and techniques. Tom knew that his dad, Coach Campbell, did not consider the turd bowl punishment. Coach Campbell was looking for talent to fill the pipeline. Tom persevered, and his place in Longhorn’s sports history is well chronicled in the photos below.
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This play won the Longhorns the national championship. If Tom had not made this interception against Arkansas in the last minutes of the game, Arkansas would have had a chip shot field goal attempt to win the game.
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At the recent Houston Touchdown Club event, TLSN Chairwoman Beth Coblentz, CFO Jim Kay, Billy Dale, and sports media personalities Larry Carlson and Kirk Bohls celebrated with former Longhorn football player Tyres Dickson.
TLSN continues to support three former Longhorn student-athletes.
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Longhorn baseball legend Pat Brown (photo and link below)
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Former Longhorn volley player Jackie Campbell’s son, Yanaq, has fought leukemia for the last eight years. TLSN and the Glenn Blackwood family have offered several grants to Jackie Campbell over this period. Two weeks ago, TLSN received a $5000 donation issued by the National Christian Foundation of South Florida on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Blackwood. TLSN will match Glenn’s grant with up to $5000 if needed to defray Jackie’s expenses. Yanaq is scheduled to undergo a transplant at M.D. Anderson in June or July of 2024.
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Tyres has been in a wheelchair for over 25 years, caused by a car accident while he was traveling from Houston to Austin to start spring training under Mack Brown. He is currently suffering from bed sores and needs a twin-size electric adjustable bed with a more comfortable mattress to alleviate the pain. TLSN will grant his wish.
Here is Tyres’ link.
Here is the donate link
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Education should be the # 1 priority for Longhorn student-athletes
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Consider the following: Prior to September 30, 2019, pay-to-play practices were prohibited. Coaches utilized the power of the Longhorn Brand, the dedicated fan base, Longhorn Nation, and the assurance of a quality education as their main recruiting tools instead of financial inducements.
NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) rules and portals and the infusion of money into college sports have markedly complicated the decision-making landscape for athletes and their families. Some athletes will choose to follow the money trail instead of their heart and make a decision for the wrong reason.
Money is not evil. It is the American way, but high-school athletes who choose an educational institution solely based on short-term cash gains instead of long-term educational goals sets into play a dangerous life-altering precedent that could damage a young individual’s life path. Athletes should choose education first and then the money.
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Coach Royal and Coach Brown had their priorities right. They coached student-athletes. That is, they coached students first and athletes second. I remember Coach Royal telling me on his recruiting trip to Odessa when I was a senior in high school that an education at the University of Texas would pay dividends for me my whole life. And it did! My T-ring opened many doors of opportunity.
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When DKR was hired at Texas, He said he needed to hire a
keep-them-in-school coach instead of a offensive or defensive coach.
So DKR hired Lan Hewlett as the first-ever academic coach in Collegiate sports history. Photo is 1963 Lan Hewlett, David McWilliams, Duke, Carlisle, Charles Talbert
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Joe Eivens was an Academic Counselor for the Longhorns. Before taking the job at Texas, Joe was a high school coach and counselor at Friona, Levelland, and Georgetown.
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Coach Royal’s primary focus was the holistic development of student-athletes using discipline, education, and character building as the keys to a successful life.
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Mack Brown emphasized the importance of combining a positive attitude, education, and taking personal responsibility for the team and family.
“But let’s remember that happiness is found within and not in an environment.
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Mack believed in nurturing and producing well-rounded individuals who excelled academically and athletically.
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He understood that a lifetime of success demanded steadfast determination, continuous education, and enduring resilience.
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Brown 2005 National Champion
20 years after the 2005 National Championship, Mack’s emphasis on his athletes’ personal growth, ethics, and education has resulted in many positive outcomes for those who played for him.
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Professor Carlson is ready for the 2024 Football season and beyond.
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SARK STORMS HOUSTON
Texas Longhorn boosters are counting down till the season kicks off in late August. While Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian is now focused on the four months leading up to the opener with Colorado State, he will acknowledge that the far horizon is also in view.
“We’ve gotta be peaking in December and January,” Sarkisian told a packed Houston Touchdown Club audience Wednesday. If it sounds as if Sark is planning on a long season, he is. He emphasized a goal to still be playing on Jan. 20, the latest date ever for a college football championship game, thanks to the new 12-team playoff.
Sarkisian, entering his fourth campaign at the Forty Acres, noted that the Longhorns under his tutelage have not just grown their win totals from five to eight to 12, but he boasted of great progress in the players’ collective grade point average. He said the Horns, in three seasons, improved from 2.3 to about 2.7 and are now just a tiny fraction below a 3.0 GPA. “It shows the correlation between what you do some of the time with what you do all the time,” Sarkisian said, pointing out that not one Longhorn was drafted after the ’21 season. Texas had eleven NFL draftees last week, second only to national champ Michigan, the team Texas will face in week two.
Asked about losing so much talent, Sark exuded confidence. “We’ve got a good football team.”
And when a backer in the crowd asked if taking on A&M – Thanksgiving weekend in College Station — might be a stealthy chore since none of the current Texas players or coaches have been part of the rivalry, Sark smiled. Stoking the rivalry on UT’s side will not be a problem.
“We’ll be ready,” he confirmed.
Texas fans can’t wait.
(TLSN writer Larry Carlson teaches broadcast journalism at Texas State University. He is a member of the Football Writers Association of America, and actually won the 1978 Southwest Conference Press Tour Singles championship in 1978, beating up on out-of-shape media members who wilted in Houston’s August humidity at the Rice University tennis complex.)
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The TLSN platform archives Longhorn sports history and offers grants for qualifying former student-athletes, support staff, and their immediate families.
You can contribute to the TLSN archive by sharing your Longhorn sports memories and photos. Please send it to Billydale1@gmail.com. Your words and images will be posted and preserved for future generations.
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